Umo-Universal: The changing role of the new media designer

What is New Media?

It is said that Einstein’s theory of relativity is difficult for some people to understand because of its simplicity.  To comprehend it, you do not need to acquire information, but instead you must discard preconceived notions.  Imagine, if you would for a moment, that the word ‘media’, as we popularly understand it, is incorrect.  What we regard as media, such as television and radio broadcasts, newspapers and magazines are not, in fact, media, but merely vehicles of a medium.  In communications, a medium is a non-tangible intellectual concept through which vehicles operate.  By vehicle, I mean anything that carries content.   The aforementioned examples are all vehicles of the Mass Medium. In an effort to explain this phenomenon, I will draw upon an analogy penned by the media journalist, Vin Crosbie.  To comprehend the distinction between a communications vehicle and a communications medium, we need only observe how the words ‘vehicle’ and ‘medium’ are used when discussing transportation.  Consider that land was the first transportation medium.

Humanity has always walked on land, and still does, but we have used technology to build vehicles such as carts, carriages, bikes, trains, cars and trucks to help convey people or goods more efficiently and more quickly.  The second transportation medium was water and its use as a medium of transport is almost as old as that of land, dating from whenever the first human tried to swim or ride a floating log, perhaps.  Since then, we have used technology to create vehicles to convey us in this medium, such as rafts, canoes, boats, ships and submarines.  Both of these media share similar characteristics to their counterparts in communications media.  For example, humanity’s use of land and water predate technology.  The vehicles that technology created merely extended our speed and carrying capacity.  Most of us can walk and swim without using any technology.  Note also that the vehicles for these media are limited by their medium.  For example, a train cannot operate on water no more than an ocean liner can on land.

Throughout most of human history, people were confined to those two transportation media and their mutual advantages and disadvantages.  It was unrealistic to even imagine the possibility of another medium.  But at the end of the 19^th century, a German inventor, Otto Lilenthal developed the technology to utilise airfoils successfully and began to glide over the German countryside.  Twenty years later, the American Wright brothers converged the glider technology with that of an engine and a third transportation medium was well and truly established – Air.  Other vehicles developed for this medium are balloons, parachutes, planes, helicopters and spacecraft.  These vehicles can transport people anywhere on the planet, encompassing most of the reaches of both land and water, generally without their complementary disadvantages.  Importantly, however, is the fact that the transportation medium of air is entirely dependent on technology, unlike the previous two.  People can walk and swim, but we cannot fly.  So, you may ask, how does all of this relate to understanding the communications medium, now popularly referred to as ‘New Media?’  Well, just as there are three transportation media that we are aware of, there are also three communications media.  As with transportation, two of those communications media are ancient and came about independent of technology.

The third, however, is relatively new and relies entirely on technology to exist.  The first communications medium does not have a widely accepted name, so here we will refer to Crosbie’s term, the Interpersonal Medium.              Animal communication, predating humans and technology is where this medium first developed.  Human technology later extended its speed and reach.  The basic form of this medium is the interpersonal conversation, and later technology developed the postal letter, the telephone call, text messaging and e-mail.  In this medium, each participant has reciprocal control over the content conveyed and this content can be individualised to each participant’s unique needs and interests.  The main disadvantage is that this medium is limited to individualisation.  For example, try holding different conversations with more than one person at the same time.  So, media experts refer to it as the ‘One-to-One’ medium.

The second communications medium is popularly referred to as the Mass Medium.  It is commonly thought that the Mass Medium is a product of technology when, in fact, it began with the words of tribal leaders, kings or priests addressing a group of people.  Technology has extended its speed and reach worldwide.  Examples of vehicles of the Mass Medium are church sermons, books, newspapers, billboards, magazines, cinema, radio, television and bulletin boards.  The characteristics of this medium are that the same content goes to all recipients and whoever sends it has absolute control over that content.  Disadvantages are that the content cannot be individualised and the recipients have no control over what they see, hear or read.  Like the Interpersonal Medium, the Mass Medium is not necessarily reliant on technology, for example, an actor or speaker may perform without the use of any technology.  Media experts term this the ‘‘One-to-Many’ medium.  In summary, the Interpersonal Medium allows delivery of an individualised message, but only to one person at a time whereas the Mass Medium can simultaneously deliver messages to an infinite number of people, but its content cannot be individualised.  In the past, anyone needing to communicate had to choose between the mutually incompatible characteristics of the Interpersonal and Mass Media.

