Chez Kay
Andrew Kay takes a break from the web to ponder life before computers
All quiet at Fort Latest this morning. The sun is beating down, the windows are open and the wind is rattling the Venetian blinds, but other than that it is quiet. But why? Well the internet connection has gone down and for many of us here that is like cutting the umbilical cord.
How did we manage before the wonder of the world wide web. Come to that how did we manage before the advent of computers on every desk. Well remarkably well as it happens.
“I spent many afternoons in a creative stupor and, on occasions, the drink gave birth to good ideas”
I can remember my early days as a graphic designer. They were spent tracing lettering and painting visuals. I permanently had paint smudges on my hands and sable brushes tucked behind my ears. I often forgot about the brushes and would head off into the West End looking completely mad.
Technology was a long way away. We coped with hot metal, golf ball typewriters, Baryta paper, CS10 and Rotring Rapidographs. I busied myself over the Grant Enlarger until one day we took delivery of a huge photocopying machine that could reduce and enlarge. Such excitement, and after that the Grant enlarger simply gathered dust.
There were bad things too; spray adhesive that clogged our lungs, scalpels that sliced our fingers and three hour lunches that bloated our bellies and addled our brains. How some of us miss the business lunch – hours spent in the company of some oily sales rep or an adorably dippy agent – and their credit cards.
And how we drank. Whereas today I hear people say that they struggle over whether to have that second glass, we were struggling over whether to have that third bottle. I spent many afternoons in a creative stupor and, on occasions, the drink gave birth to good ideas.
I also fell about a lot and on one memorable occasion broke my wrist tripping over the step of Hermés in Bond Street. I thought them terribly mean not to offer a silk headscarf for me to wear as a sling. For weeks I was in plaster and work was made hard, even though it was my left wrist. All I could usefully do was crush garlic with the cast.
So today we have no internet and a cheery colleague has just suggested that I use the time to ponder life. How cute! Imagine being still so young that you have not got to that point in your life where all you do is ponder. Well I spend my whole life pondering, better perhaps than spending my time as pond life.
