From paper to pixels.

I know I'm way too young to even be posting anything like this, considering I only graduated school 4 years ago with a BFA in Graphic and Interactive Design... but it's more than obvious that everything is going digital these days and I'm more than a little bummed about it.

Don't get me wrong, I am constantly amazed by what we can do digitally. Geez, even since my days at Kinko's it's been game changing. Call me a hypocrite even, because I swore I'd keep more journals but here I am, blogging! I can send proofs to freelance clients instantly, and upload their files to print in a matter of seconds. I just miss the paper and the ink. After all, that's the reason I became so addicted to art and design in the first place. 

When you begin art school, or at least when you begin each semester for each class, you get that awesome shopping list that puts you so deep in the financial hole, but it's still so much fun. Getting to try out all these new mediums, all these new kinds of paper with different weights, colors, and finishes! I remember how blown away I was by the use of white or cobalt blue conté crayon on grey paper and how striking it looked in foundation drawing class. How much of a difference red text looked on cream colored paper instead of regular white. I remember all those wonderful textures of Strathmore paper in etching class. I've learned all these great techniques, and I was going to get to apply them all to the art of communication in graphic design!

I can't even get started on my fascination with printing in itself. Kinko's was one thing, we printed everything digitally, and I was still pretty fascinated with how a color copier worked. But I remember my first day working at a rinky-dink printer years later, helping out a woman with her graphics work because her husband just passed away. I walked into that place for the first time and it was like a museum to me. REAL printing presses, metal plates, rubylith, darkrooms, and a million cans of Pantone ink. Oh I loved it. I remember how sad it made me to meet the printer and how much he didn't care about what he did, and I guess I can't really be surprised. I don't think anyone is that much of a geek about printing! I always wanted to learn how to run the press, but I was the only graphics person there, and since I had to spend so much time bringing the software up to speed from 1980 (well, not really, but Photoshop 2?? This is 2005!) there wasn't much time for me to go jumping from one to the other. I did get to learn to operate this really cool platemaker that was in fact, digital, and worked like an inkjet printer! But when everyone left I'd go play in paper stocks and inks, I won't lie.

However, as time goes on, paper and ink become less and less of an art, because everything is moving so quickly. Our interaction with paper and ink is becoming so much more archaic, and it does certainly make me sad.  I do agree, it's much easier, it's more instantaneous, and this world is moving so fast that even the internet isn't fast enough for us anymore. People are reading books on iPhones! Everyone's reading the news on RSS feeds! They say printed magazines are becoming a thing of the past as well. Even as I send out resumes, most companies are asking me for a PDF. I'm worried it's becoming a lost art, and it can add so much to the experience. 

What can I say? I can't believe I'm saying such things at the ripe old age of 28, the whole When I was your age" nonsense. But I have to admit, when I'm in a coffee shop and I see someone reading a real newspaper among a sea of laptop screens, it gives me a little hope.

While we're at it, can we  not let digital cameras take over darkrooms as well? Don't even get me started...

:-) 

Comments

[Renee Grande]

I love this post. Very personal, and inspirational. It's a great to read something that shows you are blessed to have a true passion for what you do. It is a bit disappointing that ink and paper have become somewhat nostalgic, but wonderful that there still are those who have an appreciation for it :)