🚀 go-pugleaf

Too bad, I was going to play, ever so slightly, the contrarian.

Forty-five weeks is just short of a year. I've spent a few too many tours in prepress, been a commercial photographer in my younger days, and I'd say you *can* in fact learn to become an Art Director (Not sure what I think of that as a goal, but that's just me) in that time...

... but...

A) You'll have live, eat, sleep, drink and think design and production every waking minute.

B ) You have to go out and find yourself an scutwork entry level position in the prepress department of a print shop and work your fanny off moving up the ladder. Your nickname when you start should be "The Guy Who Asks All the Questions" and you're aspiring to become "Go Ask Brian"; not the main troubleshooter, just the guy the troubleshooter sends people to when he's got better things to do. :-)

C) Books, classes, magazines and brainpicking become your new hobbies.

At the end of that almost year you should be just about set to be an Art Director...

... and one man band art department at the smallest of the small companies or at a smallish non-profit or as a volunteer at a local organization of some sort. You're still asking questions a mile a minute, by the way.

You'll be walking, but you'll still have to work your way out of short pants. :-)

JMill