Repro Man to the Rescue?

As stated in the past, I am largely print designer. But I have recently taken on a role as a repro guy. It is a familiar setting for me - I spent my on the job training with the same design and print company (I took a 'sabbatical' for freelancing, study etc.) and now I'm back, this time I'm the repro man rather than the junior with creative juices floating our of every pore...

Taking on this role has been challenging in some ways, frustrating in others and inhibiting in yet more...

It is a challenge due to the time-management factor. When freelancing, time seemed of less of an issue, mainly because I was at liberty to go way into the night just to complete whatever project was at hand. Not now though... There are other factors to consider. For example, there is the timeline of completion, proofing, and plate output, in a timely manner so that the print minder has time to print before the end of the day... Time management is not necessarily my strong point. It's quite easy with regards to the actual design work... All it takes is a "go as fast as you can" mentality, and I think I happen to be pretty fast (and probably quite fortunate with regards to getting more than my fair share of hitting homeruns first time)...

The frustration comes in when all the technicalities of designing for print are considered. There are lots of little links in the chain between designing and plate making. A key question that seems to come up again and again is "why is Quark so broken?" Things that shouldn't have hiccups often do. And much of the time it becomes a case of seek and destroy the offending problem... Either that, or finding clever (or expedient) ways of getting around the problem, knowing that it's only an answer to tie you over until the next time round. Lots of web guys find designing for print a horrible task. I personally like the fact that no matter how irritating the process may become, you end up with a tangible thing that you can pick up, hold and (if it's any good) admire. But there's no doubt that days can be lost to silly problems that dont show any sign of getting resolved, and then suddenly disappear for no reason. Frustrating. Yes.

Ahhh the inhibition, the inhibition. What could be inhibiting about being the top boy in the design/repro department? Really there are three reasons. The two listed above and of course - the customers. Do we need to be disrespectful to them? Of course not - they pay the bills after all. But customers have two main agendas when it comes to this industry: "When!?" and "How Much?" And really that says it all. Everyone wants their artwork and printing done straight away, and nobody is really prepared to spend proper money on it. Therefore, everything has to be done as quickly as possible and it doesn't have to be "that great."

I think that's largely the shame of it... The time constraints laid on by "Challenge" and "Frustration" mean that the design in general suffers. Should I really be bothered? After all, the more customers that can be pacified with OK design work, the more money we can all make right? But money is not the drive. For me at least, design is an essential part of my day to day living. If too many days pass without my design mind getting stretched, I can feel the difference.

Should I then just settle down with the fact that currently I'm a repro man and design is really secondary to my function of producing plates and keeping the ball rolling? I think not. I think that the way forward is to slightly change the mental role. "Work smarter" if you will. There ought to be a way to keep on top of everything and still have the time and fortitude to design properly. It must be about time and function management.

After all, isn't it always only about Getting Things Done?

DVD Jon's new software...

Regarding DVD Jon's new software.....

"Apple's iPod only plays music bought from Apple's iTunes Store... So this new software could mean a very big blow to Apple's business plan..."

Dumb. Stupid. Dumb.

For once, I wish that pundits and newsmen would get their facts straight... The iPod can play lots and lots of media. However the tunes bough FROM the iTunes Music Store can't be played natively on another device.

There's a big difference between, "The iPod only plays tunes bought from their Music Store." and, "iTunes Music Store Purchases only play on iPods."

Whatever your inclination about openness and whether or not the music from Apple should be available in a non-proprietry fomat, at least get the facts straight! ITN & BBC, and probably 98% of the internet - I'm talking to you!

Puh-leez

The path to burnouts?

I try to be as professional as possible. In everything... But it seems to me that other tend to prey on that professionalism. Is it really too much to ask that work related requests are emailed or written down. I give myself a hard time for forgetting things, but really, if you I'm jumping from job to job, am I supposed to remember everything on top of that?

"If you want something to get done, ask a busy person."

I have often heard the phrase. The idea being, I suppose, that somebody who is already busy obviously considers a number of things important enough for their time. And by extension, they will more than likely apply that importance to the task requested of them.

The question then arises, "How busy is too busy?"

When is a person so busy that they have to shed or stop taking new jobs on? I'm sure that there are hundreds of "You have lots of time, but dont use it properly" books telling you whats wrong with your day and work methods...