But now, the evolution and convergence of several technologies in the last century has given rise to an entirely new medium.  Those technologies were:

The invention of digital communications in the late 1940s

The Transport Control/Internet Protocol in the late 1960s

ARPANET’s creation of the Internet in the early 1970s

The personal computer in the late 1970s

The invention of Hyper Text Transport Protocol and the Web Browser in the late 1980s

These technologies converged to create a new communications medium with characteristics that were inconceivable even in the late 1980s.  The main characteristics of the New Medium are that individualised content can be simultaneously delivered to an infinite number of people and that each of the people involved shares reciprocal control over that content.  The New Medium has the advantages of both the Interpersonal and the Mass Media but without their disadvantages.  This medium is entirely reliant on technology for its existence.

Experts refer to it as the ‘Many-to-Many’ medium.  The vehicles of the New Medium are only beginning to appear and as such, we are all to a degree, feeling in the dark.  We are only yet scratching the surface of its potential.

For example, if a user visited a newspaper website, he could see a unique edition customised to his own interests. So, instead of everyone seeing the same newspaper, an infinite number of people could simultaneously view an automatically customised edition.  Or, for example, with Digital TV, someone who is watching a broadcast simultaneously with millions of other people worldwide, could pause, rewind or fast forward the program, discuss the show with on-line friends, or even select an alternative ending without affecting anyone else’s broadcast, essentially customising the show to their individual needs.  Existing vehicles in the New Medium include the individualised website, chat rooms, on-line games such as X-Box Live titles and file sharing software and websites like I-Mesh, Kazaa or Napster.

The key term to be associated with the New Medium is interactivity.  With the advent of digital technology, practically all content has become malleable.  It has become editable, easy to change.  This is something completely new to us coming from the age of the Mass Medium when all content was given to us in ‘read-only’ form.  We were passive spectators then with no control over the content.  In the New Medium, everyone with a computer has access to software that enables them to capture, edit and alter digital images, sounds and text to their heart’s content.  As a result, we have all begun to expect interactivity in all of our pursuits.

The term ‘New Media’ is, in my opinion, not only grammatically incorrect, but inadequate.  I feel a more appropriate name would be the ‘Mass Interpersonal Medium.’  It could even be abbreviated to ‘M.I.’ to satisfy the style hounds.  However, for the purposes of universal comprehension, I will continue to refer to it as the New Medium or ‘New Media’ for the remainder of this analysis.

The New Medium is part of a larger historical revolutionary change that is currently underway, referred to as the Information revolution by experts.  This Information revolution is taking over from the world of the Industrial revolution, which itself took over from the world of the Agrarian revolution.  The Agrarian world, which began 5-10,000 years ago, required one to make his own clothes or have them made for him.  Each piece of clothing was customised to one’s own individual sizes and needs.  About 200 years ago, technology had advanced to the stage where we could build factories, and so began the Industrial revolution.  Millions of pieces of clothing could be produced but none could be individualised to the exact size of their eventual consumer.  These traits are strikingly similar to those of the Interpersonal and Mass Media.

Today, we are moving towards a convergence of these traits.  For example, Levi Strauss & Co. are now beginning to mass produce jeans that are requested on-line according to the exact size and measurements of each individual consumer.  The effects of the Information revolution upon society are being compared to those from the time when the printing press was invented and unleashed on society.

The printing press, however, was merely a technological advancement within the Mass Medium.  The New Medium is a quantum leap beyond mere innovations like the printing press.  It will have profound effects on the way we live our lives.  However, just as the development of the transportation medium of Air did not replace those of Land and Water, neither will the New Medium replace the Interpersonal or Mass communications media.  It is simply an evolutionary step on the path towards a brighter future.

What is a New Media Designer?

If one is to refer to himself as a New Media Designer, as opposed to, for example, a Graphic Designer, there are certain criteria one must fulfill above and beyond the duties of the latter.  A New Media designer can decode, evaluate, analyse and produce work in both print and electronic vehicles of media.  The New Medium is an evolution from analogue based vehicles, but it also includes their produce, but now in a digital form.  “The artist is the man in any field, scientific or humanistic, who grasps the implications of his actions and of new knowledge in his own time.  He is the man of integral awareness.”  (Marshall McLuhan-Understanding Media P.65)

The New Media Designer is an artist.  He is also an author, a graphic and web designer, an interactive and information designer, an audio manipulator, a musician, a film-maker, a special effects designer, an animator, an illustrator and a researcher.  He is all things to all people.  An Umo-Universal.  Not only this, but he must be fluent in all of the software used to realise these disciplines, as practically all New Media Design is created using digital technology.  As a result, he must have his finger on the pulse with regard to changing trends and new and emerging software and technology or be left behind.  This is a new medium developed from established ones, so the playing field is wide open for experimentation.  There are certain qualities that I feel are essential traits for all designers in the New Medium.  They are adaptability, resourcefulness, the ability to compromise and embrace change, discipline, organisation, foresight and planning ability, attention to detail, dedication, a willingness to put in the hours, an open mind, talent and, above all else, creativity – the ability to generate ideas and realise them.  A person calling themselves a Designer who is not highly creative is merely a machine operator.  The ability to use Design software and equipment does not make one a Designer no more than the ability to write a shopping list makes one a novelist.

