When I started in the industry it was a traditional, manual skill base with PMT cameras, dry transfers and parallel-boards. Rotaring pen skills were honed over years of playing with French curves. An artwork took all day and a mock up took all week. (I need to say here, I am an Apple worshipper - great design, good prices and an excellent hardware/software partnership). But, I have always wondered, we have a set of new skills today but at what cost?For a design tool the Apple Mac has completely revolutionised the industry in a Stevenson style. When a customer requested a word to be changed in 1988 it would involve 5 people, now it's one. Customers today see an image and think "I don't like that lets re-touch" - in the past this would have been an Airbrush Artist and days of masking or a total re-shoot but Photoshop and an image library is all we need. Yes this is progress, but where we have moved forward we are now edging backwards.The main area of failure is grammar / typography. Grammar is a hot topic in the British media of late, lots of skilled journalists are picking holes in how our children are being taught and that spelling and handwriting skills are disappearing faster than the English Barbecue season. So I guess that computers are affecting us from cradle to grave. Don't get me wrong, the digital world is great but as computers are generally creating a stream of illiterates with scribble for handwriting Apple in my opinion has cheapened our production skills, made us lazy. I find errors are now too familiar on the supermarket shelves; I see poor typography, poor layout and really rushed artwork. Clients who are also under pressure and are expected to do the job of two or three people as they brief, project-manage and copy check, are not looking for typographical or grammatical errors or even have the time to. In 1988 the customer would have more time to look out for these because the cost of the job meant it had to be 100% and amends would delay and cost. Now amends are almost instant. So how can people learn from their mistakes? English is a difficult language, one that takes a lifetime to master and as I try to teach my children basic rules and regulations I remember a past studio discussion that possibly wouldn't get a second thought today. Is it "Dog's Food or Dogs' Food?" - this obviously depends on the context but does anyone actually care in the Digital World?We can't just blame Apple so really I suppose my concern would be the lack of experience and the knowledge of the traditional processes and in turn this creates an increasingly slap-dash, quick-draw attitude, a throw away industry with requirements never being slowed and skills only in speed being acknowledged until computers can do the task, faster!As we progress, software can already create total artworks from simple input and trapping is becoming an automated procedure, companies see progress as reduced costs, increased speed and higher profit. Sorry, I'm seeing a lack of quality, diminishing skill set and a lack of pride in our industry. Then like other industries before; the simpler we make this, the easier we are to replace with unskilled workers and cheap apps.
