Futurethink

Where is my design career going? Or maybe that is a what. I know more and more of what I do will end up electronic and less of it will use ink on paper. But what does that mean, exactly?

I'll still need to use applications like photoshop to build my products. I'll still need to come up with ideas and push my concepts out of the comfort zone to get somewhere interesting. But I think it means I will also have to become used to things that move and make noise and can roam in a non-sequential narrative. I'll also have to consider that the same content has to degrade into smaller and smaller screens, from a desk wide uber workstation to an iPhone. I'll have to get used to a constantly evolving technology. Printed books, sure, have changed in the last several hundreds of years, but these are not change the paradigm yearly advances. There was hot type becoming cold type back in the 70s, direct to plate printing taking over in the 90s, and now print on demand nibbling away at offset presses...but it is still a book all the same. Ink on paper has been around a long time.

How do I reconcile my preference for reading books over reading computer screens? How do I become adept at making the transition? I am hoping a more paper-like electronic experience comes along. After all, you wouldn't dare read a Kindle in the bath tub. I want to get the best of both worlds.