The importance of print is huge in the shaping of modern life as we know it. The development of printing techniques and the impact on people in the decades and centuries that followed is hard to fully quantify.
Before print, less people were able to read and write. Print sparked an interest in learning and as a result, knowledge that was previously in the hands of a few would now become available to almost everyone.
So, when Johann Gutenberg created interchangeable, re-usable type for printing on a wooden press in and around 1430-40, he changed the world he was living in but, he also changed the world that would come for all of us.
In the early 16th Century printing machinery was common-place in cities all around Europe. In due course this enabled the rapid printing of pamphlets and flyers which aided the spread of propaganda and information from all kinds of people and ideologies.
Knowledge and information, both good and bad, shaping the minds of millions of people… enabled by print. It’s safe to say that print was and still is powerful.
Print today
This morning I threw away a bundle of printed flyers and leaflets the moment our postman slotted them through our letterbox. Straight from the letterbox to the trash. I do this almost daily, such is the amount of junk mail we receive these days.
Perhaps your experience is the same. That might cause us to write off print as a dead or dying medium.
But, there’s nothing wrong with print.
The prevalence of low-cost printing in high volume and flawed or greedy decisions are what fuel the mass market stick-it-through-all-the-letterboxes mentality.
Evaluate what you print
Perhaps the information we put to print requires more evaluation, not print itself.
We know that technology allows your business, brand, church or organisation to share a message to a huge number of people without the added cost of print. We also know that technology allows us all to engage with electronic devices in a wide variety of ways where we used to solely rely on printed products. Books, music, games…
And yet, we firmly believe print is still of huge importance if handled correctly.
We believe it can be vital, not just for your business, brand, church or organisation but, also for your local community. After all, in communities, towns and cities there are still lots of important things to be said, messages to be shared and people to inspire and challenge.
There’s something legitimate and solid about print. The effort to create content, edit and then commit to print is a slow intentional process that requires thought, decisions and belief. Authors lock themselves away in remote places to finish books, editors read sentences and paragraphs over and over. Designers zoom in and out and back in again, checking colours and margins.
Print is real. Tangible. Serious.
– The above quote is from our recent post Print is not Dead.
Printed by us
Our team have been working on something – a printed journal – that will be visible in small numbers around Ballymena from this week.
The journal is being printed by local printers Ballyprint who we are proud to work alongside here in Ballymena.
Can we help you?
Maybe you have ideas for print? Maybe you’ve ran out of ideas for your business or organisation?
We approach your needs efficiently and as simply as you need things to be. Our collective team understands the importance of building a personal relationship with you. We thrive on regular contact and ongoing collective team involvement in your project.
Look out for our journal, get in touch with us. We would love to sit down over a cup of coffee and see how our team can help you, perhaps with print or perhaps in some other way.
Find out what our team can do or contact us: www.arecollective.co.uk
