Since I first posted about my new art habit, I have been bitten by the art bug, hard, and have been trolling the Pinterest world for inspiration. I found a neat thing—a whole sub-culture of bloggers who are creating their analog journals off-line using paper and paint and pen, and then posting the results digitally.
That is a fascinating snapshot, to me, of what the internet world is going to look like more and more, as it is maturing. People value the internet for information, for ideas, for sharing. But they increasingly will be craving the offline stuff too. The Beloved has a co-worker who charges a fortune for his hand-drawn calligraphy work; I think stuff like hand-lettered ‘old school’ wedding invitations (for example) will be the status symbol of the future. And I while I do think the Kindle store has rendered the mass-market paperback a thing of the past, I think the ‘smell of paper’ people will increasingly find the big authors targeting them with artsy, illustrated or otherwise ‘high-end’ special paper editions.
Want a glimpse of this analog-meets-digital world? Here is just one link of many. And do a Pinterest search for ‘Moleskine’ or ‘Wreck this Journal.’ You will be fascinated at what comes up.