Monday, May 5, 2008

well now what do we do?

now that we all have a pretty clear understanding of the past it is only right that we now look to the future that we will hopefully take part in.  to asses the media of the future we have to look at the media of the past.  periodicals, non-periodical advertising (everything from billboards to urinal walls {yes ladies some places actually advertise on the walls seen while using the restroom}), and package design.  in recent years, the internet has given graphic designers a world of opportunity. [i find it odd that we have so many out of work designers and still there is no shortage of crappy websites, ads, and identities.] 

first we'll look at periodicals.  first came single-page news papers which quickly mutated into the daily sapling we know and ignore to
day with full grown trees on sundays.  i believe that this is a media dying of cancer.  fewer people read and those who do are usually smart enough to want more than one source.  this is why the internet is eating the newspaper.  i feel it won't be long for our old pal the newspaper.  he will be and is being replaced by news websites.  thats all fine and good but what about magazines? because of the more specialized nature of magazines they will live on in various forms long after the paper is gone, but the bulk of them will be replaced by websites as well.  i believe that the most cutting edge media is that of video pod-casting.  this is what many magazines will become.  this also provides opportunities for graphic designers.  the concept of video periodicals is very intriguing to me.  i think that this will be the way of the future.

now lets take a look at non-periodical advertising design.  in other words Billboards.  i once read that if you want have an idea of where we will be in a hundred  years look at life a hundred years ago.  i intend on using the same concept but using twenty years instead.  times square is perhaps the most ad-soaked area of the america so i think it will be a good meter-stick for our observation. 





behold, times square in roughly 1968. i count 5 or 6 in the extra large size.

here we have 1988, notice a difference? this is a much tighter shot, but we see that the ads have gone super-sized.  (take into account one is daytime the other night.) 
if you don't like being inundated with ads don't look down.





9 or so Giant Sized Ad Boards most if not all play motion graphics, and
potentially rotate through various ads
also the scale is roughly the same as the 1986 shot and much tighter than the 1968 shot.


here we can see not only an increase in ads but also a change from still lighted ads to full color in your face motion ads that essentially play graphical video on screens the size of the parking deck. in 1968 we see a billboard soaked lighted times square. we then see about what we can expect to be blasted with in the next twenty years.  the good news is, someone has to design all those ads. 

new technologies not yet widely used are another spot the design of the future can be found.  new media such as holographic technology will challenge and inspire us.  we will re-examine concepts like dada and constructivism that will be fused with new ideas to create new movements in design.

so to sum it all up we can look forward to millions of giant sized holographic video podcasting  billboards where presidential campaigns have epic battles for years at a time. (unless al gore is right in which case the new times square will be be located in present day cawker city kansas current home to the worlds largest ball of twine.)

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