The development of digital media and its effects on the people working in the digital media industry
The constant developments and innovations in technology are changing the ways in which we play, learn, work and live. These changes have increased our abilities to participate in the development, consumption and distribution of media and culture.
The result of all this is that we are forced to rethink our thinking about how we approach the media, the materials and people as well.
As a future digital media designer, I believe the contemporary digital media revolution will always affect my career.
Due to the continual updates of the software’s (which are sometimes just expansions, but sometimes are big changes), the designers and developers have to be well- prepared, which means they have to train themselves in order to be competitive.
As a result, those who decide to become designers or developers have to be “jack of all trades” and to be competent with many skills.
It is not enough if a designer is talented, has good ideas, without technical knowledge they are unable to visualise their concepts in front of others. They have to understand how different softwares work in order to judge if their ideas can be implemented.
A designer has to apprehend the synthesis of a software and the logic of it.
For example if they want to create a logo for a company they have to decide which software is more suitable for it, Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
This stands for the developers as well, because without some fantasy they will not understand what their college designer wants to say. The process of creating something demands a high level of co-operation between a designer and a developer, because it is very difficult to attain the ideas in practice.
Looking through our history, we can find many people who were “jack of all trades” and ahead of their time.
The best example is Leonardo da Vinci, who was not only an artist (painter, sculptor, architect, musician, writer) but also a scientist, inventor, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, geologist, botanist and cartographer.
He was not only a polymath, he also helped the future generation with his good detailed descriptions ( concerning medicine, architecture and aviation) to develop science as we know it today. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.
Another example for “jack of all trades” is William Blake who had a huge impact on the development of printing. He was the first to combine text with images, with this he laid the concepts of the contemporary digital media.
Nowadays there are not only texts and images, but also videos and music within one composition. This not only stands for computers and laptops, but also for mobiles and smart phones.
The next stage of this evolution will be the three dimensional visualisation of films, web sites and all contents of the media. At the moment nor the equipments, nor the web sites are prepared for this, however the development software of the new 3D design is ready to use.
At the moment many new digital media art types appear, which raise new possibilities for the present digital media students. After graduating from the university, there will be many opportunities for them to prove their skills. They can become anything they want, not just web site, leaflet and image creators, but they can also become artists as well.
David Hockney, who is a contemporary artist, managed to combine modern with old art. He had the idea that his works should be displayed on I Phones in the galleries. This exciting idea created a new type of art.
Talent doesn’t depend on age, everyone is capable of learning new concepts and techniques. In case of appearance of a new software, a new tool is being given to the designers. These tools represent the unused areas which need to be discovered and exploited. It is imaginable that our children will be working in the digital media industry in fields that are yet unknown.
Computer games are slowly reaching the point where you don’t need accessories (for example: Wii Fit). In the future there will be devices which create 3D images like in the sci-fi films (for example: Star Wars).
This idea could be used in the way we live too. Computers could be our companion in the form of a virtual robot. The look of these would be the designer’s job to create.
In a few years time 3D will be a common way of conveying ideas and thoughts. By then we should be ready to take it all in.
This is our future and if we are well prepared we can achieve outstanding outcomes.
Consequently, the evolution never stops, as a result the digital media designers as well as the digital media developers have to learn all these now softwares and technologies (3D drawing in the air, using the so called “bird”), so they can create wonderful new things for the world.
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