Von Childs: Defining Creative Direction [SwanoDown Report]

Reported by Imani Wj Wright


A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. —Rosalynn Carter

What exactly is the meaning of being a "creative director?" It's a bit of a broad title isn't it? All doctors are not the same, all lawyers are not the same, and no two creative director positions are the same. So when we had the chance to sit down with ArtRev & Co's founder, Von Childs, we got some insight into what being a creative director means to him, and what that truly entails. Childs' ArtRev & Co is a "multidisciplinary creative agency, firm, and institution, located in Atlanta, Georgia, designed to focus on the intellectual experiences of cultural diaspora in Fashion, Art, Business, and Design," according to their official website. 

If you look into what a person says, it simply isn't enough to get the full grasp of what makes the person who they really are- you have to also analyze what they do. When you take your first step onto ArtRev & Co's website, it's immediately apparent that you're dealing woth a thorough company that focuses on the talent that they set to guide and dedicate time to. The site's graphics move with intent, and the images you see on the front ooze with excellence and sharpness. 

" I think being a creative director is all about not just giving ideas, but more so understanding the conceptualism of, what you are working on. The crazy part is, when I actually first started my career, ideally I wasn't going towards the creative directing route. I was heavily inspired by just the fashion publication industry," Said Childs

"And Grace Coddington, who was the creative director for Vogue Magazine, was one of the very first people that I looked towards when it came to creative direction and what she had implemented into the fashion industry. She was just one of those people who was very influential to me when I started to gravitate towards fashion. But then over the course of time I realized that a creative director doesn't just pertain to fashion, it pertains to so many different things," The creative director stated.

As shown in the aforementioned quote, creative direction is not pigeonholed to one form of anything. ArtRev & Co provides services in the realms of Project Management, Art & Event Curation, Image Consulting, Media Production, and Branding.

" I feel like I define creative direction in my own terms, which is one of the reasons why I had created my own creative agency," Childs exclaimed with a smile on his face.

Normally, when you look up information about a creative director, they're usually people who are hired from a company to actually just give their ideas. But for me, a creative director is more than just that. We establish ideas, we do experimental research, and then we're the type of people who are hands-on when it comes to understanding every single creative role within a team. So, even though I'm a creative director,, I'm able to understand the intellectual language of a photographer or makeup artist or a fashion designer or someone even in the music industry... And just being able to have knowledge behind those particular spectrums in order to pretty much create a stage, you know, that's really what I'm all about, is creating a stage," Childs explained. 

Want even more insight into how much Childs' company focuses on the artist, aside from their own visions? They have an artist spotlight that truly highlights the accomplishments and potential they encompass, almost surely to be increased by working with Childs and his team. 

"You really have to understand the balance.  For me, I love both. I love the creative side and I also love the business side. I think that's one of the reasons why I even became a creative director in the first place. Normally artists, we go into creative fields and we don't want to deal with the business aspect. All we want to do is just create. But for me, I think what works out so excellently is that I'm able to actually understand everything from a business perspective. So that way that the creativity can really be brought out when I'm working with different types of clientele and showing them I understand their brand and I can be very innovative and push the brand to limits they've never been before," Said Childs. 

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