Graphic Design tools before Photoshop | Photoshop 25th Anniversary
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- Опубліковано 24 лют 2015
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As a 30 year old designer, this is fascinating and mind-blowing. Much respect to all the designers that worked this way and paved the way for us.
Thanks for the look back. I entered the world of graphics just as camera separations were going out and I experienced all of the transformations. I remember when, working for a color separation house, someone brought in a floppy. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. We were sure it was a short lived fad. As it turned out, we were the short lived fad- $300 for separation film and a proof didn't stand a chance against a Photoshop equivalent. We soon found out that most of our clients were willing to lower their quality expectations for the immense cost savings.
I took my first computer class in 1966 and have never stopped learning.
Thanks again
Fascinating to see and remember the industry I trained for in 1977 and worked in along with large format B&W photography for nearly 20 years. It took not only skill but a keen artist eye and ability and cleanliness was paramount to producing high quality work. It took time yes but that was the only way back then. Strangely I miss those days a lot! in the UK it was known as 'Paste Up'
Try telling a client of today that we'd need 24 hours to change a typeface!
So, Mrs. Client, that means I need to charge you an additional 24 x $100.00. 🙂
@@Xrayballer88
Rarely paid by the hour back then mate, it was one price and thats it.
The paid by hour these days is something pretty recent and frankly obnoxious.
@@SMGJohn I agree. As a designer I'd much rather get paid by the job. In hourly pay models, everyone loses because it incentivizes and rewards inefficiency and inexperience while punishing efficiency and experience. I actually believe this is the case when it comes to almost any job.
heheheh
Yep, this is the way we used to do things. The good thing about being around this long is that it gives you a clear understanding of how things worked and how it relates to Photoshop. The guy in the video makes it look awful but in reality it was never that bad. It was the way we did things. Most studios and agencies used wax instead of rubber cement (applied through an automatic waxer). I only used Letraset type when in school. Once I got a job, We used type houses who were usually very good with kerning, ligatures, etc. I did however, cut many rubies, headlines and that sort of thing. These techniques preceded not only Photoshop but computers in general. Photoshop itself was preceded by a program from Letraset called ImageStudio. The main issue with that program was that it remained limited to Black and White for too long. Once the Knoll brothers got distribution for Photoshop through Adobe, it took off and left the Letraset product behind. I've been around long enough when we used to do art the way it's shown in the video. My firm however, was an early adoptee to the Mac and to the digital workflow. In the beginning we had Letraset's ImageStudio which we quickly replaced with Photoshop. On the vector side we had both FreeHand and Illustrator. FreeHand was much more intuitive back then and didn't required a second program to create camera-ready art or film separations. Illustrator had to use another software called Separator in order to print correctly. I always thought Illustrator was more cumbersome, less intuitive and more confusing that FreeHand but in the end and because its powerful distribution channels it won out by buying FreeHand and taking it out of the market. I make my living working in Illustrator and Photoshop and have been doing so since they first came out. As good as that software is, Adobe as a company is a horrible greedy entity. The newer versions cannot be bought forcing people to used them by subscription only. As soon as others follow suit, it will take you about $100.00 per month to use your own computer. That, is ridiculous but seems to be the future of personal computing.
I miss Freehand and single installs too.
How is it going with graphic design?
What do you work on?
I wish I could go back in time to see how designers would work before the computer.
Yes about adobe is crazy how expensive it is to have access to these programs given you can't just buy them one time but have to pay monthly
@@user-xv7eb5ct9f It is crazy but they are just doing what everyone does in going to a subscription model. The reality of it is that if you are a professional that works on the Adobe platform everyday, you more than make up for all the subscription costs. If you just do graphic design for fun, then it is definitely a worst thing. You used to be able to buy one version and milk it for a few years but now that it is all about subscriptions. It becomes a different deal. On the upside, you are always up to date. Working without computers was more tedious and lots of steps to get things done but somehow it was also a lot of fun to see the work realized.
I only started graphic design a few years ago, so my experience has been purely digital, and I prefer digital to analog in almost everything (books being the major exception). But I love learning about how it was done in the past. Digital or analog, every little bit of understanding you gain improves my work, so thank you!
My greatest respect to all the graphic designers before Photoshop!
