Musings: History Matters to Everyone

Our short musings on design, branding, business and the human condition.

History isn’t just words on a page, dates, or events of the past. History tells us where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and how we’ve gotten where we are. It provides context, connects us to the past, and weaves onward to the future. Show me a person who doesn’t care about history, whether it’s personal, societal, or organizational — and I’ll show you a person who doesn’t truly grasp the world. Those who seek to understand history are the ones who know the world, and long to find their place in it. History matters to us all.

A Digital Generation Searching For Analog Experiences

Digital Generation looking for Analog Experiences

It’s not just the hipsters who are doing it. Analog seems to be making a comeback. LP sales are climbing, people are resurrecting Polaroid-style film, preserving wooden type, buying vintage furniture and old-style printing with a vengeance. These are all natural reactions to seismic changes in technology and the ways in which we interact with objects. We can understand these sometimes-oddball interests and activities if they’re viewed through the lens of history. For hundreds — nay, thousands of years, human beings have interacted with physical objects and spaces in a particular way, whether it was hoeing in a dusty Nebraskan field, or signing a paper contract. But then digital devices arrived on the scene, and voila! Things have changed.

Read on…