While attending UNO for my senior semester as an art major I was required to an Artist’s Statement describing my influences and artistic ideas. Artist’s normally write Statements to introduce themselves to people attending a gallery opening, but I wrote mine to try to impress a small group of professors, who taught all types of art in all types of media, and to introduce them to the idea of web based media and Macromedia Flash being used to create art. Read the full Artist’s Statement after the jump. Continue reading ‘Digital Media - Artist’s Statement’
Archive for the 'Web design' Category
MacNN has an article up about the software they think the big merge is going to leave behind. Based on a report from NPD Techworld, they say:
2004 U.S. professional graphics and Web market share figures show Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash as leaders in their respective markets, so it comes as no surprise that the four applications are expected to survive the merger, while Fireworks, Freehand, and GoLive will be eliminated.
I definitely agree with this accessment given the widespread feelings about the less liked application in the group. The article has stats on the programs’ market share and some interesting comentary on the report. The only thing i find odd is the reccomendation to Adobe to try to sell the Fireworks and Freehand programs. Fireworks may be able to find a buyer, but I can’t see Freehand finding one considering the lack of improvement the program has been given just from Macromedia in the past few years. My gut feeling says that even if Freehand and Fireworks could be sold the lack of use and market share will most likely kill the programs in a short period of time. Fireworks will only survive as a more professional alternative to Photoshop Elements and only because it has extra tools. I personally do not use Fireworks as an alternative to Photoshop but as an extension of Flash to do easy png manipulation, but I can see this being taken over by Photoshop. The missing links in all this are price and activation. Photoshop is just too expensive to be added to the Studio suite of apps and Adobe does not have a very good student pricing system set up. Product activation is completely different for Macromedia apps than for Adobe apps. One is the extremely easy fill out OPTIONAL registration form plus serial number on install(Macromedia); the other is a new complicated activation via web that requires Adobe’s direct permission to re-install much less to flip computers(Adobe). Which would you prefer?
first off the theft:On a side note, I found a site today that is stealling my content and I would like to notify the own of that site(adobe-photoshop dot informationadvice dot info) that he disgusts me and he needs to go write his own stuff and stop stealling from others!
Second, Macworld has a short story on the merger as seen by a stock analyst who incorrectly thinks this is about competition with microsoft(a company who has yet to make any good design software). This is just another sample of someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about trying to get in the fray. the article does go on to mention the anti-trust issues this merger may bring up though. Also a check of the comments attached to the article brings up a good point: “Let’s say it together now so everyone can get it through their heads: Microsoft and Adobe are *NOT* direct competitors, in ANY sense of the word.”- Photonerd. I can’t agree with this more.
The CSS Weblog has been undergoing some changes lately but they finally got around to giving their view on the big merge. They seem to be worried that web standards may suffer with the lost of some great programs. As usual everyone wants to know what is adobe going to do with its new software and what are they going to ditch?
CNET has its own little merger story up. they go into the history behind adobe and macromedia and try to rope microsoft into this discussion. I really think we can go ahead and delete MS from the equation as that oversize behemouth really needs to concentrate on getting out a product that doesn’t have the security concerns its flagship piece of junk does. (There is no reason a company with the resource of ms should continue to put out the junk os that they continue to release.)
Daring Fireball has done a thorough translation of the merger FAQ from the Adobe/macromedia merger. They seem to be as irked about this as I am especially when it comes to the threat of the new Adobe design monopoly.
CNN/Money has their own rehash of the merge up. They mostly look at this from a shareholder standpoint. This avoids the real issue here related to what these companies do (other than make money) and looks only to how adobe with be worth more int he future with its new baby. The end question of “Is the sector on the verge of a major wave of consolidation?” is interesting but doesn’t really touch on the fact that the only real players in the professional digital design field are combining. Sure you can do some of the same things that adobe and macomedia do with software from microsoft, apple and a host of other companies but adobe/macromedia are the standard that we live and design by.
