PRINT CREATES CONNECTION & INTIMACY

Joy, relief, connection, intimacy, love, touch, real, game-changing, civil, credible, soulful, surprising. Just a few of the words used by respondents to describe the positive experience of designing and receiving print communications in 2024. In this 61st year of polling the creative community — and watching the fascinating and evolving role that print and paper play in the service of graphic communications — we find both a profound respect for the continuing vitality of print as well deep thought about how and where print fits in the mix in a digital era.

Before delving into the 2024 numbers and the comments, a little background which we alluded to in last year’s milestone 60th anniversary survey.

To oversimplify the history of this six decade watch party, we can discern three broad phases dating back to 1963. In the first phase, designers were often perceived (and self-perceived) as decorators and prettifiers rather than decisionmakers. Among the consequences of passivity: print and paper decisions were restricted by little product choice and dominance by printing and production experts.

In phase two, designers emerged as creative masters, strategists and thought-leaders known to add value and to shape commerce and culture. In this phase, control and responsibility for content and production flowed upstream to the creative community — making designers the center of all things print, and sparking a golden age of paper specification and creative print buying.

In 2024, we are living now in phase three, in which designers are ever more recognized and celebrated for the value they bring to the table. But, of course, the rise of digital communications has broadened the media options and forced designers to recalibrate their relationship with print and paper. You are living, and we are witnessing, the nature of that evolution.

The results of today’s poll tell us that one thing endures: designers understand and appreciated the inherent qualities and capabilities of print to forge a human connection. As you will see — please read the comments — this is a community confident and assertive about the classic strengths and continued relevance of print — even (or especially) in a digital era — than we have seen in recent times. Interestingly, this positivity is rooted in a realistic view of print’s current role and potential, rather than arising from some soft nostalgia for a bygone era.

HERE ARE MY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE POLL, CONDUCTED IN EARLY MAY 2024:

Print continues to play a vital role in how professional graphic designers make a living. Fully 96% of respondents say they work in print as part of their professional mix and 62% of projects — up from 55% last year — involve a print component. In addition, most everyone (89%) says they expect the same level of print design or maybe a bit more in the coming year. In short, our readers reaffirm the relevance of print in their workplace and to their livelihoods, not to mention their sense of professional pride and fulfillment.

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Designers believe — intensely!!! — that print endures because of its classic strengths. Foremost among these is tangibility: it is sensual, touchable, physical, real, permanent, and encourages a human connection and an intimacy often missing in other media.

The classic strengths are amplified by the twins — digital clutter and digital fatique. Designers describe the marketplace as being ‘bombarded’ or ‘overwhelmed’ by digital communications. Because print is relatively rare, it has the potential to stand out and breakthrough — fresh, welcome, surprising, disruptive, personal, engaging, meaningful, a statement that a brand values itself and its customers.

Conceptually related is the issue of trust: quality printed pieces are seen to possess authenticity and credibility because they feel real and present, spring from an identifiable source, and are the result of a deliberate act of craftsmanship. The ephemeral nature of digital communications — one person called it ‘vaporish,’ another ‘fleeting’ and yet another ‘throw away’ — does not inspire similar confidence.

If print is to live up to its potential, that imposes a responsibility on creators and producers: superior print design and well-crafted execution matter more than ever. Perhaps that explains why designers seek to retain responsibility and control for critical elements of the print process: 81% buy or specify paper and 86% buy or specify printing. When asked, respondents suggest that paper mills and merchants could do more to bolster the creative community with paper samples, swatches and product information. (Happily for us GDUSA is oft-noted in the comments as a steady source for paper news and promotions in our role as ‘last magazine standing.’)

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Everyone understands that print must now share the stage — best used as part of an ensemble or in an occasional star turn. Terrible metaphors aside, this requires more sophisticated judgments by designers and marketers about when to deploy print, and how to combine smart technologies such as AR and QR in combination with print deliverables.

Relatedly, designers have a sharper understand of where print is most effective and where it is not. There is a growing consensus: Packaging is a growth area and an opportunity. Print excels for luxury and high-end brands, brand launches, large consumer purchases, catalogs, invitations, events, and a host of specific industries like real estate, legal, healthcare, art, engineering, education, fundraising where quality, permanence, craftsmanship and depth of information matter. For fast-paced industries where immediacy is all, not so much.

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Given the culture and the economy, the reality is that digital solutions tend to be the default position — they feel bigger, broader, cheaper, easier, more trackable and generally sexier to clients — and this is especially true for each younger generation. This often places the onus on designers to educate and persuade clients about the value of print.

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As has been true for decades, Brochures + Collateral remain the most frequently executed print projects. Sales Promotion, Posters, Invitations, Direct Mail POP and Packaging follow with a still broad rerpesentation of reports, publications and more.

Sustainability is always a factor — or at least a talking point — when planning a project or campaign — including, of course, whether to recommend print or digital media. In earlier times, there was an easy assumption that digital had the lighter footprint. But designers now have a more nuanced understanding of the environmental costs of the digital infrastructure, and many see print and paper as a green option and a renewable resource. That said, as we noted last year, the print and paper industries have advocacy work still to do: respondents to today’s poll are divided as to which media is more sustainable, and more than 40% simply do not know. The good news: the creative community is highly educable and highly motivated when it comes to environmental matters.

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