I.T.A.P week nine: 7.12.2010

1. From Novice to Expert
2. The Experts

The terms ‘Novice’ and ‘Expert’ can mean different things to different people, but generically a novice know nothing or very little about a subject, while an expert is well-educated and experienced in a subject. However, some people may regard themselves as experts because they have a vast textbook knowledge about something – but little or no actual experience, which I think puts them much closer to being a novice than they might like to admit. To work towards being an expert you need to put into practise what you've read, explore it and get involved with it.

The best example for this is The Diamond Sutra; the oldest book ever discovered – first printed in 868AD, it was printed by using silk and wooden blocks; from here onwards we have discovered and learnt new ways to make and print books – from Korean moveable metal type in the 1400’s, right up to just a few decades ago when the first inkjet printer was created in 1976.

In my personal opinion, I’d put myself roughly between competent and proficient on the Novice-to-Expert scale, possibly more towards competent. I feel that although I am comfortable in my work and able to make my own decisions, there are times when I do need guidance or support in order to progress with my work.

Practitioners who have been working in their field for a number of years, and have explored their subject in great detail are by no means novices, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t continue learning – no matter how long they have been working for – no one is ever unable to learn something new, and that is what is amazing about humans; we are able to push boundaries that at one point couldn’t even have been imagined, for example, when we thought that book printing and writing was at it’s peak, a whole new angle was opened up with the invention of the computer and the ease at which people can write and view books without ever having to lift a pen.

From the experts that have been shown in this lecture, I’d have to say that my favourite is Zuzana Licko as not only is her typography work very interesting and she has successfully created a number of her own typefaces, but she also appears very down to earth and very aware of the changes to her practise, she’s quoted saying “integrating design and production, the computer has reintroduced craft as the source of inspiration” which I think means that using a computer in your work is fine, but there is a point where we can depend on them too much; the main example I can think of would be Photoshop; practitioners managed to design on computers well before Photoshop came along, so why do we rely on it so heavily now?