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big difference indeed
no doubt about it, techies are as different from designers as apples are from bananas
medium is not always the message
the point of the presentation is not alwyas to concentrate on the point size of our fonts.
These are not design and technology issues
An out of focus projection system is not a meeting of design and technology problem or confrontation. That is a problem in presentation which would have benefitted in either focusing or pressing on with the best one can do with the problem. Design comes first and then we head to technology to realize our design. This simply means that if technology is used it can't be ignored. It must be approached in a balanced way that delivers a good design. The technician doing design work has more of an offset to overcome because design work needs to be done before reaching for the technical bag of tricks. Do us a favor and drop the geek word. America has enough anti-intellectualism as it is in words such as nerd or that is the person that killed our grading curve. I am not asking for political correctness in this case, but those words are so stereotypical that they are really a useless caricature. It also sounds like the How Conference needs responsible technical, and audio visual people to set up things ahead of time and insure a good presentation. People should come forward if they can solve a problem, that goes for designers or technicians. Somebody should have focused the equipment.
I fell into my own trap
Thanks for your responses to my column. I meant to use the failure of the projection system as a means of ilustrating a greater point and in the process I may have ended up focusing too much on the projection system itself -- the very thing I was commenting on. Irony, eh?
To me the difference that I was trying to suggest is that there are those of us (and I am one) who are so involved with technology that we forget to focus on the larger issue -- communication. From my point of view, when confronted with a technological failure, one person carried on and succeeded in communicating her vision; the other could not. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the one who did overcome the snafus was someone who trained as a designer long before PCs and Photoshop came on the scene.
If I made my point badly, then that is my shortcoming. But I'll defend my point that there are distinctions within the design community based on the depth of the designer's relationship to technology, and that sometimes events such as these bring them out in interesting ways.
Pamela Pfiffner
creativepro.com
message before machine
the idea should be the focus and technology one of many ways to reinforce such a great message
Banter
It seems to me like people are TRYING to see a separation in technology and design. In your article the tech wizards were different from the design wizards. I completely have respect for Paula Scher's work as much as I respect Lynda Weinman's work. Yes, they might approach their problems in different ways and although I never thought design was one of Lynda's strong suits, she has her strong points.
The point of your article - finding the harmonious intermingling of technology and design - I believe can and has been achieved. I know from my background as a designer working through traditional design methods and materials, that the computer and technology in general has sparked a lot of creativity for me. Even so, everything comes from my own head, first on paper or in visions, then on the computer.
Wendy Richmond from Communications arts magazine http://www.commarts.com did a series of articles on technology and design issues. I think there's a lot of credence to the subject, but lately it just seems like a lot of banter within the design community.
Give me a piece of paper and a pencil any day and I can design. Give me a computer with Photoshop and I can design. Two different sets of tools, both results from the same mind.
agree
yes
Deja View
WOW!!! It's deja vu all over again! I deal with these issues on a weekly basis as part of my work. First and foremost, I am a designer. But, I am also a presentation technician. Having seen many incomprehensible presentations due to either poor design, poor communication skills or ignorence of the capabilities of the technology, I dedided that my designs would no longer suffer these ignominities. My response as a designer? Learn the technology. I became proficient in the use of presentation software and hardware. The result? Better presentation designs. Not only are my designs tailored to effectively communicate the subject matter based upon the software being used, they are tailored to the specific projector being used to present the material.
It's nothing more than applying the principle of knowing the final output medium and designing accordingly-a prinicple which has been around since the invention of written communication. Wether it's pounded payprus or a Panasonic, design for the final output. And learn how to focus a projector.
Right on! Thanks for saying what we see every day!
This paragraph summarized her point well:
"It was as if Scher, a designer's designer in every sense of the word, knew that computers are nothing more than a tool on her drafting table. It's the expression of the thought that counts. For Weinman, the technology is the main means of expression, and when it let her down, she couldn't get past it..."
People need to adjust their thinking from the old credo "the medium is the message". When technical glitches occur during a presentation, you don't want the message to become about the medium. You still have to be able to get the message across to the audience.
I've always tried to explain to designer wanna-be's that the computer is just a tool; that if I handed them a ruling pen, a pica ruler and a French curve, and started to explain trapping for color printing, they'd be lost. The computer is simply the evolution of these previously standard desktop tools of the designer. Without an understanding that any of these tools can be used to visually communicate a message -- and one needs to use these tools well to accomplish this objective effectively -- then you are quite likely wasting your time. Just because you have 35000 fonts, 16 million colors, a CD rack full of cheap clip art and web sites with free Java scripts at your disposal doesn't mean you should use them. All the bells and whistles in the world are not going to help a weak presentation.
Insulted
"When tech-savvy artists meet design-minded geeks..."
Wow, did I find that insulting! It is really hard to get business people to take designers seriously and value what we have to offer. Why insult creative professionals with comments like those? Who do you think reads creativepro.com?
There were so many things I disagreed with in your article, it wouldn't be helpful to point them out, but when PowerPoint starts to look like good design, you may need a fresh perspective.
Try "@issue:" a magazine published by the Corporate Design Foundation (www.cdf.org) ...and maybe take a break from the convention trail.