A guest blog by Simon McClelland Morris, Founder & Director at The Graphical Tree and a passionate advocate of ethical and moral practices, for an ecological, sustainable and regenerative future.
The Graphical Tree were invited to take part in a series of sustainable print-based conference calls with our friends, and experts, over at HP recently. The Graphical Tree chose to use the HP latex ink technology as part of our ongoing commitment to environmentally friendly and sustainable large format print. So for us, the symposiums have been essential for furthering our knowledge and expanding our eco and sustainable print offering.
As part of the sessions, we also had the opportunity to share our own experiences providing eco large format print to our customers. These conversations are an invaluable opportunity to be had with manufactures and suppliers of large format print equipment, as it feeds directly into their R&D for the industry – influencing and directing what happens in the future.
As well as keeping abreast of some of the latest products and feedback loops, part of the conversation veered around the history of Hewlett Packard, the company's California inception and its long history of environmental policy. We thought it would be fun to share its humble beginnings with you all.
Any rumours you may have heard about HP starting in a garage are true. Within the wooden structure found in these accompanying photos, began the internationally renowned Hewlett Packard – and where some believe Silicon Valley was born.
In 1938 Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, two electrical engineer graduates from Stanford University used their combined savings of $538 to fund their startup, in a garage of a rental house on Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, California. The garage was a research lab, development workshop and manufacturing facility for early HP products. Bill and Dave went on to built the oscillators that Walt Disney used to test and certify theatre sound systems for Fantasia, the first major film released in stereophonic sound. And in true inventor and innovator style, Mr H and Mr P used the properties kitchen oven to bake the paint onto the oscillator panels. After introducing their first computer in 1980, the first HP printer arrived in 1984 with the hugely successful LaserJet. The rest is history – HP is now the leading brand in large format inkjet technology in the world. Out of their California roots, a hotbed of counter-culture and progressive thinking, sustainability has been at the core of their developments both in terms of product range and community for years.
From this very humble space came a mindset and culture that changed technology developments around the world. In term, it’s allowed us to help you apply your ideas and creativity to a new set of eco and sustainable possibilities, and solutions. Between us, we can push these ideas and this attitude of sustainability forward for the good of the planet and future generations.
If you would like to talk to us about large format eco print options, please let us know, we'd be happy to share our expertise with you.
And remember, from small acorns, big ideas can grow.
by Simon McClelland Morris
Creativity, Environmental, Inspiration, Kit, Large format, Print
Photos by James Martin/CNET
