Top 10 most exciting art directors on Creativepool

Art Directors are the masters of creativity and the ones responsible for steering the visual and thematic heart of a project. They are responsible for what commercial campaigns look like and guide the hands and imaginations of various creatives to create something cohesive that aligns with the brief.

While several Art Directors will be hired in, many others prefer to work freelance and ply their wares online via sites like Creativepool. A freelance Art Director is often going to have many agencies vying for their attention but there are many more flying under the radar that you might be able to hire to steer your next project into the stratosphere.

With that in mind, here’s a selection of who we feel represent some of the most exciting and intriguing Art Directors on Creativepool.

Andrea Fossa

Andrea is a freelance art director and graphic designer based in London. Her areas of expertise are conceptualising and developing design briefs with striking visuals. She’s able to lead a design team to create campaigns that stand out and speak to the intended audience, as well as pushing aesthetic boundaries of what is "expected". She has nine years’ experience working directly with clients and managing design briefs and pitches and has worked in-house at creative agencies for five of those years. Andrea is, in her own words, “collaborative, curious, perceptive and always learning.”

Craig Baxter

Craig is an art director, designer, and illustrator of things, of which some of the nicer ones even win awards. He has extensive, multi-channel pitch experience, from conceptualising the creative approach to presenting it to top-level clientele. Craig is currently based in London but has created work for clients across Europe and South Africa.

Panagiotis Pagonis

Panos is an AdNerd and Associate Creative Director (Art) at Ogilvy Greece. Panos has won many Awards including Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clio, One Show, Lia, Webbys, 51 Ermis Awards, 4 Grand Ermis and has served as a jury member for national and international juries like Ad Stars (Asia) and PHNX Awards. In 2021, Creativepool selected him as "Emerging Talent of the Year" and named him as "One of 10 best Art directors in the World". His work has been featured up to ten times at Lürzer's Archive - including Ad of the Week -.

Paula Benvegnu

Paula Benvegnú is a hands-on art director, set designer and stylist with strong conceptual thinking and storytelling with more than 15 years of experience. Coming up with big ideas and executing them in any kind of format are some of her key skills. In 2016 she founded Texas and the Artichoke, a brand of silk scarves and home ware that has been featured in Vogue and Elle Decoration and sold in Anthropologie and other shops in the UK, US and rest of Europe. Nowadays she is also focused on set design and prop styling for window displays, experiential events and photo shoots. Clients include Bombay Sapphire, Beefeater, Samsung, Urban Outfitters, Abbey Road Studios and prestigious stores like Harrods, John Lewis and Burberry.

Carlos Briceno

Carlos is a strategic and visionary creative director with 18 years of solid advertising and design experience, high integrity, leadership, and management. In his specialty as art director, he has a solid and versatile trajectory in the execution of strong, clean, and powerful designs for print, digital, and television media. At a strategic level, he has a proven track record in effective process Effies, an understanding of market trends and innovative solutions, and efficient implementation of creative strategies.

Lucia Cerda

Lucia Cerda lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and was originally from Argentina, but have lived ten years in Spain and six years in Belfast. Her main passion within design is advertising, as she believes it has a great impact on our daily lives and is a transformative artform. She is open minded, loves travelling and I believes there is something new to learn every day.

Torben Krog

Torben is an experienced and hands-on creative with 20+ years of expertise working across all media channels to deliver compelling consumer experiences for brands ranging from ASDA to Audi, JLR, Odlo sportswear to Samsung, Sky and many more. He is an extremely versatile creative thinker who can rise to any challenge - from ATL advertising to website takeovers to showroom transformations. Torben has art directed an impressive - and eclectic - portfolio of shoots and films, building up a valuable network of top-class photographers, videographers and video editors along the way.

Michele De Iuliis

Born confused in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Michele spent most of his youth in front of a computer screen, playing with graphic design programmes. Whatever he didn't know, he taught himself. And whatever he knew a little about, he improved by trial and error. After high school, and three years of studying graphic design and advertising in Italy and Ireland, he managed to get paid to do what he loves.  After almost a decade in South Africa, he’s now located in Dubai, where for a year and a half he headed two junior teams and half of the design department on accounts like Dubai Tourism, GSK, Microsoft, Nescafé, Balsen, Lifebuoy, Mars, Tefal and Jotun at Wunderman MENA.

Christine Serchia

With a background in Art and Photography, Christine is an art director who uses research to define considered visual concepts for the creative and retail industries. She produces high-quality image and film content, develops visually memorable campaigns that highlight brand qualities and narratives, curates content and exhibitions, and forms creative and commercial partnerships with talented artists and collaborators

Ferdinand Van As

Ferdinand is an art director with over 10 years’ experience working in digital and advertising agencies, for brands like Warner Bros, Blizzard Entertainment, Riot Games, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Kronenbourg, Louis Vuitton and more, on projects ranging from branding and motion design to UX and UI design. Ferdinand is also a judge at the FWA.