I often wonder, though, do we really give ourselves credit to rest and switch off? For example, I cycle to work, then from 9-5 design things day in and day out. I then cycle home, get showered and usually work from 6.30 until at least 9pm. This, my friends, I think is the road to burnouts.

Perhaps the idea to remedy this is to just not take on more work, but I feel convinced that there must be a better solution... And besides, I do not think there are many other designers that would stop taking things on...

Work smarter?

How do you work smarter? More conservative with completion estimates? That never seems to work, as all clients expect and presume they will get the end product yesterday. It's a mindset that I believe is difficult if not near impossible to change in most clients. Plus there is the strange mindset that we also have - the one that expects that inspiration will flow from the heavens, and the job will be as smooth as butter. It never runs that way, but we always forget.

Rested.

Perhaps 4-day weeks are the solution. I have read that certain designers have decided to take up the four day week challenge. It would certainly be a break from the seven-day week. Probably the extra day (3 days?) would help recharge and bring back some inspiration. It would be a novelty to try it... It would be interesting to see what you guys have to think about all this....

As for me, perhaps next week. I have work to do.

Stiff Upper Lip?

As I write this, I cant help but think that it will be read as some racial bile, just spewing from an angry person. It isn't. However, you are free to think what you like. That's your privilege. But somebody has to say something at some time. Today, I choose to write this. The comment box is below.

I consider myself, more or less, a "thinker" or at least someone who tries to get a balanced viewpoint. I'm sure any level-headed person is completely astounded by nearly everything that is reported on in the media...

Positive Discrimination?

For example. The Police for the Gloucestershire have been "randomly deselecting" white male applicants in a bid to meet a target set by the UK Government - 7% women and ethnic minorities in each Police force by 2009...

Note for one that the Government set this target. Note also that it is illegal to have "quotas" whereby any ethnicity is selected in favour of another. Don't the two conflict with each other? The Government sets the target, but makes it illegal to set targets!

It is also of note that this commotion takes place in Gloucestershire! Personally I think it is one thing to have proportional representation across the nation, but it is another to expect the same in such a rural area as Gloucestershire.

It astounds me to see on every hand, over-indulgant, self-serving "watchdogs" in place in our precious nation. A place where the law definitely favours the wrong-doer and punishes the law-abider. Pick up a newspaper, and I guarantee that you will see some crazy injustice brought about by either strange, needless bureaucracies or over zealous, spying busy-bodies that are spurred on by those same bureaucracies.

"But it's not British to complain!"

True. What we silly British do is put up with people taking liberties with our nation's inherent kindnesses. Tax dodgers, criminals, con-artists, and many others seem to see that Britain is a free-for-all state with free healthcare and a system that can be bent to the will of the wrong-doer.

How would you like to be burgled only to get prosecuted for using "excessive force" to eject the burglar? I hear you cry, "But the man needed food! he wasn't going to steal anything of significant value! he was desperate!" I just don't care. Right is right, wrong is wrong. It's pretty straightforward.

Seriously people! Open your eyes! See that most of the reporting in the media is fluff just to drown out the real issues. Our nation is being raped right in front of us. But we do nothing. To me that is not British! We were a nation of action and dynamism. The envy of the world. Now we are a nation of louts, in need of instruction. It is now a nation where a flag in a taxi flying for our team at the World Cup was banned because it's "racist" though we have many ethnicities represented in Britain... Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if this happened in another country? But we roll over and say nothing. Sad indeed. You could be England-born with parents from Jamaica, wearing a Brazil shirt, flying a Welsh flag. Are you racist?

I'm glad to be British, but I am greatly saddened by the state of our nation. Maybe we should be a bit more proud of our heritage, not ashamed of it. Maybe we should say a little more about the injustices that are befalling the good people in our nation. Maybe a little less "stiff upper lip" and a bit more indignation? Just a thought.

Vista & PS3... The same?

Example 1:

Microsoft are "soon" to release Vista. It looks (from my perspective, at any road) like it will have some kinda interesting things, and some OK things and some things that look pretty much just passable.