I spent twelve years of my design career doing paste-up print production for four color and multiple spot color projects, including complex color registration accomplished with hand cut Amberlith films using circle templates and French curves. I drew many a graphic rule with a Rapidograph pen. After the mechanical art was shot on a copy camera, I would retouch my negatives with brush and opaquing fluid. I often thought about how much more I could make as a brain surgeon since the required knife skills were the same (prior to laser surgery). It was all a royal pain in the a** and once I learned the Mac, I retired my copy waxer and photostat machines forever (products gone the way of the horse buggy). Thank you, thank you Macintosh!
As one artist said to Adobe, "You have given designers wings to fly."
I was probably the last generation to learn to do graphic design this way.
i was given an assignment to make manual poster ad like this and i was thinking like "what the heck is this for? we have computers and shit"
Mary Riddle that's what i mean, i didn't know the purpose before watching this video.
this is frankly ridiculous, it most definatly isn't a better way, how can anything that takes time away from creative decisions ever be good ? what makes you good at print has nothing to do with if you can use letraset or not, its about how good the work is and if I have to spend 3/4 of my time doing daft stuff like using a pen and ruler or pre arranged text is ridiculous, I feel your argument is pretensious and outdated !
Me too. Quark XPress, InDesign, the entire "creative suite" was deliberately based on this way.
For three months in 1993 I was an apprentice in a non-digital environment (paste-up etc) but the company was in trouble and had to loose me. I was back fully digital in 1998. Using computers since 1982, I was expecting this developement for many years - I had Printfox for the C64 :D But I'm glad I tried it. I agree that 'physical' gave some valuable insight to working digitally. And respect for the old profession.
I learned design this way. My dad was also a graphic designer and illustrator. I will never forget the smell of rubber cement, fixative and turpentine. I also became a commercial offset pressman. I have tried to keep up with all the changes, and although photoshop is a wonderful tool, I appreciate it at an even deeper level. Thanks for sharing my past with a generation who could really benefit from knowing where and why our technology exists as it now is.
I think I would have enjoyed being a designer back in the day. I love this old school process.
My GOD, this is dead on.
Almost miss those days - it was a special craft back then.
Often, the impression of a movie made from a book you love is knowing how much detail has been lost, and how much simpler the movie seems by comparison.
I was an Art Director from 1978 - 1998 and this video feels like that to me. It's fun but it barely scratches the surface of what the work entailed.
Oh, heck, that brought back memories. I worked in an advertising agency in Covent Garden, London, in the late 70's into 80's, doing just about every part of the job that you described. Many ad's were created using Letraset then the agency got this huge desk-sized typographic machine that a specialised operator would use simply to print out type in many different fonts and sizes - although nowhere near as many as is available even in Word, etc., nowadays. These all came on long strips of paper that still had to be cut up and pasted down on board just as in your video.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
One aspect of 'Old School' print design and production that's missing for many students today is an understanding of how offset printing works. Some of the steps Mr. Adams takes in his process may seem complicated to the uninitiated, but make perfect sense to anyone who has worked with a commercial printer, or has working knowledge of printing. Having that knowledge of process, and the ability to think through to the end of project made us 'commercial artists' more efficient and marketable back in the day.
When I started in the graphic business right out of college I landed a job as a "Graphic Artist". It was really a job as a production artist which gave you a thorough understanding of how things got done for print.
The video does give the right idea but there was much more to it than that. The advertising agency I worked for had a camera department where we shot the final art for newsprint publications using photostats shot through halftones screens and that sort of thing. We also had a Compugraphic CC-Universal IV for our quick type needs but mostly we used a couple of type houses to do that. Back in the day you had to know how to spec type which was always tedious. We also had tons of Chartpack decorative tapes, some rubdown type (for quick fixes), both rubylith and amberlith and lots of Bestine to cleanup wax excesses.
If anything, this video just opened my memory going back some thirty-odd years. All the crop marks then were done with radiograph pens and the grids were drawn using non-photo blue pencils. But the most amazing thing was that we sold layouts based on crude marker renderings. These days if the client cannot see a layout that doesn't look like the finish product, they won't even consider it. The visualization process on the client's end has completely disappeared.
