After the runaway success of my last artworker survey (48 responses) I’ve gone and done another one. The responses weren’t as good but there were still a few gems in there, so thank you if you took the time to provide considered answers to what I thought were carefully considered questions. I probably won’t be doing any more of them (well certainly not in the same way) but I always enjoy talking about the artworker’s lived experience so i’ll try talking to people directly in future. The typeform survey site is quite pricey as well.
Once again, using the increasingly deranged website LinkedIn to put the word out, I asked the following questions:
How would you describe your job to the average pensioner?
What’s the most inaccurate description of your job that you’ve ever heard?
Why is an artworker’s job under threat from artificial intelligence…
…and why isn’t it actually under threat at all?
Was there a specific day when you realised (or decided) you were an artworker? Not ‘decided to become’ an artworker, but that you actually were one?
What do you think, in terms of personality (not skill sets) differentiates an artworker from a designer?
More so than with the last survey, I feel like this one brought out the worst qualities in the respondents, but let’s be honest; I’m the one who asked the questions in the first place so I’m the worstest of all. The responders could answer anonymously if they chose to, but most were happy to give me a name. I got 34 responses, and another dozen or so sharks who just clicked through each question without answering them, I guess out of curiosity. But I am the bigger person so I forgive the pathetic tosspots.
Special mention to ‘Mac munky’. You are all of us, my friend.
How would you describe your job to the average pensioner?
There’s no doubt that some forms of artwork are easier to explain than others. I was in a pub with my wife once and she was talking to me about doing the packaging artwork on the bottle of Schweppes tonic she was holding (her: G and T, me: Harvey’s Best) when a guy at the next table overheard her. “Of course, I’d never thought about that but I guess someone has to do it”. I guess explaining stuff like POS roll-outs is going to send our hypothetical pensioner to sleep.
However. When I said ‘how would you describe your job’, what I was expecting were weird and wonderful descriptions of complicated tasks (though not always) shoehorned into an everyday language. Instead I got “creative packaging artworker” (Jason), “it’s too technical for them to understand” (Christina) and “production artist” (Anthony). I think Anthony and Jason have overestimated the deduction skills of the average pensioner, and Christina has underestimated them. Though she mentions she herself is a pensioner so i’ll hush up I think.
Honourable mentions for these four. “Pointless” (Mac munky), “Yes” (Dean), “Not manual labour” (Dan) “It’s like complicated in it” (Blah blah). I must of course applaud those who had a proper go at answering the question. “Technical graphic designer” (Duncan), “the final pair of hands before delivery” (Alex), and “Trouble shooter” (from the mysteriously named ‘None’). “Like a graphic designer but more technical” (Martin) was a decent stab I thought. Nail on head award goes to Kevin for “Typesetter”. Even a Victorian pensioner would get that.
What’s the most inaccurate description of your job that you’ve ever heard?
I had to use the god-awful https://contractor-compliance.co.uk/ website the other day in order to apply for some inside-IR35 work, and part of the process involves telling the site what your job title is. Yeah sure, I hear you say. Artworker. Nope. Site doesn’t recognise it. Is it any wonder we can’t universally agree on a job description? Yes, I’ve seen plenty of attempts at one but I can’t say I’ve ever found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with any of them.
Over to you, comrades.
Teo’s “I say I’m a graphic designer so I don’t have to explain what an artworker is” was never going to be beaten, so let’s leave that up in the God tier. After that we have Paul’s “Never heard ANYONE try to describe what an artworker does… because they don’t know either”. You see? Paul gets it. However I did ask for descriptions that people have heard so next we have “Button presser, mac monkey” (Blah), “Spellchecker” (Dave), “The guy who high rezes a file for print” (Jono). I think the vibe I got from this question was less of a list of others inaccurately articulating what they think the job is, and more people’s feelings about it, which were certainly inaccurate, but were also overwhelmingly dismissive. “Designers that couldn’t make it” (Alex) or “failed designers” (anon (Girl)), “colouring in” (multiple responses for that one), “non creative” (another anon). Somewhere, deep, deep down in those descriptions, there is a molecule of envy. Those of you who have been doing this job for as long as I have will find that absolutely incredible. Last word on this goes to Kevin again: “Printer”. Heart emoji.
Why is an artworker’s job under threat from artificial intelligence…
…and why isn’t it actually under threat at all?
