Once more unto the printer…

How quickly “2011: The Revenge of Print” has gone by.

A little more than six months ago, I decided and then announced that I was going to revive the creative journal Quantum Whatever as part of this informal year-long project. Early this morning, I sent files off to the printer. (Copy King, in this case, acting as more than worthy successors to Nite Owl Printing.)

I suppose I should pause, at this point, and mention that if you want a look at the Autumn 2011 Quantum Whatever, contact me and I will send you a copy. I’ll mention this again, once it’s printed, but FYI. In honor of the spirit of this project, I won’t be posting it online for years, if ever.

I have so enjoyed working on this project, meanwhile, and I am so, so glad that I chose to do this; it will probably be a highlight of the year. Unsurprisingly, I approach the completion of this work with very mixed feelings.

I don’t recall exactly how I felt when I finished up with my (then) final issue of Quantum Whatever 11 years ago, during my final semester at dear auld ISU. I had a ton of other things going on, and at the time it wasn’t really an ending because I was turning things over to my wonderful and talented proteges. Even so, I’ve browsed through old e-mails recently and found a rather sappy farewell message I composed at the time.

This time, by contrast, Quantum Whatever has returned just long enough to get reacquainted before going back out of my life, probably for good. Not that it has to, of course. Like the “Revenge of Print” organizers said of print, itself, it’s only dead if you want it to be. And I realized last night that it would be remarkably easy to resume the biennial schedule of Quantum Whatever back in its day; it took me just over six months to prepare this issue and that was starting from absolute dormancy.

And, as they say, “never say never.” But I am not planning any more Quantum Whatever at this time. This was a college project I worked on a dozen years ago, and it has been so much fun revisiting it, but the past is ultimately one of those “nice place to visit but…” places. Better, I think, to just take the enthusiasm and energy this project has inspired, and apply them to new ideas. It’s nice to be reminded how far I have come as a designer and creative, generally, but I have farther to go and need to get on to new challenges.

Still. The last review of my efforts, last night, and the handing over of files for printing have been very poignant reminders that life’s joys can be very, very bittersweet. The cover’s autumnal color scheme, and my decision to title this issue “The Broken Circle,” probably just about say it all.

Ah well. Such, ultimately, is the nature of autumn every year, and it’s still my favorite season. So I will celebrate “the harvest” for a while longer here, yet, even if the observance is inevitably bound up with wistful thoughts about another piece of life gone by.

Back with more when I get time, then. Soon.