World-wide, the data farms that serve up web content consume 0ver 100 billion kilowatts per year (for comparison, the Hoover Dam produces only 4 billion kilowatts of energy per year). If all that power came from green sources, it might not be so bad. But 57% of the electricity produced in the U.S. comes from coal, which is responsible for 67% of all sulfur dioxide emissions.

Coal Powers the Web

Microsoft’s data center in Quincy Washington alone is 450,000 square feet and contains tens of thousands of computers. They have seven such centers worldwide, and that’s just Microsoft. On average, server farm computers have a lifespan of only 4 years. After that, these toxic little machines are off to the landfill. Only 18% of computer hardware is recycled. 70% of the toxic waste in landfills comes from e-waste.

A Toxic Graveyard

Electronic communications take a toll on the environment in the form of strip mining (for coal), air pollution, the export of toxic trash to the Third World, and more. And if people like the message they see on their screen, they are likely to print it out anyway. Because people like paper.

This is not to say we should shut down the web. But it is to say that you have a choice in media and that every web site you visit has an environmental cost.

The Benefits of Paper
Now, let’s look at the environmental effects of using paper.

If our goal were to put as many cows on the earth as possible, what would be the best way we could make that happen? By consuming more milk. More demand means cows are worth more, and more cows are required to meet the demand. When it comes to trees, it is a similar equation.

Tomorrow's Brochures

1,700,000 trees are planted each day to meet the demand for wood in America. And that’s not counting the trees that grow from seeds naturally. Trees planted for paper are planted just like any other crop. But because they take 10 years to mature, we enjoy environmental benefits throughout their life-cycle. Through photosynthesis, trees scrub the atmosphere of CO2 and produce oxygen. The more trees, the better.

For paper making, any sort of tree pulp works fine, so quick-growing trees are economically wise and entirely sustainable. Forests used for paper production are growing more than 20% faster than they are being consumed. The 13.2 million acres of old-growth forest in the U.S. is kept safe through regulation; the paper industry creates its own forests.

Pulp can also be made from the scraps left after boards are cut to make lumber. So paper making actually helps use wood that could otherwise be wasted.

Paper Mill in Southeastern U.S.: Water Supply, Trees, Woodchips, Plant

The paper-making process requires chemicals to separate pulp from lignin (the stuff that makes cheaper papers yellow over time). 99% of these chemicals are recovered through internal recycling.

Other forms of fiber—from cotton, flax, hemp, and more—are often blended with the pulp. Some paper is made entirely from non-wood sources, like cotton—even cotton from old clothes! Recycled paper content may also be added to the pulp, or the paper may be made from entirely recycled paper content.

Recycling
Recycling programs are efficient, save landfill space, and cause a quicker production cycle—recycled paper is ready for re-use in months versus the 10 years it takes to grow a 40′ pine tree.

57% of paper is recycled after use—a higher recycling percentage than metal, glass, and plastic combined. And paper can be recycled an average of five times!

Ready for Recycling!

100% recycled paper does not always perform as well as paper made from virgin pulp (it may not fold as well and can contain specks). But most paper has some recycled content as it makes good economic sense.

Being a Good Steward
In order to ensure that the paper you are using comes from renewable sources, a number of certifications have been established, including the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification. Fathom can let you know the specifics of any paper we propose, from how the paper is certified to its percentage of recycled content. We can even spec paper that is made using 100% wind energy.

We can also ensure that your job is printed using non-petroleum-based inks. Petroleum-based inks release gasses (volatile organic compounds or VOCs) as they dry. Vegetable-based inks don’t.

There are other creative ways to be a good steward. We can design in ways that minimize paper waste, we can use paper that printers already have in stock, we can even use paper that printers were otherwise going to recycle (take a look at the below invitation we designed that used cardboard from a printer’s recycling bin).

Conclusions
Communicating in print is as environmentally viable as communicating online—and print has distinct strategic advantages: conveying a message that is immediate, lasting, dimensional, and harder to ignore. Select a medium for strategic reasons, because environmentally, both pixels and pulp have their pitfalls.

Whether your message requires a web site (we design them!) or a printed piece (we design them, too!) your decision to communicate a message will consume resources and will have an impact on the earth.

Excellent design will ensure you have an impact on your audience as well.