By breaking this one up into two questions (with the responders not knowing what the second half of the question would be) I caught a few people out here. I wanted people to respond with their instincts though. I would’ve thought that most responders, if not all, are using AI in some form or other, given its prevalence within Creative Cloud. For the first part of the question, plenty of responders simply said “I don’t think it is” or “it’s not”. One responder pointed out the benefits they are already getting from it; “it’s only been making my life easier so far” (Anon(Girl)). Ultimately though, it seems we just don’t really believe in it yet. “AI can’t always deal with the variables I see” (None), “If AI is better placed to make critical production decisions, then good luck!” (‘Me’), “I don’t think AI can replicate what we do” (Martin) and “Because people with no idea will always want the quickest and cheapest option” (Nosey Parker). Personally I think Nosey’s response is the most accurate here. There seems to be something about the world right now and how it’s going which is giving us far less, and for more money, but that’s capitalism for you.
Not to worry though: “Because I’ve just nuked Skynet”, says Dan, in response to why our jobs aren’t actually under threat.
Some more of those “it’s not under threat’ responses for you: “I’ve seen 6, 7, even 8 fingers on human hands in AI generated imagery. Say no more!” says ‘Me’, “it still needs a human to get it right… AI is only as good as the prompts given,” (Emma), “AI can’t do artwork for print” (Dean), “Until it can learn reason, to read between lines and when to stop and ask the right questions to the right people, we’re fine” (‘N/A’).
So what we’ve got between the lot of us here is a distinct lack of faith that AI is actually any good (let’s call you lot the ‘extra fingers’ camp), that AI isn’t human enough for the job (the ‘decades of experience’ camp) and that even if it does take over on the misguided whim of some marketing manager, they’ll still want someone to deal with the telling AI what to do part (the ‘we’ll be putting in the prompts’’ camp). Most succinctly put by Anon(Girl) when she says “Someone will always need to push the ‘generate’ button!”
If you haven’t already seen it, check out Adobe and Coca-Cola’s Project Fizzion, which on some level is replacing artwork with AI, but not really. AI at a professional level won’t take much longer to lose the extra fingers or the subtle nuances in ropey brief from a disinterested account manager to knock your 30 years of experience into a cocked hat, but there is a gigantic leap happening here if you think this process will go from design brief to physical production, both print and digital, OOO and social media post. The fact that the role of an artworker can never be adequately defined (not that it stops us from trying, as you’ll see later) means that we’re very difficult to get rid of. Leading on from that elusive definition, I asked:
Was there a specific day when you realised (or decided) you were an artworker? Not ‘decided to become’ an artworker, but that you actually were one?
On this question; I think I was doing artwork for a couple of years before I knew the job existed, and I came to realise, later down the line, that there was no way I was alone on that. Most respondents seemed to think they were designers until one day they had to do un-designery things, like when ‘Me’ had “…a file sent to me that had 14 colour separations in it. For a four-colour print job…” or when Dave realised “…design was too subjective for my liking”. Some of the respondents were more self-effacing about it. “Once upon a time, I thought I was a designer, and had aspirations to be the ‘next big thing’. But actually I think I was always an artworker with an ego my body couldn’t cash!” (Jono), “When I was in college. I couldn’t come up with a concept but realised I was good at interpreting an idea” (Deborah), “I was told” (‘None’). There’s also the traditional ‘got the job by accident’ route: “I left college with a degree in Furniture and Related Product Design and got the first job I could in a small local printers” (Jason), “Not really” (Mac munky).
While some people out there think we’re the last of our kind, some respondents might claim to have been the first. “As soon as I started my first job as a ‘paste up artist’ in 1979” (Christina), “As soon as I stopped emptying bins, getting sandwiches, making coffee and delivering mechanical artwork (circa 1978)” (Dan), “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” (Dean). Though to be honest I’m not having that; artworkers have been around waaay before Macs, and I’m not averse to emptying a bin or making a coffee for the right colleague/client at any time. Bet Dan isn’t averse either.
What do you think, in terms of personality (not skill sets) differentiates an artworker from a designer?
Kudos to you, dear responders, for taking this question seriously. Well, seriously, on the whole. The most obvious – as seen on a thousand recruitment ads – is “Accuracy. Attention to detail” (Deborah), “Technical ability” (Dean), “An eye for detail and a stickler for the rules” (Nosey Parker). This wasn’t a job application however so I appreciated Christina’s “Being a pedant”, Mac munky’s “Less arty”, and Dan’s “A brain”. Less cynical perhaps but still pragmatic: “We don’t enjoy the limelight”, (Anon(Girl)), “You have to be thick skinned and not too precious” (Jason), “Basically artworkers are the adults in the room” (Duncan). What was I saying about being less cynical?
An excellent answer from NG: “Designer solves, an artworker prepares”. I still don’t know if that successfully covers the difference in personalities but it’s a pretty good guess.
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you are not special 