Of course I'm looking at this from a long-term Mac user point of view. And that has affected my thinking somewhat. I use OSX everyday. I use Windows XP only when I have to. I just dont like it, and that's it... But largely speaking I'm totally unfussed about the Vista release. I mean, I'll continue to use Mac OS all the time, I'll only use Windows when I have to, Vista probably won't set the world on fire, and Microsoft will still dominate the OS balance for a good long time.

Example 2:

Sony will soon release their PS3 console. It looks (from my perspective, at any road) like it will have some kinda interesting things, and some OK things and some things that look pretty much just passable.

Of course I'm looking at this from a long-term Sega gamer point of view. After The Mega Drive (Genesis) and Saturn consoles, I had to get a PS2, and then XBox. I'm pretty much unfussed about PS3 also. Even though I am not as involved with the console and gaming scene as I used to be, I think I can see that the Wii and 360 are better overall. The Wii of course has an interesting and innovative (potential) control system. And the 360 continues the good work started by Microsoft on their XBox console.

Thoughts

I must admit, I am nowhere near as versed on both releases as many people are, but I have read/listened about the two when I came across information... But, for a while I have had the feeling that there has been a fair amount of similarity between the releases of the PS3 and Vista. And seems to boil down to bloatedness and corporate arrogance…

First: Bloatedness.
In Vista, (it seems to me) that there is a lot of support for legacy systems. While this is suppose is a good thing, it must necessarily mean that Vista will be carrying a lot more baggage than it would if it was backwards compatible to say Windows 2000. There also appears to be many functions/features that just seem over the top, or copied from other companies, or unnecessary, or improperly thought out. (Antivirus companies unable to make stable apps by beta 2, because of an unstable core. Tricky....)

In the PS3, there apparently will be online play similar (?) to XBox Live, BlueRay (Why? Do we need 50GB games?), support for 1080p resolution (Why? Half a percent of users will use it), the Cell chip (which I hear is pretty good, but how it performs for gaming I dont know) other interesting things like wireless controllers.

Second: Corporate Arrogance
This is a bit more tricky. Microsoft has a massive handle on the business sector of the Operating System marketplace. In fact, their share is so large that they could still probably wait a couple more years to release and it would still be the biggest player in the game. So, that being the case, and especially if you take into account the lngth of time that Vista or Longhorn has been in the works, I think it should have been a "start from scratch" rather than a restore and update of XP, which it seems to be (to this outsider, at least). There seems to be a lack of innovation, but really Operating Systems don't seem to have much room for innovation. The best innovation MS could have done in my opinion, would have been start from the beginning. They know the whole world uses or has to use a flavour of the new Microsoft OS, so it's almost as if they can do what they please with the code. Another factor is the zillions of flavours the giant app comes in. Why not "Vista" and "Vista Server?" Forcing people to pay extra for services like networking or multi-user access is pretty despicable in my opinion.

In the case of Sony, a perfect example of their arrogance came up a while ago when there was some complaints about the buttons on the PSP. Specifically, one of the buttons would not always register a press. A second problem was that sometimes the PSP disks would pop out suddenly. Sony's response? "We knew about it, we traded the button functionality for extra screen space. The design is perfect." Perfect? I think not. I think that some of the "features" of the PS3 are one-upmanship (the screen resolutions it can handle), and some are selfish (the BlueRay drive). Sony are hoping that enough people will buy the PS3 so that the BlueRay format will be the next generation format adopted to replace DVD. A bold, savvy, shrewd, but selfish move. Selfish how? Because the PS3 is (because of the BlueRay drive) ludicrously expensive, in my opinion.

My conclusion?
Well, it's interesting that the two companies in question are both market-share leaders. It's also interesting that they are both very wealthy companies that carry lots of weight. It's also striking that both companies seemed to have copied the real market leaders or at least are only just now implementing features that should have been included a long time ago. The biggest thing for me though is the "not quite good enough" factor.... Either for the money (PS3) or for the hassle (Vista). Actually I think it's a little sad. I get the feeling that both releases will be damp squibs. Vista will be plagued by the problems that exist in XP, and the PS3 has the opportunity to raise the bar in the gaming world, but I fear will not, because of the greed and arrogance that appears to exist at decision making level.

In truth though, the fact remains that scores of people will buy Vista as it will be seen to be the only option. However, the jury is still out on the price of the PS3... I just don't know. At least the general public will probably get a chance to see both companies as they truly are... And that would be very interesting.

The New Computer Factor....

