Digital Lemonade from Pandemic Lemons

Whilst many industries- restaurant, cinema, live entertainment, anything whose business model relies on catering to large groups of people- have taken many blows during this pandemic, the same simply cannot be said about the digital media industry. Animators, freelancers and graphic designers alike aren’t only managing to stay afloat but also adapting to the changes in our world, the new normal, so well that some aspects of production look like they might be forever changed for the better.

There are some causes for this which can be explained by the nature of digital media. Take animation for instance.

This online collaboration has enabled a more streamlined form of animation production, strengthened by animators’ newfound ability to communicate with each other at a distance. One can see this at many stages of the animation production pipeline. Joelle McFarlane, an animator at Jamaican animation studio, ListenMi, said that while about 70% of client meetings were already done using online meeting tools before the pandemic, they’ve now gone to 100%. She is also now working from home and, seeing as she is able to do this efficiently with her coworkers on team communications apps like Slack and Asana, expects to continue doing so after the pandemic, with maybe a day or two at the actual studio if need be.

This collaboration extends to similar creative industries as well. Stephanie Daley was the previous head of a digital marketing firm. Digital marketing relies heavily on collaboration. She stated that collaboration with team members often involved a short trip to their work station at their office. File sharing meant handing off USB drives to one another, lots of face to face interaction in order to get the job done. Stephanie hasn’t only adapted to this new collaborative playing field but thrived herself. When asked about what she found most useful and what she thinks will stay even after the pandemic is over, Stephanie said that her communication skills have risen to new heights.

“The pandemic allowed me to adapt and become a better communicator and team lead. When giving written feedback I have been forced to be more detailed and give it in an efficient way so there aren’t many reiterations or misunderstandings especially when it comes to individual design elements. I have also become more organized with the storing of files since many versions of one file may be sent to me for me to work on and the entire team needs to know the final version.”

Stephanie has since left her old job and is currently the Lead and sole internal graphic designer at a new agency. She said she was able to bring these new skills with her and thrive in her new position.

This pandemic has also created a boom for freelance practitioners in the digital media industry. Lani-Michelle Coleman, a freelance illustrator, has stated that the pandemic has proved useful to her in unexpected ways as well.

Before the pandemic was in full swing and zoom streamlined the art of the online meeting, Lani would meet with her client, a coworker at her office, in person. Then the pandemic hit and they had to adapt.

“Since we weren’t physically going to our workplace anymore she’d send a message if she had a pressing concern and if we needed to meet up we’d arrange on zoom for whatever time was convenient to us both”

It should also be argued that the creative industries have suffered a bit because of the shift away from in-person collaboration.

It seems that in response to our newfound ability to community, the lemonade mixed from our collective pandemic lemons, there are shifts in our workflows that we can certainly benefit from as we continue to shift slowly back to normal life.

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