The necessity of being so multi-skilled puts an added burden on the shoulders of the 21^st Century Designer: Responsibility.  If we are creating design that will be experienced by many people, then we have a responsibility towards those people that should not be abused.  If a new type of interface or a fresh style of font is used on a new website on the Internet, within days it will have spawned many copycat websites who are jumping on the design pop band-wagon, which is as fickle as any of the pop industries.  In my opinion, it is one of our responsibilities as Designers not to latch onto passing style trends and design accordingly, as this is mere regurgitation.  We need to draw inspiration from everything around us, whether it be a magnificent piece of architecture, a melancholy sonata, or a unique chewing gum wrapper.

It would appear that society’s requirement for New Media Designers to become multi-skilled is, in fact, a two-faced coin.  With so many disciplines as working interests, it should become easier to draw inspiration from other areas.  However, taking on so many areas of expertise may cause a forced reduction in the quality of all of the work, due to spreading oneself too thinly.  So, our responsibilities lie in the avoidance of rehashing pop style work at the expense of good Design and in striving for innovation, originality, and subsequently, evolution.  We have a responsibility to make good choices.  Essentially, a designer creates the form of z in an environment in which z thrives.  In the New Medium, interactivity is what is thriving and so that is what we create.  Interactive Design.

We are using all of the tools of the digital age to create this interactivity, to create a memorable experience for the user that responds to the universal human need for individualisation, the ability to make our own decisions.  This is something that the Mass Medium could not offer us.  Humanity is at the beginning of a new age, philosophically, technologically, and socially, and New Media Designers are pioneers at the front line, the very edge of progress, pushing forward the ways in which we communicate.

The Multi-Skilled Individual

Good or Bad?

Aristotle wrote of a universal balance or harmony in his Nicomachean Ethics, which he referred to as the Golden Mean.  This is distinct from the mathematical term of the same name.  Essentially it is about making the right choices in one’s life that lie in between the extremities of action and pleasure.  The right choice is known as a moral virtue that resides between doing or feeling too much or two little.  For example, if courage were the moral virtue, cowardice would be the deficient vice of it and rashness would be the excessive vice.  Of course, the mean in each case is not universal, as it is relative to each individual.  As a New Media Designer in the Design industry today, it appears that it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain an appropriate balance and harmony in one’s work.  The 20^th Century was dominated by a move towards individual specialisation in most areas of education and employment.

People were encouraged to choose one area of study and try to become a specialist in that area alone.  This produced highly skilled individuals in particular disciplines whose potential usefulness was limited unless they were adopted as part of a team – a spoke in a wheel.  In other words, they were not as self-sufficient as they might have been.  This was especially true in the Design industry, where a would-be Designer might specialise in typography alone or illustration, for example.  Their knowledge and skills of all of the other areas of Design would have been quite limited as the education system pushed them towards this specialisation.  As a result, people became less employable.  If work could not be secured in a person’s particular area of specialisation, they had no choice but to resort to taking completely non-related, possibly low-skill work such as bar-work, or working on a building site, for example.

In the Design industry a Design team would be comprised of a group of individually specialised people, each working on their own aspect of a project, for example, a typographer, an illustrator, a layout designer, an art director etc.  Today, one can observe a change in the role of the Designer.  With regard to design courses, the education system in general has experienced a shift in opposition to specialisation.  Budding Designers are now encouraged to cultivate their skills in myriad areas of Design related disciplines.  Graphic Designers are exposed to areas such as photography, illustration, typography, copy writing and, of course, concept generation, making them highly employable in a variety of Design disciplines.  The New Media Designer’s course of study is extended even further to include animation, web design, interactive and information design, audio and video manipulation and content generation for all of these.

This knowledge and experience in such a variety of areas makes for multi-skilled individuals who could turn their hand to practically every Design discipline, if circumstances so required.  This, I feel, is a very positive step forward for all Designers, especially in light of the New Medium, which calls for regular utilisation of all of these disciplines.  What I would be concerned about is the possibility that producing such multi-skilled Designers, who may not be specialists, in the traditional sense, in any of the disciplines mentioned, might result in a reduction of the quality of work produced across the board.  I see two reasons why this might occur.  Firstly, as I mentioned, if Design students are spreading their time between a multitude of diverse areas, they may not be able to develop their skills in each area beyond a certain level of quality.

