As I am writing this, I am thinking primarily in terms like ‘aspirin’, ‘blanket’ and ‘if you lie down there, my back is going to hurt terribly’. The latter refers to my dog, who has the tendency to position himself exactly where I want to lie down on the couch, accompanied by the mentioned aspirin and blankets. I do not have the heart to push him away, so I just adjust myself into inhuman positions that hurt my back.

You guessed it, I have caught a fever, a few days before the release of Proto.ink, our brand new online magazine. A short introduction as to why a new magazine was actually necessary!

Last year, an enthusiastic Magazine Committee was formed. We would each week come together to discuss paper types, ink quality, deadlines and order sizes. Oh, and there was some writing too. Starting in September, we would release the ProtoType around Christmas. But by that time, committee members had vanished mysteriously, those fancy magazine-ish paper types seemed unaffordable for a distribution among all students, and no deadlines had been met. Weeks later, when the ProtoType was silently released, tech-news was already out of date, students were too focused on their tight schedules and their phones to sit down and read, and the Magazine Committee had no enthusiasm left. (For those wondering, we eventually had a marvellous glossy paper type and enough magazines decorate the walls of S.A. Proto’s headquarters.)

While silently staring at a fellow student who was pouring ketchup and mayonnaise on his newly acquired copy of Prototype, which was serving as a plate for his sandwich, it became clear to me. We, students of Creative Technology, are of the digital age. And this year, the paper magazine has to make way for the new format.

So now that I’m lying on the couch with my laptop strategically placed beside my dog, I do not have to worry about printing kilos of glossy paper before Monday. Nor do we need to finish the articles even earlier for our graphical expert to figure out where to place the articles as nicely as possible while keeping to the fixed number of pages (thanks, WordPress!). When we have columns, videos, tech news and background stories, you can read them as soon as they are finished!

But even though we now make use of all the comforts of that wonderful internet, we as a committee will still be working hard to make your experience worthwhile. We look forward to your feedback, perhaps your contribution and hopefully your enthusiasm.

Welcome to Proto.ink!

Margot Rutgers, chairman of the Magazine Committee 2015.