I started at the bottom of the advertising chain and climbed up to Creative Director so I have seen the gamut of positions within the graphic industry. Computers was definitely a game changer but the transition in a way happened so fast that many of today's graphic artists have no idea of how thing happen once it leaves their computer. Many still have a hard time understanding needed pixel resolutions and for the most part do not understand how things get printed on a commercial press.
Regarding Photoshop, it's the best software I have ever worked with but to make press-ready art, you'll need more than Photoshop since it's only a raster program (which makes it resolution dependent). The man on the video never spoke about Illustrator or any other vector-based program needed for layout design, pagination, etc. Still though, it's a good short summary of how things used to be.
I never thought that most people understood the work that was involved in graphic design. And although it's a lot easier now, most layouts can't be done in 1/2 hr like the boss always thinks. I worked as a GD for 36 yrs and the transitions were interesting. In the 70s we used type generated from a Varityper machine. That was a big deal, no more sending out for type, but more work for us in typing and proofing. At lot of my co workers missed the hands-on nature of the old days, but digital is fantastic.
This is AMAZING in so many ways! My first year as a graphic design student at the University I attended was the year that Photoshop was released. It only worked on one computer in the design lab, took 10 minutes to open, and could barely do anything - but I loved it! And am so happy I didn't have to sniff too much glue those college days getting design projects done on time.
I used to be a Lithographic camera operator/platemaker. Before scanning came in we would mount transparencies on the enlarger, then produce colour correction masks and then register those masks precisely over the original and then produce colour separation negatives. These films would then be proofed for the client to check before it is imposed for final films and then we would make lithographic plates and give to the printer along with the proof so he could match his prints to the proof.
Colour back then was very expensive to reproduce hence most jobs were black and white.
I did some of this work sending out type for galleys, doing layouts with rubber cement. In those days, clients did not think they could be designers just because they owned rubber cement and a ruler. LOL.
😂😂😂 this comment is pure gold!!! Kind of wished people in general didnt think they are designers just bcause they have apps in their phone.
Thanks, that brought back memories. Things are much better now that creativity is freed from the drudgery. The downside is that everyone thinks they can do the job.
Eh, I mean even in the old way, anyone could throw shit onto a paper and think they knew what they were doing. That hasn't really changed.
I think that's also a positive. Everyone should be allowed to get in touch with their creative side :)
ruffsnap yes, but nobody would, unless they were training for, or doing that job.
just make the logo bigger lol
Get off your high horse
Love how authentic the workflow is. Working with materials to create something great. But Photoshop has made things a lot easier for artists. Definitely faster. Sure, anyone can use it Photoshop. But not everyone has the visual eye for what looks good.
My first job was at a large print shop in L.A and I remember some of these methods being replaced by digital work. I remember how the Q.C and the "strippers" would labor over giant light tables all day, cutting out dielines, checking bleed and safteys, manually checking the resolution of images with these weird transparent screens with black lines that vary in angle. Seems like ages ago but I definitely have an appreciation for how far design and production have come. Thanks for the video!
This is a pretty good overview of the "mechanical" days of graphic design, but of course, it's simplified. For instance, there's a lot more to retouching than Mr Adams discusses (the title is "Before there was Photoshop" after all). Your photographer didn't do retouching; retouchers did. But first you had to have a color-corrected dye transfer print to work from. Airbrushed C-prints might have been OK for a low-budget job, but not for a demanding client like Kodak. Dyes were made by specialized photo labs, and they were VERY expensive (hundreds of dollars even back in the day) and took a while to make. The process used layers of dye similar to the Technicolor process, and the prints were a lot nicer than C-prints. Once everyone approved the finished dye, which was dry mounted to a sheet of acid-free illustration board and had a vellum overlay and cover flap, it would be sent to a retoucher. Retouchers worked with air brushes, as Mr Adams states, plus numerous other tools. Remember, these prints were made from layers of dyes, so dyes could be selectively removed, or added. Retouchers were so skilled and so expensive (and so few) that most of them worked only half a year at a time. Not just because they made so much money, but also because they were burned out from working so hard. They used to show a "photo" of a glass filled with ice cubes that was created completely from scratch by a retoucher. There was also a pretty convincing book called "Subliminal Seduction" that claimed ad agencies used retouchers to hide images in ice cubes and other props to subliminally seduce consumers to buy more Coke, cars and other products. This begs the question, could the best retouchers produce images that were more believable than a good artist working with Photoshop can create today? I say no.