If they bring this routine with them into the Design industry, then logically one could suggest that the quality of their work will not be as good as it might have been, had the individual been able to spend more time gaining experience in each of the disciplines.  The second reason is that if the Design industry follows suit with the education system, that is, promoting multi-skilled individuals over individually specialised teams, then it would seem that Designers would have even less time at their disposal, as they would be taking on more work individually.  Stefan Sagmeister, Austrian born Designer, feels that “everybody now does everything.  My students are able to design websites, animate movies, edit, write music, do colour separations, type set etc.  The danger is that nobody can do anything really well.”  Currently, the Design industry is dominated by Design teams, but more and more the individuals within these teams are multi-skilled enough to be able to switch roles from project to project.

It could be suggested that this will continue to occur until it gets to the stage where one individual could complete an entire design project by themselves.  Teams would no longer be theoretically necessary and from a client’s point of view it would be much more economically viable to pay one designer than a whole team, for the same work.  The problems with this are that it would almost certainly take an individual some time longer to complete a project than it would a team and, the quality of overall work may not be as good as it might have been coming from a group of specialists.  Of course, I am not suggesting that Design teams will become a thing of the past, just that perhaps more and more designers will be able to take on more of the work themselves.

Also, such a multi-skilled designer is leaving many avenues open to himself, as not only could he do all the work himself, he would make a valued member of any design team, being so flexible.  It all comes down to balance.

The Golden Mean of good design, in my opinion, lies somewhere between being a specialist and being multi-skilled.  What that mean is, inevitably varies from person to person, but I cannot help but wonder about the future of design in the New Medium.  Will the client be able to have faith in the Designer’s ability to produce a finished piece with quality written all over it?  Can the client be sure they won’t get a piece with fantastic visuals but mediocre music?  And will the Designers of the future be responsible enough to recognise their limitations?  Or will we assume that just because we know how to produce all elements of a piece, we can justify creating something that isn’t completely up to scratch in all areas of its Design?  There may be a bumpy road ahead of us as Designers, but perhaps if we can avoid the extreme polar opposite of specialisation, we may just allow our natural evolution to take place.

Individuals vs Teams

There are many pros and cons one could point out in an argument between being a lone multi-skilled Designer or a specialised member of a design team.  My own personal opinion is that neither option is adequate.  For a full experience, one would need to indulge in both.  An individual multi-skilled designer has the advantage of having complete control over the work produced, within the boundaries of the client’s brief.  As a result, the individual will receive credit and recognition for all of the work, not just a segment, which makes for immense personal satisfaction.  On the flip-side, of course, he will also receive blame for all unsatisfactory work and forego the solace of being part of a team unit who can share the blame.  Another advantage of the individual Designer is that all aspects of the piece will most likely share a consistency of style and theme as it is all coming from one mind.  Economically, a Designer doing all of the work himself will make more money for himself than he would as a member of a team.

In opposition to these points, it is very difficult for someone to be objective of one’s own work, especially if you’ve been looking at it for two months straight.  Here a Design team has a clear advantage as you can always get a second opinion on your work as well as having it regularly checked by your Art Director.  As an individual Designer, your time would be significantly reduced.  You would have to spend far more time working than a group of team members who can share the load.  A major disadvantage of the individual is that he may be stronger in some areas than others.  For example, he may be an amazing illustrator and typographer but may have a poor grasp of temperal design, e.g. animation or video and audio.  Also, if changes had to be made in several areas, it would take much longer than it would for a team.

As an individual Designer, you would miss out on the social interaction and solidarity of a team environment.  The amount of work you could produce would also be firmly dictated by time constraints.

A Design team, on the other hand, has many advantages.  It is made up of people who are all experts in their particular field of Design and so it is quite likely that the overall quality will be superior to that of an individual doing everything himself.  Overall quality, however, does not necessarily make for good Design.  With a group of people from various backgrounds, each with different ideas, thoughts and opinions, it would be quite difficult to maintain consistency throughout the piece.  On the plus side, so many different ideas bouncing off of each other can stimulate creativity and establish an atmosphere of motivation and encouragement.  Such social interaction and even fun, is something the individual Designer sacrifices.

As a team member, you have less input and control over what you are working on, which in turn makes for less personal satisfaction.  You are not much more than a cog in a machine.  An advantage of a Design team is that they can work on several jobs simultaneously, maintaining each member’s interest, whereas an individual would most likely have to take one job at a time in order to do it any justice.  So, which is better?  As I said, neither option alone is adequate.  Perhaps a convergence of both viewpoints is the way forward.  Imagine a team made up of equally multi-skilled Designers, each capable of taking on the role of every member of a traditionally hierarchical team, from Art Director to Typographer.

From project to project, each team member could switch roles and eventually receive the credit and satisfaction an individual Designer is accustomed to while still experiencing all the advantages of being part of a team, social or otherwise.

