Eat, print, love.
That’s a perfect name for this website, created “for the love of print” and billed as an inspirational resource “for all things print, paper and design.”
I just read a post from their blog that beautifully echoes current sentiment around print.
“Consider for a moment books and magazines: electronic versions stimulate just one sense – your sight,” the article reads. “In contrast, physical printed copies stimulate sight, yes, but other senses as well. Touch is engaged when you feel the cover of a leather-bound book, or the glossy pages of a magazine in your hands. Smell is stimulated by the scent of fresh ink on paper or with the old book smell that we associate with libraries. Even your hearing is engaged as you flip through pages to find your place within a book.”
We’ve found a kindred soul here, folks, one who could easily fit in with the tongue-in-cheek “print support group” advocated by Parse & Parcel’s Jill DiNicolantonio.
“Inside, I am drawn to the soft touch coating on the interior cover. I page through the piece and am struck by the gorgeous combination of photography, illustration and typography Studio Kinrichs is known for,” DiNicolantonio wrote back in 2014. “I notice the balance between the positive and negative spaces. Stopping on a spread that calls readers to interact, I pay attention to the solid black area to see if it passes the ‘orange peel’ test. I scour it looking for the tiniest imperfection in coverage (non-glare coated papers are very unforgiving when it comes to large areas of solids like black or metallics). Of course there’s none – this is McCoy we’re talking about,” she writes.
The Eat, Print, Love author cites some of the scientific research that underscores our human connection to print materials, and the technical advances in the printing industry.
“Not only is print not dying, it’s experiencing a renaissance!” the author notes. “Digital print technology has allowed printing to become more personal, more adaptable, and more cost-effective for shorter-run jobs than ever been before. Print-on-demand and variable data printing have opened up entirely new segments of the market, and the industry is now poised for a period of spectacular growth.”
Yet it’s much more than tech and science. Print is now viewed as “a more precious thing,” signaling a level of success for a brand that allows it to make a more immediate connection with their audience. In the age of digital, we are longing for those connections – in real time, and in real media.
“One of my favourite quotes from the novel Eat, Pray, Love is: ‘I think I deserve something beautiful,’ except my version would read: ‘I think we all deserve something beautiful.’ Print and design are all around us; they add vibrancy, colour, and beauty to our everyday lives. From the stunning photographs that adorn the covers of the magazines at our local corner store, to the beautifully designed banners which line the walls of skyscrapers, we are surrounded by beauty everyday,” the Eat, Print, Love post continues.
We all deserve something beautiful, and we appreciate the brands that deliver it to us in print.