It’s Premature to Drop Flash—or Swear by HTML 5
Of all of the software missing from Apple’s iPhone/iPad platform, the most controversial omission is Adobe’s Flash, thanks to its ubiquity as a video and casual game platform. As a website designer and developer, this has impacted me firsthand, as clients are now specifically requesting HTML 5-based, iPad-compatible websites—without an appreciation for the repercussions of such a move. Flash development makes up a large portion of my work, and while I look forward to HTML 5 replacing certain Flash elements on the Web, in many cases this new technology isn’t ready for professional websites, despite Apple’s insistence.

Browser Support and Performance
Make no mistake; Flash Player performance on mobile devices leaves much to be desired. One need only look at PocketNow.com’s comparison of mobile browsers to recognize the validity for some of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ thoughts on Flash. Apple isn’t alone in recognizing this, either, as earlier this year Mozilla pulled Flash support from its mobile browser, citing performance issues.

Performance issues aside, though, Google’s Android OS has proven that Flash is technically possible on mobile devices. HTML 5, on the other hand, has limited support on certain desktop browsers—particularly Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 6 through 8 (see Deep Blue Sky’s comparison).

Flash Player generally runs on 99 percent of PCs, and given that millions of users are still browsing with older versions of Internet Explorer, it will take years before HTML 5 support will be found on the majority of computers. This fact alone is perhaps the greatest reason why abandoning Flash is not a feasible option for mainstream consumption.

Apple Supporting Its Bottom Line
Apple is technically supporting open standards by advocating the use of HTML 5, but it’s more than a coincidence that the move reinforces their bottom line. For starters, take a look at Apple’s showcase of HTML 5. Unless you’re viewing it in Apple’s Safari browser, you won’t see the effects. While the showcase could be configured to view on Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, Apple chose to only support their own browser.

On the plug-in front, the omission of Flash Player and Java plug-ins eliminates a majority of the mobile gaming and music players available online. By blocking these third-party offerings, Apple can point to its own iTunes and App store as the sole provider of such content on their mobile devices.

Yet another example is exposed with the battle for a standardized video format for HTML 5. Apple supports the H.264 video format, which, while optimized for mobile devices, involves an expensive licensing fee (this fee stems from the fact that H.264 is not an open standard, but rather a proprietary format). Alternatively, there’s the open OGG Theora WebM format, as well as Google’s recently open-sourced , neither of which are currently supported on Apple’s mobile devices. Format wars aside; let’s not forget that both the iPad and iPhone support Apple’s proprietary QuickTime format, but not Microsoft’s Windows Media or Adobe’s Flash video format.

HTML 5′s Development Tools Still Evolving
I was recently contracted on a project in which we had to reformat Flash animations into animated GIFs in order to adhere to the client’s insistence that their site perform on an iPad. Fortunately, money was not an object for the client, but regardless, it still proved to be a costly exercise. The production time had to be lengthened in order to reformat the animations, and the average file size for each animation ballooned from a 40 KB Flash movie to up to 1.5 MB GIFs. This meant that site visitors would be penalized for the download and that larger files would devour the site hosting.

I share this anecdote because developing in HTML 5 involves a learning curve for many developers, not to mention the fact that the tools to build HTML 5 content are either not in existence or still evolving.

The most time-consuming aspect of this development process will be assuring consistency across browsers. While Flash benefits from consistent rendering, HTML 5 content will need to be tested thoroughly across a variety of browsers. Fortunately, I have no doubt that the tools and browsers will improve support over time, but in the meanwhile, requiring HTML 5 means that development time will increase and costs will be higher.

The Larger Community’s Support of Flash
While Wired, the New York Times, and ABC (Disney-owned, of which Jobs is the majority shareholder) have customized their content for Apple’s mobile offerings, Hulu.com, one of the top entertainment sites on the Web, announced they were sticking with Flash, and its contributors, Time Warner and NBC Universal, also dropped a bombshell by deciding to stick with Flash, citing desktop ubiquity and Flash’s inherent support of the H.264 video format.

Apple’s policy on Flash hasn’t been overlooked by the U.S. Department of Justice, as the DOJ is beginning to investigate. Even usability expert Jakob Nielsen, a harsh critic of Flash usability, questions why Apple hasn’t included the plug-in.