If we take a step back for a moment, we can gain a glimpse of essentially what this whole analysis is pointing towards.  Around the time of the European Renaissance, during the 1400s and 1500s, the Church, who had until then been responsible for the general trend of belief among the masses, was exposed as being full of hypocrites.  The masses lost faith in the authority of the Church to tell them what to believe.  If something bad happened, God was not necessarily punishing us, as was previously believed.  If the members of the Church were committing the very acts that they had been teaching were mortal sins, how could they be trusted?  And how could people believe their teachings any longer?  So, a major upheaval occurred in the general trend of thought.  The whole belief system of the masses had collapsed and now they didn’t know what to believe, so they began to look for answers.  They wanted to know how things worked and why, and they would not accept an answer without proof and evidence to back it up.  And so, essentially, Science was born.

Scientists began to analyse everything around them to see how and why they were as they were and explorers were sent out to find out about the rest of the world, which, at the time, was believed to be flat.  So, for 400 years, humanity worked on the ‘how’ part of the equation, but never discovered any indisputable answers for ‘why?’  It was believed that the deeper you analysed something, the more you would find out about it and so this naturally lead to specialisation.

My theory is this :  It was essential for this move towards specialisation to occur.  We are now living in a time where everything is moving towards generalisation or ‘Comprehensivism’ as MacLuhan called it.  Essentially, we are developing a wider base of knowledge individually.  If specialisation had not occurred, the technology that makes the New Medium accessible to us would not have been invented.  Now that it is available to us, we must move towards ‘Comprehensivism’ to think of new ways in which we can use the New Medium.

Education

Education as we know it is changing.  The linear approach of ‘teacher talk, student listen’ is making room for a new interactive way of teaching that embraces the New Medium and makes for media and technology literate students, a trait that will become essential in the future.  For over four hundred years, literacy has been defined by the technology of print.  The development of analogue recording technologies such as still photography, audio, video and film recording made it possible to capture, preserve and distribute communications with a minimal diminuation of impact.  Broadcasting soon replaced print publishing as the primary vehicle for mass communication.  These technologies made their way into classrooms as aids to teaching e.g. photos in books, audio tapes for learning languages etc.  They broadened the set of tools and communication options available to a teacher however, they are all fixed media.  They are all used primarily for presentation to students which does not allow for interaction with the content presented.  The source material is not changed by either student or teacher.  It is simply a visual or aural extension of the ‘teacher talk, student listen’ approach.  The tools of the New Medium are changing this.

Most schools today are kitted out with computers and Internet connections and gradually, interactivity is increasing in the way content is taught.  For example, Patricia Aufderheide, Professor of Communication at the American University speaks about an Elementary school in America that has adopted interactivity in the way they are teaching poetry.  Using a computer and a projector, the teacher displays a verse of poetry, for example :

“Rabbid dog bites old man’s leg, shooting pain released,

Old man makes poor dog beg, rabbid dog, now deceased.”

She asks the children to change the rhyming words, for example ‘leg’ to ‘head’, ‘beg’ to ‘dead’ and she goes to the computer, replaces the relevant words, thus creating a new rhyme for the children to see.  This creates a memorable experience for the class as they feel they have been a part of the teaching and learning process.  The teacher can then print out a copy of the new poem for each of the students.  The poem represented here was created specifically for this essay to illustrate the point and is not a part of any curriculum.

Patricia Aufderheide feels that everyone needs to become media literate, as she states in a report for the American University – “Media literacy, the movement to expand notions of literacy to include the powerful post-print media that dominate our informational landscape, helps people understand, produce and negotiate meanings in a culture made up of powerful images words and sounds…Emphases in media literacy training vary widely, including informed citizenship, aesthetic appreciation and expression, social advocacy, self esteem and consumer competence.”

By making the learning experience in schools more interactive and by using New Medium technologies in conjunction with Mass Medium techniques, teachers are preparing students for the world of work that faces them.  Literacy in the workplace is becoming more interactive and requires the use of multiple technologies for effective communication.  If teachers do not adopt this new way of teaching, they are essentially failing to prepare their students for what awaits them.

Eventually, interactive classrooms will be common place, producing more media literate people, which in turn means that the role of the New Media Designer becomes even more important as more and more people will expect interactivity in all of their pursuits.  The New Media Designer will satisfy that need.

A Commercial Role vs A Higher Purpose

In the words of Tibor Kalman, “[Design] is a business that affects people’s lives.”

(www.adbusters.org – interview)  Designers produce work that influences people in various ways and so, as with all work that is exposed to the public, a certain responsibility rests on the shoulders of he who creates.  Today’s world is saturated by Design work produced by people who have abused this responsibility to varying degrees.  The majority of offenders reside in the capitalist world of commerciality, stripping away the ethereal qualities of inspiration and creativity and enslaving what little magic remains into an existence of deception and manipulation.  Many Designers in the past have felt strongly about this issue, most notably Mr. Kalman, mentioned above, who consciously and publicly enforced his message of putting meaning back into his commercial work.

