Modern Art Direction
A newsletter about vision, taste, and visual ideas.
I’m building the art direction school I wish existed
Hey friend! Not gonna lie, I've never been more excited about this whole thing. A year ago taught my first bootcamp for art directors, and now I truly think we are building the future of art direction education... A new session of NEXT Art Director: The October Bootcamp starts Tuesday, which means this is the last weekend to join the October cohort and the last session of the year. I’ve been putting a ton into this session. It’s starting to feel like we're building the art direction school...
The Art Direction of Szilveszter Makó
ISSUE 011 Hey Reader Are we not taking art direction seriously enough? I keep seeing Szilveszter Makó everywhere lately; The Cut, Interview, Vogue Philippines, Vanity Fair. He's pushing the conventions of typical celebrity portraits to a space that get me so excited for the future... Btw, want to learn art direction with me next month? Quick announcement before we get into it. Enrollment for the NEXT Art Director: October Bootcamp is live, and class starts October 6. This is also the first...
Falling into Art Direction
Hey Reader Almost nobody I know grew up wanting to be an art director. I've now taught architects. Engineers. Marketing professionals. Graphic designers, video creators, motion designers. And the pattern is basically always the same. We all fell into this job. Very few of us had a clear path or found it early. baby jason and friends make a student commercial I was a video maker/"content creator" through my entire undergrad ad program. Right up until the last three months before I graduated. I...
How to PROVE you're an Art Director: MAD 010
ISSUE 010 I'm gonna start giving you peek inside my course, NEXT Art Director. Mostly because the landing page doesn't do it justice, yet. The landing page is built around the live bootcamp, so the self-paced course doesn't get the spotlight it deserves...yet... But I didn't build it as a half-baked version of the bootcamp. It's truly standalone curriculum that will teach you how to become an art director, and there are 2 really important ways it does that... Let me explain: There's a...
The Creative Direction of the Odyssey: MAD 009
ISSUE 009 Has everyone seen the Odyssey now except me?? I got my ticket for next week in IMAX 70mm...at 8am on Monday morning!! haha crazy i know but I've got 2 kids now, and the newborn can't be babysat yet (so my wife is also going by herself on a different day). So today, while I wait to finally watch the movie, our new M AD contributor, Ken Westrick, is going to dive into some behind the scenes. Its fascinating seeing the level of craft poured into the film. But, before you enjoy Ken's...
Polaroid's Art Direction of Humanity: MAD 008
ISSUE 008 Advertising is obviously not synonymous with "art". But man some advertising can truly be art. Today, I'm going to tell you why I love Polaroid's latest campaign so much... (theres one visual ingredient that im obsessed with)Before we dive in though, I want to remind you that the July session of NEXT Art Director starts TOMORROW! July 7, 2026 @ 4pm PST / 7pm EST If you've been waiting to enroll, don't wait any longer. There are 2 video lessons I need you to watch before class...
The Most Feral Art Direction in Sports Right Now: MAD 007
ISSUE 007 Its not every year the World Cup lines up perfectly with the NBA Finals and the Knicks win for the first time in 53 years... Literally that never happens! but it happened! And we were blessed by the art direction gods. Here's some of the best stuff I saw... The Most Feral Art Direction in Sports Right Now This Nike x Patta collection for Netherlands is captivating! Love the cultural allusions and symbolism mixed with the dynamic editing. Clean studio cycs mixed with maximalist sets....
Analog Art Direction & Branding Off the Algorithm: MAD 006
ISSUE 006 It's been a minute. More than a month, actually. I'll save the full update for the bottom, but the short version is: new baby, very little sleep. For ISSUE 006 of MAD I've got a guest-written deep dive into a Melbourne-based clothing brand that blew up on Instagram and then did something that I think is genuinely fascinating. For their latest campaign, they went completely off-algorithm. It stopped feeling true to who they are. It's a great piece. Let's get into it... How far can...
Steal these Art Direction Techniques: MAD 005
ISSUE 005 The industry is hectic, but the craft remains steady yall. This week we’re looking at how brand marks can act as a storytelling lens, why a rare phenomenon is the perfect metaphor for the Olympics, and why the most captivating ads are actually the ones that leave the mistakes in. But first, let's touch on something a bit difficult for me to grapple with... The Artist vs. The Individual Ye’s recent sold-out return to SoFi Stadium was a visual masterclass. The stage design featured a...
NOTICING NOSTALGIA: MAD 004
ISSUE 004 So much good work landing lately. Today I've got the outdoor campaign of the year, another GAP music video masterclass, and a longform video breaking down the storytelling lineage of hooks. But first, one of our MAD contributors goes deep on nostalgia... On Noticing Nostalgia Written by Stefan Szary There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning boys, how's the water?" And the two young...
A newsletter about vision, taste, and visual ideas.