Technology changes how we live and interact in all facets of our lives, including work. As humans continue to improve upon the implements used to design, create, and build, jobs are transformed and sometimes eliminated.

Before the widespread corporate adoption of the computer, especially those with a Graphic User Interface (GUI), graphic design was full of sharp knives, smelly solvents, and tacky glues. Designers needed surgeon-level dexterity to execute their work and would have the occasional battle scar on their fingers from an errant X-acto blade. Mistakes sometimes required starting over; there was no Option + Z in those days. Typesetting was a specialty done by humans rather than by software. Often, you had to special order type, and it would come back as dry transfer decals.

“When I was in school, at internships, and after graduating, I learned the mechanics of the trade, as I’ll call it,” says Michael Bierut, partner at Pentagram. “Graphic design is often called a profession, but in many ways, you could almost call it a trade back then because it involved a mastery of manual skills and clerical type operations. It was a fully analog business.”