@rock99rock: The only reason for novice Mac users to upgrade to CS3 or 4 is for the universal binary performance. If not for that, I wouldn't care.

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

I guess this is to show schools and other aspiring creative student that even 20 year old equipment can produce excellent graphics suitable for a magazine - you don't need a $2,000 computer.

MichelleDatsun

That is funny, because I would have sworn it was created with Deluxe Paint III on an Amiga 1000.

Monty

Seems to have worked just fine, so why does it matter? If it ain't broke.....

balloondoggle

@Toshie: Or.. you know, construction paper and some glue.

robot-shmobot

@Toshie: That's what I was wondering too. Hell, that could've been done on Inkscape. OpenSource FTW! /obligatory

ripfire

I used to work at a newspaper in 2004 that used MicroTeks at every desk for word processing. They were 22 years old at the time.

LoganAdams

@ibelli: because some designers, especially if they are older, feel comfortable using tools that they have learned completely over time.

tandonmiir

Why am I not surprised by this. Actually I would have expected those guys at the New Yorker to still be etching printing plates..

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

never knew they had screen capture back then...

discounteggroll

@PollockRoc:

Are you saying your "wang" frowns?

i4ni

@PollockRoc: Yeah but the Elephants is bigger.

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

Why?

ibelli

Interesting but why is he using Photoshop at all? Seems a graphic better suited for Illustrator or even CorelDraw...

Toshie

...and it looks like it too!

Lets see, we have splines, fills, drop shadows, gradients, and a few layers that make up that image. Yeah that's about all 3.0 could do. ;-)

axiomatic

What is it with all these videos that only have visual information and are "enriched" with anoying music?

hanswurst0815

Just one more reason you DONT need CS4.

rock99rock

I'm surprised OS7 made it through that entire playback script without crashing. That must have been Mac OS 7.5.3.2.1 (Which was widely regarded as the most stable of all the 7.5.3 sub-versions)

KinOfCain

Why pay so much to upgrade to the newest stuff when your trusty Quadra can be used to make your art?

rjp

If he had used Paint, now that would be something.

Junginator

the wang looks like a donkey.

onewiththewurlitzer

The donkey looks like a wang.

PollockRoc

If it ain't broke....

apeguero

When I took my first reporting job back in 2000, they were still using a DOS-based DEWARS system. Yeah, no mice on those computers ... in 2000. Every file had to be specially named and modemed to the one computer on the other side of town with the pagination program on it ... IN 2000!

By 2002 we had Quark and DSL though.

RacecarBoobTat

if it ain't broke ...

dascoyne

@ninjagin: Yep, a couple years ago I was working at a newspaper that was still on Windows 98 and an ancient version of Quark. It was painful.

AHemp

@discounteggroll: Yeah, I saw this earlier and I was wondering how the heck they managed to capture it.

AHemp

Publishing is notoriously known for hanging onto old, proven technology. Used to work at Quark, and it was amazing to see how far back customers -=stayed=-.

ninjagin

So, does he use this machine every day? Or was this just an example to show it can be done?

Does he go back to his Mac Pro and 30" Cinema Display for next week's cover?

MichaelScrip

@rock99rock: im not graphic designer but my sister is, and knows some designers wou worked on CS4, and apparently what they do is watch designers do their regular work and then create tools that make a 12-20 step process one step... but i guess a lot of those people dont update and use the tools made for them because they are so used to your ways

purple-pillows

@i4ni:
@Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude:

oh don't give him attention, he said the same thing about the new blackberry, the ikea igloo and the jetpack. it's all wangs to this guy ^^

nutbastard

Watch Apple put out a hit on this guy...

ShinySideUp

@ibelli: Not to mention the fact that older software on older computers runs at the same speed (or slightly faster) than newer software on newer computers, for a vast majority of operations needed in the business world.

D'oh!

mdmadph

"I don't really see the benefit to using such outdated tech."

Obviously, the benefit is that the next day you get all this attention and publicity from popular blogs throughout the internet! Mission accomplished!

LastVigilante

This makes me wish I didn't spend 3 grand on a Macbook Pro. ::SIGH::

TheMurderer

The computer and software work fine and did everything they were supposed to do. Is your complaint really that even with megabuck brand new equipment you haven't sold any national magazine covers yet and you can't understand why?

infmom

Pfft. I could make the same cover using construction paper and crayons.

sumocat

@sumocat: Yeah, only you have to do it several thousand times for every print.

"No you don't. Just take a picture and..."

...plug into photoshop. right.. right...

ripfire

@ninjagin: Yes I think it is a tendency in the print industry.

RE-L

"I don't really see the benefit to using such outdated tech."

You call that outdated tech, I hear that there are actually people that use paint brushes and actual paint to make illustrations...

