Stuff for "Creatives" and whatnot.. - The Bear and Badger

Jaco

Aye. I'm 20 years into this now, so don't have to worry about that kind of work. But for newbies... Yikes. The bidding/competition sites and pile-it-high copy shop places have wiped out the lower level work and the mid-high level work is getting more and more cut-throat by the day. Glad I'm not coming into it now.

dynamiteReady

Jaco wrote:

My worry is that with the rate of technological progression, and projects like The Grid, it won't be long before design that most folks will see as "passable" will be with us. With clients seemingly driven more and more by price and less by design, and with the general homogeny of modern design (especially for digital spaces), I think it's a distinct possibility. Not now, but in 2 or 3 years I think we might see the beginnings of it...

Haven't heard of grid.io

Very interesting...

Jaco

If by "interesting" you mean "potentially the end of web design as we know it", then aye. The current homogenous "flat and on a strict grid" formula perpetuated by most designers has played into the hands of software like this as it's getting to the point where (other than imagery) most websites are beginning to look the same.

beano

Grid must be a decade old though.

I don't think it fits with mobile first tbh

Jaco

It's the snowball that starts the avalanche...

beano

Everything is bootstrapping on web design now people aren't even aware that grid was a thing

Passed by static site generation and whack of apis

Grid is nothing but a useful concept, it peaked already

Jaco

The point is that, sooner or later, some clever git is going to completely remove the need for coders and designers to build sites, at least for your average SME that just needs a fairly basic web presence. I work with / know of a number of high-end developers who are either seriously concerned about this or, in a bizarre act of hari-kari, actually working on it...

[Deleted User]

Jaco wrote:

The point is that, sooner or later, some clever git is going to completely remove the need for coders and designers to build sites, at least for your average SME that just needs a fairly basic web presence. I work with / know of a number of high-end developers who are either seriously concerned about this or, in a bizarre act of hari-kari, actually working on it...

That's gonna be the reality for a lot of industries, though, innit?

My bro runs a set of farms with 3-4 other guys that 30 years ago would have needed dozens. The tractors are all gps controller, they guy in the cab just needs to set up the equipment and turn at the end of the field.

In 10 years those 4 guys will be out the job and the tractors will drive themselves - my bro will probably have the tractors on a monitor to check how they're running.

I'm gonna be qualified for translation and interpretation in a couple of years but, eventually, machine translation will put me out of the job. Of course I will be able to find something for myself if I adapt and some areas will change slower than others - literature requires nuance and understanding of metaphor etc that machine translation can't deliver yet...but it'll get there. Then what?

Creative industries are both more protected against (due to needing an "eye" for something) and more vulnerable (as non-creative disciplines rarely attach value to artistic worth) to this kind of change. As people and as a society we have to prepare for what we will do with our lives.

Jaco

Aye, the farming model is a great example. In 30 years it's gone from tens of thousands employed to thousands (EDIT: in the UK, natch; worldwide's a different matter).

All of this makes me think that this is very apt (and beautiful).

poprock

That’s really quite nice.

Jaco

Isn't it?

And faintly depressing.

beano

Human's Need not Apply is worth a watch. Particular when attention is drawn to the creative segment in it.

It's good that people are automation engineers. Automatic code generation has been a thing for ages. Only this week did Google pitch three AIs together, Alice and Bob, we tasked to keep their comms from Eve- a classic man in the middle and they successfully built an encryption protocol and algorithm from scratch. Which is nice, but it still took someone to program the tests that Alice and Bob would need to brute their own algos. whilst of course Eve performed cryptoanalysis.

Yet in light of this, a vast majority of people need to craft and want people with crafts, you might be superseded by a creative bot but with one spitting out many designs a day they're still going to need supervision, and their output will need de-quantising, as machines, like Cinty points out don't do nuances nor do they understand tone or such.

Pumping lots of maths at something reduces it, whilst it can get something right, it's not always right in a creative context.

Reducing the number of farm hands through maths, because autonomous machines, will always be right.

acemuzzy

Fuck nuance

beano

coughing fit

pantyfire

This had been on the cards for me as soon as soon as i saw 'build your own site' adverts a few years back.
It's only a matter of time before it knocks out the lower end of the graphic industry, with logo builder sites etc...

