{"id":320,"date":"2012-11-09T21:25:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T21:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltadesignblog.wordpress.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2012-11-09T21:25:27","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T21:25:27","slug":"old-school-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/old-school-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Old School Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tools of the trade.<\/i><\/p>\n

Old School Skills: How many of us have them?<\/b><\/p>\n

Rubber cement.\u00a0 Spray mount. X-acto Blades. Proportion wheel.\u00a0 Cutting mat. There\u2019s something to be said for coming up the old school way in the design world. By old school, I mean coming up as a young designer before the dawn of pagination. BC: Before Computers.<\/i><\/p>\n

My First Job<\/b><\/p>\n

My first real design job out of college wasn\u2019t really a design job after all, but it was where I really got to earn my stripes. I applied for an illustrator position at the Connecticut Post, the local hometown newspaper. Call me optimistic, but I had no problem reaching for my dream job right out of the gate. Problem was I was going up against a very talented, seasoned illustrator with about 11 years experience. His name was Bob Rich, and he got the job (and would later be my boss when I finally became an illustrator 2 years later). Not to be left discouraged, I asked rather sheepishly whether or not there were any other opportunities at the newspaper that I could apply for. There was an opening. It was in the Composing Room and it was the job of Comp Artist. \u00a0(That\u2019s the title I gave myself, because I don\u2019t think the job came with one.)\u00a0My interview consisted of “Do you know about Picas and Points?” I answered “Yes, I do.” and I got the job, and my very own pica ruler. (Which I still have to this day).<\/p>\n

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Pica Ruler (Ancient Artifacts)<\/i><\/p>\n

Somebody Load Up the Wax Machine!<\/b><\/p>\n

What I did in the composing room was actually kind of fun. I literally waited by the film machine for the sports scores to come out, I would chop them up with an X-acto blade, and I would run them through a wax machine. The wax (glue) gave you a nice tacky base that you would stick onto the full size newspaper page. Problem was that the scores would keep coming in all night, and with every new score, I would have to go through the same process and find a way to squeeze it onto the page.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I would layout a newspage and you would basically have a page that was roughed in \u201cblue-lines\u201d or non-repro blue pencil. You literally assembled the pages by hand, shot them on a stat camera, and developed the film. You would then clean up pages with a ruby lithe pencil or cut the rubylith out and mask large areas if necessary. This final film was then sent down to the printing press where an actual metal plate was created out of it. Sounds like ancient history doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Back when I was in school I actually was required to take a course called \u201cMechanicals and Paste-up\u201d\u00a0 and I\u2019m grateful I did. Working with X-acto knifes, rulers, technical pens, line tape, letraset press type and other ancient design artifacts really helped me develop an appreciation for the craftsmanship of our trade.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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Some recent sketches by Amanda, our Jr. Designer for a presentation deck for a local startup company.<\/i><\/p>\n

Ready, Set , Draw!<\/b><\/p>\n

Drawing is another old school skill that I highly value and is required of all my junior designers. I\u2019m fortunate to have good drawing ability on my design team. The quickest, most effective way to get everyone on the same page is to be able to generate a thumbnail sketch on the fly.\u00a0 We storyboard video sequences all the time using thumbnail sketches. Most logo designs begin as sketches. Everything should begin as a sketch in fact. Even my layouts begin that way. I usually grab a pen or pencil and pad before I do anything else regarding the creative process. In fact, its why I swear by my Black Book sketch journals\u2026 they\u2019re great for taking meeting notes and jotting down design sketches that I can reference later. As a kid, I collected comics, and loved trying to draw my own versions of superheros. Like many other designers, I dreamed of one day working for Marvel comics as an artist. I was always doodling in my school notebooks, and would often draw a few extra doodles on the edges of tests and other assignments if I finished early. Another problem I had was drawing right on my desktop. (not my computer desktop, a real actual DESK TOP) \ud83d\ude09 Seriously, I’m grateful to my parents for buying me crayons and coloring books from an early age. Its all I knew. I really urge all young designers or those with aspirations to be graphic designers to draw, draw, and draw some more. It is a highly underrated ability – that like I said, for many firms, mine included, is a requirement.<\/p>\n

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Caslon sketch pads are the best.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Illustrations I did for the Handhold Adapative \u201ciPrompts\u201d\u00a0 iPhone App<\/i><\/p>\n

https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/iprompts-visual-supports-schedules\/id313144705?mt=8<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies<\/b><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a great website that will really bring you back:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.forgottenartsupplies.com<\/a><\/p>\n

This website has old school books, color tools, drawing templates, drawing tools, glues, waxers, tape, pencils, erasers, pens, projectors, letraset press type and stat cameras.\u00a0 Man, I remember my art supply list being super long and needing to buy a fishing tackle box to keep everything inside\u2026 I also had to lug a gigantic portfolio around from class to class. I\u2019m afraid that because the advancements we\u2019ve made in computers, that some of the \u2018old school\u2019 skills are not only being lost, but they\u2019re not even being taught.<\/p>\n

As a Creative Director, manager, boss, and design mentor to younger designers, I promise to pass along these skills to the next generation. I\u2019m a firm believer that cutting off a few fingertips with a brand new X-acto blade builds character.<\/p>\n

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Ramon has over 19 years of experience in award-winning, market-proven, print collateral, marketing material, iphone\/ipad app and website design specializing in corporate identity and branding. Ramon\u2019s passion for entrepreneurial design was borne out of 10 years as Creative Director for Jay Walker at Walker Digital, the Stamford based idea laboratory and business incubator holding over 300 US Patents. Ramon served as Senior Art Director on the start-up launch team behind Priceline.com, a Walker company and invention. Most recently, Ramon’s logo and identity work was selected to be published in “Typography and Enclosures” the fourth book in the Master Library series by LogoLounge.<\/p>\n

Need help with your brand identity or want to overhaul your existing brand? Contact: ramon@server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Ramon on Twitter @Peralta_Design<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tools of the trade. Old School Skills: How many of us have them? Rubber cement.\u00a0 Spray mount. X-acto Blades. Proportion wheel.\u00a0 Cutting mat. There\u2019s something to be said for coming up the old school way in the design world. By old school, I mean coming up as a young designer before the dawn of pagination. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.peraltadev.com\/peraltadesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}