【History of Haichuan Chemical Industry】--Professions that have disappeared from design institutes--Draftsmen and plate makers

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Looking at Development Through History: History is the Best Teacher. This series of posts is being updated continuously. [Haichuan Chemicals’ History] Summary Post – Looking at Development Through History! Constantly being updated! https://bbs.hcbbs.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=5718076 (Source: Haichuan Chemical Industry Forum (Hua Haichuan Liu hcbbs)). Everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion. --------------------------------------------------------- A few days ago, a friend left a comment in an old post asking what ‘photo sharing’ meant; this question reminded me of some past experiences, especially the times when I used blades, rulers, and black ink pens to make adjustments to drawings. First, use a blade to scrape off the incorrect parts, then use a black ink pen to fill in the missing sections of the drawing; a ruler is used to assist with drawing lines. With a little carelessness, one’s hands will get covered in ink and turn completely black. Presumably, the friend who left that message started working in this field relatively late and did not experience the era when drawings were made on sulfuric acid paper before being converted into blueprints. In the past, many design institutes had staff dedicated to photoengraving in order to produce drawings. I still remember that at the beginning of my career, my workplace had a photoengraving room where all the drawings from the entire institution were processed there. Although the room was well-ventilated, it was impossible to avoid the unpleasant smell of chemical solutions. Working on photo printing is also quite demanding, especially when the drawings are needed urgently. Most designers suffer from procrastination; they don’t start working until the last few days, which means everything has to be completed at the last moment. This also reduces the time available for showing off the finished work, so it’s common to see the design studios brightly lit the day before the results are presented. However, with the advancement of printing technology, sulfuric acid paper is no longer used, and blueprints are produced directly; as a result, the task of photoengraving gradually disappeared from the history of design firms. Drawing artists left design firms earlier than those who worked in photo printing; of course, I didn’t experience that era either. Previously, drawings were made by hand, similar to engineering drawing used in university engineering programs; but with the widespread use of computer-aided design, manual drawing naturally lost its relevance. The reason for the disappearance of both drafting and plate-making occupations is the advancement of productivity, particularly in terms of production tools. Similarly, as AI technology becomes increasingly mature, will it replace designers? Personally, I think this will surely be the major trend in the future, but it probably won’t completely replace designers. No matter how advanced AI becomes, it still learns from humans and requires human maintenance. The existence of designers is necessary, but the demand for them will decrease significantly.