Are the days of the Print only Artworker gone?

TDesignCo

Member
Hi all.

I have wandered back into the forum today after some time off - so hello!

I am weighing up my options going forward career wise and I think my lack of website art-working skills is holding me back as far as getting work.

I have spent may years successfully creating Artwork, Design and Typography for print.
Looking at both the Job roles advertised and also when offering my services as a Freelance Artworker / Designer it seems everyone expects an Artworker to have both Digital and Print Skills?

Am I a Dinosaur being a print specialist?

Cheers
T
 
They're not gone but I'd say the world has gotten smaller although a printer neighbour says he's stacked with work and I see plenty of Print Artworker jobs advertised.
I used to work entirely within print but these days almost all my work is either for the web, animation, murals and the odd t-shirt thrown in.
 
My honest opinion.... you're a dinosaur I'm afraid. Now don't get me wrong because print does have it's place but you only need to look at the way everything is going digital/online to see that it's at the very least dying or a job that is combined with other skills/expectations.
We have magazines being discontinued, newspapers going behind paywalls online, even places like argos are looking towards going digital for their catalogues (might need to fix their website before that idea though....).

A lot of 'magazines' are shifting towards digital versions for reading on tablets/pcs etc so at the very least you should be looking at this type of 'extension' to your skill set, in most cases the magazines are still in print with digital as another form to read but there are some purely digital magazines out there.

Also it really does depend on what you mean by lack of website art working skills, I'd say anyone who knows how to use photoshop can adjust an image to suit a website these days so you might need to expand on this area.

In the current design market you either need to be at the very top of your field or have a slight more diverse skillset than in the olden days which sadly comes from the 'my mates cousins son has photoshop and can do this cheap' mentality that has come into design.
 
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I design and work primarily for print. All we do is digital, litho, and large format.

Print is very much relevant, business cards, christmas cards, promotional items, pens/cups/jackets/etc. we do everything from note pads, to diaries, to calendars, personalised calendars and much much more.

We also do tickets, marketing, banners (large format), presentations, iPad presentations, artwork, logos, training, events, branding, epublications, and much much more!

Just recently I have completed a 32pp landscape book for the pharma department - very much live with print work for packaging, leaflets, flyers, promotional items, brochures, books etc.

New drugs launched every year, they all need printed promotional and digital material.
 
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