Comments terre has made

  • Facts from "Green Myths" from USPS - ?

    Rec'd an email from the Premier Printing Co in Houston with info taken from a USPS publication:
    Facts from "Green Myths" Publication: "Deliver Dare to Dream," May 2008, The United States Postal Service.

    Has anyone seen this?

    I'm concerned about the big push for FSC, which is better than clearcutting native forests by a long shot, but not nearly the best solution for making paper.

    I've been told in all earnestness by paper industry reps that they have to mix virgin fiber with recycled to make the paper stronger (longer fibers). They're supposed to be the experts, but I've printed many jobs with GreenerPrinter on different 100% PC papers that have come out beautifully, so I know from experience that this notion about virgin fiber isn't accurate. As a graphic designer, I've also discovered that vegetable inks are more transparent (naturally) than inks with higher petroleum content. Color is more nuanced and saturated. Vivid.

    I've talked to my local printers for two decades now about offering recycled paper, but always had to special order at a premium of 30%. They are now, finally, offering FSC and using inks with less petroleum content. I'm thrilled, really, but GreenerPrinter is so far ahead that they get most of my business despite their distance (250 miles; they buy carbon credits to offset delivery).

    I'm happy to see paper suppliers moving beyond the 30% recycled paper they've been offering for years as their solution to the problems of heavy resource damage, pollution, and the enormous waste of paper that could be recycled. Yes, they are directly responsible. Who better to make recycled paper than those who make paper? We've been talking about recycled paper for 40 years. They've had time to re-tool and refine their supply chain.

    There have been genuine efforts towards real solutions, but excuses like fiber length that are demonstrably false I don't want to hear.

    It's good to see printers moving to FSC-sourced raw materials as their new 'solution'. It's a move in the right direction, along with using low- to no-VOC vegetable inks.  But the printing industry is huge and hugely polluting. I'd love to see, for example, their lobbyists working to reverse the ridiculous federal ban on growing hemp. It was a patriotic duty during WWII, as it should be today. (Hemp is not psychoactive and has a longer and stronger fiber than wood, which is why it's used in archival papers. It's expensive because the ban means American paper companies have to import it. Hemp is also a better crop plant than trees.) What about other material options, like kenaf as a raw material, or recycled denim and cotton?

    What I really want to see is some real innovation, such as that being done by Alternative Graphics, Bacchus, and GreenerPrinter in Berkeley. They prove it can be done.
    On How green printing can make a good impression posted 1 year, 7 months ago 6 Responses

  • Why Apple's trademark challenge should lose

    I love my Macs. I've bought dozens over the last 20 years as a graphic designer and teacher. My studio also has iPods, iPhones and a couple of PCs (including Dell).

    However, I hope Apple the computer company does not prevail in their challenge to the city known as The Big Apple. Here's why:

    -- The public is not likely to confuse a computer company with a city program. Potential for confusion between the brands is a major test.

    -- People are also not likely to confuse a green initiative with a computer company that has not done its brilliant best to be green. Gore on the board is lovely, but I want to see Apple apply their remarkable brand of genius to making their operations and products less harmful to the environment. When they do, the benefits will be huge.  

    -- New York has been called The Big Apple for a long time. Who used it first is also a test of trademark. People just didn't 'brand' themselves and get trademarks for every name and picture they could think to lay claim to, until recently.

    -- People are not likely to confuse the logo symbols themselves. They are very different graphically, differences that can be measured, from color to shape to meaning to usage.

    -- The apple is a fruit. Apple's logo is their interpretation of this fruit, not ownership of the fruit as a basis for creative concept.  

    Apple Computer has been a leader in aggressive trademark assertion. It got its way and settled with the Beatle's Apple and also the original owner of the iPhone trademark. It's unpredictable what will happen with this challenge, but I think it bites.On Apple Inc. files complaint over NYC's green branding posted 1 year, 7 months ago 8 Responses

  • my Chevy Tahoe commercial!

    http://tinyurl.com/gdvlr

    Check out the commercial terre created for the all-new 2007 Chevy
    Tahoe. Think you
    could do better? Think you're up to the task? Then take a shot at the
    Chevy Apprentice Challenge
    and create your own commercial that brings the best Tahoe ever to life.
    It could be your chance to win.

    http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=20bc615a-180d-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7 On Make your own Chevy Tahoe commercial posted 3 years, 7 months ago 47 Responses