Ancient texts say, “the young will have visions and the old will dream dreams.”
I recently had a vivid dream about the old days; days before Canva*(argh!), before Adobe CC, before QuarkXP, before Pagemaker, before desktop publishing, yes, before computers! Back when I trained as a print studio artworker, we did it all with a scalpel and hot wax.
In the ’80s, lick-n-stick was the phrase that described what we did. Using hot wax, we compiled type and graphics on art-boards, juggling scalpels, type-gauges and temperamental typesetters, we spec’ed photo transparencies, and mastered PMT.
We measured in picas and ems. We specified every item needed on the page before it was realised. It was all created in black and white, and CMYK & Spots were specified via overlay. I recall repetitive photo-mechanical transfer in the dark room, the stress of pleasing Gina and Linda, the typesetters, or making do with insufficient Letraset. Ah… Poppl Exquisit, it’s all coming back to me!
There was an art to pleasing the pre-press print planning department. Who dared to ask KT and his sunshine band of planners to compile a dozen vignettes or graduated tints? Dare we ask him for a 85% tint? “Bloody 80 or 90 will bloodywell do ya boy!” Ah, what fun.
I remember the apprehension and nerves as we ventured into the Creative Director’s lair, expecting our labour of love to be discarded with a mumbled comment about the “Seven Sacred Principles of Design”. Spectrum Design and Print, St. Ives; they were good times.
This was all before desktop publishing as we know it. The only computers in the building were in accounts and the typsetters.
A lot has happened since then. I emigrated from Cornwall to England and discovered creative jouissance, post-modernism, and ‘The Lodge’ in Alsager, Manchester Metropolitan University’s country playground. I graduated in 1995, I moved to Leicestershire, and life took over.
Since then, we’ve been through Aldus Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, Adobe AI, ID, PS, etc, Creative Cloud in its many forms, and horrifically, we now see the delights of Canva*.
It was a more physical analog time. I greatly value learning about the essence of it all before computers took over and automated things.
The skilled jobs between the print designer and the lithographer are now extinct. I fondly remember; Designer* Cathal, Artworker Tim, Typesetter Gina, Proofreader Brian, Film-separation Karl, Platemaking Ken… all can now be ‘done’ by anyone, on their phones. *Unfortunately, you really can tell when the ‘design’ step has been automated.
In 2016, I moved from working directly in the print/publicity industry to working in secondary schools in Leicestershire. It’s been 10 years, I’m 57 years old, I’m still learning, and dreaming.
Jules P Richards 