Volume 19–4 (Low Res).pdf

The Digi .1 I )i emma:
Digital technology has made it easier to copy, manipulate and tions, but they all center on the availability of images. "We are
distribute images. How is the graphic design community beginning to see artwork and art styles as parts which are interresponding
to issues of copyright, licensing and usage rights in changeable in some ways',' Davis says. "This opens up possibilities
the electronic age? Here, U&lc exploresfour different areas: that are wonderful and possibilities that are horrible." He pointed
illustration, photography, type and graphic design. out that illustrators can now send out drawings all over the
country on a computer disk with the potential that their
ILLUSTRATION by Karen Chambers style could become pervasive, "like McDonald's in a way?'
"The interesting thing about computers is that everything that's in In Davis' view, computer technology makes it possible
there is digitized. You've got digitized images and digitized type, to market illustration in a new way. While this may make
digitized artwork. You can draw within the computer. Everything better artwork available to more people, it may also limit
is really flowing together. It's sort of like this digital river;' says diversity. Davis could see how one hot illustrator's work could
Paul Davis, illustrator and art director. sweep the country, allowing art directors, t-shirt manufacturers
Davis, known for his sophisticated and stylishly realistic illus- and other image users to adapt that illustrator's drawings for their
trations for New York's Public Theater and PBS, views the com- own purposes, presumably at a cost that would be less than computer
as the newest weapon in his artistic arsenal. missioning an original drawing. They could have an example of
Davis became aware of the allure of the computer when his his or her style at an affordable price instead of commissioning a
son started college in 1985 and wanted one: "We bought an Apple. lesser known illustrator to do something specifically for them.
It was a primitive little thing, but it was wonderful?' Davis soon A new artistic and commercial criterion for illustrators may
learned that "whatever's possible anywhere else is possible on a be adaptability. "There will be artists who will figure out ways
computer. You can draw. You can color. You can do retouching. to adapt to the computer and to the ways that computer art is
You can set type. Manipulate type. You can take drawings and pho- marketed," says Davis.
tographs and transform them into other things. You can take a
photograph and make it look like a watercolor or a pastel drawing. PHOTOGRAPHY by Karen Chambers
You can collage very easily on a computer?' "The most powerful medium that we have for instruction, for
Davis now teaches at the Center for Creative Imaging in Cam- spreading the truth, for protecting the First Amendment, and peoden,
Maine (see related article on page 34). Sponsored by Kodak, ple's right to know is documentary photographs;' says John Long,
the Center offers design professionals workshops in computer past president of the National Press Photographers Association.
technology with state-of-the-art equipment. "The students do a But the documentary photograph may be an extinct species
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lot of work in a very short period of time;' explains Davis. "They
learn one or two programs and go home basically knowing what
they want. Many of them plan to buy between $20,000 and
in the very near future thanks to advances in electronic technology.
It is now possible to feed "photographic" images directly into
computers so that not only does a print on paper not exist, nei-
$100,000 worth of equipment in the next few years?' ther does a negative.
This seems to confirm that a computer revolution in the The revolution started about four years ago with the introduc-
1 1 graphic design industry is well underway. It has many implica- tion of the Leafax Transmitter. It was a portable negative trans-
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