I mean what is this, the 1800's?

tuckertuck

I bet that took him few hours to do. I can do it in 20 minutes in Illustrator.

vgart

That would be impressive if the cover didn't look like it was created in 1994 on MacOS 7 with Photoshop 3.0. I can make crappy graphics with MS Paint.

brianhatch

@MichelleDatsun: A Quadra was a $2000+ computer.

reddingofish

Other than a couple of handy features, CS3 (and now CS4) doesn't do anything fundamentally better than 3.0.

nycaviation

@AHemp: Snapz Pro by Ambrosia? That is what I used on OS 8

freelunch

@KinOfCain: I didn't think any of OS 7 was stable until 7.6.1... 7.5 was so prone to crashing at even the faintest whif of Netscape.

freelunch

Photoshop has been an industry program for a lot longer than I thought.

@MichelleDatsun: For the most part if you want to do extreme complex graphics like on most magazine covers you're going to want the $500 machine at the least.

Ajh

@MichelleDatsun: At my school aspiring creative students use $15,000 computers to produce excellent graphics.

Also $2000 is nothing for a high end video/graphic computer try $4000 min.

I wish I had that much to spend.

I also wish I had os 8! I love old OS's

vinnyr

Make sure you save that sucker on a 5-1/4" floppy too.

whatnot22

Where is the lipstick for that republican pig?

tonashideska

@nutbastard: No problem. I'll take great care so as to not cross swords with him...

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

@MichelleDatsun: That is, of course, if minimalist illustration is your style. It's a great design and of a quality you don't see much any more these days, but that doesn't mean a $2000 computer wouldn't better suit anyone. Granted, most people don't go anywhere close to pushing the potential capabilities of their machine, but there are people who use every last kb of ram, every last mhz of processor to create awesome works of art.

This is still awesome, if for nothing else than nostalgia. I can practically hear the wild eep now.

lpranal

3.0 was solid, it helped shaped the way i work now,each time i changed something that was a new file, and with only one undo you had to plan out the task at hand.

wetworker

@nutbastard: What's up with the Motorola logo in your coment? ^^

eblingmis

@LastVigilante: Not sure I aggree. The tools you use most definitely affect the final product. IMHO, graphics "back in the day" were more deliberate, clean, refined, because you had to actually plan out your actions (due to limited processing power) and rely less on complex filters, and less "playing" with composition.

Not saying they were better, just different. The influence of technology on the styles of graphic design is undeniable, if sometimes a bit inexplicable.

lpranal

i know a civil engineer who still draw blueprints by hand, never heard about Autocad or Sketchup!!

should i respect him for that?? people like this are who make the world slowly moves forward.

Why the hell would u use OS7 now, its 17 years old man.

Same thing that makes people use IE5 until now, Firefox 1.5, or Flash Player 7, come one people let this world move.

medopal

Speaking as a amateur graphics artist (in the very loosest of senses), it's not about how advanced the tools are, it's about how well you know how to use what you have.

Show of hands; how many people here to use PS CS2/3 know how to use EVERY filter and tool in the app? Hm? No? Yeah, that's what I thought.

I mean, yeah, it's a little surprising that they're using such old programs and OS's, but it's not that big of a deal. But I do agree with some of the folks above about how a vector app would be better suited to this particular type of graphic.

CajunGuy

would you like a plaque of a trophy?

jbhitter24

@vgart: Well I still use adobe Image-Styler 1.0.

I recon it took me around 20mins to color this solely with it; and it has no layers but four per object.

Valicious

I only quit using PS 3 when it would no longer run on OS X. Most people still don't use a quarter of the stuff that was available in PS then, never mind now.

PastorDoodah

@jbhitter24: What did you brush it off?

Valicious

But can it run Descent 2?!??!

TheRunningboard7

@ninjagin: Yeah Jester to hold the test of time , We'd blow bubbles on a bluescreen to have more organic effects.

Valicious

its actually 10 years old, but still

AustinParrot

you know what? working in san diego, ca... you'd think they'd have top of the line systems as well! I helped designed some of the most popular billboards in new york city, times square. as well as 15 major magazines (vogue, oc, gotham, town&country... to name a few). we owned photoshop (the version BEFORE the "cs" series), and i was working on one of the first powermac g4's. AND i was working on a bubble crt screen. annoying, much? VERY. i eventually got them to upgrade after working there for a year. we got up to cs2 series and upgraded to mac pro's, which helped tremendously for the intel power behind the circuits. but it was amazing about how tight-end some of the company's are! they're really crummy about knowing anything about computers, and generally the art dep't knows better but can't do anything about it.

ThoraWhiles

@Junginator: If he had used paint, this article wouldn't exist on Gizmodo.

Biggy

Well, 3 was the first to add layers- so you can do virtually anything with it- just not as easily as some later versions. I think it all depends on what version you started with. I started with Photoshop 5- and I can now still do basically anything I need in 5 because I made up my own workarounds for problems with that toolset. (although, I currently use CS3). I'm sure it's pretty much the same for anyone heavy photoshop user.

jwrose

Hey, did you know that at one time, graphic design wasn't done with computers at all? F'ing crazy!

integrate

OS 7? I don't think I've ever really seen anything older than OS 8 called "OS #". I always thought it was System 7.

spaceman37

Gee Wiz could have accomplished the same effect with three exactly five pastel crayons.

