Well, after the second day of hanging out with Bob Giles from B&S Letterpress in Eugene, I am hooked. I have been geeking out on type/letterpress/design for a while now, but I had never had the chance to do any presswork myself, and today, my friend Evan and I finally got to.
I found Bob after doing some searching and emailing to a few other pressmen around Oregon. Turns out he is located just minutes from me and has one of the best kept shops, I would guess, in the country as far as equipment, supplies, machines and expertise. Bob comes from a long line of letterpressmen, which include his father and grandfather — all three were linotype operators.
The experience of setting my own type was just incredible. Being limited only to what handset type that Bob owns, which is a lot, and what the linotype machine can produce helps you focus more on the design and layout as opposed to digital where you can have an infinite amount of sizes and spacing. I know this is something that I will always want to do. It will also have a great influence on my digital design work as well.
I took about 11 gigabytes of video while we were there and I am going back for more so check back for the video hopefully soon.
Today in my green brand strategy class, Adam Werbach from Saatchi S rocked our world, or just mine anyway, with this quote: “Don’t talk about green; talk about functional value.” Brilliant thinking. His book is well worth read, btw.
Journalism will always be in a state of flux — that’s its very nature. However, until now, I don’t think anyone really had a strong idea of what the future of its medium is going to be. Well, I think this is it. A touchscreen is really nothing new, but to see it all working in concert is a beautiful thing especially the 360-degree ads. Wow. I am excited as a consumer of media, a techie and as a future advertiser.
Incredible piece of history here that resonates very shockingly as in just a few decades all of this is irrelevant. As the printing industry slows to a crawl, it really makes me wonder what industry that is booming today will be dying tomorrow? What industry today is making vocational movies touting great wages and endless supply of jobs? Who knows? Maybe the auto industry or the computer industry or the telephone industry or maybe the military?
Although I am ecstatic every day that I am alive, sometimes I wish I was born about 79 years earlier. Man, I love printing and type and history. #nerd