To Flash or Not to Flash
If I had to predict the future, I’d guess that Adobe would develop Flash or another tool to publish HTML 5 content (they’ve already started supporting HTML 5 with Dreamweaver CS5) and I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple produced a competitor to compete with Adobe.

I’d like to say Flash will be available on Apple’s products, but Jobs was right, as he stated at the D8 conference that “if the market tells us we’re making the wrong choices, we’ll listen to the market” (based on iPad sales, that’s not the case).

I honestly hope that Flash video is replaced with an open video format, and it’s not unrealistic to believe this will happen in the near future. Video aside, Flash’s mature development tools, its supporting developer community, and its ability to seamlessly integrate multimedia will help ensure Flash remains for a long time.

When implementing your vision on the Web, make sure your designer/developer builds your website to accommodate as many people as possible—and don’t compromise the site experience because of a niche product.

If Flash is a necessary solution, there are tools available now (such as SWFObject) that can detect the presence of Flash and replace it with HTML content when necessary. While the presentation may not be as nice, it’s still accessible. Also make sure your team implements SWFAddress, which provides friendly URLs for Flash content.

Ultimately, HTML 5 and Flash are simply tools, and it is your site designer’s responsibility to determine not only the right tool for the job, but also to ensure that content displays adequately across different hardware.

—Rich Hauck

Historically, printing was accomplished using a process called “letterpress” where a sheet of paper is pressed against inked, raised type. Surprisingly, this art form is far from dead, and Fathom has begun to explore the possibilities of letterpress printing—as an appropriate, eye-catching option for some jobs and as an exploration into the roots of our trade.

Letterpress originated with the Chinese who were the first to use movable type for printing (using clay characters in 1041). Movable metal type was later invented in Korea around 1230. Two hundred years later, Johannes Gutenberg combined a simpler process of molding metal type with the technology of the wine press to usher in a new age in printed matter for the masses. Fonts could be small, letters could be recast as needed, and the press was a reliable work-horse. Not a whole lot changed between 1440 (when the Gutenberg press was unveiled) and the 18th century. With the industrial age, metal presses were introduced, and in the late 19th century, the “Gordon-style” clam-shell press was invented. The Gordon-style presses were self-inking and powered by a flywheel, treadle, and eventually an electric motor.

Fathom began its exploration into letterpress by constructing an actual press out of wood beams. The result was some printed matter that captured the Colonial experience: inconsistent inking and tired arms!

Fathom then purchased an 1883 Gordon-style press, an Old Reliable. Once our renovations are complete, we will bring that press online (look out, kitty!). But until then (and even after that point, as jobs demand) we rely upon the patience and expertise of the good folks at David A. Smith Printing in Harrisburg.

David A. Smith has what is called a Heidelberg Windmill press, from the 1950s. It represents a high-point in letterpress technology: quick, consistent, and it even lifts and feeds the paper into the press and pulls it out again (something pressmen had to do by hand previously).

We recently did a job on the David A. Smith Heidelberg, and took some pictures to step you through the process.

Creating the Plate
Originally, letterpress entailed setting each letter of type by hand. Type was made of a metal alloy or could also be made of wood for bigger letters. Fathom has a number of letterpress fonts, though we rarely use them. You can see one of our fonts in the first image of this essay.

Rather than hand-set type, Fathom generally designs digitally but then produces a photopolymer plate which is then used for printing. We produce the plate in-house using a film negative and an environmentally friendly “Solar Plate” process. By exposing ultraviolet light through the negative and onto the plate, the design is hardened on the plate and the rest is washed out using tap-water. The process is non-toxic—we use bare hands to gently rub away the unexposed photosensitive material. In the design shown below, the area that is washed out (greenish looking) will not be printed and the paper color will show here. The higher area will be a big field of color.

Lock-up
The plate is positioned on a magnetic backing, which is locked in to a metal chase, or form, using wooden blocks (furniture) and little expanding metal gizmos called quoins.

Going on Press
The chase is put on the press and held there using a metal clamp. Ink is added to the press, in this case a metallic silver ink. The press runs a roller over the ink an then rolls it over the plate. Below is a plate that has just been inked. As you can see, the high points on the plate hold the silver ink while the low points are clean.

