Boundaries Between Lead, Art Director and PM
What makes these roles different and how they may work together sharing almost the same opportunities
In many companies, people have just “Progressive PMs” or “Art-Director” just because business owners see no sense in hiring numerous people, who will be working with almost the same tasks. But in fact, tasks appear to be very different and at the same time, every person makes a great impact and allows developing project and team performance greatly. Let’s check what these people do to contribute to the growth and development of the project.
Lead Designer
The one who appears to be a trusted designer in the company due to the years of work experience, knowledge and ability to be a mentor to others.
The lead designer may be either a designer himself on the project, or he may be the one who works actually and makes designs. And at the same time, the lead designer may be the advisor, who checks the quality of work of junior and middle designers and may give advice.
In both ways, this is rather the one who performs and creates. He may suggest a better UI due to the great experience in the visual part and a great education in this niche or he may suggest which type of UX research will fit better here. At the same time, he also may take a look and tell if the design will work at all.
Art-Director
The one who directs projects checks their design quality and visual performance. Helps designers to find a way to make clients’ ideas about the project real.
The art-director will be the one who will be checking an almost finished design, saying whether it will be working or not. Art-director, knowing the market and the design sphere, will evaluate objectively and greatly from the “overall value” perspective. He will say if your visual direction fits the niche and if you have applied an accurate UX flow, making good design decisions.
At the same time, he will tell you how can you improve the design, check all the key things and double-check small design moments like sizes and pixels. He will tell if this design will be competitive on the market and if the client will like it or not based on the experience of work.
Project Manager
The one who communicates with the client, checks requirements and deadlines, sets calls and delivers the project.
The project manager will be the one who will give you time for the design work and improvements. At the same time, this person will make sure you have enough time to complete all the design work and show your skills from the best perspective. Moreover, the project manager will pass on all the feedback to you from the client and ask anything you need to make a good project work.
This is more like a connection between you and the client. The one who sends a delivery keeps the client posted and manages financial issues.
To sum up, the lead designer is the first step to good project design, since exactly lead designer will check the details and re-read the brief together with you. Art-director will be the one who checks the design in a more global sense and makes a serious evaluation of the design decisions made. While the project manager will simply deliver the work done, ask for feedback, and manage finances and time.