You'll always need the human element tho, whether it's designing the actual looks and templates the software will use or as basic as just needing a human to select the images.

The thing that i have to get through clients heads all the time, and this applies to the grid linked above, is that 80% of the hard work of graphic design can be taken away with nice photography. If the client doesn't have nice photos then you ain't gonna get shiz like the grid homepage and example video. End of.

pantyfire

b0r1s wrote:

Any creative type should check out this app: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ Amazed that this is produced by Serif. £40 and you get a combined Photoshop/Illustrator killer. Some great features, especially the zoom levels, the pixel editing within vectors, the ability to export slices by layer, by layer group at both normal size and retina. Only thing for some of you is it's Mac only, free trial too.

Some extremely nice features on show here. But there's a 'design' version/app and a 'photo' version/app?

Skerret

Site design no longer matters. API or service behind the site, that's the thing. We get our kids to whip up a Bootstrap, Wix, WP template to back their final year project. You can't justify designing on your own site from scratch no mo, you just can't.

beano

Design patterns are still king though

b0r1s

While I don't believe small to mid side businesses should be commissioning sites designed from scratch big brands do and should try to have a unique design. That does not preclude using good UI patterns as a foundation, but a lot of template founded sites can look like that and brands don't like to look like another. Not sure what you are teaching Skerret, but I would always encourage junior designers to at least try to create their own style guides and grid pattern, so that they can take that understanding through even though in the real world they'll typically use a framework like Bookstrap. A lot of designer/devs jump into something like Bootstrap, build sites on it, but don't fully understand the fundamentals of what they are doing.

@Pantyfire - Yes noticed this, but I have less and less need for photo manipulation in my line of work now. Having said that I've now moved over to Sketch and Adobe X.D. Sketch is great for building up UI, with a great workflow utilising infinite art boards that works really well for doing UI/UX design. I then move the finished design into X.D for prototyping and creating interactive presentations and videos. X.D is still in beta, but Adobe are really listening to the community on it as I think they realise the role of UI Designer is becoming more and more important to projects.

AJ

I really don't see AI killing anything any more than templates/themes and OTT frameworks have. Certainly not in the next decade or two, anyway. If you want a half decent website without hiring a designer or developer, you already can.

These AI "designed" sites are going to have a feel of similarity running through them, just like a load of sites do now. Honestly can't see this affecting anyone but hacks that don't really know design but get away with throwing some shit they find together.

http://adventurega.me/bootstrap/

[Deleted User]

All depends what the client wants and unfortunately most just want identikit things.

Skerret

beano wrote:

Design patterns are still king though

Totally.

Skerret

Liveinadive wrote:

All depends what the client wants and unfortunately most just want identikit things.

I want something original, just like these 5 sites here.

[Deleted User]

Skerret wrote:

Liveinadive wrote:

All depends what the client wants and unfortunately most just want identikit things.

I want something original, just like these 5 sites here.

We are on a tight budget and schedule.

three1ne

"There's no money involved but we do have access to a snake so it'll be good for your portfolio"
A local music band.

[Deleted User]

Saw a Daily Mash article the other day that tickles me.
The headline was

"It will be good experience" to become legal tender

Jaco

Skerret wrote:

Liveinadive wrote:

All depends what the client wants and unfortunately most just want identikit things.

I want something original, just like these 5 sites here.

Man, is I had a penny for every time a client has said that, I'd be a rich old bunny right now.

"Make it creative and different - as much like this site as possible, but different. Y'know - be creative! Use your expertise! As long as it looks like this..."

Gnnnnnnnnnnn.

Syph79

Afternoon folks. Not sure where else to put this on the forum, but my brother-in-law runs a webcomic, which is also in the process of crowd funding it's first book.

If you've got 5 minutes and feel like going down the rabbit hole of his mind, I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you had a look at the website and/or followed him on twitter.

If you're feeling charitable, the Unbound campaign is here: https://unbound.com/books/tut-and-groan/

Website: https://t.co/ZdlfXlSK5F
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutandgroan

Syph79

I should have also said he's always looking for guests contributions, so if you feel like getting something on the site, let him know.

Jaco

Well, this is rather marvellous. I can understand some of the complaints that it's similar to his previous effort for Fat Boy Slim, but I still think this is really rather lovely.

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