This is in response to a discussion group for Print Production Professionals. This guy was bummed cause he's having a hard time getting a print production job that isn't considered an entry level position with low pay. But if he does interview, they think he's a little nutty for his choice of profession, I suppose, at his age.  Anyway, read on ...

I agree that getting respect as a production artist is a hard thing to come by. Everyone thinks you're an under-achiever because your not interested in being a designer. The thing is, you have to have a certain aptitude to be a good designer (or production artist for that matter). Just because you know the Adobe Suite doesn't mean you can layout a well designed ad or come up with a good marketing concept. I've seen way too many weak projects come through the print shop in my earlier pre-press days that left that idea ingrained in my mind.

An Art Director told me years ago to pursue what your good at and I happen to like doing pre-press, color correction, retouching and compositing. I think the main trick is to try to get in somewhere where you are respected for what you do. You only have to save the day once or twice for others to see your value and worth to the team. That doesn't mean you will get paid well for it....

I am also seeing a trend in the smaller agencies these days. They are having their designers do their own production. When I talk to some of these guys, they are hating it. Their minds are not geared to the technical side of things and they would rather play with their "crayons and pencils" as I like to say and have someone else worry about the details. I guess the savings is in not having that extra salary to pay. Besides in this "I want it now" day and age, the project gets pushed through even faster and with less billable time attached to it. So what if the quality is lower, it's all about the "good enough" revolution, but that's a different subject all together.

For me, the best way to proceed with my same job title in these times is to add web production to my resume. Basically that means learning Dreamweaver and maybe Word Press to start. If you have good Photoshop skills there is a very prominent cross-over to web production. It is also very detailed oriented and satisfying when you see the finished site. You also have to have good trouble shooting skills.

Anyway, this discussion is one that goes on even in good economic times. The fact that people treat you as a peon is just part of the job description, but hey, it beats sitting in hour long meetings with a client you despise listening to their lame ideas with a smile on. And many times when the ADs have to work on a new business pitch over the weekend, I'll be getting lines in that fresh powder. Who really wants to have their whole identity fit the lame stereotype of CD anyway. Not me. Life's too short.

I'm starting to see a trend with this blog and myself. Looks like once a month is all that I can really stomach at this point. It's just one more thing hanging over my head, and I feel like I should be doing something more productive most of the time. This blog isn't really a productive site that anyone is probably reading much anyhow. It could potentially be detrimental to my career if at some point it becomes apparent where I work and who is writing this. Hence, many of my more un-P.C. topics stay in a verbal forum with my friends on a Friday night at happy hour over a few beers and the occasional scotch. I like to think of this blog as underground - ha.

So what I want to talk about this go round is what something that has been eating at me for the last few months. Something that was amplified by this discussion I came across on the SMS, Linked-In. BTW, this SMS stuff is really making me schizophrenic, but that's another topic all together. I've just never seen such a frenzy of activity over something in my life, be it good or bad. Is this an actual job title now? Social Media Manager? Anyway...

...the notion of  "The Death of Print" is finally here. Sometimes it feels like I'm just riding the wave (and it's about to close out on me), especially when the new guys coming into the shop are working in Word Press and talking this and that about how even HTML is old school. I'm hearing more and more about the trend towards big agencies bringing in peps with Computer Science majors or programmers who collaborate with the creative team to come up with any type of interactive media blitz that you could possibly fathom. But this is what's getting results. I've heard it said that geeks are joining the round table at creative brainstorming meetings (I guess artsy, fartsy, AD's and designers are the self-proclaimed coolest kids in town – but what do you expect with the oft-time egos?).

In Denver I can think of a bunch of print shops that have closed including: Hirschfeld, Spectrographics, L & M Pressworks, to name a few, not to mention the death of the DNA's Rocky Mountain News in the last year. Print Production Managers are out of work and becoming Print Production Brokers on a contract basis. The Account Managers are now expected to speak the language and make calls to print shops for pricing, etc. Designers are doing thier own print production work, and the trend continues.

With that being said, I am definately going into the world of website production. Instead of Facebooking or blogging in the evenings I have to reinvent myself again by learning another new trade, or offshoot of print production. So the obvious place to start is with Dreamweaver at night by helping my wife build her client websites and e-newsletters. It's a good transition for someone that considers themselves a power-user (there's a buzzword you don't hear anymore) of Photoshop. So yeah, that's basically what I have been doing in my spare time these days. Sounds like fun dosen't it? Maybe I can get my company to send me to night school, that would be sweet. It actually is helping take some of the angst out of my bitchy, non-professional writing style, tho. I'm sure, by the looks of it, that it will come back twofold once I get into the WYSIWYG, imperfect world of the web. Stay tuned.

How long would it take to get fired from a job? Not even a day. They'd probably tell you to go home and think about it, and if you came back the next day talking like a robot, you would be gone... "OVER-AND-OUT". "SIGN-ING-OFF".

People are turning into weenies. Everything and everyone is passive aggressive. Break up with your girlfriend with a text. Kids can't even spell these days. Does a full grown man really want to try and type on a tiny, little keyboard to tell his wife he will be working late? I guess if he's having an affair that would be optimal. The human race is digressing. Idiocracy at it's best.

Years ago, I could never image "resing-up" as many images as I do these days. Speed on turnaround times has forced many of our printers to go the digital route and I have admittedly OKed PDF proofs sent via email with mixed results in this scenario. This could encompass any type of industry you can imagine. Well, it's at least refreshing to know that others on the same page are taking notice of this phenomenon too. Just knowing that helps me restore a little faith in the human race, but not much.

