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Hi Fillipo, A word of caution on predictions of the future and being 'ahead of the curve'. Predictions of the future tend to tell us more about the time in which they are made than that which they purport to predict (think 1950s science fiction). In 2011 I was a speaker at the ToC (Tools of Change in Publishing) conference at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. The audience was made up mainly publishers. It was a day of hectoring speeches about the death of print and the arrival of the new kid on the block- the picturebook 'app'. A succession of tabulations and graphs were on display throughout the day, showing ski-slope decline in book sales and precipitous North-face-of-the-Eiger climbs in sales of digital readers and tablets. Expressions on the faces of conference delegates ranged from dazed bemusement to outright fear. My own presentation involved a rather wilfully contrary showing of photographs of the letterpress printing workshop at Cambridge School of Art and a general appreciation of the physical, tactile qualities of print that I have always seen as one of the key factors behind my love of picturebooks. More seriously, I questioned the headlong rush toward the screen and did my best to suggest that, as with the arrival of all new technology, what will happen in reality will be, a shifting in the nature of the relationship between old and new, an opportunity to revisit and redefine what each is and isn’t good at and to reshape their co-existence. Five years later and the 'app' has all but gone the way of the CD Rom (remember?). Publishers have lost a lot of money on badly conceived apps that disappear into the abyss of the app store. Physical picturebook sales have shot up by around 6-7% year on year (non-fiction sales up by over 30%), leading the resurgence of the physical book. The book has needed to become an even more beautiful, haptic experience and production values have become key. Covers are embossed, debossed and spot laminated. Standards of design have gone up and up. For better or worse, we are also awash with colouring books for adults! I mention this because it is always important career-wise for academics to be seen to be 'forward thinking'. But 'forward' is never quite what we think it is. In predicting the future, we need to consider the emotional and psychological aspects of human nature at least as much as the capabilities of technology. Best wishes, Martin Professor Martin Salisbury Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration Director, The Centre for Children's Book Studies Cambridge School of Art 0845 196 2351 [log in to unmask] http://www.cambridgemashow.com http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ccbs.html ________________________________________ From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Filippo Salustri [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2016 2:08 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Steps to automated design of book covers and design research participation Humanity has a history of thinking that things are impossible - until they aren't. I think that - short of some Trumpocalypse or other Extinction Level Event - machines that not only match but exceed our creative abilities are inevitable. Terry's just a bit ahead of the curve in wondering about the minutiae of that time. \V/_ Filippo A. Salustri, PhD, PEng http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- Please click here to view our e-mail disclaimer http://www.anglia.ac.uk/email-disclaimer ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------