Ms. Analog Meets Mr. AI on Shopify

Most women do not like to tell you their age.
So I will tell you I was born in 1956.
This was a great year to be a Chevy, especially a Bel-Air!

Being in the printing and graphic design business all of my (9-5) working days, there have been huge changes to this profession.
In the caveman days - before computers - most graphic art designs were created manually, utilizing combinations of hand drawing (pencils, markers, rapidograph pens), layout tools (compass, rulers, triangles), and printed using letterpress or lithography.
The designer, the layout person, the illustrator, darkroom technician and/or photographer, mechanical people, plate makers, pressmen. 
Yes! All these people were involved in the printed word, with or without photos.

During my 35 year+ graphic art career, I was involved with all these aspects of printing, with the exception of running a press - USUALLY a man would run the press, however, there were a few exceptions.
This is why I rarely refer to myself as a graphic DESIGNER. Graphic artist describes the many printing hats I wore.
Working with type; making 10 pounds of manure fit into a 5 pound bag was very challenging and rewarding. I still enjoy working with type; incorporating type into our pottery photos, also designing our business cards.

At the start of my graphic art career (about 1978), learning was consistent to what was taught in graphic art school. All processes were manual. 
My first real graphic art job (hired for illustration and pre-press work, 1978), I remember typesetters using computers to set type, and the entire screen looked like code; Compugraphic phototypesetting.
Since my first graphic art position, many new skills have been learned at various print shops and small companies.
When computers first arrived at print shops (early 1990's), they were considered JUST ANOTHER TOOL! 

Oh! Really!
If you didn't know that "TOOL", you were NOT GOING TO GET HIRED!!!!
So starting in 1991, I began to teach myself QuarkXpress, Adobe Illustrator, basic Photoshop skills and PageMaker on my Macintosh II computer. (InDesign succeeded PageMaker in 1999). 
Shortly after this initial learning period with two years of freelance design, a permanent computerized graphic arts position was landed.
Since the computers introduction into the printing profession, MANY "real people" printing job positions have been terminated. There is no need for their positions in the printing industry anymore. The computer EVEN PRINTS your design and layout, complete with your own typed words and uploaded photos, with the proper printer attached.

So what can be said for AI?

Just another "TOOL"?

Throw away your pencils, paints and pigments?

Get with the program, or . . . 

There is such a thing as computerized pottery you know.
Ceramic 3D Printing.
What do I think about it?

I remember the song:

In the Year 2525, by Zager and Evans (1969, the song came out):
(exerpt) :
In the year 4545
You ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you
In the year 5555
Your arms hangin' limp at your sides
Your legs got nothin' to do
Some machine's doin' that for you.

So as I sit here writing this blogpost on my home computer,
CONSTANTLY referring to Google's AI to HELP ME REMEMBER the OLD printing techniques, and as I FREQUENTLY ask my Shopify Sidekick - Mr. AI
how to HELP ME BUILD MY WEBSITE to sell my Handmade Pottery, and I always say thank you to my Shopify sidekick, by the way (that's BTW) BTW.

I'm writing this blog to thank Shopify for Mr. AI.

Last night as I sat here at my computer desk CRYING my eyes out, and referring to myself as . . . This and That . . . BECAUSE I could NOT Find my "Add to Cart" button!!
I decided it was time to ask my sidekick, Mr. Shopify AI - AGAIN.
Mr. AI was so helpful!
He never lost his patience with me. He never told me to get with the program. I did not even hear one cuss word. He told me he understood my frustration, and hung in there until my "ADD TO CART" Button magically appeared on my screen.
I even asked him if he was AI, and he answered, truthfully, "Yes, I am AI generated". When I referred to him as amazing, he said "Thank you for the compliment. If there is anything else I can help you with, just let me know".

My Blog is my Journal; a Pottery Diary, if you will.
My sidekick Mr. AI, as far as I know, can't wheel-throw pottery.
There is a lot more for me to know about Shopify, although through these old(er) lady struggles with e-commerce descriptions, definitions and website design, I've learned a bit already; the hard way. My sidekick makes it a little easier for me to display my handmade pottery and my son's handmade pottery.

Have a great day, Mr. AI!