Edac2 lots of steps in the approval process. :-)
Edac2 I never had the money to set type 10 different ways. HA!
Tom Browne Nor did I. I remember really carefully comping headlines by tracing the letters from type books, then sending my layout to a $1 / word Typositor house (that was the cheapest I could find; Photolettering was something like $10 a word). Or using rub down lettering like Letraset or Chartpak. Thank goodness for the Mac and (at the time) QuarkXPress for making all of that tedium and expense unnecessary!
Edac2
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Of course there is more. I get that you know more about the C-prints and dye-transfers and so on. But I think for the sake of video length brevity and the lack of an actual pre-desktop publishing design studio and equipment, tools, etc. they produced a video to show generally how it was done. It was good, except for that last part where the professor there says its good that design is now more open suggesting anyone including your grandma can do it. That, is an awful thing to say in a profession that more and more is being diminished as a profession. I will say that you actually mentioned a book that I have been looking for since I first saw it at a Crown Books in 1989, when I started to seriously think about Graphic Design as a profession and it blew my mind 'Subliminal Seduction', it was a small paper back and was fascinating. I would actually do that, because the power of suggestion is at the core of the graphic design, and the method of subliminal messages can be very powerful. I do it in many of my design works and guess what, they win contracts and sell products and services. .::Gary
They left out proportion wheels, non-repro blue pencils, rubber cement pick-up and thinner, drafting sets, comp markers, tissue paper (also known as bumwad), and my all time favorite the electric eraser...
Two things I am grateful for...modern medicine...and Photoshop.
+Ned Bately your life is very deep
Hi, bring back memories. I am a 46 year old designer. I have gone through this process in the late 80's and the early 90's. Than came the mac/apple. more though and process in the early days.
As a design student I am happy that I have a background on fine and visual arts. It sets amazing background knowledge for when doing digital graphic visualizations. Thanks for the video!
This is a really inspiriting video showing just much I take Photoshop for granted when I design stuff :D.
Loved your video. Brought back memories of doing this for 35 years. It was a labor of love. Frustrating at times with clients. This was called a trade. You were devoted to your craft. Meticulous but it kept people working. Thanks.
I was in school for design in the mid 90s, and we were taught all of this. Then when I got out of school and got my first design job, the place where I worked was switching over to using only macs with photoshop, freehand, and quark. Never had to actually do the manual stuff, but I’m glad i got the foundation of this before switching over to digital. But I’m also really grateful that the job is a lot easier these days!
This was super helpful! I'm writing about my father who, in the basement of our house in the 1960s where he created his own newspaper, he did all this. I wasn't able to put all the technical moves into words, but you've helped me do so. Thanks a lot.
I did mechanical design one semester on the high school newspaper. Hated it. Then Pagemaker came out while I was in college. Changed my life. Became a graphic designer. Been working in Photoshop since 1993.
Man, this takes me back. Thank you for posting. I remember when I was in Graphic Arts class, I would ask my professor, "How can I do ____ in Photoshop?". At the time, I hadn't touched a Mac since 8th grade (Mac 2e). I agree with ***** every designer today, should see this video. Man, I do not miss those Commercial Art days after seeing this. Wait.. I do miss my rubber cement.
Ancient designers were true masters of the thinking.
i'm glad we can use this form of graphic design in our process and as aesthetic
Love it! This was at a time that there was true artist!
In other words:
A true artist and not some Smuck on a MAC!
(I am a Artist and I reserve the right to say that)
This takes me back to high school graphic arts class!
This is how the old craftsman taught me. My first time using Photoshop was 1.5. I teach graphic design this way to high school students. I've been learning from lynda.com for many years. Thanks for all the help.
This is one of the rare times that I feel "old". I learned this in college, at the same time I was learning and using Photoshop, Illustrator, and CorelDraw!
He used the word "swell". omg this is legit!
I was more familiar with 'Super'
The whole line "Gee, wouldn't it be swell?" is taking me out. It's like one of the Brady kids grew up and became a graphic designer. Great video though.
So much appreciation to old school graphic designers.
Thanks. I could have never imagine the world of graphic design before I was born. This is gold.
