Digital Design: Revolution or Destruction?

Bridget Roman (Editor: Scott Partridge)

Digital design touches each of us everyday. From brochures and catalogs to cars and furniture, most products and their packaging have been designed with the aid of a computer. Design has become faster, easier and more consistent, but in many ways, technology has created issues that plague both the designer and the consumer.

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY: APPLE BITES INTO THE BUSINESS

Before the computer, the designer’s job was laborious. From concept to completion, design was time consuming and intense. Layouts were hand rendered by production artists, who expertly burnished text from transfer paper, marked pictures and cut and pasted graphics onto boards. Human error and client changes resulted in multiple revisions.

In 1984, the Apple Corporation emerged into the digital design arena with the introduction of the Apple IIgs computer. The idea of designing on a computer was laughed at by some and embraced by others, but by 1986, despite its critics, the Mac was being used widely in the world of design. Designing on computer was an industry standard by 1992 and considered a communication breakthrough. Design students and practitioners realized that their livelihoods depended on its mastery.¹

APPLICATIONS: SOFTWARE CORNERS THE MARKET

There are three design software packages that are standard throughout this industry: Adobe Photoshop, an image manipulation and special effects program; Adobe Illustrator, a drawing and graphics program; and QuarkExpress, a page layout program². QuarkExpress has been well received by pre-press houses and printers who find it easy to use. Historically, printers would reject files that were not created in this program, therefore forcing designers to use Quark when they might have chosen a different page layout program³.

Although the Mac is still the predominant tool for designers, the PC has entered the scene as a strong contender for this important segment of the market. This shift has prompted manufacturers to provide design programs for both platforms, and in turn, cross platform storage units, such as Syquest, Zip and Jaz disks, which can hold information from a Mac or PC and be read by its corresponding disk drive. This provides flexibility in sharing, copying and downloading data between designers, film houses and printers. In order to maintain a productive system, everyone in the design process believes they must have access to these components and upgrade every time a faster, higher capacity disk and drive are introduced⁴.

BUSINESS: STAYING COMPETITIVE

Today’s design studio cannot be competitive without a scanner, ink jet printer, CPU, monitor, software and removable media drives. There are also many products that designers can work without, but are seduced into buying because they make the process faster, easier and more fun, including digital cameras, digital tablets and many multimedia items. The technology industry, in this regard, is very supplier driven. Manufacturers are constantly trying to convince designers that they need something that they really don’t. Eventually, designers start to believe that they do need everything being put in front of them, creating an extreme consumer mentality, thus increasing revenue for high tech companies⁵.

Many fringe products have also emerged in this industry, including software plug-ins, which are simple software programs that are add-ons to extensive software packages. They make functions faster and easier by providing shortcuts for modifying images and graphics. Plug-ins have become very popular with designers who don’t have the time to keep up with constant software upgrades. If a designer doesn’t know how to retouch a photo in a major software package, like Adobe Photoshop, they can buy Kai’s Power Tools, a compatible plug-in, which will make changes in minutes that may have taken the designer hours to execute.

First-to-market products, especially software, also develop a strong market share in the design industry. Because Illustrator was the first program of its type, it was purchased by most designers. As new versions of Illustrator came out, designers tended to upgrade because they had experience with the program and could easily master the upgrades. If tech support is helpful and the program is easy to use, a very strong software loyalty develops⁶.

DRIVING FORCES IN COMMUNICATION

Society’s need for communication is a driving force behind the constant research and development of new and improved hardware and software for the design industry. Publishing and digital design are on the leading edge of technology, therefore technology based companies are always coming up with new ways to share information quickly and easily.

POLICY IN THE MAKING

The newness of digital design and the difficulty, overall, in policing the digital world has made the creation of policy in this arena challenging. High resolution scanning and printing capabilities make it very easy to copy, manipulate and retouch other’s work, in part or in whole. Proving innocence or guilt in this situation could be difficult, due to the number of systems that digital files pass through, as well as the clarification of who actually owns a particular design. When a project is completed and the file is turned over to the company that has paid for it, all rights of the designer are lost and that work, or portions thereof, can be used in many different ways, without ever having to contact the designer. The lines of ownership of digital art are blurred⁷.

Software policies and laws exist, but are also challenging to police. Recently, the Software Publishers Association was established to help keep software manufacturers in business, by creating a hotline where individuals can report the illegal use of software. The success of this association has yet to be determined.

OPPORTUNITIES, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

There are three main problems created by the emergence of design. The first issue relates to education. Most design schools today are computer-centric and are teaching technology rather than design. There are more desktop publishers emerging into the market than true designers. This is due in part by the fact that some companies are more interested in finding employees who have strong computer skills, instead of strong design skills. Therefore, educators are gearing curriculum accordingly, to help insure that students are prepared for the job market. The graphic design industry has already absorbed hundreds of thousands of people, all working skillfully on computer. Newly minted designers are up to speed on the big three software programs and do find work. As a result, established design firms are watching their prices erode and their prestige oxidize as clients shop around for cheaper, more malleable design alternatives⁸. Design has become like fast food: clients expect immediate results, with numerous variations, in record time.

Regardless of their skill level, the designers job responsibilities have become extreme. They are unable to focus on perfecting their design skills because they are expected to be a troubleshooter, the MIS department and a technology guru⁹. Time that used to be devoted to conceptualizing is now lost due to the designer having to spend more time learning software programs, researching and fixing their equipment and networking with technology experts.

The final result of the declining focus on design education, the increased emphasis on computer skills, and the loss of conceptual time has lead to an overabundance of poorly designed materials inundating our lives, making it difficult for good design to stand out among the thousands of impressions we are exposed to each day. Well-designed materials and products have a difficult time breaking through the clutter that bombards us¹⁰. We can only hope that this gives truly talented designers the opportunity to stand out, but there is no guarantee that their talent will be appreciated or rewarded.

There is a limitless future for digital design. Even if the sought-after paperless society is realized, there will always be a need for design, as the human brain seeks the visual image for clarity in communication. If we do get to the point where all information can be accessed on-line, the need for web designers will grow. Although there are limited design capabilities on the web, due to having fewer available colors and lower image resolution, it is compensated for by the addition of movement and sound.

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