I’m at the 3rd stop on the Adobe CS3: Creative License Tour here in San Jose California. Actually we’re doing this event at the Adobe headquarters. Its great to have over 150 people here and the response was so great that we had to add a second day. The audience is great and we’re having a blast learning about Creative Suite 3. We also got a special treat by having Adobe’s Senior VP of the Creative Solutions Business, Johnny L join me on stage during the keynote. Lisa Forrester is doing the Design Premium Suite, Kyle Thompson is doing the Web Premium Suite and Kevan O’Brien is once again doing the Production Premium Suite with his purple hair and all. I think the new box designs went to his head, literally. I hope to see you at one of the upcoming cities.
I attended the 5/31 Adobe CS3 Seminar, and several comments by made by all the presenters, including yourself, really resonated with me.
I come from a print background, starting with Quark waaay back in 1991, making a modest living. No dot com boom for me. I haven’t delved into any non-print apps, telling myself that I will “one of these days”. I don’t even have a website….!
But here I am, in my mid 40s, facing a bit of mid-life crisis in terms of my career.
The comments on “giving us a 4 day week” really means that our hourly workload is decreasing (let’s be honest, we can’t lie to clients the way Kevan jokingly suggested because some young whippersnapper [or outsourcer!] will undercut our time/rate), resulting in decreased income, therefore forcing us to take on more work, seek more clients, and be tougher competitors.
And to do that, we need to learn more applications – resulting in being “just good enough” in a lot of apps, spending more unbillable hours learning new stuff rather than being experts in one or two apps.
Meaning that a lot of people attending the seminar felt an uneasy chill at the thought of all the “better, faster, more!” amazing new features Adobe is creating. Perhaps that explained the half-hearted response to the “4 day week”, the shifting in chairs and the not very enthusiastic response I felt in attempting to network. We’re the troops being sent to battle with better and faster equipment, but not all of us are going to make it…
Although I do honestly relish the idea of broadening my knowledge (the pairing with Lynda.com was a brilliant stroke there), I feel I’m doing it with wolves snapping at my heels… can I really stay ahead in my mid-40s, having made the decision to be one of those that do rather than one of those that teach (or manage)?
What does the future hold for the world of graphic creatives, for you, for Adobe, if they make our job easier and faster…? Do most of the creators get eliminated if the software becomes too user-friendly? Does it all shift to overseas outsourcers?
Points to ponder… If you could direct me to others who are also publicly pondering these issues, I would be most appreciative.
Thank you.