Re: CM Rant
Re: CM Rant
- Subject: Re: CM Rant
- From: Steve Upton <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 22:45:28 -0700
At 6:42 PM -0400 6/1/08, Marco Ugolini wrote:
> technologically obtuse people
THAT's a good term.
When I founded CHROMiX almost 10 years ago I thought that designers would make up a significant portion of our clientele. Seattle is, after all, a design town (as far as our 'cut' of the graphic arts market).
One thing I have learned over the years is that designers, like all other links in the image production chain, will not adopt color management until they *need* to. I have talked to many of them over the years and we do have some for customers but I think that what was true 10 years ago is still true today: While there are significant benefits to color management, overall, designers do *not* *need* to adopt it in order to gain customers, further their business, win awards, stay out of court, go home any earlier, etc.
That doesn't mean that many design groups have not taken on some of the basic tasks of color management: calibrate the display, setup the apps right and find a good copier company. But the vast majority of designers are single person or very small groups OR embedded in a large organization that has always thought of their systems as 'that strange stuff' that they avoid supporting. In the organizations that have adopted color management to a level that would satisfy those of us on this list, it is typically not designers doing the color management but rather enlightened IT people or embedded prepress / production folks.
And designers do not have their butts on the line for color reproduction accuracy in any way *that compares* to people upstream or downstream of them. In fact, they've managed to avoid a number of responsibilities over the years. At one time it made sense that designers might want to take advantage of asset management systems as well - until it was plain that that would mean that they had to take responsibility for their customers' digital assets - then it was passed off to printers or used only to reduce the work when reworking previous projects.
I don't mean to give designers a bad name or malign them - nor can I speak for them, this is simply my experience. I also know there are certainly exceptions to the rule, and we applaud them. It's just that in the US, today, the roles and responsibilities have sorted out so that color management goes elsewhere. I have seen evidence that it can be different outside the US. I'll never forget being asked by a woman who was a designer in Mexico if ProfileMaker embedded measurement data in profiles...!... whoa! just imagine the level of knowledge and experience required to ask that question. This was at a *color management* conference that had about 250 attendees and they were about 60% photographers and 40% designers if I remember properly.
Let's also not forget that to many - photographers, prepress, printers - designers are often seen as "the customer" even though, obviously, they are spending someone else's money just like we are. But do we hold customers' feet to the fire? No. We say "sure, we'll take care of that" and if the service can be billed back to the real customer, and marked up along the way, then the problem tends to perpetuate itself.
As long as the designers are "them" and everyone else is "us" then promoting change will be as effective as pushing rope.
In rereading this post it comes off as a bit bitter but I don't feel that way at all. Perhaps resigned. But I also know that the issues of color management weren't lessened by all this, only redistributed.
There's still lots of work to be done.
Regards,
Steve
________________________________________________________________________
o Steve Upton CHROMiX www.chromix.com
o (hueman) 866.CHROMiX
________________________________________________________________________
--
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Colorsync-users mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
| References: | |
| | >CM Rant (From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>) |