Traditional art and trend in graphic design

Hello my friends,

We have been celebrating yesterday Traditional Art on DeviantArt which was, I think, a good thing as many pieces there are more digital and traditional ones deserve recognition too. Changing our medium offers new ideas, challenges and possibilities - all for good.

I have been noticing for many months how traditional and hand-made/drawn/painted pieces are coming back into graphic design (in a general sense). If we step back, say, 7 years ago in the early 2000, most commercial trendy and cool designs were pure computer-generated stuff. Now, people tend to think that using the computer is too easy and if I consider some of those previously successful designs which were mainly Photoshop filters and various blending modes, I can't say this isn't completely false.

So, where are we now? I think, in the most exciting time: mediums are just mediums: paper, scanner, photoshop, ink... we can print an image and paint on it, scan a drawing and digitally paint on it... that's the time for mix-media. I personally don't care about how many processes are involved, what's important is how the final image will look. I mainly work digitally but this doesn't mean that my images should look digital (think of my paintings for instance).

Now I see on artists blogs, statement such as "[...] when creative design was a more hands-on affair, pens, pencils, [...] allowed designers to express a real individuality in their craft that is not possible with a keyboard and mouse." (this ones come from the cool blog www.cpluv.com ). Well, really, I can't agree. It just seems to me that digital artists are just re-discovering traditional media and feeling excited about it - but this is just a tool!

I've always disagreed with people who think that they know and do "real" art because of the medium they've elected. Like "I shoot film, I'm a real photographer". "I'm using a Leica because all famous photographers had one".

Everything is just a medium. These are just a tools.

It is important to play with them all. Experiment. Gain experience, get ideas, but don't disrespect others' work because they don't use your technique.

You'll get respect by showing some innovative ideas or touching images. But not because you're using a specific medium.

Enjoy and have fun mixing things altogether until you end up with something great and personal.