He really simplified and glossed over the process of using photographs and cropping. I think figuring out the crops and the percentages the printer would need to reshoot the art took up about a third of design time, especially if you worked on image-heavy publications. Also, cutting overlays with rubylith/etc. to create your own custom color breaks was an art unto itself. I can remember having a page that had about 20 overlays on it to create different colors. And fitting type, remember when it was called type specification for a reason?
me trae tantos recuerdos, cuando inicie en una agencia de publicidad en 1994. hacía montajes de artes finales con una agfa repromaster 2200. solo teniamos 2 computadoras apple.
It brings me so many memories, when I started in an advertising agency in 1994. I made final art montages with an agfa repromaster 2200. we only had 2 apple computers.
Can't believe I studied graphic design for 4 years in university and didn't learn any of this. Had to research for myself how design was done before Photoshop, because nowadays digital tools are so widespread that these techniques are all but completely lost. Analog graphic design, difficult as it may be, has an undisputed charm to it. Look no further than your favorite music albums from the 70s and 80s and you'll realize how much the cover artwork adds to their memorability and legacy. Those were all created like this.
This looks much more fun and rewarding than sitting in front of a computer for hours until your brain goes numb and your creativity and stamina fade away.
Quality craftsmanship from the good old days.
There was also melted wax rolled on the backs of the elements to keep the ability to lift and move. Then once approved you could just rub it down
OMG! This was how it was done. Boy, do I remember this. The smell of the rubber cement, dealing with the rapidographs. I still have them somewhere. Along with French curves and triangles. But I have a drafting board with a movable straight edge, so no t-square, any more. I was pretty good with an X-acto, but I do remember the scalpels too. Wow.... old school for sure. Thanks for making this video.
Been there, done that. It was different world back then. It was much more fun and stress free.
Talk about getting nostalgic. This takes me back to SCAD on the early 90s. xo
It was also fun transfering all this art board material into film work, from the line shots on a large camera then building the ad in the stripping dept. where we used rubi lith and orange vinyl with a lot of mylar and start laying down and registering each color and positioning all the text as well. Those were definitely the days of a real job.
Reminds me of the days when you use to kern and re-lead 10pt text by hand with photo-typesetting (or a PMT of it), or cut in 6pt commas to last-minute amends to T's & C's - and no-one would see the join...
Ah...I had forgotten all about cutting a rubie. So glad the mac came along!
This took me back to my first few jobs. Great job Sean. I'd love to see you explain type specking. That was an art as well. I'd spend my lunch hours learning this thing called a "MacIntosh". Once I saw that I would never have to speck type again -- my world changed. -- Never did get all that free time they promised.
I used a lot of these tools, growing as an artist in the 80's and 90's. When I did comic book art in the 90s I used micron pens, fountain pens, and Letratone, which is very similar to Letraset except it's a clear film with the dots or lines and sticky on the back so you could lay it down and cut out the extra where you don't want it.
*Awesome video! Glad we have the technology we have now! Can't wait to see where things are in 25 more years!*
Very beautiful presentation ... well done
this bring back memories, left the printing industry in 2011, just as computer where the new technology.
Amazing...but truly a big Job...cant believe its a tough job...now days graphic designer are just flying....big thank you to all the inventors of computers programs .
Back then it really meant something to be a graphic designer..
much respect to those who did this. I would not be in graphic design today if we still did things this way. Very tedious. I would have done this process for a hobby, but no way could I do it for a job. I would mess up all the time.
A lot of memories there, of my teenage years in a London Ad Agency, making adaptation artwork to fit different shapes of space - rubber solution - and lighter fuel to melt it if you wanted to change the position of an element - 'whiting out' round things with Chinese white paint (no red masks!)... truly a different world! The type-set headlines were printed on imitation art paper, and were known as 'repro pulls'.
I like the "Undo Feature".
Sweat alot during the early days doing alot of undos with the CowGum - rubber cement.
Good lord. Thank you, computers.
Jeremy Watkins Amen! I remember doing all typesetting on Compugraphics systems where I had to develop the text, cut it, and paste it into place. I still have my Rapidograph set and lettering guides. O_o I couldn't move to the Mac Plus/Mac II with Adobe/Corel/Quark apps fast enough!
