I (still) love the smell of ink in the morning
Late last night and into the early morning, as I traded REMs for cat naps on a the customer lounge sofa, I found myself suddenly back in my old job. I was on a press check—where the client observes the critical printing stages of a job—just like I used to do for URB years ago. But instead of our now 95% digital URB.COM, we were printing! The inaugural 60-page issue of Camp, a free publication my company produced for the Coachella Music & Arts Festival, lands in hands this weekend.
The whole press check nvironment was super familiar, from the machinery to the sometimes arduous pace of the whole process. And even as I dive deeper into a life in some ways post-print, being at the printer was still an absolute buzz for me. The locomotive size presses with operators scurrying about and futzing over every magnified pixel. The constant whirl of paper through a web of rolls, cylinders and folding mechanisms. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black pigment meeting pulp for the first time. The proud parenthood emotion as the finished piece makes its way into waiting bundles. It was instantly clear that I still loved “old” media in all of its last century glory.
Anyway, I’ll post more details on the final product later. But here are some shots of the press check. And if you happen to be near Indio, California this weekend, come grab a real-life copy. Camp isn’t on the dub dub dub just yet.
#printisnotdead