Printing
Stock is pressed against the inked plate to make an impression. The paper is then removed, the plate re-inked, and another sheet is printed. On the Heidelberg Windmill, the paper feeding is automated. On Fathom’s Old Reliable, we will put the paper in and pull it out by hand, while the press is moving. That may sound dangerous, but is how printing was done at the turn of the 19th century. To see the Heidelberg press in action, click here. Note how a “windmill”-like contraption removes a printed sheet with one arm as it puts a new sheet in the press with the other. The big silver plate keeps the press operator from getting clocked on the head by the “windmill”! (Video not playing? Watch the Movie Seven Pounds with Will Smith…it features a Heidelberg Windmill press, though you have to wade through a bunch of acting and storyline to get to the film’s real star!)

One color down…
Here, you can see the first color (silver) laid down on the page. Note the letterpress victim in the second image. Ever see the movie “Brazil”?

A quick note on letterpress inks…
Ink for letterpress is a little different from conventional ink used for offset. It is sticky like honey and is either oil- or rubber-based. While we can get Pantone color-matched letterpress inks, we generally use what we have in-house, lightening or darkening as needed. (Hey, Ben Franklin only had black!) Letterpress ink is opaque, which means that we can print on colored stock and the ink stands out just fine, like paint. We can print on dark cardboard, even black paper. We’ve even printed on thin plywood! Below is what the example design looks like printed on a cardboard sheet (used to test things before we put in the “good” paper, although cardboard looks pretty cool, eh?).

Now clean the press, re-ink, lock in a new plate, and print the next color!
Every additional color is like a new printing job. The press must be cleaned, re-inked, and the whole process begins again. Here we see Ken the pressman cleaning ink from the rollers. Ken jumps out of airplanes on weekends hoping his chute won’t open. This may be why…

Second Color Added
The second color is printed to align (register) with the first color. Getting proper registration using letterpress is not easy, especially on older letterpresses. Using the magnetic backing helps as plates can be repositioned. But honestly, when the plate is inked up and everything is backwards and upside down and paper-feeding is less-than-consistent, registration is not a simple task. That’s why designing for letterpress is an art in itself…you need to work with the medium. We learn new tricks every time. Equally, printing on a letterpress is an art, too.

It is a rare moment where digital design teams up with a printing process that hasn’t changed much in 500 years. The result is a product that is textural and unlike anything most people are likely to encounter these days.

That makes it memorable. And worth the effort.

The problem is, as a newcomer, you are competing with established businesses who also have solid marketing and identity materials—and established reputations and customer bases. While superior service will speak for itself, you need clients to get that business, and it’s your logo, brochure, and web site that do the talking.

So how can you afford a great image on a limited budget?

Get a solid logo for less. Recent studies show that people will make conclusions about your business in just the first three seconds. Only a logo can talk that fast! Great logo design doesn’t have to break the bank, and is worth every penny you invest in it.

Fathom has extensive experience creating logos for new businesses and offers multiple, solid logo options for a set price. Contact us and we can provide complete details. Fathom is also able to modernize an existing logo from a purchased business or work logo development in with other materials. There’s no use getting a new brochure or website only to drop an unprofessional logo on it. Our goal is always to maximize the impact of your investment.

Do we really need a brochure? Imagine a computer that weighs 1/100th as much as a laptop, is shock-proof and water-resistant, and is powered by solar energy. Imagine that its screen can be folded and can even warp to show dimension or texture and that you can produce these computers for under $1 each. Wouldn’t you want to put a presentation on one and send it direct to a potential client? You can…it’s called a brochure. And if designed well, your brochure can capture attention and hold it; it can provide a talking piece as you discuss your services, or it can be a tangible leave-behind.

Print is far from dead. But bad design is dead on arrival in any medium!

The nice thing about a professionally designed brochure is, the more focused it is, the more effective it is and the less expensive it becomes. Consider what you want it to accomplish and how you will get it in prospects’ hands. Then contact us. We can print low quantities digitally, larger quantities conventionally…we can even do some printing in-house.

We’ve created direct mail pieces that are so large, they can’t fit in the trash can as well as brochures as small as business cards. Odd sizes and shapes attract attention as does limited color and a pointed, honest message. We are happy to tailor an approach that fits your needs.

