Then and Now: Agency Tools

This month’s podcast is one for the books! We’re talking agency tools then and now.

Appearing for the first time on-camera is Jake Lloyd, Glint’s very own creative specialist. He is joined by Craig Lloyd, the mastermind behind Glint and the agency’s concept development and design for over two decades.

As a tenured branding agency, Glint witnessed and adapted to the technological changes within the creative space. Advertising has stayed the same since the beginning of time. Yet, the tools to create advertisements have evolved. Craig and Jake break down the agency’s toolbox then and now.

Then: Paste-up

Paste-up was the go-to method for planning and creating the layout of publications. A paste-up artist carefully arranges headlines and other typographic elements across multiple columns.

Once a page was complete, the board would be attached to an easel, photographed to create a negative, and then used to make a printing plate. The process was repeated for EVERY page of a publication.

Now: Adobe InDesign

Now we have InDesign, a desktop publishing and layout application used to create print and digital publications like books, magazines, and brochures. It’s currently the industry-standard editing software for laying out long-form multipage documents.

Then: Artograph TRACER Art Projector

The Artograph Projector was, in its heyday, a time-saving device that allowed artists, designers, and engineers to enlarge any design or pattern onto a wall or easel from two to 14 times the original size. The projected images could be easily traced and colored as desired.

The Artograph projector was “it” tech! NASA even used it to create maps of the lunar surface.

Now: Adobe Illustrator

Today, a graphic designer without Illustrator would be unthinkable
Graphic designers use Illustrator to create vector graphics. Vector images and graphics are made of points, lines, shapes, and curves based on mathematical formulas rather than a set amount of pixels. Therefore, it can be scaled up or down while maintaining image quality.

Then: The “Stamp”

Rubber stamps were used to create repeated patterns and symbols. A company logo is an example of a symbol that must be constantly repeated.

Companies also used stamps to promote their products through unique illustrations and developed marketing strategies that used repetition to imprint its product on the consumers’ minds.

Stamp art became so innovative that high-profile artists like Andy Warhol were hired to create promotional art.

Now: Copier

We no longer have to set the stamp, press, and reset. Technology has once again saved us! Thank you to copiers and printers; you can hit print once an illustration is created and assigned the correct formats. And, done.

One thing we can’t figure out is…

What in the world is a blue dinosaur? Listen to the podcast, and let us know the definition and use of a blue dinosaur.

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