Comments on: A Service Bureau on Every Desktop

By: p.berkbigler

p.berkbigler — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:00:33 +0000

A side note to this string: I also know that my students may, to one degree or another, be feeling the draw of computer / computing savvy tugging at their interest – the complexity of both the applications and the machine itself are both deeply seductive in their promise of providing some “edge” over the competition.

There’s the whispered promise that learning just one more filter slightly better than another student, attempting just one more type-merged-with-scanned-textures layer, flipping one color mode for another or installing one more bootlegged Illustrator patch will be that secret ticket to design success and to impressing potential employers.

I take it all as a challenge to bring back to the front where the real savvy and seductiveness ultimately lies – in the simple complexity of text and image dancing with one another, and in the complex simplicity of them both mixing through our very own eyes.

But if they’d rather begin to play Sisyphus on a Macintosh, I’ll be happy to let go of the stone for a while…

By: televator

televator — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:30:31 +0000

Knowing certain advanced technical aspects of printing and technology will always be important, but I also find myself getting a little too involved some times. The fact is, technology is fleeting. In 10 to 15 years we won’t be using computers as we know them to do design. Kids that are being born right now will laugh at the hoops we jump through now to produce our work. What won’t change are the principles of design.

That’s why it doesn’t matter that I knew Quark better than my professors at school, or that I don’t even know what an amberlith is.

We have to keep up on relevant technology, but the really intense stuff should be left to the professionals that have the time to worry about that stuff.

By: zjg

zjg — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 02:10:14 +0000

Amen, brother.

I’m looking for a job right now, and no one wants to hire anyone without a laundry-list of Adobe and Macromedia software right at the top of his resume.

I have some software skills, and have a solid art background. I enjoy the creative and some of the technical aspects that go into making the ideas come to life.

But I am still spending the majority of my time learning XHTML, CSS, Flash, and a slew of Pre-press standards for InDesign vs. Quark right now, trying to improve my tech skill set so I’ll be more desirable as a candidate.

I’d much rather be hand-lettering, typesetting and illustrating for my next designs.

But we’ve all got to eat.