If you first got started in advertising when linotype was a familiar word, then you’re more than accustomed to the process of marking up type. It was one of the most important learning curves for any kind of print production, requiring that you double and triple-check your calculations before packing it all up to send out to the typesetter. Anyone responsible for the successful completion of this task became an obsessive-compulsive textbook case, because after all, if your typesetting came back wrong, it would prove to be a costly error that could very well contribute to your missing a crucial deadline.
During that time in advertising, you had the opportunity to work hands-on in other departments as well, becoming familiar with copywriting, illustration, photo retouching, sales and printing, just to name a few, learning all you could learn about every subject that contributed to the successful completion of a variety of publishing, packaging and printing projects. Nothing was easy, everything was sent out and the pressure to get it all right the first time never ceased. This was just the beginning of all the things you would learn through the years, as you honed your skills in the vast variety of advertising disciplines.
When they introduced affordable devices like headliners and varitypers, along with free-standing portable darkrooms that could produce camera-ready artwork in an office setting, things began to shift away from the expense of sending things out to doing them more cost-effectively in-house. Although the output from the new products couldn’t immediately compete with the level of quality provided by the outside vendors, they did serve to at least speed up low end to middle-of-the-road projects that used to take too long. In fact, if you were a good designer with experience in type markup and art prep, you would find yourself successful in overcoming most of the shortcomings relating to the equipment.
During all this time, many people like copywriters, layout artists, paste-up artists, typesetters, proofreaders and others continued to be a vital part of of the advertising team. It was this collective effort that defined the overall success of the finished product.
Now, here we are, fast-forwarded to the computer age, where one graphic artist is hired to replace the typesetter, paste up artist, layout artist and photo retoucher of old. The success of this mission depends on the person’s abilities in each of the required tasks. If you happen to come from the linotype age, the entire team has morphed into you, one graphic artist who reflects the talents and responsibilities of all, including copywriter and idea person, while demonstrating proficiency on the computer and mastery of the software. The exposure to all the disciplines has paid off, and at this point in your life you are probably at the top of your game, feeling pretty good about yourself and earning quite a nice living.
Along comes the economic downturn of 2007 and poof, your company goes belly up or another reason beyond your control contributes to you losing your job. You immediately begin doing what you have to do to replace your income, but before long, you realize that your chances of being hired anywhere else are slim to none. It is not your inability to qualify for a job somewhere else that’s hindering you, it’s that there aren’t any jobs anywhere else.
Here’s where your opportunity arises. When you put all the disappointing job searches, job fairs and job interviews behind you, and you put your predicament into proper perspective, you come to the realization that it’s time to open your eyes wide to all the other possibilities that may exist. Once aware, you spot the very thing that’s been growing at an exponential rate, and the one thing that should be right up your alley; the internet. Of course! This is tailor-made;you have the graphic skills to design websites, the creative and copywriting talent to make the pages meaningful, and the sales savvy to drum up clients. What you will need to do is learn another piece of software and the coding language that rounds you off as a true webmaster.
So what else is new? You’ve been through all of this before. Look at everything else you have already learned. When the economy recovers and it’s time for you to vie for a job, adding this new knowledge to your repertoire will give you the opportunity to present yourself as the sum total of all they would ever want in a modern advertising person. Only you’re not just another modern advertising person, you’re a mature, modern advertising person who has kept up with all the newest trends and has the added capabilities of being able to apply a multitude of valuable skills that go all the way back to when linotype was in vogue.