Today, more and more Designers are becoming disillusioned with having to bring their creativity down to the level of dollars and cents.  We can see this train of thought manifesting itself in many ways, through writings, websites, events and activist schemes, on a daily basis.  The ‘First Things First’ manifesto, published in the year 2000 by Adbusters magazine and their website, addresses this issue.  It speaks of how too much Design energy is being spent to promote pointless consumerism and too little to helping people understand an increasingly complex world.  This manifesto is an updated, reworded version of another one of the same name, first penned in 1964 by Ken Garland of London, England.

Adbusters is a catalyst for anti-corporate thinkers.  There exist many organisations whose sole aim is to wrest control from the multi-national corporations, allowing design to be used for the benefit of humanity, not the pockets of the corporations. They want to use Design to improve the quality of living for everyone.  Such groups have even taken to extreme action known as ‘Culture Jamming’ whereby they essentially vandalise billboard posters in such a way that the original message of the ad is altered to produce a new message exposing the ads deceptive nature, often in quite humorous ways.  Rodriquez de Garado is widely accepted as being one of the first to practice this form of guerrilla art  and he can still be found ‘refacing’ ads in the streets of New York today.

Such media theorists as Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Mark Crispin Miller, Robert McChesney, Ben Bagdikian and Naomi Klein, who expolore the idea of corporate control over information flows, influence such activists, who transfer these theories to the walls and billboards of cities worldwide using a waterproof marker and a bucket of wheatpaste.  Essentially what these movements are all about is giving Design a social conscience.  There are those who even go as far as to try to change society itself, or create a new one by example, such as Stefan Sagmeister, who publicly left a well paid position in a large Design company to set up a small one of his own, so that he could design for people he knew or who came to him in exchange for services they could offer him.  Such radical measures, though admirable, are not without their fatal flaws and problems.

The Design industry as we know it today, is a commercial industry and that is unlikely to change in the near future.  However, as more and more people realise the potential of the New Medium and discover new ways in which it can be used to benefit everyone, I have no doubt that Design will move closer to its true role as an improver of the world.

The Future

At present, the work of the New Media Designer is primarily concerned with the likes of interactive CDs, higher bandwidth websites, on-line resources and computer games.  But how will our role develop as more and more of the possibilities of the New Medium are explored and discovered?  Many films, books and TV shows have touched on ideas that could only take place in the New Medium.  Such films include ‘Virtuosity’, which told of a huge virtual reality police training simulator that produced adversaries using the personalities of history’s greatest villains.  ‘The Matrix’ is based around a computer generated virtual world that the majority of humanity has been fooled into thinking is actual reality.  Ray Bradbury wrote of an interactive ‘Playroom’ of the future, whose walls were floor-to-ceiling television screens.  Children could input any environment or destination into the computer and then control the scene by way of telepathic sensors located around the room.  In the later Star Trek series, we were shown a futuristic ‘Holodeck’ which is a virtual playground and learning simulator.  It is infinitely programmable and can create virtual people and places as specified by the demands of the users.  Such examples suggest that virtual immersive experiences are the full realisation of interactive entertainment.

If our greatest entertainment visionaries and storytellers are predicting and calling for this type of experience, sooner or later it will happen.  If this is true, then why are our media corporations not laying the foundations for the emergence of this incredible new entertainment form?  The answer is simple…they are.  At some stage in the not too distant future, what we regard today as Science Fiction will become reality.

Thanks to Quicktime VR technology, websites can now offer us 360° panoramic views of any location.  So, now you can visit many tourist sites where you can get a virtual experience of the location with each street laid out realistically.  Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) is evolving gradually and promises to transform the Internet into something ever more closely resembling a 3D space where people can explore new places on-line in a more immersive manner.  CD-Rom computer games continue to refine the possibilities of branched storytelling with multiple outcomes and consequences for the user’s personalised actions and choices.  This will only develop further, utilising higher quality content and creating extremely media rich products as games are produced more on DVD format, which can hold over 7 times as much information as a CD.

Such consoles as the Sony Playstation 2, the Microsoft X-Box and the Nintendo Gamecube are pushing more and more for realistic behaviour, incorporating advanced artificial intelligence into the game characters.  Added realism comes in the form of such examples as the FIFA series of soccer games, John Madden’s American Football or the WF wrestling games which allow you to play the game using players who look exactly like their real life counterparts in facial and physical features and in their physical behaviour.

Artifical intelligence is also used by the US military in simulators they use to train their troops.  They can quite accurately recreate likely behaviour patterns based on past enemy contact and so prepare their troops for what they may have to face in reality.  Simulations they use are known to include artificial intelligence soldiers, jets, tanks, ships, satellites, jeeps and helicopters.  So, the groundwork for immersive experiences has been in development for quite a while.

