Having been born before the computer era, I distinctly remember being one of the first in my class to get the brand new shiny Apple IIe when it came out. Before that I had only used a friends parents Commadore 64 a handful of times for text based games.

The new Apple had a program called Print Shop to be used along side with a clunky, yet at the time, state-of-the-art dot matrix printer. The noise it made… If a piece of technology made that sound today we would think some thing was seriously wrong and it was screaming in pain.

Digitizing the World

I loved design even at that time in 3rd grade. I paid for it myself with saved up birthday and Christmas money.

The first actual computer class I had was in jr. high. Again it was Apple based so I had a bit of a jump on my friends. Graphics back then were incredibly elementary. You had to instruct the computer to make even a simple image like a square. You would bring up the prompt and type “forward 30, left turn 90, forward 30, left turn 90, forward 30, left turn 90, forward 30, left turn 90.” Just to make 1 thin lined square on the screen, and if you could make it a color, woah you were hot stuff!

Though I excelled in art of all kinds and always loved creating, I kind of forgot about computers for the most part after that. In fact, after graduating in ‘93 when modems and bulletin board systems were just getting started, I became a sysop (system operator) now known as a moderator on a board out in California.

What I didn’t understand was that the modem was the phone. I got smacked with an $800 phone bill.

Fast forward to 2000, I decided to go back to school for computer animation and graphic design. By then software had massively evolved. I was learning advanced Photoshop, InDesign, AfterFX, Maya3D, MojoWord Generator, Director, Flash, and other programs of the time. The graphics were really good! The rendering times were another story. As part of a final project I had done a fly through in Mojo World. It was only 30 seconds yet to render it out took me 15 computers - 4 hours. Yes, I locked the door to the computer lab and put an out of order sign on it. If nothing else, I am resourceful.

Walking the Digital Path

I have been in the land of design and writing professionally now for 25 years. Time has flown and so have the advancements.

Many of the projects you would do back then when I was in college would take hours. My final Maya 3D project, which was simply modeling, no animation, took 45 hours. My reel in Adobe Premier took another 30 and then had to be transferred on an AVID station, to Beta/VHS so it could be played on TV.

These projects now are handled effortlessly with simple direction and drag and drop aps on computers and phones.

What I will say is this. Being an old school designer gives me a huge edge over the newer designers. When something doesn’t quiet work the way you want in an app, it is what it is, you cannot “make” the software “do” anything its not programmed to do.

I, on the other hand, am not programmed.

The Incoming AI Advances

I can used other resources and tools to create and bend the images to my vision. I find myself going old school often, especially with the invent of AI. AI is amazing, but… AI is also an infant. It doesn’t know everything, and often misunderstands and spits out some since weirdness. I can then take that - either in image form or written, and run with it.

The images now are photo realistic and a far cry from the on screen pixelated Pong, Mario Brothers, and Donkey Kong games we Gen Xers grew up with.

It is a Brave New World out there…
Artistic technology is amazing and terrifying at the same time.

I am just glad to be on the end of it, helping run and improve things.AI may be taking over, but I am helping to guide the way.