Like the changes we are witnessing across all industries, the change the advertising industry is experiencing entails an interesting revelation. Engineered by technological disruption, it has transformed the pace at which the industry used to function; it has reduced time consumption, minimized cost and, of course, manpower. While this makes sense in terms of business operations, ensuring timely execution with lesser time and money, it, however, creates serious implications that have adverse impacts. The change is the discontinuation of art tools which were crucial in every advertising house in creating great creative art works or effective campaigns. Like the rest, like it or not, the industry has also adjusted to it. Of course, some changes are for the best, but some, despite the convenience, could spell something disastrous.
Calligraphy: Written without practicing beautiful handwriting
Derived from the Greek word “kallos” which means “beauty” and “graphein” which means “to write,”, calligraphy literally means “The art of beautiful handwriting”. The calligraphy that we all know is the one done with a brush pen and a bottle of ink to produce wonderful words of art. Over the years its definition has evolved, and has even become a visual art that can be branched out to categories, including hand lettering and creative typography. It holds immense value in the field of fine arts, and in advertising, it is an essential tool in logo-designing, in films and television, on wedding invitations, socio-religious ceremonies, certificates of all sorts and of the like.
But in the digital age, thanks to modern digital tools, calligraphy is no longer done with brushes and pens. Today the place of traditional calligraphy has been taken over by tools like Abode’s suite that can create custom fonts that emulate handwriting. The process of writing or execution has become so instant that one only has to look and all the options pop up.
Photography: Dislodged by Image Banks
Think back to the time when an advertising agency had to employ an in-house professional photographer in order to produce some of the finest art works. Before a particular photograph was shot, the agency would have to ensure the availability of professional equipment, a studio with the right lighting setup, and finally a brainstorming session involving the entire creative team to chalk out an approach. Even if the concept is clear and the approach is right, there are still challenges. However, with the clarity drawn out, one could be assured of a satisfactory outcome or at least one that’s close to what one would have imagined. In the digital age, with instant access to large image banks like Shutterstock or Getty Images, the artist has been done away with, and, therefore, the entire process of creative consultation on setting the perspective and the approach has been eliminated.
This easy access to image banks is no different from buying read-to-wear, mass-produced clothing items which give one the feeling of wearing someone’s clothes. In other words, it doesn’t guarantee the right outcome, and it becomes the process of managing with what you have and being satisfied with it. If you want all the control over the result and the process, you have to produce all the product imagery in-house. Today, the art of photography is an outsider in digital advertising, and yet the outsider’s works are the very things you seek every waking hour.
Illustration: A picture no longer drawn
Everyone in the advertising industry is familiar with what “A picture is worth a thousand words.” coveys. Success of many advertisement campaigns, such as the Amul girl, can be attributed to effective use of illustration which is used to visualize advertising campaigns, adding artistic distinction, and style to adverts. Since advertising is meant to attract customers to a brand and product, grabbing attention remains a critical consideration. This means that adverts should be crafted in a manner that instantly grabs and maintains attention before the message can sink in deep. One key advantage of illustration is the ability to connect well with human emotions, especially their humorous side.
An effective visual image can easily grab the attention of a target audience; with that done, the advertisement can persuade an audience to read or listen to the entire message and turn them into customers. But this requires the attention of well-trained professionals who understand the nuances and also pay attention to the same. Therefore, an illustration work should blend with the overall theme of the advertisement campaign.Even though advertising is not a formal training, education remains a critical part of a successful advertising campaign. Also, words are critical to the success of any advert.
Given the elaborate process and the involvement of a team of professionals, today illustration is considered costly, time-consuming and infeasible. This also means overlooking several crucial aspects that make an effective creative work possible. They could entail research work to gain consumer insights, the efforts to employ creative minds to draw up a creative work that can attract attention and convey the intended message.
Strained Creation Without Essence
In the age of digital marketing, the debatable consensus is that ‘content’ is the king. Some exaggerate it to the extent of calling it ‘emperor’. Without any doubt, meaningful content still holds sway. But the demand to churn out as much as we can in the form of blogs and search engines-optimized content has definitely put strain on the craft that most of us these days simply create for the sake of creating without bothering about the heart of the matter. Essence. Since this is the trend, the question of quality or the beauty of ideas is no longer weighed or thought to be of crucial importance. So we end up expressing so much without saying anything about the crux or anything beautifully. If the need to dump algorithm-synced write-ups, which are called ‘blog’, on a daily basis has demeaned the art of writing, then what we see in art of videography and in other visual arts is equally disturbing that we can safely conclude that none understands the meaning of essence, let alone pursuing it. How frequently we produce is more than what we should actually produce. Evidently suggesting a blabber is better than meaningful silence.
