Image from Alphabetilately, exhibit currently at the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C.
It is good to have friends in high places, or in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., where interesting things happen (and I am not talking about Congress, Obama and the Stimulus Plan). J Ford Huffman, a fellow marathoner, and former USA Today editor, chimes in from time to time and always with elements of curiosity——often related to Carmen Miranda, but not necessarily.
Yesterday, he sent me what he knew would be a teaser. He wrote:
“Thought you would find this of interest. I came across this info about a to-be-published book, which i share with you interested observers of the page media (print and screen). The premise of the book is neat: “Why the internet will never replace a fruit stand.”
I was busy when I read this mail, but that thought alone made me stop what I was doing. I confess that two minutes later I forwarded that bit of information to William Powers, the man who has coined the phrase Print is Eternal, and whose talks at gatherings of newspaper people are inspirational pep rallies at a time when the industry needs them. William is now completing his new book on the subject. His reaction was almost immediate:
Mario, Thank you! This alone is wonderful: “Why the internet will never replace a fruit stand.” Racing toward my March 1 deadline. Will be in touch again when I surface.
I know that I also made Bill’s day with that precious statement.
Seriously, according to J Ford, who came in contact with the material, science has figured out what we’ve all known intuitively for ages: tactile surfaces are engaging, memorable, powerful, the new study of touch is called “haptics”. Dickson’s new book on what haptics means to you is called ‘Print = Science + Sensation.’
At Dickson’s we’ve always known how to stimulate the urge to touch. the big news is, now we know why.”
One question is in order: is touching newsprint or paper more appealing than , let’s say, the surface of an iPhone or a Kindle 2?
Update:JFord Huffman replies
When you can dog-ear a page on Kindle i will consider reading a book on one.
For more information about the book:
http://www.dicksons.com/form_haptics.html
Further information:
http://alphabetilately.com/NPM1.html
In 1998, Dickson’s published a now-rare book called ‘Alphabetilately,’ which shows what happened when 26 San Francisco designers designed A-Z ‘stamp’ images. Alphabetilately is the subject of an exhibit currently showing at the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C.
In Miami: launch of Miami Daily Business Review
A Garcia Media project launches in the beautiful sunny city of Miami, Florida, today. It is the Miami Daily Business Review, the long standing daily for business and legal news in South Florida.
Kelly Frankeny, our Garcia Media Creative Director, is there to see the first paper roll off the presses and we promise to report all about it tomorrow, complete with photos of today’s first edition.
for now, here is a before and after rendition during one of the several press runs that were printed.
Key centerpieces of the redesign:
1. A change of logo: the traditional logo has been replaced by a more youthful one, reflecting the name that most people give the newspaper “dbr”.
2. A new front page navigator that is smart, concise, but leads busy business people to the top five to ten stories of the day.
3. More color and graphics throughout.
More details tomorrow. Kelly promises a report as soon as she helps the team put the paper to bed.
In Paris the rest of the week. Flew in very early this morning from snowy Stockholm. Here is how snow had accumulated around the windows surrounding my seat as I boarded Air France flight to Paris.
To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #196