Technology Doesn't Fix Everything

The other night I went to a networking event focused on DESIGN. The panelist of designers was mostly in the tech or web space, none of them were print designers. A lot of the conversation focused on how they as designers in that space have used their skills in interesting and unique ways to think outside the box. They were all super intelligent and clearly experts in their field, whether it was architecture, health, tech, or web, or UIX.

However right off the bat, I got frustrated by one of the panelist’s comments (which later during the Q&A he rephrased). But initially it made me super frustrated, so I wanted to talk about that today. 

The Panelist told the audience that design techniques had changed and that the reality is in the old days design included doing paste ups, and now, designers don’t need to know that and they don’t need to know what trapping is.

I was infuriated, the conversation continued with why technology and specifically “robots” were going to replace humans in the future, and they kind of already are in some ways. The panelists continued to say, there are certain business processes where a human touch for a task is needed.

Fast forward to the Q&A section, when the moderator said, “does anyone have a question” my hand shot up in the air. He looked my direction and handed me the microphone. I looked at the panel and confidently said “I don’t have a question as much as a comment. I heard one of you say that designers today don’t need to know what trapping is. Well I’m in print and first of all Print Is Not Dead!”. I continued confidently, “I challenge that notion, because so many printers I’ve worked with have complained about issues with files from designers.” Which is true, if the designers don’t understand why they have to do things like,

1.    Delete all unused colors, or

2.    Ensure that images are CMYK for any offset printing and if it’s a stock photo that was supplied as RGB then allow the printer if they prefer to convert it themselves.

3.    Remember standard default settings in software may convert some colors to straight black, rather than build the color out of CMYK. Images, especially with flesh tones, may appear dark and muddy.

4.    Build your files to actual size unless your final size is too large for your software to accommodate. And if it doesn’t accommodate typically printers want things built in ?” scales but ask your printer.

I continued on my soap box…..”You can have a perfectly calibrated monitor and press to G7 standards and still have to adjust colors on press.” The panelist who made the trapping comment said, “Yeh but a machine and technology should be fixing that”, and again I raised my hand and said, “Sorry I’m disagreeing again, I have been on a press check where the densities were correct across the board, but the colors weren’t right and the pressman had to manual adjust the red and the yellow, or the blue and the red. And if we’d left it like what the “machine” wanted, the client wouldn’t have been happy.” The panelist said “and that’s craft.” I finished by saying, “I feel that designers today do need to understand those kinds of intricacies and understand things like trapping so they don’t make mistakes in their files, and cause the printers a ton of extra time fixing those files. And that technology and machines are not perfect and are not a fix for everything.”

The moderator continued on to the next person, but I stand by my remarks! Technology doesn’t fix everything, and sometimes you need that human element.

Later in the Q&A there was an entire conversation about the future of the Chatbot. Now I will admit, I wasn’t familiar with the term, but the second they mentioned the “Echo” and “Alexa” I knew what they meant. Someone said they will be the future. And wow did that scare me, in practicality technology doesn’t always solve problems it causes problems. At Christmas someone in my family got an Amazon Echo, and we set it up. We started asking “Alexa” questions, it was amazing how many answers were “I can not find that, but you can buy it on Amazon Library” (I am paraphrasing because I didn’t write it down). But that was something that, with small children, you’d need to fix so they don’t start buying things on your account just to listen to the “Beauty and The Beast Soundtrack.”

In conclusion, my feeling is that the more digital we get, the more we need to be tactile too. Technology doesn’t fix everything. Humans will not become obsolete!