GRAPHIC DESIGNER ≠ ART DIRECTOR ≠ CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Job title confusion runs in both directions. Companies without a creative background borrow a senior-sounding title off a template instead of defining the actual work, while designers themselves inflate titles because freelance clients rarely check credentials. Underneath the confusion, the jobs barely move: a designer executes one piece of visual communication, an art director keeps a whole project's output feeling like one brand, and a creative director sets the point of view behind it. Only company size decides how many people that work gets split across.