should i become a copywriter or designer, to become a creative director?

directions please…. i'm in the advertising industry and i'm a grad in multimedia. but my talent/interest is mainly in conceptualizing and branding…multimedia/design is a skill which i can still do as so to say i can design is computers. of course most designer/copywriters wants to become creative director as so do i one day… I know that starting as designer or copywriter will with hard work lead to being creative director, so for me i'm not sure which to venture into, designer in digital interactive advertising or copywriter for digital interactive advertising. all i know is i love to come up with creative ideas on how to execute the ads/campaign/product. ….but the big question is… which job will be able to give me the biggest opportunity to do that.

hope any industry related person out there can give some advise…

thanks.

In the design career path, there are few greater achievements than a skilled designer or copywriter becoming a creative director. It’s a wonderful promotion. Unfortunately, creative people do not usually make good management. Finding the right mesh of talent and interpersonal skills is a very difficult task, which is why good creative directors have been revered — there are so few people who can be creative and manage creative.

Experience is probably the most common trait among creative directors (though not the most important) and encapsulates several key ingredients. Design and copywriting experience is critical. Years of working in the trenches, testing ideas, failing, succeeding, winning awards and leaving empty-handed have built a foundation of practical design application. Experience teaches what works on a website, what helps an ad pull, what makes a brochure get read. Experience provides a second level of intuition — “yes, it looks good, but will it work?” When a creative director has worked in the same company or the same sector for a number of years that practicality becomes even more refined. There are CDs who excel at creating sizzling consumer campaigns because they have been in that game a long time. That same person would fail in the healthcare market where another creative director has learned what helps sell pharmaceuticals to doctors. And both of them would fall short in a technical B2B market where yet another creative director has learned how to make companies connect and market themselves to each other though better design. Age is related to experience, but only in the language of maturity. Life experience is directly related to maturity, and maturity is critical in managing a team of creatives (AKA, a herd of cats). Acting as the Director, designers and copywriters have the potential to make terrible managers but who better to lead the team than a former in-the-trenches creative? Most creative directors get promoted because of their skill not because of their leadership qualities, but technical skill has little to do with guiding the communication output of an organization. These are the bigger qualities CDs need to worry about:

Being OK with the fact that the time to actually create — writing or designing — will be less than a fourth of a non-managing creative.
Being able to provide constructive, specific and intelligible feedback about work.
Understand the specific ying-yang balance of copy and design. Creative directors who favor one aspect over the other will earn the scorn of the neglected party.
The skills of creative director need to expand from the finite world of colors and grammar to include the over-arching marketing direction. This text is nicely kerned but does the piece accurately represent the company’s brand? It’s the “director” part of creative director.