We have always been generalists. Our interests are too broad and attention span too short to be specialists. More importantly, the needs of our customers are too great. The wider the interests and talents of a design firm the more likely they will be able to elegantly solve client’s design needs, whatever they might be. The old adage is, "If all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail." Instead of a hammer, we have an entire toolbox.

A good designer is a cultural sponge soaking up the movements and trends in one media and applying them in another. The challenge for the design community today is the speed at which these things transform. In the book Future Shock Alvin Toffler postulated that the pace of history increases at a geometric rate. I’m not going to get into the whole concept of the book here. Go to Amazon.com and read about it for yourself. The short explanation is that history moves at a geometric rate (2x2=4; 4x4+16; 16x16=256; etc.) while the human ability to cope with change increases arithmetically (2+2=4; 4+4=8; 8+8=16).

If his theory is true, and evidence points to it being so, this becomes the modern mission of the graphic designer. Bombarded with more information all the time, Toffler worried whether mankind was capable of coping with the constantly accelerating pace of history.

Making a geometrically larger amounts of information understandable and palatable has becomes our greatest challenge. So far we seem to be coping with it, while some say we are already overwhelmed.

The Carney Group is dedicating this portion of our web site to this important question. Your opinion will matter, here. Look for more examples of the triumphs and tragedies of dealing with history on the move.

Send us your opinions and we'll include you on these pages and in this important discussion.