What do you do exactly?

Copywriter vs. Art Director vs.
Graphic Designer vs. Production Artist vs.
Photographer vs. Illustrator vs. web designer

In the old days, before computers, visual communication was usually created by 4-6 different people, on the top of the pyramid the copywriter and art director served as the word and image masterminds.

Then once the concept came into being the different peices were assigned to the different experts: graphic designer (the visual and design expert), the photographer and/or illustrator, and the production artist (the hands-on, technical guy who knew how to run all the machines, such as, strip film, set type, cut and paste, and put the peices together).

In the new age, computers gave the average joe the ability to do jobs that once took special equipment and special skill. Today often all these jobs are done by the same person, such as me. However, even though there may be a perception that anyone who knows how to run a computer can do these jobs and that life is easier, the reality is that it takes a much wider range of talent, skill and experience to do everything, and being a left-brained computer guy and right-brained creative is an oxymoron.

So, it has become increasingly rare to find a truly competent graphic- design-art-director-production-artist-illustrator-photographer- copywriter-web-designer.