So recently I’ve been working on my off-computer design skills, and have been using powered glues which require them to be mixed with water. Which is a semi-new experience for me because I’ve not touched glue since I graduated from school. Since more and more work done on computers are done on computers. However the handcrafted world is still done best by hand. A graphic designer’s world is left so flat and simulated on the computer. Even with all the magic of limitless undos, and cleanest of cutting that didn’t leave little pieces of dust, scraps and little round circles on the floor. Photoshop lacks the ability to capture human mistakes that can become part of the art. The art of plop, the spill, the drip. The rusty nail, damage from water, burnt to a crisp, edges gone wild due to temperatures of the room. The natural habitat of the artist/ designer has to be remembered, simulated in the mechanical workings of Photoshop.
Though I would love to go on and on about the missing facilities of a designer’s life in Photoshop, it simply does not have glue amongst its toolbox. In Photoshop, glue simply does not exist. Nor does tape, thumbtacks, staples, etc. Because everything works from ariel view, iron drop placement, where gravity miraculously does not exist. Rather invisible virtual magnets simulate a gravitational pull in Photoshop.
Now back to reality where designers still rely on glue. There are many people who will tell you to use distilled water, however not everyone tells you why distilled water is better than good old fashioned tap water when creating glues from powder.
1. Tap water varies from location to location and can range from hard to soft with great variation in the pH. Distilled water is constant and guarantees results you can duplicate from batch to batch. (source: studio products)
2. Tap water may contain dissolved iron salts that will cause little gray spots on tannin-rich woods like oak (source: start woodworking)
3. Distilled water has archival integrity (source: inward bound)
4. Protects fragile photographs from damage by impurities in tap water (source: Ohio Preservation Council)
5. Distilled water is water that has many of its impurities removed through distillation. Distillation involves boiling the water and then condensing the steam into a clean container. (source: wiki)
Surprisingly many types of people from scientists, engineers, technicians, aquarium owners, cigar smokers for use in their humidors to home brewers rely on distilled water for different reasons in their applications due to the many impurities that can exist, causing products to malfunction or not work properly. With this much concern over water in our design applications, I’m surprised that anyone even bothers to drink water at all, that hasn’t been distilled. In any case, what seems to be unarguable is the need to protect our design process from such evil monsters that plague to ruin design for years to come. If you’re using any liquids in your design, keep a bottle of room temperature distilled water around just in case. I’ve made my switch from tap to distilled in my work and I’m planning on seeing better results.