For those of us who work with publishers of magazines, newspapers and books, the past few years have been trepidatious. The future of the printed page looks uncertain. There’s much speculation that this business model or that device will save the industry. And as much as we techies may fall in love with each new gadget, they have been looked at as a threat, or at least an unknown variable in our careers.
But through all this, I’ve taken comfort in two facts. First, that we live in a visual society. For this reason, the pixel pushers, the vector tweakers, the pen sketchers, and more importantly the visual thinkers will always be in demand. Secondly, the environment around us grows more complex every day. We specialize in distilling complexity into more comprehensive, communicative forms.
I feel our skillset will remain relevant and in demand, but it is crucial to stay informed about prevailing technologies and mediums, and to constantly update our workflows to be able to deliver our product in whatever packaging consumers demand.
Threats or opportunities? What are your thoughts?
Hi James,
good question. I think it would be opportunities but I agree with you, we have to stay up to date with new technology.
I do instructions with a lot of drawings and at the moment I’m looking for about augmented reality and QR code that I would like to use for made easy to access to the online instructions.
For example with AR I’ll have to learn other software to do beautiful video link with the instruction or illustration and this woud be a new opportunitie but you have to spend time learning and learning.
Sorry for my english