Is production artist bottom of the totem pole?
As I browse through Matthew T. Grants’ blog post about production artist vs. graphic designer in “Notes on Design“, I feel sad about production artists are being undervalued while their duties are still extremely critical to any design firms and print shops.
As being a production artist/prepress operator for 6+ years, my job is to turn designers creativity into reality. This occupation seems very important to creative business, but it has always been underrated and is always be looked at as inferior to graphic designers. In asia, we even call this type of work as “skilled art labor.” Sounds sad, huh.
Back in school years as an art student, professor could not stress enough on getting a few years of production experience before seeking real creative work. It’s true about being realist first, then pursue your dreams later, however, once you get stuck for years, you may be facing a dilemma of either staying in the senior position doing prepress or starting from scratch as entry level artist in creative field.
I would use myself as an example. I enjoy creative challenges and problem solving, but my mandated job duty is complete opposite – there are only right or wrong answers. You don’t get to be creative, you are not allow to share ideas, and you don’t get to judge wether is good or bad design. I’m tired of being an factory worker on an assembly line.
I don’t see my career path towards that direction. I’ve been seriously thinking about leaving production to creative design (not limited to graphic, though.) While seeking new opportunities, I inevitably face some problems like lack of agency experience, lack of work created for real clients, and so on. Although I’ve done some freelancing (mostly typesetting and page impositions) in the past and a strong enough portfolio (as least I think so!), I’m just not certain about what career level I should apply to.
