Pixel x Paper x Press.

The question of how traditional print media will be affected by a landscape dominated by all things digital has long been discussed. Graphic design would clearly be at the forefront of this transition. For us things have settled down a little from the days of people brandishing Kindles proffering the death of the book. And aside from print being far from dead, we are beginning to see how digital and print are actually very natural bedfellows. To labour this metaphor a little we are now seeing how digital is able to roll print over to stop it snoring. There is no better example than the incredible event PIXEL x PAPER x PRESS hosted by Chaos, Foilco and WINTER & COMPANY. And what a venue the White Rabbit Studio in Shoreditch is – I’d highly recommend it for a range of different event types.

In essence the day Introduced us to the powerful new #PHYGITAL ecosystem which was a collaboration between the hosts. Let me try and cut through the hashtag (can you imagine the boardroom moment?!) to explain the product as best I can. Essentially it is an incredibly realistic prototyping tool. I am not exaggerating when I say ‘incredibly’. It has huge potential in brand, product prototyping and marketing campaigns but the focus of P X P X P was on packaging, not least because Winter + Co. and Foilco gloriously package things. It is an ‘ecosystem’ that has brought prototyping to life allowing effective decision making without the need to get the tools out. Naturally this saves time and money. The most amazing thing about it is that because of the efforts of the people behind it, it takes into account subtle differences between materials and even light conditions. Honestly it is slightly mind blowing (if that isn’t an oxymoron).

And even better than seeing the technology in action (oh and it is very simple to plugin to any development environment you use every day), was seeing people. Seeing people and drinking cold beer. Just being back out there.