Part 15 – 1990s A Steep Learning Curve

A steep learning curve

We were among the very first ‘all-MAC’ design studios in London. From about 1990, all our jobs were produced on the MAC, but this was a slow and unreliable animal in its early days.

Data storage was strictly limited and restricted to floppy disks, and printers and proofers were temperamental.

Not surprisingly, the first generation of operators were more ‘nerd’ than creative and combined with an unrealistic expectation from clients who seemed to think that our job was now much easier, those early days were fraught with problems.

The demise of typesetting

Before Rupert Murdoch took his newspaper production to Wapping and dealt a death blow to the unions, a whole industry revolved around the creation of type for print.

Typositors – the men who worked round the clock to produce the words for newspapers, magazines and books – had learned their trade in the early days of hot-metal letterpress printing and were highly skilled operators.

Fully aware of the finer points of typography, they were also practised proof readers, so that what came back from a designer’s ‘mark-up’ was generally error free.

With the advent of the Apple MAC, designers became reluctant (and unqualified) typesetters overnight. Standards began to fall, and they have been falling ever since.

My journey as a graphic designer, an introduction

Part 01 – 1960s In the Beginning: Undergraduate work

Part 02 – 1970s The Royal College of Art & The Advent of Colour

Part 03 – 1970s Starting Out in the Real World

Part 04 – 1970s My First Major Client

Part 05 – 1970s More Than One Man

Part 06 – 1970s Striking It Lucky

Part 07 – 1970s Embracing Ground-breaking Techniques

Part 08 – 1980s Changing Roles for Designers

Part 09 – 1980s Our First Technology Client

Part 10 – 1980s Growing Through Recommendation

Part 11 – 1980s The Dream Client

Part 12 – 1980s Moving into Corporate Design

Part 13 – 1990s Ramping Up the Workload

Part 14 – 1990s Graphic Design goes Global

Part 15 – 1990s A Steep Learning Curve

Part 16 – 1990s Working for The Nation’s Favourite

Part 17 – 1990s The Challenge of the Future

Part 18 – 1990s Picking up the Crumbs

Part 19 – 1990s Vested Interest

Part 20 – 1990s Setting the Standard

Part 21 – 1990s Still Growing after All These Years

Part 22 – 1990s New Business from Old

Part 23 – 1990s Keeping up with Demand

Part 24 – 1990s A Full-Service Consultancy

Part 25 – 1990s Into the Unknown

Part 26 – 2000s Learning New Tricks

Part 27 – 2000s Lifestyle Publishing Moves on

Part 28 – 2010s and Now…