I spent the last two weeks of April in Florida, attending four print-related conferences at two different luxury resort hotels. Nice work if you can get it, and I don’t get it often enough. The pool and the sun were constant temptations. But it was alternating between the sea and the sessions that I glimpsed a sliver of the future.
Most of what I learned at these conferences is good news. From the conference speakers and from the people I talked to during breaks and meals, I got the distinct impression that business is finally starting to get better — at least for most of us. The bad news? Well, it’s pretty clear to me that some people who pinned their hopes on finally making some money "when the economy gets better" are going to be disappointed.
What I found difficult to puzzle out was who will benefit and who will mourn during this time of economic revival. I had two weeks to absorb, think, read, and apply sunscreen, so I had ample time to pick out and ponder the pieces of my mental puzzle.
The Puzzle
I got my puzzle pieces while attending Print Oasis, a conference for print buyers held this year in Hollywood, Florida. Gordon Kaye, Publisher and Editor of "Graphic Design USA," outlined in one session the results of the publication’s 40th Annual Print and Paper Survey. One statistic from that presentation became my first puzzle piece: 92 percent of the designers surveyed said they had designed for print in the last year while 60 percent said they had designed for the Web during the same time period. What I took away is that print and the Web have come to co-exist in the portfolio of many designers.
In another session, Dick Gorelick, President of the Graphic Arts Sales Foundation, reported on trends he feels are important for print buyers (who are often print designers, according to Graphic Design USA’s Kaye). What stood out for me is a remark Gorelick tossed off so casually I almost missed picking up another piece of the puzzle: “The Web is a medium of information. Print is a medium of promotion.”
His remark underscored the point that printed material is being used less and less to convey information. More and more of that type of content is placed on Web sites. Yet, he went on to say, you wouldn’t know where to look for information if not for the power of print to direct you to the repository. The magazine article that tells you about a Web site, the URL on a display ad, the mail piece that directs you to a portal — are all examples of how print and the Web have found a way to work together and reinforce one another.
More Puzzling
Another piece came to me via the Web as I was checking my e-mail during a break. While I was sitting in a conference room in Florida, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences released its list of nominees for the 2004 Webby Awards. Reading the list, I couldn’t help but notice that the Web sites of many prominent print publications made the list, among them National Geographic, Style (Vogue and W magazines), and Martha Stewart Living — and many were nominated in traditional Web categories, not just the predictable "Print + Zines."
No one would have known about many of the Web sites on the list if they hadn’t read about them in print or if there wasn’t a well known print vehicle accompanying them. The Web, the medium that was going to displace the medium of print, needs (even craves) ink on paper so you will be compelled to read dots on screen.
Putting it Together
Okay, why is this so important? Did I get too much sun in Florida or what? To understand the importance of this puzzle, you need to know how I got its context – which I got while reading business magazines in my lounge chair by the pool. (I might have been absent from a session or two, but I was still working!)
The economy is improving — you know it and I know it. What the magazines I was reading indicated is that the general job market isn’t far behind, which means there just might be a boomlet in the high-tech job market — and this means more work for designers with more than the average skill base. But according to an article in the May issue of "Business 2.0" that I was reading, “73% of executives polled last fall…reported that they would be ‘more likely’ to change companies once the economy recovers.”
It makes sense; people are fed up doing the job of two, three, and even four people while knowing they can’t count on a raise that will cover even the increased cost of filling their cars with gasoline. They’re ready to escape to a different job even if all they get for their trouble is a little bit more money because they are sick and tired of working so hard for so little reward.
But if you’re ready to jump to another job, don’t go just because another employer is offering you a little more and you can’t wait to kiss your current set of slave drivers good-bye. Later in the same "Business 2.0" article, I read: "Recruiters agree that the way to maintain your value in a globally competitive workforce is to add breadth to your repertoire of talents…. Look for ways to ‘add skills that your employer can’t get for $5 an hour.’ Develop a rare specialty…”
In other words, bide your time and look for a job that is much better than the one you have now. While you’re waiting, make sure you have the skills in place that will get you a lot more money and that will keep you going through the next job and into the one after that.
What does that mean for creative professionals? Print design skills alone won’t do the trick — that’s the picture I see in my completed puzzle. Print will recover a few percentage points over the next few years, but some sectors such as magazine and book publishing aren’t going anywhere fast. Make the most of the coming swell in job opportunities by ensuring you have some killer Web-design work in your portfolio. Some print buying and content/print management skills would help, too. Look for ways to make the print and the Web work together for your employers and your clients. Find some skill combinations that people can’t find easily and keep honing those skills.
Ride the wave when it comes! Your time on the beach is just about over, and you’ll go far if you’ve got the right board under you.
Read more by Molly Joss.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 13, 2004
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