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Long Live Print

David Burdon is a graphic designer who recently returned to the North East after living and working in Edinburgh. David was named the ’Fresh Face of Design’ at the 2010 Fresh Awards and his branding and design agency, Glad, were nominated for the title of ’Design Agency of the Year’ at the 2011 Roses Design Awards.

While perusing my copy of issue 06 of Novel Magazine, the call for contributions caught my attention. ‘Print is Dead’ was to be the theme of the forthcoming issue, which is of course, the issue you are now reading.

As a big fan of print, I felt like I was reading the obituary of a dear friend; a friend whose death had been, until that moment, unknown to me.

“We are saddened to announce that Print, born to Johannes Gutenberg in Strasbourg, Germany, circa. 1440, has sadly passed away, at age 572. Print leaves behind a legacy of having revolutionised the
modern world and is survived by a family of printers now facing redundancy“

In a rush of emotion, I found myself slipping into the first of the five stages of mourning; denial.

As my mind raced through all of the reasons and arguments that the death of print simply could not be possible, I knew that at some point, I would need to progress through the other four stages; anger, bargaining, depression and ultimately, acceptance.

That didn’t happen, though. I didn’t get furious. I didn’t blame myself. I wasn’t depressed and most importantly, I never reached the stage of acceptance. Instead, I became convinced that print was not in fact, dead. It was all a lie.

Before I go any further with this metaphor (and I will go further, because I’m quite enjoying the drama of it), let me assure you that I’m as excited as the next man (perhaps more so, being a designer by profession) about the advances of digital communication and the creative possibilities that it brings. Communication can now be quicker, slicker and more effective than ever. Instead of a blank page to populate with ink, anyone wishing to communicate a message now has a whole range of rich, interactive, high-definition, social, trackable and engaging arrows in their quiver.

But does that mean that print is dead? Does the presence of digital media mean that print must cease to exist? Of course not, but it does mean that print, although not dead, may have a new role.

At the recently held Leeds Print Festival (the very existence of which calls into question the claim that print is dead) Paul Hewitt, Managing Director of Sussex-based Generation Press gave an address in which he suggested that print is not dead, but has a new role. It’s no longer about junk mail and mass-communication. It’s the new language of luxury.

Let’s explore this. When I was at University, you couldn’t walk into town without having several club flyers imposed upon you. You would see the flyers piled up in their thousands on the floor next to whoever had the unfortunate job of handing them out. Over the last couple of years, however, it seems that promoters have realised that social media and specifically, Facebook, is a cheaper and more effective way to promote these events and get a good response.

Club flyers, although not dead, are dying, or at least demising. The same could be said of a lot of the largely unwelcome junk mail that only a few years ago, filled our letter-boxes instead of our inboxes. It seems that print as mass-produced ephemera has, indeed seen its day. Print is no longer the primary means of mass communication, it is now a choice, a luxury. When compared to the alternative digital options, it is an expensive choice, so companies and individuals are making it for a reason and that reason is not always that they are too short-sighted or stuck in their ways to move forward.

In spite of the wonders, convenience and new experiences of the digital world, we ought not to kid ourselves that everything that went before is no longer of merit. On the contrary, compare the experience of selecting your own fresh fruit and vegetables from a greengrocer to simply clicking ‘buy’ on Tesco.com. Or what about an online relationship compared to an actual, real-life date? My point is that there are experiences to be had in the real world that transcend and exist outside of our 1280x1024 pixel screens (or whatever resolution is your particular preference).

Like dating and visiting the greengrocers, print can offer experiences that digital cannot. Take this example from Simon Garfield’s book ‘Just My Type’. Garfield is writing about one of Gutenberg’s original Bibles, which can be viewed in the British Museum:

“The Bible is printed on paper … and has a provenance shrouded in intrigue and crossings-out on title pages. It is one of just forty-eight known surviving copies… and each has variations in text, lineage, spacing and illumination. Spectroscopy has revealed the exact pigments used in the illuminated capitals and opening lines, a combination of lead tin yellow, vermillion, verdigris, chalk, gypsum, lead white and carbon black.

These days, digitalisation enables us to view the copies online without the need for a trip to the Euston Road, although to do so would be to deny oneself one of the great pleasures in life. The first book ever printed in Europe - heavy, luxurious, pungent and creaky - does not read particularly well on an iPhone.“

Garfield is right. Hanging a poster on your wall is so much more enjoyable than clicking ‘set image as wallpaper’. Holding and smelling a beautiful hand-bound book is more rewarding that scrolling up and down on a Kindle.

Glasgow Press are a letterpress printshop based, surprisingly enough, in Glasgow. Letterpress printing involves inking up hot metal type or a photopolymer plate and running it through a press, forcing the design into thick paper and leaving an impression that can be felt by running your fingers over the printed area. We’ve worked with Glasgow Press on a number of jobs and think that the work that they produce is beautiful. On a recent visit to the printshop, Dane told me of a revival that seems to be taking place within his industry. Until recently, the company was one of only a handful of letterpress printers still in operation and were producing traditional wedding invitations. Gradually, this kind of work was replaced and the press are now spending almost all of their hours printing creative business cards, stationery and packaging, commissioned by design agencies from across Britain. Dane says “It seems to us that there’s a general interest in reviving and preserving the craftsmanship of times past and letterpress printing is just such craft. In our opinion, people are placing a lot of importance on traditional skills. Letterpress fell out of favour for decades and many printers got rid of the old presses, but thankfully we’ve held on to ours and here they are back in use again.“

Of all of Dane’s insightful comments, I’m most struck by this observation : “It seems as though the more digitally advanced we become the stronger is our interest in physical things.“

Forget the sackcloth and ashes. Cancel the undertaker. Pull the obituary. Appropriate and beautiful printed media is here to stay. I’m off to run my fingers over some letterpressed business cards.

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Glad are based in Gateshead and specialise in branding and graphic design.

www.weareglad.com

First Published in Novel Magazine Issue 7, March/April 2012

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Burdon .