69. The Curative Director! – by PM Berry

This article has been bouncing around in my brain the past couple of weeks. So here we go.

This post began more or less tongue-in-cheek. I keep thinking about the mash-up of content creators with traditional ad agency creative chores. And you throw a bit of AI motion content collected from God knows where, and what have you got? Who is this person being sold-in as we speak?

And now it’s a real thing that’s (most likely) already happening but not codified. While this person won’t be a one-person wrecking crew on every project, they can and will work multiple and differing roles as they bounce for brand-to-brand, project-to-project.

So let’s meet them, shall we?

Location: Hybrid / Remote
Department: Creative / Production
Reports to: Executive Creative Director or Head of Content

We’re seeking a Curative Director—a new kind of creative leader who lives in the crossroads of direction, design, production, and AI. This is not a traditional creative director role. It’s a forward-facing, hands-on discipline that combines the instincts of a storyteller with the executional precision of a maker.

As a Curative Director, you’ll concept, design, produce, and curate high-impact visual content across digital, social, and broadcast platforms. You’re part creative director, part editor, part motion designer—and fully fluent in the evolving toolkit of generative AI.

You’re someone who doesn’t just have taste—you know how to build it, train it, and prompt it.

Source: Veo

• Lead Conceptual Development: Generate campaign ideas, visual directions, and narratives using both traditional and AI-assisted creative processes.

• Direct and Design: Create or oversee motion graphics, short-form video, mixed media content, and visual storytelling.

• Hands-On Production: Act as a mini-studio—editing footage, crafting transitions, animating graphics, and deploying AI tools to enhance and accelerate production.

• Curate Visual Language: Define the tone, pace, and aesthetic identity of content; train and refine AI models and style references to maintain visual consistency.

• Prototype Rapidly: Build and test concepts using generative tools (text-to-video, AI voice, style transfer, etc.) to quickly visualize ideas for internal and client presentations. Lots of pre-viz.

• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with creatives, strategists, producers, and technologists to bring multi-platform ideas to life.

• Stay Ahead of Trends: Constantly experiment with emerging platforms, creative software, and AI innovations to push the boundaries of storytelling.

• If you can make it, you’ll find it. Hopefully you can license it. You’re a Business Affairs nightmare.

• A creative polymath: part director, designer, editor, and content strategist.

• Deeply comfortable with post-production tools (Adobe CC, Figma, After Effects, Resolve) and generative AI platforms (Runway, Pika, Midjourney, Sora, ElevenLabs, etc.).

• Able to generate, curate, and refine visual outputs with a strong editorial eye and narrative sense.

• Passionate about innovation, but grounded in execution—able to move from idea to asset with speed and finesse.

• Strong communicator who can translate abstract concepts into compelling visual stories.

• At ease directing a small/medium shoot or composing a cinematic sequence entirely from synthetic media.

• A champion of quality, efficiency, and experimentation in equal measure.

• 5+ years in creative direction, production, or content design—agency, brand, or studio side.

• Demonstrated portfolio of work that spans video, motion, social, and AI-generated content.

• Experience leading or managing junior creatives or freelancers is a plus.

• Strong understanding of ethical considerations and limitations of generative AI.

As the lines between ideation, creation, and execution continue to blur, I believe creativity needs a new kind of leader. The Curative Director embodies this shift: less siloed, more integrated. Less about departments, more about outcomes. If you’re a creative who loves to make things, experiment fearlessly, and push the boundaries of what content can be—this is your role.

source: Veo 3 with sound

The algorithmic tide has finally reached breaking point. The internet—once a chaotic but human-authored sprawl—is now buckling under an avalanche of synthetic content. Every blog, forum, product page, and post is being swamped by auto-generated filler, pushing platforms like Google, Meta, and TikTok into a defensive posture.

To survive the storm, these platforms are rewriting their algorithms in desperation. Search engines are penalizing “AI-first” websites. Social platforms are de-ranking repetitive or suspiciously fluent posts. Verification systems are being rushed into place—not to protect users, but to salvage what little signal remains in a deafening sea of noise.

It’s a civil war between two machines: the ones generating content, and the ones trying to filter it.

But the damage is already done. Small creators are being suffocated as their authentic posts are buried beneath algorithmic fluff. Misinformation is exploding—sometimes with content so polished it’s indistinguishable from official sources. And while the platforms pretend to have it under control, every new model release makes the problem exponentially worse.

Trust is crumbling. Users no longer believe what they see in their search results or timelines. What was once a marketplace of ideas is now a battlefield of bots. And the only rule left?

Don’t trust the feed.

Sources:

Interested in learning more about Group of Humans? Shoot me a note at humans@adverstuff.com

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