Day two of Polaroid Week. This picture is from 1997 and captures my light table and work space over it at the newspaper. I worked at the local newspaper from 1994 to 2001, I think, where I was the Paste-Up Queen. This was back in the day before pages were all digital and we paginated everything, meaning my tools were mainly a wax machine, a ruler, line tape, this light table and a knife. I’d cut ruby lithe to give your full page ad color in a snap! I miss those days of more hands on design. Now everything is computer to computer to computer.
It’s like the movie Life As A House, where the main character hand-built beautiful architectural models. But times have changed and everything has gone digital. He’s been replaced, and they let him go. There’s no place for his work in this world anymore. Sob. But of course they want to keep all of his beautiful models to display after he leaves. I don’t think so. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
I’ve always got a fond place in my heart for all the old ways of doing things. Yeah, I guess that’s obvious, with a spinning wheel in my studio :)