Web sites that don’t break the bank. Web design should be updatable, affordable, and great looking. Yet start-ups rarely have a resource that can deliver all three. As a result, their sites often look sub-par compared to existing competitors, and their sites are difficult to update at the very time when the company is evolving and changing most rapidly! Fathom can help.

Fathom recently launched a new product offering: web sites that can be updated by our clients using a web interface. Log in from any computer, anywhere and update your staff bios, news, portfolio, etc. Normally, that kind of service entails higher development cost AND a proprietary hosting service that costs more money. But our method can be hosted most anyplace and is priced competitively with a normal “.html” site.

The advantage here is that you can do updates yourself—so once you’ve paid for the site, you won’t get nickled and dimed on updates. Another advantage is that you control the process, so you can modify your site in seconds rather than calling a programmer and waiting for edits to be completed.

But the biggest advantage is that sites designed by Fathom look better than sites designed by programmers (would you hire a contractor to design your house?). We design the template in-house and then work with the best programmers in the business to execute the approved vision. Then, we hand you the keys.

Phasing it in. Fathom is flexible. We can start with a logo and go from there. We don’t make all-inclusive contracts that lock you in; it’s à la Carte. So once you have your logo, we can apply it to interim materials and a placeholder page or embark on more lasting solutions. It all depends on your immediate needs, your ultimate goals, and the funds you have on hand.

Fathom has remained a trusted resource to its clients for many years, always ready to create an ad or other item in support of their ongoing needs. We understand that serving a startup well helps to create a client of substantial means down the road.

As a startup, look for an agency that is flexible, affordable, and provides materials that look great. Because, at the end of it all, when you have those three seconds to make an impression, looks really do matter.

It is easy to take fiber for granted. Its importance was made crystal clear to me just recently. A few weeks ago, a client requested recycled paper for a brochure. We tracked down the most environmentally sensitive paper we could…not only 100% post-consumer recycled paper, but created using all wind-power to boot! We thought we’d hit a home-run. Problem was, when the brochures were folded, the folds weren’t smooth at all. They looked like somebody took a piece of plywood and bent it in half. The whole job had to be reprinted (on the printer’s dime) and scored front and back to make it work. Those fibers just did not want to cooperate.

Apparently, 100% recycled paper lacks the longer virgin fibers that are in “new” paper. Without the longer fibers, paper breaks instead of folding. So, get the wrong fiber and the paper doesn’t fold. Yikes! The livelihoods of graphic designers depend on good fiber!

Of course, you don’t have to use wood to make paper. I have some 100% cotton business cards in my pocket right now. Beautiful impression when letterpressed! You can even make paper out of the same stuff as linen: flax. Crane & Co. uses flax to make some very durable paper used in America’s paper currency. We gave up the gold standard years ago…we’re on the flax standard now!

But paper isn’t the only stuff fiber is used for.

Fathom designed a logo for a hair salon called Abaca. Turns out, abaca is a plant that grows in the South Seas. It resembles a banana tree. The leaf of the abaca, with its long fibers, was found to make some pretty strong cordage for ships plying those waters. That cordage enabled the spice trade which connected our world and gave rise to Empires which in turn led to quite a number of wars. All from a humble, shrubby plant that offered…fiber.

Ever been in England and brushed against a stinging nettle? That little plant can almost knock you to the ground in pain. But scrape off the microscopic teeth that make it sting and you have a nice source of fiber, also good to make rope. Which is a handy thing when you need to move 25-ton stones 160 miles over the Salisbury Plain to Stonehenge.

Abaca and even stinging nettle can be used to make paper, too. We’ve even seen paper made from (I kid you not) elephant dung.

Fiber is wondrous stuff. And not content to just find it in nature, scientists have conceived of nano-engineered strands of super-strong fiber called buckytubes (named after Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome). Made of carbon molecules arranged in geometric structures resembling Disney’s Epcot Center, buckytubes are extremely strong and will enable suspension bridges with cords the thickness of pencils rather than foot-thick ropes of steel. Buckytubes may even be used to make microscopic machines…and maybe even pantyhose that don’t run. And are, um, bulletproof.

Maybe they will even use it for paper. Maybe they already do (explaining all those secret agents holding newspapers).

Well, it all starts with fiber. The graphic artist’s most important asset.

—Jason Smith