Gradually, as more are produced, interactive stories are becoming stronger and the balance between gameplay and story development is being refined.  Discoveries and schools of thought are emerging based on these new ideas and gradually, Designers are realising more and more what makes for a quality immersive interactive experience.  But what lies in store for the average user?

Imagine your sitting room has a giant sized TV screen as a wall, which is completely digital and also hooked up to a broadband Internet connection.  Imagine high quality, realistic images of locations being fed through to the screen via an online game site and your copy of the latest on-line interactive game on DVD.  Add a microphone and the interactive story designs and principles that have been evolving for time immemorial, and you have the foundations of  totally immersive interactive experiences.

The wall size TV screen is emerging through such ideas as the media wall, projection TV and High Definition Television (HDTV).  Everything is already here.  By the time HDTV, DVD and broadband Internet connections are in enough homes to allow the average user to immerse themselves in virtual reality, the era of the New Media Designer will be in full swing.  We must design today for the future.

Legends of The Past

Tibor Kalman

Specialisation: Advertising Art Director

Tibor Kalman is best known for trying to expose the commercial world of advertising as the deceptive industry that it is.  Over the course of his career in the Mass Medium, the vehicle he became most associated with was the magazine.  He created ads and covers for countless companies including Barnes & Noble, United Colours of Benetton, Art Forum, Interview and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.  He also established his own company, M & Co. and started Benetton’s controversial magazine, Colors.  His main strength was his ability to conceive a good idea and create a memorable ad from it.  He became well known for his unorthodox, socially conscious, sometimes controversial style.

“I am an extremely privileged person.  People seem to pursue money, most commonly.  Some pursue a political agenda, some pursue fame.  I pursue the blissful moment of coming up with an idea.  That makes me very, very happy.”

“I have an incredible belief in the future and in technology.  I even believe that we will begin to solve our social problems.  I think that people are basically good and that the good qualities will prevail.”

Saul Bass

Specialisation: Motion Typographer

Saul Bass is best known for designing the opening title sequences for many famous movies.  His area of specialisation was designing motion typography and there is no doubt that he excelled in this discipline.  The first film he designed the titles for was Otto Preminger’s ‘Carmen Jones.’  He pioneered the use of animation techniques to achieve a range of psychological and emotional effects unobtainable with conventional straight type.  His most notable title sequences appeared in the following films:

Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Man with the Golden Arm, Exodus, Anatomy of a Murder, West Side Story, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and The Age of Innocence.

“Design is thinking made visual.”       “Symbolise and Summarise.”

Paul Rand

Specialisation: Logo Designer

Paul Rand is best known for his Logo design, which was characterised by wit and simplicity and a Bauhaus approach to problem solving.  He designed logos for IBM, Westinghouse, United Parcel Service and ABC.  His work has influenced successive generations of designers through his writings and involvement in design education.

In his Design work, he explored the formal vocabulary of European Avant-Garde movements including Cubism, Constructivism and De Stijl.  His influences developed into what is now regarded as a unique, distinctly American style of Graphic Design.

“The idea is the result of careful study and observation, and the design a product of that idea.  The visual statement, which seeks to express the essence of an idea, and which is based on function, fantasy, and analytic judgment, is likely to be not only unique but meaningful aswell.”

“Design is the method of putting form and content together.  Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition.  Design can be art.  Design can be aesthetics.  Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.”

“Bad design is irrelevant, it is superficial, pretentious…”

“The fundamental skill of a Designer is talent.”

These three masters of design all have a major trait in common : They focused on one area of specialisation and became the best at it.  Tibor Kalman is considered one of the best and most innovative Art Directors ever.  Saul Bass is unsurpassed in his pioneering of the animated typography genre and  Paul Rand is divinely respected for the simplicity and style he brought to the art of Logo Design.  All three tried their hand at various other projects throughout their careers, but in the end, they settled on what they were best at.  They did this because they could.  They were working in the Mass Medium.  Working in Print, Film or Corporate Identity did not require these three masters to become multi-skilled in order to succeed.  They needed to concentrate on one area and become the best they could be, and they certainly achieved that.  Had they been born in this generation, I have no doubt that these men would have had the ability to learn and practice in all of the Design disciplines, but they belong to a different, equally important era.  Without the foundations, the building cannot be built.

