Photoshop Finish

In this week's New York Times, the article Smile and Say 'No Photoshop' points to the dangerous results of an overuse of Photoshop. As the article points out, more and more people are calling for the banning of retouching in magazines; "Artifice, in general, feels very five years ago," it states. It's a statement not altogether different from the backlash against computer-driven typefaces; people are craving a more humanistic, less mechanical design aesthetic. As countries like France seek to decrease the use of photo retouching in their publications, it will be interesting to see how the American market follows suit (or doesn't). Regardless, it's a debate that places graphic designers (in the form of graphic retouchers) front and center.