The Best Ad I've Ever
Seen...
"
Help Wanted:"Christ with a Briefcase" |
I've always
been fascinated by ads for someone who can do both
graphic design and,
in his or her spare time "reengineer our world-wide
network topology" (loose allusion to an old
Dilbert). The following bullet items are extracted
from an ad that prompted
me to
post
the question
above.
- ASP scripting
- Bachelor of Art (B/A) degree in Graphic/Web
Design .
- Ideal:
- Ability to create illustrations
- Experience with coding in JavaScript
and using Ajax
- Experience with print design and color
separation
- Experience creating brand identities
- Design print ads, online ads, and associated
site landing pages
- Design, code, and standardize ... HTML, CSS,
and ASP
- Adhere to Extreme Programming practices
I particularly like the juxtaposition of "B/A
degree... illustration... Ajax... Extreme Programming
Practices." I understand that there might
be a few (10? 100?) such marvels in a given
city. And I understand that small companies
are, well, small, and many of us in organizations
of all size must help wash the dishes and put out
the trash. But I've always considered it just plain
silly to expect to have your branding done by your
Java developer.
I'd advise any small company to use an agency of
some sort if they think they need Leonardo, but
that's not my question. My question is, with our
newer,
very
talented young folks, is this becoming a more realistic
expectation of them and/or the employee market?
I'm doubtful, but some of the responses were
illuminating. One post told of a curriculum that
put equal time on programming
and art. This answer seems to validate
that "yes, employers might be
justified," irrespective of the supply and demand
balance. Perhaps the trend toward leonardo-ism is just
a matter of time. By extrapolation, I wonder if by
the year
2050,
a
typical
worker might have to ask oneself... "hmmm,
do I want to go to my job as a statesman,
neuro-chemical engineer, or concert violinist today?"
It will be very interesting to see if the
art/programming graduates from that curriculum
end up persisting as
professionals at both. Only time will tell. Small
companies might appear to
benefit (or would they still be well-advised to use
an agency?).
There is however one thing that requires no crystal
ball: every day it
becomes possible to accomplish more technology with
less study. The
perpetual promise that "some day you won't even
need programmers" continues
to elude businesses like a mirage moving away in
the desert. But even
someone like myself who doesn't thrive on the engineering
was able to make
an ASP database page (for free in fact but lots of
popunders; see
officeswap.com and
puzzleswap.com).
Significance? I believe that many artists will learn
the technology (varying
amounts) just as virtually every workplace role will.
Some will stop at
tools, some at Ruby on Rails, and some not until
they've unsoldered the
wires on the motherboard and managed to transmit
1's and 0's directly from their
hypothalmus into the accumulator. I don't believe
the converse, that art will
pervade all other disciplines, making compsci students
flock to Photoshop.
Instead, when they need a visual element, most will
use stuff that's already
"engineered" for them.
***
On the left is an ad I saved from some months back.
It's the epitome of such over-reaching. A co-worker
of
mine had the perfect expression for such job descriptions,
saying they wanted to hire "Christ with a briefcase."
You could argue that it's actually not quite
as unrealistic as the ad that prompted this discussion
because it stretches more in terms of depth than
breadth. They want someone who's done it all but
they're not quite as clear cut about doing art and
illustration. There are many senior folks who've
done a lot of the Templeton skills but it's questionable
to expect to hire someone to do them all in the performance
of a single role... to work in the grease pit and
the boardroom at the same time. What would Leonardo
do?
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