Pioneers of the Future

Hillman Curtis

Skills : Interactive Designer, Graphic Designer, Typographer, Writer, Musician, Film-Maker

Hillman Curtis Inc. was founded in 1998.  In their first five years, they grew from designing small Flash advertisements to designing some of the most trafficked sites on the web.  Curtis is a New Media Designer, a firm believer in the equal and inseparable power of visual and functional communication.  Each member of his staff is proficient in the online, broadcast and video areas of Design and focused on merging all of these together to design for the New Medium.  Curtis believes that “Design is a plan for action”, to quote Charles Eames.  He believes that Design isn’t necessarily about making something look better, it’s about moving someone into action.  He is a commercial artist who feels a responsibility towards the brand and the product he has agreed to promote.  He feels an equal responsibility as an artist, to do what artists have always done: respond to, reflect upon and hopefully influence the world.

“Write the story, take out all the good lines, and see if it still works.”

Todd Purgason

Skills : Interactive Web Designer, Graphic Designer, Architect, Typographer, Animator, Writer

Californian, Todd Purgason is the Creative Director for Juxt Interactive, a web design studio based in Southern California, specialising in Internet strategy and Flash-based interactive web sites. Juxt Interactive work has been highlighted in several publications and books around the world including PDN-PIX, I.D. magazine, HOW magazine and Create Online.  The work Juxt has completed has earned a number of awards, including the Clio Award, the How Magazine’s International Design Competition award for Outstanding Design, IPPA StudioONE and DesignONE Awards, the Communication Arts Magazine Web Site of the Week, and the High Five Award. In addition, IPPA has selected Purgason as one of today’s top ten web designers in the world. Purgason is also an author and regular speaker on the subject of interactive web design. In addition, he has contributed to a number of books including Hillman Curtis’ ‘Flash Web Design.’

“I created Juxt Interactive out of a passion to do good work for people interested in using the Internet to evolve their business.  Design is a tool, technology is a tool, branding is a tool, we are mechanics of communication.”

“It’s all communication, whether that is to enlighten, inform or entertain.”

“Trends and personal style should be like the salt and pepper on your steak.”

Matt Owens

Skills: Interactive Web Designer, Graphic Designer, Typographer, Film-Maker, Animator, Producer

Texan, Matt Owens is the co-founder of the on-line Design firm, One9ine. He began his career working on a magazine founded by his brother, Mark and then the two started a radio station.  After that, he worked as a print Designer, doing posters and record covers for local bands.  Since then, he started a record label with his brother called The Buddy System and on top of his design work, they put out a few albums a year.  His personal website, VolumeOne is a vehicle for expressing his views on Design and he regularly updates it with new projects and writings.  In a recent communication to him, I asked his opinion on whether or not a New Media Designer needs to be multi-skilled to survive in the industry.  Here is what he said:

“Owen.

I am a big proponent of the multi-skilled approach. I think there are two currents happening right now. As admin tools become more complex and the web begins to mature, I think the division between Designer and developer will become greater. On the other hand, as studios pitch the ability to do print, web and broadcast, there are going to have to be folks that are actually multi-talented. In this day and age, the more skills the better. The thing that I dislike most is having to take art direction from someone that does not understand the technology and as a result makes poor or overly simplistic decisions. So I think there needs to be more education on the part of art directors so that Design work remains smart. As far as the industry reflecting a multi-tasked environment, I think it is. All the motion guys I know are also Designers and all web developers I know (Flash and HTML) design websites and build them. However, when you have big projects, specialization is key especially for back-end development. For me, I love being able to do a lot of different things but when I need help, I always seek out a pro in a specific task to help me out. This balance between work load, specialization and knowledge is what can give a small studio a competitive advantage over larger, slow moving studios. Let me know if I can answer any other questions for you.

All the best – Matt”

“New Media is just that – media – a hollow vessel.  That’s where developing your own ideas and concepts has to happen before you even get to designing.”

New Media Designers need to be multi-skilled.  The three examples I chose to illustrate this point are so multi-skilled, it is almost unbelievable.  But, this level of multiplicity is an essential trait for anyone who wishes to Design for the New Medium. By its very nature, it incorporates Design elements of text, still imagery, animation, video, audio and of course, interactivity.  Not all projects include all of these elements, but a New Media Designer will have to deal with and be proficient in each of these disciplines eventually if they work in the industry for any length of time.  These pioneering multi-skilled designers, Curtis, Purgason and Owens are not unique in their spread of interests today.

They reflect a changing pattern in the way Design is practiced and in the way people in western society are living their lives.  Surrounded and encompassed by so much accessible information as a result of the Internet, the general population seem to be evolving their spread of interests as well.  With such exposure, comes the inevitable expectation.  People now expect much more from websites, games, interactive cds and so on because, on some level, they are aware that technology is evolving and the possibility of higher quality, media rich work is now available.  New Media Designers are in a position to use this technology to give the masses what they expect and push out the boundaries even further, continuing the cyclical vacuum that is responsible for the evolution of Design.  But they can only produce such work by being skilled in a variety of Design disciplines.

(Excerpts from a piece I wrote in 2004 as part of a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Design.)