Now I've heard of companies like Google having on-campus hackerspaces, but an on-campus print shop is pretty damn badass. Credit to Facebook for extending the hacker mindset to ink and paper.
Almost all large businesses and many medium ones have their own print shop. Most people just don't know about them because they're hidden in the back and aren't really integrated into the normal activities of the rest of the staff.
Marketing materials are far from paperless even in the internet age.
If you're not familiar with Ben Barry's work, you should definitely check out his portfolio. Really excellent stuff. http://designforfun.com
Another great example of print design making its way into the digital space is Metro, Microsoft's UI for Windows Phone 7 (and probably Windows 8, Xbox+, etc.) It's fundamentally based on typography and space, which are core to timeless and pervasive print design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_%28design_language%29
There are lots of lessons about visual language that have been figured out in the hundreds of years since print was invented. Pixels are relatively new, but form, weight, space, typography, readability, color, contrast, and aesthetics tend to transfer over quite well. (Until you add interaction, which is certainly a new discipline of design.)
Also, even if you're an engineering-driven company, having good design on the walls helps people develop an intuition for your company's culture and brand. More than anything else, these projects at FB seem to be about internal communication, which is essentially marketing your mission and goals to your team. As an organisation grows rapidly, this is one of the most effective (and subtle) ways to keep your goals aligned.
The subtext of this headline seems to be "Why does Facebook have a secret paper fetish?" rather than "How awesome is it that Facebook has a secret paper fetish?"
Personally, I'd be far more motivated by a fantastic screen-printed poster than an 'internal memo'.
This isn't really a big deal - even in PR terms it's not something that will cause any issues - but it interested me none-the-less:
> "We’re barraged with e-mail all the time," he adds about life at Facebook, "but when you go to the café for lunch and you see one of the posters while you’re waiting in line, I think it has a more of an impact."
That's basically the opposite of the message Facebook would like to send to advertisers, the idea that digital (i.e. through Facebook) is the best way to get ROI on advertising.
I like the fact that he didn't have to hold back from stating the obvious fact that, just because adverts are a key part of their revenue, traditional advertising is still relevant today.
Facebooks' analog lab has been around for quite a while. I think it's probably one of the best parts of Facebook, culturally, as a whole. It's a commitment to communication methods, whatever they may be.
Are you fucking kidding me? The words "desk" and "photo" are linked to store results from this site? No thanks, this is 2012, that's not how we monetize content anymore.