This definitely falls under the category of "BFD".

The Terminator

Forgot to add... I started using PS on a Mac with version 2.5 and 90% of what I do with it today in CS3 I could with 2.5 or 3.

spaceman37

What's wrong with those?!! Those were some damn good years.

I demand that this blog post gets deleted.

Glare

Wasn't Photoshop 3 pre-layers?

Swifty

@reddingofish: Was being the operative word. Now it's $10 from the thrift store.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

i've got a buddy who worked in a recording studio that did radio spots and voice over stuff, and in one of their rooms they were rocking Pro Tools 5.x on an PowerMac G3 from years ago. and this wasn't some two-bit operation either.
sometimes it's just a matter of if it ain't broke don't fix it.

nbenko

A better question is, why did he use photoshop for this at all?

/could have been done in corel draw / illustrator since it's very vector-like.

lordargent

Actually it's [www.orbofchatham.com]

nocar

Great illustrator! Bob's web site [www.bobstaake.com] says:

"Let me clear up today's rumor: I do NOT work in OS 7. I use OSX and run classic (9.0) in the background. Photoshop 3.0? Yes, STILL use that."

Check out his site [www.theorbofchatham.com] .

nocar

Did he use a Performa 6200?

BiZarRroBALlmeR

@vinnyr: It took a while for myself to accept OSX. Used to boot in OS 9 a lot. Seemed like home.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

One thing you learn when you work in the IT industry. When something work, don't try to fix it!

m-p{3}

and it shows.

it looks crud.

shade-black

@Toshie: I was thinking Corel al the way. Been using that for ten years. I'm a graphic design graduate, and even knowing Illustrator is a better program overall, I defend the theory that the best tool is the one you know how to use better.

geodesigner

...you can circle a Grand Prix track on a tricycle, too.
Doesn't mean it's the best way to do it.

longbourne

More Mac related "news", somehow I can't see this story happeing with any other OS.

paulhampson

I knew you could make that kind of stuff in Illustrator and after watching it, it seems pretty straight forward but I wish I knew how to do that nice textured shading.

a_pink_poodle

the elephant and donkey, to me at least, actually look decent for once.

kswiss19

Art doesn't care about time at all. As long as there is somebody admiring it.

DaSmith

*raises his hand* I think you'll be surprised how many people know PS back to front. I'm a professional designer and it's my job to know the tools I'm using. That's not to say I don't learn new things every day, that's have the joy of PS. How about you don't write off the rest of use PS users just because all you can do is make xmas cards for the family and drop a lense-flare on a photo...

vine

The art looks like it was made by a 10 year old, actually I take that back, I've seen better design done by my 10 year old niece. The tools don't dictate the design. He could have used CS12 and a supercomputer and he still couldn't design to save his life. Seems more like he's using the whole "3.0 and OS7" angle as an excuse for dropping out of design school. What exactly was the point of this article? Oh right, a little back-scratching and hype... way to alienate your readers with pulp Giz.

vine

I met Bob Staake back in '99. Our Illustration Major had just started to require computers as part of the curriculum.. but most of us were versed in PS 5.0 at the time. He did a demo for us, and we remarked that layers might be helpful in his method. He looked up, mortified, "I can't even THINK in layers." So.. I'm not surprised. That all being said, his work is everywhere, and though it reeks of Illustrator, it's good stuff and that's all that really matters. dbd

YasinAndraemon

It doesn't really matter what a piece of art is created with. If it suits the artist's tastes and sells in the market, then th emission has been accomplished.

My computer is not state-of-the-art, and I use a variety of applications, some old, some new, depending on how well I know them, and how well suited to the task they are. I also use tradiotnal ink pens (split nib style and India ink) for inking my line drawings because no program has yet replicated that ineffable quality of liquid flowing onto paper with the same style, plus I like it. Then I scan it and color digitally sometimes.

Basically, if you like the tools and have a vision, that's what matters. Whether or not anyone else agrees it could be done "better" on a brand new computer with CS4 is irrelevant. Why not ask how much better DaVinci could do the Mona Lisa with PainterX instead of oils on wood?

BeautifulAgony

@Ajh: i remember *seeing* Photoshop 1.0 in the '90s. but the first version i ever personally used was 2.5. really wasn't *that* useful (IMO) until version 3.0 came out and added layers. that was the first version i used professionally.

i also remember seeing the original CoSA After Effects and thinking it was pretty cool. first version of that i used professionally would have been 3.1... 9 hour renders on a 300Mhz G3. weeeee. that was fun.

x23

@discounteggroll: it's not like it is a movie or anything. just stills in sequence for the most part... probably animated elsewhere. or even just plopped into PowerPoint. (i'd say iMovie... but that wasn't until OS 8.)

System 6 could do screenshots. apple-shift-3... just like today. never used anything prior to 6... so who knows.

x23

I agree completely - how else would the New Yorker end up on Gizmodo?

ferroptic