NEW YORK, NY -- June 13, 2002 -- Twice a year, TrendWatch Graphic Arts (TWGA) surveys Graphic Designers, Commercial Photographers, Ad Agenccies, and Corporate Designers. The latest survey and analysis of this industry segments reveals that while business conditions are reportedly improving (see highlights above), there remains skepticism concerning the near future. According to the survey, the percentage who said business was very bad dropped from an all-time high of 8% six months ago down to 0%. Conversely, only 30% (down from 57%) thought future business would be OK. The subscription report, titled "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Design and Production #13, Spring 2002," was made available today as the first report of a twice-yearly 2-report subscription. For more information, please visit the TWGA website (http://www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com). "Most businesses are focused upon the economy right now." noted Vince Naselli, Director, TrendWatch Graphic Arts. "The design community is no different. The economy remained the #1 business challenge to respondents in this survey at 71%. This is the third survey in which the economy ranked as the highest challenge, although it was down slightly from 78% six months ago." According to the report? -- SOFTWARE INVESTMENT #1: For the first time ever, a software category tops the list of planned capital investments: desktopp photo-manipulation software (such as Photoshop) was the #1 planned purchase, cited by 49% of respondents. The second-biggest planned investment is also software: desktop publishing software such as QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign: cited by 48% of respondents.; -- DIGITAL CAMERA USE: The most commonly owned digital camera is a prosumer model that costs greater than $500: 39% of responndents own such devices. This is also the type of digital camera respondents are most likely to buy in the next year (20%). The biggest application for digital cameras is final high-resolution images for print advertising (50%), followed by low-resolution "for position only" layouts (43%); --- CROSS MEDIA GROWING: By a wide margin, the primary tools that respondents use to produce cross-media projects are their uusual desktop and Web publishing tools, which they use to reformat their files or save them in the appropriate format for each publishing medium (73%). Only 16% of respondents use special desktop publishing tools with specific cross-media capabilities (such as the Avenue, Quark XTension or Adobe InDesign 2.0's XML tagging capability). On average, respondents worked on 16 cross-media projects in the last 12 months, and they expect to work on 23 in the next 12 months. Who Should Buy This Report... The report is detailed analysis of the professional creative segment of the graphic communications industry, including Graphic Designers, Commercial Photographers, Ad Agencies, and Corporate Designers. Vendors, suppliers, distributors and even end-users of design software, digital photography, color management, cross-media technologies and most other innovations targeted at this segment will benefit from this report. It provides sales and marketing professionals a better understanding of the market's expectations, its needs and wants, as well as the dynamics of each segment. Availability... The 175+ page report, titled "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Design and Production #13, Spring 2002" is available from TWGA by contacting Vince Naselli directly at 212- 519-7304. The price for the twice-yearly 2-report subscription is $6500.