Art Director

After listening to the guest lecture i can happily say that i know more about how important an art director is.
The art director is hired to look over and guide the artists. It is up to them to look over the art style guide and see that it is followed correctly.
The artists will naturally have different styles and the art director is their to make sure that the styles of these artists stay consistent and continue to do so through the entire of the game.
If they fails to do so the game will be a mix of styles and will look messy and most of all not get made.
An art director needs to be able to have a strong understanding in the aspects needed for these artists, such as schedules, programmes, understanding someone else's vision and problem solving.
I believe that it is important that the director can see and evaluate each part of the process. It would also be impossible for the director to solve any technical problems the artists may be having if he is unaware of the software they are using. This becomes more difficult when you consider the forever growing industry of games and how more advanced and sometimes ever so much more complicated developing games has become. The director must make sure they are aware of these changers and alterations as much as if not more than the artists themselves.
This in turn shows that being an art director is a difficult one at best and to be one is to be the best. The importance of their job is obvious, they are essential in keeping your team of artists working as one rather than 6, 10, 12 different styles all thrown into a game engine.
It makes feel i would enjoy being an art director in some years to come, as i can get as excited about my own ideas as much as i can someone else. But as i see the workload they have to deal with i know im a long way off being ready for that job just yet.