We recently hosted studio visits for students entering Pratt Institute. When I revealed that I was on campus 29 years ago, one group was sort of shocked. I think part of their reaction had to do with the fact that I didn’t look that old (I hope). The other part was amazement that I’ve been a practitioner all this time – and I think that provided encouragement as they move closer to their own careers. I also learned that this new generation had no idea of how graphic design work was produced back then.

While the process of creating a brochure 25+ years ago is now part of art history, I do believe a quick review (leaving out a lot of details) illustrates how technology has changed the design industry for newer generations of designers. Back then, if you were a student “freelancer” with a client, and they had a printer, they needed your design and a “mechanical” for production.

I was fortunate to be an art student and knew some things about print design. I designed my high school yearbook by using a company kit that showed how to specify the layout of a page, size photographs, create special line art and fit copy. If you had talent, skills, reference materials and a lot of art supplies (many of them extremely dangerous), and knew how to use them – you could probably do the job – although you would probably need to correct a lot of mistakes.

The process usually involved at least two additional businesses: a type shop and photo stat shop. Each had their own staffs, expensive equipment and supplies. The type output (referred to as galley’s) and the photo stats would then be cut and pasted to a white piece of illustration board. Hopefully, the results would resemble your vision, and more importantly, it fit together in the allotted spaces. If not – the work would need to be repeated.

To begin, you had to rough out the layout, do a character and line count of the manuscript and then specify instructions for the typesetter. You had to physically get the manuscript to the typesetter where it was retyped! In many instances headlines were produced on entirely different equipment. This type came in long strips which you had to handle additionally. In some instances you could use transfer type that came on adhesive film, although the size and quantity of letters you needed might not be provided on one sheet, requiring you to buy additional ones.

If text changes were required [get this] you would physically cut and paste them together – letter by letter, word by word and sentence by sentence (often using scrap type from additional galley’s)! You hoped that you had the right letters and everything would stay in place. You could phone in corrections to the type shop but it usually took 24 hours to receive the revised text. Access to photo copiers was limited (copy shops) and there were no fax machines. And all of this needed to happen before you presented it to your client the first time. Afterwards, you would repeat this process over and over again. Finally, on a tissue overlay, you’d indicate color break and a variety of information for the printer. When in print production, the job went through a number of additional steps and the printer could make some changes but not all.

A lack of space and time will spare the details of incorporating logos, line art or photographs. If you had them, the photo stat shop would make direct positives or negatives that would be sized and handled again and again for cropping. And all the decisions regarding their use required math. You can imagine the challenges this created when doing a magazine, book, or a daily newspaper! Consider how many materials were leftover and needed to be stored.

Today, you can virtually do everything on your computer without leaving your desk. This has eliminated many businesses and industries but created new ones. Now that we have the Internet, you can deliver a pdf – that in many ways is the finished product. It is amazing to compare how our practice has changed and recognize the ways it has remained the same. It is exciting to think about all the things that will happen in the future!