Real World Meets Web.

Back in college, when I cut my teeth doing graphic design for a literary magazine, the web was just emerging. With the boom right around the corner, everyone started talking about bringing their physical presence "online." When I took to migrating the magazine from print to web, it seemed obvious that "web design" was the obvious next step.

It was also an exciting new frontier. Gone were the restrictions and hassles of print: the permanence, the cost, the stupid 3 AM press checks where my only role was to say, “increase the cyan by 15% and correct the registration on the varnish.”

I could do whatever I wanted when building a website, and for the low price of web hosting and an internet connection at home. I could make pages really long, or really wide. And if I found a misspelling, I could go back and change it.

Web Meets Real World.

These days, though, I find “online” creeping back into the print and physical world. Fray.com, for example, has started a print version of its long-standing website, making the content available in book form. They've done a great job with their first edition, Busted, which delivers fresh stuff that compliments their web presence without directly replicating it.

MIX Online’s A Website Named Desire poster is another example of this trend. It utilizes 1980’s-style 8-bit pixel art to show the inner workings of an agency that builds websites. What's even more meta? We built a Deep Zoom web-experience of the poster for people to enjoy online.

We also recently commissioned a design agency to re-envision the MIX Online site as a notebook. We surprised a few of our friends and contributors with a copy and received some very flattering comments in return.

A few final, cozy examples of the web spilling into the real world are the super-cute, ultra-nerdy pillows you can find on websites such as Etsy.com.

There are lots of other examples out there, I know — graffiti, art, all sorts of stuff. Have you stumbled across anything where the web and real world converge? Was it awesome or ridiculous? Tell us about things you stumble upon by leaving a comment below, or following us on Twitter at @mixonline.