On Wednesday, four panelists spoke at the The Eisner American Museum of Advertising & Design about the broad topics of Web, Interactive and Motion Graphics. I was lucky enough to be one of the participating panelists and it was an exciting opportunity to talk with people in the community about the options, future, and general information concerning these areas of the creative world.
We had a good turnout of about 50 people. Most of the attendees were students at MIAD and MATC, not surprising since the event was part of the College Lecture Series, but there were also some professionals from the community there.
It was an interesting time as the four panelists had a great variety of experiences and focus that they brought to the discussion. The panelists were Micah Eberman of Fullhouse Interactive, Jason Evans of GS Design, Nick Waraska of Blend Studios, and me (Alexander Lucas of C2 Graphics and Stamm Media). The experiences touted included: high-end broadcast motion graphics, interactive websites, iPhone apps, trade show displays, and flash applications.
The panel agreed for the most part on the prepared questions concerning whether you need to continue to educate yourself, where to find the sites, and the importance of knowing broad skills but also specializing in a specific skill.
One topic brought up at the panel, of no great surprise, was the question of the future with the iPad and other tablet computers. There was again mostly consensus on this issue that while the iPad does not support Flash that it would not be an instant Flash killer and that it will take a long lumbering time for the internet to fully embrace HTML 5.
The two biggest questions which split the panel, however, concerned the role of social media and the future of the web/interactive/motion graphics space. Some of the panelists saw social media as being of the most importance and something that is the wave of future revenue and expression, while others admitting not really having a firm grip on where to proceed in this realm and what to do with it.
The only main consensus in the future debate: a sense of uncertainty of exactly what will happen. But that is what makes the future so interesting. We can still be surprised and be creative with emerging technologies.
