Print Still Matters
Because not everything should be scrolled past.
I had an interesting conversation with Greg, the owner of Brother Brother, yesterday. It touched on a range of topics and felt more like a panel discussion than a standard customer-to-store chat. We spoke about what makes a material worthy of its price tag, the new brands we’re liking, social media as a whole, and what defines ‘good quality’. But one thing that stuck out was print media, which is also part of the reason I have a Substack.
Mind you, Greg has products and a book collection that would make any design nerd jealous, so it was a slightly biased conversation.
I don’t like the shortened attention spans we’re dealing with in today’s social media world. I get it, and I find people who do it well genuinely entertaining, but for me, it’s just not it. I can create that content for work, but it’s not what I want to make for myself or consume. I think it’s the graphic designer in me that loves print media, even just from a layout perspective.
I also write on here for two reasons:
To get better at a skill that many people now outsource to AI. Maybe I’m wasting my time, but I enjoy it.
Because I want you, the person opening this email, to take a moment and stop multitasking.
Life is chaotic. Doing a hundred things at once for seventeen hours a day isn’t sustainable. Constant multitasking is counterintuitive. I still struggle with it, especially during the season, which I’m trying to improve now that it’s the off-season. It’s like expecting employees to be productive for eight straight hours a day. It just doesn’t work like that.
I hope when my email lands in your inbox, you think, I’ll save that for my morning coffee or tea.
Anyway, I digress.
I feel the same way about print media.
When I’m flipping through a magazine or a coffee table book, I can’t be doing anything else. More often than not, they’re expensive or somewhat rare, so I don’t want to crease or rip a page. I enjoy the paper weight, the smell of ink, and even the imperfections from the printer.
I say all of this because I think print media is coming back in a big way. I’ve started ordering old copies of Slam magazine, partly to study how they wrote back then, but also to see how brands approached creativity through advertising and design.
Maybe that’s made me more aware than the average consumer, but we’re seeing a definite shift. More brands are producing zines and quarterly magazines.
Outlander Magazine just launched its first print issue.
Complex is back to publishing quarterlies.
Popeye Magazine, one of Japan’s best cultural magazines, has launched its first ever English version.
And indie magazine launches are up nearly 20% compared to the mid-2010s.
Honestly, I’m excited about it.
Why I Think It’s Happening
1. The need for storytelling.
In a world where it’s hard to tell proper stories anymore, where social media demands the shorter version, print gives you the chance to own your perspective and control your narrative. You get to take people on your journey, in your own way.
2. Digital fatigue.
Everything has gone digital, and it’s exhausting. Maybe it’s still a post-Covid reaction, but I think people are craving a sense of normality again, and that includes both community(more to come on that) and print.
3. The rise of coffee culture.
Newspaper reading and coffee went hand in hand long before Instagram. Today, flexing an indie creative magazine is the equivalent of DJing vinyl, it says you care about the craft.
Print might be coming back as part of a broader nostalgia trend, but I hope it’s returning because we miss slowing down long enough to feel something real. Because not everything should be scrolled past.
As always, thanks for your time
Hayden
PS: Keep an eye on the instagram page. I have reactivated it. I need to figure out a way to turn these articles into posts for IG, as it’s the only way I can really grow this thing. So keep an eye on that and throw it a comment if you see it to let IG know, D5 is forever.