Digital software has changed the way advertising practitioners think. Gone is the era of creative manual adverts. Most creative artists simply develop concepts. Software translates it to picture and images. But, there are fears that this emerging trend will cost fine artists their job, reports ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI.
There is big dividing line between traditional and digital advertising. In the past 10 years, they have started to embrace each other more openly, yet the line remains despite being blurred.
While technology-savvy creative experts see the use of digital computer software such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkEx-press, PageMaker as the game changer, proponents of creative traditional advertising creative and fine artists have been advised to upgrade their knowledge in line with the fast changing industry.
With latest software such as 3D computer graphics, artists may no longer be needed to sketch image for art directors as the software cannot only generate or create drawings but manipulate images.
Also, the software can add, subtract, stretch among others to create perfect interpretation of creative brief. Though criticised for often overplaying creativity, over-hyping of brands being promoted, hence, making creative experts to become lazy in thinking deeper but the world seem to have engaged the creative tools for competition sake. For Nigerian ad agencies, the software has made the creative work less cumbersome and more competitive.
According to the former Creative Director, 141 Worldwide and now Chief Executive Officer of X3M, Mr. Steve Babaeko, “digital art software has helped to make the creative process less painful for art directors.”
He said this has also “helped artists push the frontiers of creativity to hitherto unimaginable frontiers.” While underscoring the importance of traditional art, Babaeko said digital art software would be meaningless without the knowledge of the handdrawn artistry.
“Like the saying goes: the hood does not make the monk. The best software in the world is at best used less in the hands of an unskilled artist,” he said.
In the same vein, the Creative Director, DKK Nigeria, Mr. Sam Adeoye, affirmed that digital art has moved the ad business forward as art directors and designers have become more creative in their work, achieving photo manipulations, illustrations, and all that could not be done in the days of copy and paste. He said with increasingly sophisticated demands, meeting deadline for client briefs is now less bothering while quality of work is better.
“We have also become faster in the process. And generally, the quality of production is now better, especially with the latest printing machines,” he affirmed. Despite the speed and quality offered, Adeoye expresses fears over relevance of old creative method.
He said: “I’m sure some of the old jobs in the era of cut and paste must have been eliminated as technology improved and photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkEx-press, PageMaker, etc came along. Also, artists who couldn’t use these new applications must have found themselves redundant.”
However, he maintained that no matter how inevitable digital art has become in delivering value brands creative, the jobs of artists’ remain relevant.
“We still need artists.Agencies need artists as designers, art directors, illustrators and FA specialists. Even the old skills of drawing remains relevant and artists who can draw are still highly valued. The more clients an agency has, the more artists it’s going to need,” he said.
Adeoye, who was Group Head, Copy, at STB McCann Erickson, said the artists are not the only creative professionals facing the creative software threat. “It’s not just for artists; it’s for all of us. That’s why we must constantly search for the latest thinking and breakthroughs around the world. The best way to deal with the challenge is to never stop the search for knowledge.”
He, however, insisted that despite the emergence of animation software like 3D graphics kit, hand-drawing remains key in the creative process.
“Animation is one of the things agencies are sometimes required to do. It’s on a different level from what is commonly referred to as art directing. But even animation will still require some drawing.
Even at Pixar, they still draw, and it doesn’t get more traditional than drawing. If we are wondering that machines will one day replace art directors, then we are entering the realm of science fiction.
And what was once science fiction, such as unmanned drones, is now real; the same thing may happen in advertising. Someday, someone may develop a true iRobot with empathy and the complex understanding of human emotions, which advertising always requires.
If that happens, then, machines may start producing ads that will resonate with people. For now, we only have good software and this software requires people to use them,” he said.
Even at global level, many agencies still draw their storyboard which is the template for TVC. As Deputy Creative Director, Prima Garnet, Mr Victor Dairo, noted, “some foreign adverts still come in drawing and sketches; it depends on which message you want to pass on despite the use of software.”
Meanwhile, the founder and worldwide creative director of BBH, a global ad agency, John Hegarty, while speaking at the Economist’s Technology Frontiers conference, said creativity and technology need to be synergised to deliver the results.
He explained how in the past, technological innovations such as the printing press and cinema were initially celebrated for the technology itself, but then required creative people to bring the technology to life after the novelty stage.
“Creativity challenges technology and technology inspires creativity,” he said.
“Sometimes, there is a schism between creative people and technologists, but we are in cohesion with each other. If we don’t work with each other we don’t move forward,” he noted.
