New Environments & Me

When I started looking at what subjects were available, this subject, Design for New Environments, stood out as being outside of my comfort zone - something that both excites and scares me at the same time. As a primarily print focussed graphic designer, I am not often exposed to design for electronic media or 'new environments'. I can design layouts for websites - informational pages for clients offering a multitude of products and services - but for more than pretty buttons and colour schemes and I am not really sure which way to go.

So what experience do I have with new environments?

I was happy to be one of the first of my friends to get a Gmail account when they released the service in Beta stage on the invitation only basis. I also relied on the web service Backpack to keep my study and work life in order. Nowadays I use the calendar on my iPhone, linked with the calendar in my Gmail account, to keep track of my appointments, and I can check my emails, get Facebook and Twitter feeds and weather updates direct to the palm of my hand.

Like some of my fellow class mates, I was late joining the new environment/social media bandwagon. I refused to get a Facebook account for a long time, just like I had refused to join MySpace before that. I eventually caved in and joined Facebook as a way to keep in touch with my friends and family both interstate and overseas. In fact, Facebook is the reason that my husband and I got together. After 10 years apart, we rekindled our friendship online, and we were married last October - just over 2 years after becoming Facebook "friends".

Obviously I am grateful for these new environments helping me to find my soulmate. The sense of community and involvement that comes with social media can be wonderful and empowering, humanity tying us together across the globe, though I do wonder how healthy it is to be spending so much time online, plugged into the rest of the world via the internet. I am constantly connected to people, some that I have never met in person, which you'd think would mean that I never felt lonely. Quite the opposite in fact, when there is no one else online I can feel more alone than if I never had the friends in the first place.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't get to use new environments much for most of my work. The very small graphic design/marketing company I work for doesn't have a blog on the outdated company website. My boss refers to Facebook as having a "face page" (which just goes to show how behind the times the company is!).

I also have a second job, freelancing at Channel 9 studios where I use various news and image websites to source material for stories. Viewers can text in news tips and photos taken from their mobile phones can be uploaded to the Channel 9 Perth Facebook page - which we can then use in the 6pm News bulletins.


I am going to have to wrap it up for now. This post is already several days overdue thanks to technical issues and work/life hassles in general, and I have so much more to say still. But it will have to wait for another day...