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Is Computer.. a Blessing?



I was writing those thought for my own journal, but then I thought: "Why don't I share them with the peers who are digging into the same trench?"

I started my career near end of the last century, prior to the apparition of the famous G3, and when Photoshop3 was a hit. I stepped in a studio where most of the artists learned computer art years after they started their career. Internet resources were still scarce and we had at many occasions to shoot for presentations; make physical mock-ups of our work; present TV commercials on giant black foam boards; team up together for a campaign… our production manager was jumping 10 times between the colour separation house and the printing press to check chromalines and print-proofs… I still feel the glue-spray odors from the overnight "charettes" before any important presentation. We often used to go home at 8am to dress-up decently and head to the presentation.

It's not the nostalgia that I want to discuss here. It's the late sketchpad (RIP), the brainstorming sessions in the backyard, the flatbed scanner for transparencies coming from image banks..

I miss the time when ideas were flourishing first on paper, then nurtured and grown to the final shape, on paper too. When computer was still just another execution tool… not yet a master and commander.

I see those young guys of today jumping straight to the web, finding pretty-looking images and vectors, borrowing them for a fancy looking artwork and showing it off to a client who get impressed and maybe signs on of the 10 design options on his desk. Sorry, computer desktop.

Ideas now are microwaved. And you probably know that microwave kills the essence of food despite the time it saves… 

Please don't get me wrong: I'm not calling to go back to the pre-historic age and let the web go to hell. I'm calling back the white paper. The pencil, the cup of coffee. I'm calling back the time where ideas were relevant, not just pretty blondes shot and put on sale on the web for designers.

I'm calling clients to look again for the ad (campaign) message, not just for the differentiating outstanding artwork. 

I'm calling the art directors to hold their horses, and sketch down the whole master visual before you start shooting in the web for a force-fitted image or a free vector. 

I'm calling the copywriters to stop nagging about the load of adaptations they have to do for the art directors and team up with them in the inception phase. They can have their own ads running, like did many of the most shining admen.

Big Ideas are never found on the Net. They spark when understanding of the brief, digestion of research data, incarnation of the targeted audience, and of course a thorough brainstorming, all happen in a chain sequence. At least that's what I believe.

My open-ended question is: do you think computer brought end to the "Big Idea", or is it just our frenzy that's keeping the big relaunch awaited?
Please leave your comment or thought here below..

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