I went to college for Graphic Design. The head of my department was old-school to the core, highly learned in the art of printing presses, paste-up, mechanicals, and those enormous effing press cameras that were used to develop the plates for the presses. He was also very welcoming of the new school, so his computer lab was always outfitted with bleeding-edge computers and software.
While I was learning the trade, with Photoshop and Illustrator as my primary tools, I was also learning the history that got us there. And, at that point, they were still putting a huge emphasis on the print industry, because they knew it wasn’t going to die out. People will always need books, magazines, posters, etc, so they taught us the things that any artisan would need to know about the process, from beginning to end.
Artisans. Process. Thinking things through from beginning to end. Not just your little piece of the continuum.
They taught us (putting us in the shoes of the lead designer or art director) to become best buddies with the guy who runs the printing press. Know what the dot-gain is going to be. Compensate for it. Don’t leave things up to chance, because you’re either gonna piss off your printer guy, or you’re gonna pay through the nose and your boss is not gonna like that. Learn the trade. You don’t have to be a genius at all aspects, but you’ve got to consider what’s going to happen to your stuff when it leaves your hands. Not only that, but if it’s your baby you’ve got to treat it like your baby. Go to the press with it. Watch it. Take ownership.
With the new wave of graphic design, a new process took shape, and certain standards of practice started to be implemented industry-wide. For example, when sending a bundle of files over to your printer, you’d include your Quark file (or PageMaker) or maybe an Illustrator file if that’s what you used for layout. Your placed images would also have to be included and linked properly, or else the printer would hand your shit back to you. You’d also need to include, in a separate and clearly marked folder, all of the fonts you had used in your layout, including weight variations if so used.
It all seemed like common sense to me, at least in terms of bundling your files. The bit about getting to know your printer was kinda foreign to me, as I was intending to go the path of web development…no real need to get to know your printer, if you’re kinda the master of your own publishing.
I was wrong. The thing is, these days, it’s just as important as it’s always been. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been the guy tasked with building a website, only to be slapped in the face with the fact that the designer was a print designer, and had absolutely no idea how HTML or Flash works. And, of course, I’ve never, ever gotten a design bundle from someone that included fonts. People just assume I own them, or have the time/money to go searching for them and pay for them. Dude, I’m just the guy who builds the HTML. You’re the designer, you take care of the font wrangling!
I’m working on an HTML email for a potato chip company here in the bay area. They want to send out a $1-off coupon in an email blast — an email that you’d just print out and bring to the store with you, including the bar code. I was handed the design (and presented with the urgent request) for this project on Friday, and asked to work this weekend to get it done. I didn’t have a huge problem with that.
What I did have a problem with, is the way the email layout was designed. How you gonna print a crystal-clear, scannable bar code from Joe Blow’s home inkjet printer, which is set to Draft mode to save ink? To make matters worse, this is the type of client who, when they see a design they like, they not only say “go,” but they don’t have any understanding or appreciation when you say “I’m sorry, an HTML email can’t be built to look like this without some trade-offs.” Contrary to normal web pages, HTML emails have serious limitations. Most of these limitations are due to the fact that email programs (Outlook, Entourage, Eudora, etc.) and webmail clients (Hotmail on IE7, Gmail on Firefox, etc) are all stuck in the stone ages. They don’t render standards-compliant HTML anywhere near properly. What this means, among other things, is: you can’t use margins, padding or CSS-P of any kind; you can’t use background-image; you can’t reliably use a:hover; you can’t reliably define your link color styles in the head, and you can’t rely on all email browsers knowing that links should be underlined (if you want them underlined).
But, unless the designer has any inkling about these limitations, they’re just gonna design for print. Because, in terms of standards-compliant, modern web pages, you can usually reproduce print pretty well. This isn’t the case with HTML email, which is stuck in 1996 when it comes to “standards.”
I guess the reason this bugs me so much is because I had always thought that my classmates at SUNY Oswego were almost the bottom of the barrel. Sure, I had a great deal of respect for a number of my classmates…but the majority of them struck me as the types who smoked too much pot, considered no one but themselves, and would eventually cause industry colleagues incessant grief because they had never opened their eyes enough in college. It wasn’t a great school, and it wasn’t because of the professors. But these days, even in Silicon Valley, I’m finding that it’s just the norm. Running into a highly-skilled, extremely pragmatic and considerate designer or developer is not only the exception to the rule…it’s pretty goddamn rare.
I often chastise myself for being a “jack of all trades, master of none.” Because, honestly, I’d love to be that guy people refer to when they want expert advice on a particular topic. But the truth of the matter is, unless you’re a wizened old guru-atop-the-mount, there’s little chance that being a “master” of a trade will make you well-rounded and always helpful.
So, I guess, there’s that.
Tags: accountability, college, design, frustration, memories, process