Internal Conflict.
Was there a conflict between the first wave and the entrenched professionals? Certainly. I've reread many books from my personal graphic design collection published in that time. The dialog on the qualities of design were never so vivid or as rational as they are now with my technical skills for the damn computer in check.

However, it takes a recent book to put it better. Ms. Heartney's book on post-modernism puts perspective on one conflict: modernist VS. post-modernist. It underscores how much conflict was behind the works I've owned and admired. And, she speaks clearly of the "needs" new designers exhibit to position against the old garde. Taking the dialog to painting she cites how the next generations of painters decried the social implications of modernists who mined the ethnic aesthetics of African tribal arts for their canvases. She is of course speaking of the salons of Paris between the world wars. A lot of discussion is devoted to point out the modernist process of transferring mythical qualities to tribal art (elevating it to a higher status), but also removed the contexts under which it was made. The argument easily points to the issues of globalization and puts the blame squarely on modernism and any who support its ideals.

Over looking ten years of PoMo works and the question of raping the past or removing context invalidates this stance. The point is rather that this dialog allowed new designers the freedom to grow. The dialog of professional design was given a place to be outside of what the latest software package could-not-do or how it homogenized design choices thus denigrating years of professional practice.

Web technicalities.
Business continues despite the internal dialog between professionals. Many graphic designers needed to figure out how years of consulting practice was going to fit with increasing demand for web solutions. Many kept doing what they did well (and will always do well) and that was creating encompassing visual solutions for content. I for one delved into information illustration as a means to bridge the gaps between engineers who could do all of the programming and creative project managers who planned it.

As someone who ventured well into the web camp, and also maintained a graphic front I was called in several occasions to bring Flash or other interactive qualities to the studio practice of brochure-ware——studios prying of the screw lid to a jar of pickles. Unfortunately, I owe an apology to some as I didn't see how sensitive this work was. Not that the projects themselves were sensitive, but our given roles. They were hiring a graphic designer with web skills to keep their vulnerabilities secret. They also wanted answers to their consternation, but could not trust any single freelancer with their business struggles. Instead of taking the bait and plying for full-time employment (and thus earning the trust to share my insights), I opted to continue to unscrew the lids off of pickle jars for designers who couldn't get it off.

It was good work.
My skill set from corporate design was well suited to bring graphic sense to a client's various fronts. It was also dangerous work. Some designers could not get their head around the basic problem of content. If you don't have it, there are precious few ways to make a site look "full" AND fit into competitive landscape. Designers finding themselves caught in a hard place to understand their paying clients who mewed and stalled for want of a content-rich looking site. These designers were caught, because it wasn't their problem but the client's. Only print has tricks of swooping curves and white space and that carried little currency for clients at that time. That's where the real derisive connotation of brochure-ware was defined. It doesn't matter so much today. Now clients can't shut up.