Zero-G Creative abandons Adobe Creative Suite; creates world’s first “hand-crafted” web sites
Apr 01 2009
Zero-G’s Creative Director, Keith Fletcher hard at work on a new design project
Zero-G Creative’s design group, led by Creative Director Keith Fletcher has decided to abandon the industry standard Adobe Creative Suite software including Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Dreamweaver in favor of more “organic” design methods.
“When I graduated with my design degree in 1987, graphic designers worked with their hands… We crafted our designs and I think the work back then was far superior to a lot of the computer-generated nonsense I see circulating these days,” Fletcher says. “And besides, honestly, isn’t two decades on a Mac enough?”
Zero-G now has only one computer in their Alpharetta office, used exclusively for email and rudimentary typesetting. “We’ll set our type on the computer, but once we print it, I’m actually cutting each letter out individually and kerning everything by hand, just like we did back in the day — when we did things right,” Fletcher said.
Even Zero-G’s web design projects will be entirely hand-crafted. “I have to admit that the first time we turned an old-fashioned paper mechanical over to our programmers they were a little confused,” according to Erik Wolf, Zero-G President.
“And we’re not 100% sure, but according to our research, we’re the first company to actually hand-craft our web designs,” Wolf continued. “If that doesn’t make this sound like a good idea, I don’t know what does.”
As for the efficiency of working this way, Fletcher is not concerned. “I’m only a few hours away from finishing this comp and I’ve only been at it the last six days about seven hours a day.”
Happy April Fools Day!
Published by Erik Wolf under Announcements
Same process worked for Trey Parker and Matt Stone and look at how successful they are now.
Comment by Greg Bond — April 1, 2009 @ 9:24 am
Haha, nice. I love the photo of Keith. It’s hilarious to think of creating a mechanical for a website.
Comment by Becky — April 1, 2009 @ 9:45 am
There are some new web sites out there that look like cut and paste, and people love them. They make my eyes hurt. They are potential clients for you, Erik.
Comment by Pamela — April 1, 2009 @ 11:29 am
Darn right Keith!
If hand crafting works for micro-brews then it certainly applies to everything. How could it not? I mean heck- how are you supposed to get the white-out into the computer when you make an error? Its horrible- once you white-out a “T” on the keyboard with the little dabber brush when you make a mistake, how are you supposed to use the keyboard again? Answer that you you smarty pants bloggers!
In fact I think all all business communication should take place via action figure diorama.
Comment by Brian Poindexter — April 1, 2009 @ 11:42 am
You were the first prank of the day! I guess this kind of approach is similar to ’scrapbooking.’
Comment by Susan Rae — April 1, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
Same process worked for Trey Parker and Matt Stone and look at how successful they are now.
Comment by PB — May 27, 2009 @ 4:13 am