Beyond the blue sky
Originally posted on May 10, 2010
Below is a letter I wrote to my boss in 2007. At the time, I was engaged in growing my skill set in motion graphics design. Long and short of it, I needed a new machine. However, as we all know, most of the time you can’t just ask for a fancy new piece of hardware. You have to bitch, moan, whine, and be prepared to lose a certain amount of pride in doing so (cue squeaky wheel).
Joking (sorta) aside, I felt that, because new technology paradigms are quickly being introduced, static design comps, no matter how refined they are, don’t tell half the story when it comes to explaining a design solution. Clients need to be seen how new devices will react to human input, and vice-versa. Common understanding of such things as a ‘virtual environment’, are limited in its analogy to science fiction abstracts seen in movies such as Minority Report, Iron Man, and even Fahrenheit 451 and Logan’s Run back in the day.
The days of dreaming are over. What were once ‘blue sky’ ideas a couple of years ago are rapidly becoming necessary tools needed to solve real-world problems. We can no longer speak in terms of ‘what could be if only we had the technology’, for now we do. It is irresponsible for us as designers to fall back on explanation through fictional analogies and expect users to understand the things that we design for.
Just as interaction design helps to define thesis, and visual design illustrates interaction, motion graphics has become an necessity in explaining design and to introduce the real-life benefits that emerging technologies bring into our lives.
The letter:
“First of all, I want to thank you for your understanding and support regarding my career growth goals. To tell you the truth, I was a bit concerned that I may not have explained my intentions clearly enough. I know that I mentioned that ‘I did not want to do websites’ anymore, however that is not true. I understand my role at the company requires me to do so, and for the most part, I enjoy it. However, after working almost exclusively on websites for over 10 years, I feel the need to grow my digital media skill set beyond websites, finding particular interest in the realm of motion graphics. As we discussed, motion graphics can be a strong component in enhancing our storytelling abilities when explaining concepts and interaction to clients. It also adds value to the overall experience that our company can deliver (as seen in deliverables we’ve created in the past through Mr. A’s help).
As I’m sure you’re aware, traditionally our company has employed the use of motion graphic design to market our industrial design discipline. Little if anything has been created in this field to support digital media from a visual design perspective –our Austin office being an exception. Seeing deliverables from our competitors, it is clear that incorporating motion graphics to explain concepts through scenarios not only adds a ‘richer’ experience, but also enhances the overall ‘wow factor’ of professional deliverables. As the digital realm becomes more associated with video, I believe that such an experience will move from being an ‘enhancement’ to an expected norm, not only in explaining concepts, but in the conceptualization process itself. As web experiences move closer to mimicking the ‘real-world’, motion-based experiences are obviously an inevitable evolution.”