So WWDC has come and gone, and people are talking about it - including me... In fact it's quite interesting how much attention Apple gets from sites like Digg considering they have such a small market share. Perhaps we Mac users are the loud minority?

Anyway, I am not a developer, nor was I at the convention, but I pretty much got what I wanted from the show. Not so much the Leopard tidbits, but the Mac Pro. ArsTechnica have noted the underpowered graphics card, which I would say is a reasonable criticism, but for me personally, I think the standard version will be adequate for the time-being. (Though I hear Lightwave's Universal Binary a-callin'.)

Again people are still harping on about the speed increases or lack thereof, comparisons with Quad G5s and all of that, but what many comparisons neglect is something that came up in a conversation with a colleague of mine recently: "The New Computer Factor"

"The New Computer Factor"

My 2 most recent computers are in chronological order, a 466G4 with 1GB RAM and a 1.4G4 Mac Mini with 1GB RAM (which I admit was only to tie me over until a "new" workstation became available - the Mac Pro). I had skipped the G5 chip because, well, the timing was bad for me, and I have "made do" with the Mac Mini, and it has served me well. It IS underpowered for work I do, but it is at least 2 times faster than the 466G4 for not much money...

Anyway, back to the point, consumers are not reviewers, and even the technically savvy, are not necessarily "techs" per sé. Largely speaking we are not concerned with what mhz the GPU runs at, we care that it is up to foreseeable tasks and is better than what we had in the machine we are migrating from. (The effect, for me, will be like going from Impulse to Warp Speed. Even though I will have to use some applications in Rosetta, I'm sure that speed across all applications will be improved. (So in retrospect, perhaps getting a MacMini was a good idea after all.) I think that this is going to be the experience for most people really. If you are fortunate enough to work using mostly Universal Binary applications then great! If not and like me you hadn't yet upgraded to the G5 chipset, then it should be like getting 2 new computers: One when the new Mac is purchased, and the other when your favourite application is upgraded to a Universal Binary.

Other notable items from WWDC include Time Machine which will be good for somebody like me who almost never backs up.... It looks like a very useful piece of software which seems to make backing up far easier. There are many people who have written deep and appropriately useful commentary about the currently revealed Leopard features, so I dont need to, suffice to say I'm factoring in an extra drive into my Mac Pro purchase price just to accommodate the program.

I'm looking forward to the changeover... This will be the first time in a long time that I feel that the upgrade plan is A) not a just a get by purchase, and B) is actually a plan. I think I can see where I'm going with it this time. And it's a nice feeling of dare I say "security?"

More later.

Momentum, momentum, momentum

Designers / Artists / Writers. We are always talking about writers block, and ways to get around writer's block. It seems to me that one of the best ways of dealing with it, is actually a kind of mantra or rule I used to say when I first started my studio. One that I almost forgot in the last year or so... "Just start. Dont think too hard about it."

The important thing is to get something on the the paper, screen, score sheet or whatever your tool of choice is. You can edit and improve on something, but it's impossible to edit nothing.

"Money begats money. Creativity begats creativity."

It's pretty amazing how one image can lead to another, how one word leads to another. The mind s a wonderful thing, but must be exercised. I cannot begin to explain how often I'm in conversations and then a word, gesture, something sparks the imagination. Really, I wish I could document what my mind conjures up, but alas! My drawing skills are not on a par with my mind's eye. Therefore I should practice. And get the momentum going.

"Trust me, I'm a doctor..."

Actually I'm not, but you can trust me anyway. Heh. Or trust yourself. There are things that I knew before I knew them. (What?) Intuitively. Sometimes it's possible to tell that a thing will work, or that the design is on the right road before it's confirmed, or that a topic of thought is the correct one to write etc. Ideas should come to you if the brief was given the proper attention.

I read lots of blogs and how-to's et al, and verily I admire the great designers I come across on my internet travels - I do not have the experience that they have, but they dont have the experiences I have either. sometimes I have to "give myself permission" to think that my opinion is worth what it is. I've been in this game for a long time now, and I think I have something worth talking about. After all, this is my field of expertise, people dont ask me for advice on brain surgery, they ask me to make logos. :)

So, trust your judgement. Get something on the paper. Get the ball rolling. What do they say, "a rolling stone gathers no moss..."