the beginning of the end of print, or the end of the beginning?

This is going to be rather a long post, so bear with me. I'll try not to ramble, but there are several things that I've come across or been involved in over the past month that I think are connected. So I'm going to string them together and see if I can come up with a sensible argument.

Later this week I'll be sitting on a panel which will be carrying out a review of a BA (Hons) Graphic Design course (I won't tell you where, just in case someone's tempted to nobble me). I imagine that part of our time will be spent discussing whether the teaching on the course should be primarily concerned with design for print, design for screen, or design skills that are transferable between the two. Because some might say that print is dead. Certainly there are plenty of people around who are all too ready to tell me that their teenage sons won't read anything unless it's on a screen; so surely print must be dead? Actually, I think not.

And if you're involved in designing for print, as I am, you must be asking questions about whether there's going to be a print industry left in five years time. (Given that at least 50% of the printers that I've used over the past five years are no longer in business, that might seem entirely probable.) But, of course, the real problem with the print industry is that there's more supply than demand. That will eventually balance itself out; but only the fittest, or the most fleet of foot, will survive.

And there's the rub, I suppose. A fleet-of-foot printer must surely be an oxymoron. As somebody recently said to me: "when I meet printers, all they ever talk about is B1 or B2".

So if you're a printer reading this, just stick with me.

Now I imagine that a large proportion of those reading this post will recognise this as being from the newspaper-style mailer that Ben and Russell recently sent out in order to announce their new, experimental business venture, the Really Interesting Group. And an interesting use of print, I'm sure you'll agree (assuming you've seen it in the flesh). (Actually, as an aside, has somebody set up a Flickr group yet to track the personalisation boxes of all 1,000 copies? That would be an ace thing to do, especially if they all had geo tags.)

But to my mind, the most interesting part of the exercise is not the printing at all, but the content. Because, as Ben and Russell have pointed out, what they've done is to take what was out there in the blogosphere and republish it in another form. Without asking first. And what does this tell us? Copyright is dead (or it will be one day). But it also tells us that, as designers, we have to concern ourselves with content; a point that I'll come back to a little later.

First, though, let me tell you about another project that parallels Things our friends have written on the internet 2008:

It's William and Joost's upcoming O.K. Periodical: O.K. Failure. "As in the previous issue, a large number of people from around the world contributed material and articles to this magazine. This gave us the opportunity to make a publication with a wide range of subjects crossing various disciplines; an article written by neuropsychologist Roos Bijvelds about how our blundering brain makes us dazzle when seeing op-art, great glitch images made by JODI and Beflix (the godfather of glitch-art), all kinds of computer errors, scientific blunders, misspelled tattoos, environmental tragedies, government mistakes and even the effects of dementia on time perception. The magazine itself has been submitted to an accident-prone production process."

So, again, here are designers concerning themselves with content, as well as revisiting the way that print is being used. As William explains: "Today we went to Ando printers in The Hague to have a look at the printing process. Not only have a look, together with the nice people there we fucked up one sheet (16 pages) by doing weird stuff with the inkrolls and printing machine itself! The result is awesome. Every magazine will be unique, having 16 pages throughout the mag with varying colours and messy inkstains."

Which leads me on to David Carson. Here he is giving a TED Talk back in 2003.

Forget what you already might think about David Carson: it's worth sticking with this one. As he wryly points out, his book Print is Dead is already in its fifth reprint.

 
But stick it out to the end and reflect upon what he has to say about People magazine's response to 9/11.

And now I'm going to attempt to  bring this all together into a conclusion - and that is this: as graphic designers, our training and practice over the past 80 years or so has all been about style. What font should I use? How much leading? Pantone 356 or 124? But from now on we have to concern ourselves with content. Not necessarily the content that we ourselves create (in the manner of Stefan Sagmeister, say) as a means of self expression. We also have to concern ourselves with, and get involved in, the content that we are asked to handle.

And if you're a printer and you're still reading this: well done, you're already half way to surviving the recession.

Comments

[Daniel]

Good stuff. I think you've just volunteered yourself to set up that Flickr group!

[Antonio]

Hey David!

I just got my in the post. I'm in Mexico, so it took a while, but it was great to find out they shipped internationally.

If anyone sets the Flickr group, I'll send mine in.

Cheers!

[Winnie]

Is print dead? How long have we been hearing that? I should 'fess up and say I'm not a trained, professional designer. I'm a librarian who stumbled across your blog because of the "Types to use instead of Arial" posts. I work at small library and find myself doing displays, designing book marks, posters, etc, because I'm the only one who really cares what they look like. In my voluteer work with Girl Guides it's the same thing. A year or two ago I found myself in a pitched battle with other Guiders over getting information about an event out to our local members. I said we needed to print and mail and everyone else said it would cost too much, e-mail was free. My point at the time was 25% of our members didn't have e-mail and expecting word of mouth to get it to them was wrong, inconsiderate and elitist. I won and the result was interesting. We had a big turnout. People who were unable to attend sent messages. In other words, people paid attention. What I've noticed, both at work and in Guiding, is that people take print more seriously, despite the stupid amount of junk mail that comes through my box. Maybe seriously isn't the right word, but receiving a piece of paper mail addressed to them excited the adults in my Guiding area. With the younger set, say over 8 since before that they still think books are cool, there seems to be an impression that things in print are important because they take more work. So the newsletter you spent hours laying out, proofing, making perfect and then posted on your website is seen as easier than if you had printed it. I know, this post goes on a bit but I hope it says what I mean and you understand how I came to it.

[Winnie]

Sorry, it's "52 fonts instead of Helvetica" but at the time I was trying to find something to use instead of the ubiquitous Arial.

[caroline]

Great Post. I have been thinking a lot about this recently since I drive past a road called Printers Row every day doing the school run. I don't think there are any printers there anymore but perhaps I should investigate further. There is a printers shop just down the road from me however, and I hope they are surviving the recession. I have always found them especially helpful and keen to cater for my bizarre needs either by fulfilling them or telling me where my ideas can be realised. Most recently I have asked them to produce a perfect bound glossy white covered 370 page 30cm x 30cm completely blank white book. They were completely happy to do this for me and got back to me in an hour to let me know how much this would cost and when I could pick it up. Obviously no printing involved but it is the readiness to be flexible without being judgemental which I like. I also like their rather old fashioned offer of free year planners, which my son went in and got yesterday, and the way they sell old paperbacks on the windowsill outside. They are a local independant printmaker who like working with people and I guess that is what will keep them going.

As for print being dead, I don't think this is so. A book to me is the main form of print I come accross and is something almost sacred, but then I was brought up to hold them in high regard - no crayon scribbles in my ladybird book of Indians. Books are pretty much the only physical form of creative pleasure I get. The internet has stolen a huge chunk of my heart away from Books, but given the choice I'd rather have a book I can look at than a screen on a table...could Mac build a lap top you could snuggle up with? I doubt it. (Just in case they do, I want royalties on isnuggle)...

[barbara]

i'm number 999.

[caroline]

I should give the excellent printers a bit of small time free advertising really (David, feel free to delete if this is not OK)..the printers I was on about are called Sarsen Press in Winchester. Thanks.