At a recent networking meeting, amidst a flurry of business card exchanges, I found it interesting when one person proudly announced, "I don't have a business card, my office is paperless." Sure, I'd heard of these new paperless types, but I'd never met one before. And the topic got me wondering, how paperless can an office really be?

In the marketing world, we have already witnessed the paperless attitude of the new digital age, with newspaper readership in decline, Yellow Pages being a tool of the past, and let's not even talk about how getting letters in your mailbox are all but an ancient memory. But when I look around the office here, I wonder how much paper can we really do without?

Okay, I'll admit we don't need a phone book. But we need business cards to give out to our non-paperless clients. And proofs need to be marked up, how would we do that without paper? Clients need to send us sign off, and lets face it, not all of our clients have mastered the art of scanning their signatures. And, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure I could ever live without sticky notes.

Paperless around here seems almost...well, wrong. I love seeing a printed sample of our designs. I love it when Caitlin and Dave bring me printouts of their concepts. I love it when we pick out cool new paper for a print project. I respect the paperless office, but, I confess, I am a paper lover. (don't send me hate mail, I recycle!)