Come to think of it, the clients these days may not even know what good quality is. Read the article below:

When my wife started this blog for me I think the intent was for me to put my ridiculous rants out there as a way to vent. But as I looked at a couple of the NAPP guys blog's recently, I kinda thought I might be doing myself a dis-service. I mean, it might be funny and all, but is it PRODUCTIVE? Probably not. Then again, it is my life and my reality. Maybe one or two people can relate, or get a laugh from it. If you saw how long it takes me to write one of these things you would get a laugh, besides being a poor typer to boot. I guess this would be a good time to iterate that there may be the need to keep this anonymous for some of the reasons stated above.

Since my last post way back when, I wanted to put this real cool technical Photoshop trick I saw at the NAPP conference on here. I thought that would give my blog some good balance. Well, truth be told, I get so busy at work, the last thing I really want to do is get back on the computer and write about work when I'm not at work. Wow, what an epiphany, right? Besides that, I have to keep up occasionally with Myspace and Facebook accounts that have lost their zeal. Did I mention Linked-in? Thank God I don't have a Twitter account (not that anyone would follow a washed-up, middle aged, punk singer - did I write that?). I don't know how people do it.

Still, fret not, I will continue to try to blog, but will probably – no, not probably – WILL not blog as often as would keep you interested in coming back on a daily, or dare I say, weekly basis. I did feel bad about this at first, but then I visited this one talented retoucher's blog and he was only bloggin like once a month. He did have a lot of info in that one blog tho, and very good info at that. Don't expect that here, but I will try to be on it more often, and hopefully can, from time to time, supply some good tips or maybe just at least give you a chuckle.

Tap, tap, "Hey, is this thing on?"

Oh, the games we play in advertising. This was sent to me by a former Art Director I worked with. Seems one of his new cohorts wrote and created this on a site called xtranormal.com. You type and it makes a movie for you. Don't know how it works, but looks like some fun technology that could catch on.

This series pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned when it comes to the client/account management/creative relationship anymore. These account peps are just "yes" men and women that will do whatever the client wants. And the final creative product takes the hit. Sometimes I think the account managers are the clients the way they treat creatives. I hear these same lines all the time - "Well, it's what the client wants" or "If we don't do it they will find someone else who will." What a cop out. Manager - it's in your job title. You are supposed to manage the client expectations besides your emails. One of my pet peeves is when they say "we" knowing full well you are doing all the heavy lifting and working late again, etc. Still, they'll take the credit for a job well done, but I digress.

Whatever happened to integrity? Do we even play a part in strategic marketing these days, or are we just doing what the client thinks they want? Chances are, they don't even know what they want or need for that matter. That's what we're here to do, but not anymore it seems. We are the ones who are supposed to be experts in our fields. We spent years training and going to school to learn our skills. But anymore, it's all about the bottom line. No one wants to lose a client, so we end up just putting on a smile and doing what they want. Bend over and take it. Does anyone even know what good work is anymore? You might start out with a great concept but by the time the client chips away at it, puts their own stamp on it, or whatever, it doesn't even come close to what the original idea was. Hopefully the campaign even makes sense. Is this really the way to keep clients in the long run?

With the advent of the home computer and technology, these client companies think that all you need is a computer with the latest software to create whatever they want. No strategy or thought goes into the advertising. Or talent. The market is over-saturated so you get the cliches about "someone else will do it" and shit. Someone else probably will. And they'll do it worse, but that doesn't matter cause its what the client wants.

Basically, it's all just dust in the wind. Which is a nice way of saying that what we do is a bunch of bullshit in the end. No one is saving any lives if you know what I'm saying.

Funny shit.

Lately I've been getting a few PDF files returned to me from pubs letting me know there were transparencies in the file and would I submit a new file. "They can't be responsible for any printing errors that might occur." This is frustrating to me because 90% of the time I don't have specific pubs specs (go figure) until AFTER I've sent the file. The funny thing is, they've been telling me to make a PDF/X-1a file which I HAVE been doing, knowing that this is the format that flattens the file. So of course I get my panties in a wad when I'm busy and tell them to just use the one I sent, "It'll be OK".

Not so fast amigo. I did some research and found the errors of my ways. (Ready to get technical?) Turns out the PDF/X-1a's I had been creating recently where based on the PDF 1.4 (Acrobat 5.0) format which does NOT support transparencies. You can still use transparency in the design, but you must flatten the transparency before creating a PDF/X-1a. Huh?

See, what got me in trouble is, I was thinking (insert joke here), that since we are on Acrobat 9.0 and that since the Transparency Flattener menu was grayed out with the PDF 1.4 driver, I was all good. I was saving some time by skipping a step. It tells you in the General Description box that this format can still accommodate PDF 1.3  files and can be opened in Acrobat 4.o. These were generally the requirements of the pubs. Newer is better right? Not in this scenario.

Turns out that many of these pubs don't have devices that can handle the newer PDF/X-4a:2007, PDF 1.6 files that actually support transparency layers, let alone the PDF 1.4 format that I was saving. I also learned that if you make your files in Distiller (not InDesign) it will automatically flatten your files, but who wants to go thru that nonsense when everything you need is right there in InDesign. Also, since the only transparencies in my document were from a layered Photoshop file, all the layered PDF files with transparencies that went out the door printed fine.

Still confused? I don't blame you. Read all about it here, and be happy with the knowledge that you know all there is to know about the different versions of PDFs – that is until tomorrow when they change the whole game on you.