The Reduced Status
An editor of a paper relies on his intelligence and conviction to write his editorial piece to educate or give a clear message to his readers with a clear sense of intellectual superiority. For such a fine consistent creation, he commands respect and the influence could go to the extent of swaying views. But that has changed; an editor, today, is more concerned about what the audience wants rather than what he should offer. Similarly, in the advertising world today, an agency no longer sits with a brand it works with on an equal table. It has been reduced to a mere supplier of creative works since the brand strategy is defined by the media planner and the brand, and the decisions are passed on to the agency to execute. Such reckless thinking or process has resulted in hack agencies churning out hack works which are without any solid ideas.
The Damaged Art
The sweeping change technological intervention has brought is the possibility for us to accomplish work with precision, lesser human resources and, most importantly, fast. ‘At a click or in a touch you do it’ is how most of us think, operate and accomplish most works. Although one shouldn’t underestimate what modern technology has contributed or simplified our life, a second thought reveals the implications that we barely think about them let alone examining.
This fast-paced delivery of artworks, after eliminating several steps and talents, has undoubtedly empowered people to express their creativity with little or just with a tool. The result is ‘trend’ or a ‘trend that has become sensational’, done with little or no meticulous care, but has earned such profound popularity that even a cynic of such work is, in a way, induced to acknowledge for the sake of keeping up with the trend, while contributing to the sensational popularity.
The question is the quality of art which we practice, advocate, constantly seek and aspire to create. When an artwork becomes synonymous with hack art and becomes pervasive, it’s a reminder that we pause for a while and reflect on what the trend or the so-called intervention has caused to the quality we strive to achieve. Such a trend or development calls for critical evaluation of the quality of works the advertising fraternity has been churning out, most of which could be rated as mere outcomes.
The reasons are what we have done away with, the pace we have embraced and the prevalent trend of ‘managing’ with too little to produce too many and fast. Since calligraphers are no longer required and their creation has been replaced by choose-and-pick from a software tool while designing a logo, a large part of the designer’s artistic skill has been undermined and not inculcated, and, therefore, the meticulous artistic infusion is replaced by mixing of selections. But the downside of this convenience or fast pace is the impact on memory; one becomes lazy. Moreover, one misses the research experience. Although such digital tools ensure quick delivery and instant creation, it is believed that design work developed with calligraphic skill is catchier than a computer generated design since it preserves the human touch. The essential aspect of traditional calligraphy is the coordination between eye and hand. The process involves movement of one’s hand and that has a lot to do with how one channels the inner energy and that also in the right amount. In other words, a calligrapher has to master this balance or how to control the energy in the body and utilize it in an activity.
The same is true for photography, another serious artistic pursuit. By denying the art and its significance, what one gets is a work to which little value is attached. Consequently, photography has been reduced to the mere act of taking a photograph rather than understanding the subject and how the entire creative stretch of approaching it with imagination, the right angle and executing it in a studio or at the right location equipped with lights, and finally enabled by relying on the right equipment. The random and instant pursuit of accessing an image bank has definitely quickened the process, reduced the expenses by eliminating the artist photographer and prevented burning deep pockets for equipment from a professional camera to lighting set up. However, one can conclude that there is no emotional attachment to a photograph used in an art work today.
Illustration also suffers a similar fate. We are today an industry with very few illustrators.This reminds one of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, in which boys as young as nine work as apprentices under blind masters to learn the art of illustration. By the time the person reaches the age of 50 or more the illustrator has produced so many art works that his brush strokes are spontaneous and are flawless, and with that he loses his eyesight as he has overused it. If he is blind and already a master, then he is revered, but for those who have mastered the art and already recognised as a master, and yet hasn’t lost his eyesight then it’s a shame. As though the art he has mastered isn’t sufficient or hasn’t salvaged his soul and mind, for his social standing’s sake he makes himself blind with a needle. Such was the competition, driven by such intense dedication, and such were the magnificent masterpieces they produced that even the philistine Ottoman emperors were compelled to accord them recognition and fame.
In the field of art, ensuring that senses are constantly engaged and their sensitivity elevated can result in the creation of the best art works. In other words, our sense should be constantly teased and challenged so that our perceptions are superior, and what we aspire to achieve or create is guided by highest benchmarks. Keeping the impact of technology in mind, we should find a balance between traditional craftsmanship and the technology that have disrupted the old patterns or we have hastily embraced. Failing to do so means letting the technology dictate every aspect of our life, and in this case, the artistic aspects, and producing what is supposedly art work while depending overwhelmingly on technology enablers. After all, incorporating technology into our life should not reduce us to people who can no longer write or spell, let alone doing any bit of critical thinking. Such a world sounds dreadful, but, much to our dismay, is spreading fast. We shouldn’t let this happen, nor should we encourage it so that we don’t sink in the very grave we have dug for ourselves. When art dies, a lot within us also dies and with that, we slowly disintegrate only to become mindless zombies.
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