Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog's new documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, is mesmerizing. Cave paintings are the original watermark ... the oldest traceable record of man. This film takes us inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France to witness 30,000 year old cave paintings. I have only been in two caves in my lifetime. Caves have that way of dwarfing mankind; diminishing how I feel about my place in the universe. The patience of stalagmites and the pristine way caves preserve their caches really make me second-guess the Rocky Mountains I see every day of my life. We have no way of knowing how many mysteries are unaccessible to us. So it's fortunate when discoveries like this are made. I understand the primitive impulse of marking, but seeing the hand prints of ancient man in such a fresh way only provokes questions upon questions for me. And absolute respect for humans; for our creative spirit; for our brief time on Earth and for our unifying desire to leave something behind.

Foiled Again

Sometimes I feel like a squirrel with my constant attraction to shiny things. To justify recent impulses, I offer descriptions from a Pantone webinar of how metals are being used now:
• as ephemeral colors with broken shines.
• as material illusions with textured monochromes.
• in ways that are familiar, but new.

Take for example a palette they call Titanium: a bridge to new heights.
Where blues break and mutate, then turn to black. Bursts of overexposed colors create tonal variation. It’s a complete statement in metal with both reflective and matte surfaces.

These two invitations came off the press this past week. Evening Under the Stars is printed on Reich Shine's Onyx. To enhance it's astral qualities, and to make it seem more blue, I specified a pale foil and matching juniper-colored envelopes from CTI's Aspire Petallics. But the colors are fleeting and drift from a variation on the standard black and white event; to a turquoise-infused galaxy hovering over fountains and night-blooming flowers—a complete landscape in indigo, beryl, verdigris and aquamarine.

The Polo Cup invitation for the University of Utah called for foil to add flair to Pat Bagley's signature jockey drawing. In its third year of use, we needed to make it familiar, but new. We embossed the entire illustration contour and foil stamped the line art. I think the foil is honorific of his handiwork. It glints like like pencil lead and like a trophy. Attendees will recall the previous year's flamboyance and whole-charactered cast.

Inked Letters

This lovely fragment from a full alphabet in ink and water was created by Ruslan Khasanov. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind all week. It's dreamy, ephemeral, and exquisite.

iGutenberg

This charming infographic spans two and one-half millennia of printing. From China's wood type to Germany's Gutenberg Bible to the good old American iPad. I've had my iPad less than a month and am still in the honeymoon phase. It's the perfect format for magazines, and magazine reading. I love the seamless nature of leaving an article to visit a Web site and promptly returning. I love the layout options and dynamic content expressions without the commotion of Web publishing. It's another example of every day magic.

The graphic is produced by Visual Loop and designed by Flávia Marinho.