With Web 2.0 swiftly becoming a tired-out buzz word that really only offers a bunch of basic tenets of our generation's expectations of the web, there are more and more ways for money to be made online. Being intensely interested in graphic design (hence me being in the DTC program at WSU), I take from this article a number of things.
Regarding the Web as a platform, I wonder if one day perhaps there will be a premium industry-standard way of designing imagery that's available on the web as opposed to programs that are run off of a hard drive. It seems implausible, unlikely, and unusual, but that's what Web squared is all about- defying convention and really pushing the envelope with what services are available online. We're already seeing mass-distributed ways to teach and profess the finer arts and nuances of using the current standard creative programs, all available as video streams online. It's making the self-taught freelance graphic artist much more likely to succeed. A big social movement to develop an open-source, web-based design program would be a dream come true for the strapped-for-cash design wannabe like myself. Gimp is a great alternative, but far from the industry standard that is Photoshop, and not web-based.
Unfortunately the web probably isn't a good medium for design, unless applications somehow gain a level of fidelity that we're not familiar with from the internet. It's a pipe-dream I suppose.
The coolest web application I've seen lately is Prezi. I bet microsoft has lost a lot of business from Powerpoint because of it. In retrospect, Powerpoint has always been great but I can't see why it's taken this long for a web-based, free application to take its place.
There are already some (admittedly basic) creative web programs. I remember running into a “create your own snowflake” page once that was pretty neat. As far as beefier design programs go, it seems like they wouldn’t be practical without a really high grade internet connection, and dedicated servers. But hey, I’m often surprised by the things that people are able to manage over the web, so who knows? At least there are online tutoring videos and support forums to help with the non-web based stuff. It allows us to learn and share experiences with each other without having to be in a classroom setting.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem sort of funny that it took so long for someone to create a replacement for PowerPoint. I guess Microsoft is just really good at exploiting and defending niches.
I think the web is a great medium for design. It allows for easy publishing, connections to other artists, inspiration, and even have other members rate one's work. People are sharing more and more with each other over the web.
ReplyDeleteI think a web based graphic design program is a great idea. The only thing keeping this from happening now is bandwidth. Because graphic design users such high quality photos and imagery it struggles in on Americas mediocre network. Current legislation seems to want this problem to become worse as internet providers attempt to undermine net neutrality. It would still be interesting to see what people could do with a powerful web platform even if the image size had to be restricted. Possibly a whole new type of art could be created. Masterpieces in a 100x100 pixels or less.
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