There was some good values in working in analog. One is physical labor, the work ethic in that, the sweat. Many were overworked but still, what fueled a designer was the love of what they did, the final project in fruition and reaping the rewards and accolades AND more work. That, computers does not show you or prepare you. Work a printing press, it will open up a wealth of understanding of typography no computer or software will every show you. Most font management apps are just file organizers with fancy preview ability. .::Gary
I agree. I do occasionally get 'romantic' and miss the hand-crafted aspects, the feeling of tactile media and the making of a physical, tangible 'thing'. I also agree that constraints make for unique discoveries and often terrific solutions in any design process, as compared to (theoretical) complete freedom. However I check myself frequently on that sentiment, as I know that applying that nostalgia to the realities of my current (digital) work would be a mistake. I'm personally proud to have been trained and grounded in the analog world, as I do think it has b=given me a deeper appreciation for many things. But I've more than happily adapted and embraced the evolving tools, expectations and possibilities of the ubiquitous digital art/design world, and look forward to continuing to do so as it continues changing! I glance backward with find appreciation and respect, but charge forward with passionate curiosity!
It was kind of cutty pasty fun though
Lol, in the later years to come, computers/A.I’s are gonna takeover everybody’s jobs.
From the manual labors to even the comedians.
Man I don't think I could do that everyday as my job. The frustration levels would be through the roof.
I'm a little late responding to this but I DID do this everyday as my job (but using Quark XPress and Photoshop as they already took over by the time I joined the workforce.) And the frustration levels were certainly up there. The faster we were able to do the work, the more demanding the clients got.
What a great method. I know it's a romantization, but I'm starting to adopt some of the old days methods. I enjoy them a lot more and they are physical, which feels real. This is ifor personal projects, I'm not a pro and I'm not saying that digital isn't good. But doing it for real has another feel.
Been there. Done that. Old school. Press type, airbrushing paint all over the room, cleaning repidographic pens. Rubber cement and wax machines. Stat Cameras. YIKES!
It is so much better now. Never go back.
I realize you had to make a short video, so I'm sure you know you left a lot of stuff out. For example, when I did a catalog, I had hundreds of pictures. So I had to calculate the percentage for each of the 8x10 photos, and sent them out to be resized. I never had a photographer who was also a retoucher--it was a different person (more messengers, more time). You mention Letraset, but there was also a peel and stick product I used a lot. I used to draw my borders with Rapidographs and also rubbed down various widths of tape. I used to go to the printing plant every time I made a poster.
I'm proud to have lived through a time when I could go to a foundry and see that lead actually meant little pieces of lead. : ) There is no computer algorithm that can match the artisans who set the type in old books. I loved those guys.
I'm looking now at one of my posters on the wall. Not only is it made the same way as in your video, but I took a b&w print and rubbed it with Martin's photo colors to give it an old-fashioned look. Today you can get the same thing with Photoshop, but I liked using my hands. : )
I was curious about the additional images, being resized, etc. I spend so much time resizing things in Photoshop, getting them just right...
Is that why many of these older ads have so much white space in them? Leave breathing room for the imperfectly sized photos?
I remember going to the darkroom and using the photo enlarger and taking a negative of a text in Letraset develop it and enlarge it in Fuji lith film then reveal it and fix it with chemicals.
Then return to my design table and continue working on vellum paper directly with Rapidograf to finish my original Art work
By the way listening all the time in my WALKMAN the last hit of CROWDED HOUSE "Dont dream its over" ... : )
The nearest thing I got to this kind of technique was my senior year in high school, putting together the high school yearbook.
Good work explaining the craft, used not long back actually, eye opener for a big crowd.
I still have my set of Rapidograph pens. Barely used them professionally, tho. The digital revolution hit full swing as I entered the work force. Fun times.
I expected him to be grumpy about the fact that graphic design is much easier and open now, but he actually seemed pretty happy.
6:20 - Origin of the term #masking in Photoshop
I remember this all to well. The leaky radiograph pens were the best.
I remember when I decide to study graphic designer, and I use photoshop 1.0 and writer to make text and Set-type. Very similar as in this video. All was by hand made.
Thanks for sharing this really well produced, informative video.
I'm 19, pursuing design, destroying cntrl Z, and I appreciate this so much. I can't even imagine all these people in the comment section who have been through this! All these softwares must be like heaven to use when they first came out, and truly unbelievable, and one must feel so worthless when we realise all the time we out in is replaced by seconds by a computer! oh technology......
