Interview with Richard Bamford from AcroDAM
The latest participant in our interview series is DAM veteran Richard Bamford. For over two decades, Richard has worked in customer-facing positions for a number of organisations such as Getty Images, Extensis, and CI HUB. More recently, Richard is consolidating his many years of expertise into his new role as the founder of AcroDAM, a dedicated UK-based DAM consultancy.
With a keen interest in graphics, photography and technology, Richard explains how he was an early player in the digital transformation field, demonstrating how metadata and search were key components in helping customers transition from CDs to centralised NAS (Network Attached Storage). This involvement lead to a position at Extensis, where his responsibilities ranged from product demonstrations to technical support and professional services. Richard’s earlier career also included assisting organisations with their digitisation efforts using high-end scanners, ultimately leading to a position with stock photo library outfit PhotoDisc, subsequently acquired by Getty Images.
“I started working with DAM solutions including Canto Cumulus and Aldus Fetch (later Extensis Portfolio), which were delivered on disks in physical boxes. My early clients were really trailblazers in DAM, spanning magazine publishers, creative agencies, architects, museums, and non-profits. In addition to DAM, I advised on high-end scanners and digital workflows to help clients digitize their collections. This led me to join PhotoDisc, a pioneer in high-volume colour scanning offering quality 300dpi royalty-free stock photography. PhotoDisc, which later merged with Getty Images, felt more like a software company than a picture library. It was during this time and in my business development role that I began fielding questions about metadata, taxonomy, workflow, and search, as clients sought better ways to manage their growing digital collections.” [Read More]
Richard’s expertise in DAM is clear, and his technical and business-oriented guidance for those new to the field are both insightful and practical. With regards to the future of DAM, Richard envisions a greater level of bi-directional integration with a growing variety of third-party creative tools and business services. Conerning his biggest mistake in DAM, Richard explains:
“Assuming everyone knows what Digital Asset Management (DAM) is. At a recent creative event a VP from a large financial services company asked me, “What’s DAM?” I’m still surprised when new customers both big and small tell me that they don’t have a DAM.” [Read More]
You can read the full interview at the link below.
https://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/dam-news-interviews/richard-bamford/
You can connect with Richard via his LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardbamford/
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