« Design is the Mediation of Interactions | Main | "If I hear one more person tell me that a computer is just a tool I'm going to shoot myself" »
April 05, 2008
(Re)Envisioning the Designer of 2015
The AIGA and Adobe have partnered to attempt to identify the parameters and perimeters of and for the designer of the year 2015. They assembled a group of advisors on both coasts to help them through the visionary execise. They found that the educators had spent considerably more time thinking out that far ahead. Adobe and AIGA will share the results of the visionary process on a dedicated website in the near future.
They have tried to map speculative job descriptions to identifiable techno-cultural trends.
For the AIGA, the exercise is a necessary one, to better understand / anticpate potential futures for the profession, and to steer its direction accordingly.
For Adobe the exercise has multiple benefits, both philanthropic and pragmatic. With the public dissemination of the exercise and its public partnership with AIGA, Adobe makes a claim for continuing visionary status. At the end of its opening remarks for the Massaging Media conference, the representatives of Adobe reminded all in attendance of the importance of the prior visionary triumphs, PostScript – the underlying page description language created by co-founder John Warnock – and PDF – the set of protocols that allowed sharable high quality documents. Marketing triumphs become visionary triumphs.
Adobe's market leadership is reinforced by the claims to visionary status, as well as by the association with AIGA. Philanthropy as advertising.
Full disclosure: I use and enjoy Adobe's products. They have been very thoughtful in the crafting of many of their products. I have grown comfortable with them. I am critical of my own relationship with the products and how those products shape my expression.
Posted by SWEAT at April 5, 2008 06:00 AM