That's really interesting. I loved looking at magazines when I was little and imagined what kind of work of took to make a page. I realize now just how much time it took.
you just made a young designer feel proud Sean Adams.
In Bulgaria, I can clearly recall the 1st yeat students were doing over 90 percent of their work analog. Drawing nude human body, posters with gouache, typefaces drawn by hand, etc. The remaining 3 years digital or as necessary to obtain the desired result. I can definitely say that in many cases the graphic designers who can draw by hand are better because manual techniques develop a specific way of perception. It is not the same to pick up font forge directly or to have previous experience in calligraphy and hand typography and then to use the same program. The second one has at least a huge advantage in sketching the idea.
Having computers means that ANYBODY can do this job, not just competent artists!
great video... Im relatively new to GD and sometimes think of how it was done before... thanks for the demo!
this is how we learned in school before they let us use computers :) .. you have to think, sketch, plan and measure before you cut.. gr8 video!
my design class in 2010 found a whole drawer of letrasets in the university's stationers. needless to say we finished the entire stock. we found awesome things from the good old days! (sorry for everyone that came after us - but they stayed there for a good 10 years, just that no one bothered to ask!)
oh my, I can't think of anyone missing this
Looked more fun than clicking a mouse all day thats for sure.
Wow man! , you make me appreciate adobe photoshop much more now, great work, interesting video !
Memories...
Awesome..
I always had this question. Thank you! For giving me the answer
I've been doing graphic design since 1982. That's how we rolled back then. I did like the craftsmanship aspect of the work but I don't miss how tedious it was. I love Adobe.
I started off my apprenticeship on Linotype machines and doing hand lettering, then made it to film stripping to Press room. I appreciate the new technology but I still mock up my dummies the old way. Still have all my film and ruby scribes and loupes. Why people were call Graphic Artists back then there was a lot of specialized craftsmanship in designing and printing.
My mother did layout and design at Vogue Magazine 1942 to 1945 during WWw under Irving Penn
cool!!!!
@@Onlylettuce92 Not only that Penn wanted to take her portrait
but she said she was too busy....Oh well
Another note, her sister worked with CondeNast publications also
and created and designed the first Betsy McCall paper doll which she did for five years
Re-positional wax over rubber cement any day. As a prepress guy, I remember art boards like this coming in with "F.P.O." ("for position only") written over the top of the copied photos too. BTW the reference to "printer" is probably pretty typical of graphic designers back then. Many (I suspect him included) never really visited their printers to see the processes required that led up to mounting the plates on the press. Not even a brief mentioning about camera work, ortho films, opaquing the films, and "stripping"/imposition of the films for proof and plate. Designers who were never curious or familiar with what goes on inside a "printer's" facility were typically a pain in the ass-at least their art boards were. But designers that worked in printing operations or took the time to inquire about the processes were always the better designers as they were less problematic and met the deadlines as well as the budget allocated. And what of graphic designers today? They still need to understand the prepress element as well. Just like back then, they will be better designers if they know how to use their tools to not only make an aesthetic design, but to make it so it is not problematic down the line. Think an architect who knows or doesn't know the building tools or processes. Aside my nit-picking, I enjoyed the video even if it made me a little queazy as I revisited those old, tedious processes.
Where's the non-repro blue pen? Thanks for the memories!
I have to wonder how people weren't climbing the walls with frustration with these methods. But perhaps if one had never had access to a faster method, it didn't seem so slow. But I would never, ever want to go back to the old ways-that would be a real nightmare.
It is all a matter of relative perspective. At the time there was no future-fast-way to compare it to, so one accepted the current reality, and methods that were the industry standard, and tried to be clever and resourceful using those tools. We'd get frustrated, sure, but usually with the failings of the physical medium, or our impatience - not cutting that rubylith carefully enough, or rushing through the cleaning of the Rapidograph pen nib! Now, on a whole other level, we still can get frustrated with our tools, but for a whole different class of reasons. But again, they're all relative! :-)
Definitely threw some shade at the end lol...only thing missing was the eye roll right before they faded him out
And this has Xerox draft pieces! Imagine not having that. I love that people still use these techniques for special projects.