Others Share My View

If you have read my blogs to date you should know I am an advocate for opensource and free computers ( from the dumpster etc ). The co modification of design to enforce industry standards has in my view flattened out the look of design. Virtually nothing "authentic" is being created by design students and the way students sell themselves out creating volume instead of content is meaning the industry is being eroded away by cheap work. The cost of programs, updates and training being a part of the equation. Its so refreshing to see others trying to spread the word about open source tools. Recently at the Libre Graphics Meeting in Vienna, Ramon Miranda gave a speech about the liberating results of using open source as a designer  in a world monopolized by software that claims industry standard. Ramon as a successful illustrator has eked out a good living from tools like Krita, My Paint and Gimp. He is saying here in this slide from his presentation That the fashion is to buy what is the most used software and by doing that designers become dependent on the next software version. This sets the standards for what is avant-garde. So the design world flattens over time to have the same look and feel both technically and stylistically. We become slaves to the speed at which the software evolves. Design becomes gimmicky and predictable as a result.