
It’s About Craft
I love this excerpt from the Getty Images blog by Ignacio Oreamuno,
“The products we buy, the commercials that make us act and the stores we go into need to become more and more beautiful. To do that, art directors, designers, copywriters and creative directors have to slow down, take a deep breath and go back to the roots of our business. An online campaign cannot be just interactive and funny, it has to be gorgeous. A banner cannot just be clever, it has to have beautiful typography. The copy on a Facebook post has to be re-written 10 times until it is catchy and clever. The photos we use on our ads have to be good enough to make you want to lick the screen on your brand new, retina display iPad.
Don’t be afraid. Technology is not king in our industry. Craft is. We’ll never be able to ‘catch up’ with technology. We’ve reached a pace at which no one, and I mean no one, is able to write a book about technology because it changes so damn fast. So don’t try to fight that fight. Craft and art in advertising and design, on the other hand, are the skills that define your trade. If we lose them, we’ll become nothing more than programmers. And trust me, as a creative, I know that math and science are not our strong suits.
So let’s go back to our roots, and let’s make communication beautiful again. It’s what we get paid for, and what drove us into this business. More importantly, it’s what makes us tick.”
I LOVE this, because it’s what drives the products and creative ideas at Modern Jen. It’s not just about making a product that serves a purpose. It’s about making something beautiful. That’s why I spent years learning painting and drawing, then computer aided design and now, finally, a combination of both that can make something beautiful.