Pet Your Printing

There is a new publication for the Northern California the visual media and graphics communications community. It’s been a long time coming. Indeed, I have often struggled when looking for such a vehicle in which to dialogue with my local peers and colleagues. Other than surfing the net which I readily admit to enjoy, I’ve missed the hold-it-in-your-hand, all-in-one-place, page-flipping, ink-smelling, quick-finding resource of past and future happenings in my local business world.

The first issue of Process Magazine, a collaborative effort of Jim Nissen, Switch Studios and Visual Media Alliancewill hit

Process

mailboxes throughout Northern California, this week. That is, real mail boxes, not email boxes. If you are fortunate enough to be among those special people on the mailing list you are in for a treat. The eye candy on the cover was created by the Bay Area’s own Michael Osborne, a well known designer and branding genius, President and Creative Director of the San Francisco based MOD/Michael Osborne Design, Inc. His design is a nod to his Hearts in San Francisco sculpture and his 2002 USPS Love stamp. Inside, we get to know Michael a little better as he answers questions about his work, his life, his life’s work.

Michael Osborne Heart Stamp

But the cover is not eye-candy alone. As the title of this blog suggests, it’s irresistibly touchable. Printed by DOME Printing on 98# Topkote Gloss, the craftsmen at DOME applied Aqueous coating with Soft Touch technology to the entire sheet after the 4-c process and metallic silver printing, then high gloss spot UV was applied to the graphics which together make the magazine totally irresistible to curious fingers. Fingers, once finished caressing the luscious cover, are bound to flip open to the front page, in search of more wonders. And they won’t be disappointed. The inside front cover is a playful die cut foldout strategically located to “UNVEIL” the story of the upcoming VisualMedia012 conference with the mascot character in his Houdini-like manifestation. The event will appropriately explore the magic of technology as used in marketing today. This process will be discussed in Daniel Dejan’s seminar Special Effects in Printing & Finishing: Sappi’s Standard #5.

What a pleasure to absorb this creative, professional and REGIONAL publication. It’s a great opportunity to learn about the local design scene; review the many events I’ve missed and even a few I’ve attended; find out what else is coming up and where I need to be next; and finally, feel like I’m part something bigger than myself but not so big that I become irrelevant.