Last night I queued for two-and-a-half-hours at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. This was a form of self-inflicted penance for being a complete maroon and not acting immediately upon the "must book tickets" thought that flitted across my withered brain when the David Hockney: A Bigger Picture show was first announced.

While standing around in the increasingly chilly evening, shuffling along with all my fellow maroons, I decided to fill time by conducting an ad hoc anthropological survey into print and other media use involving those present.

We were all looked down on by a giant fabric banner of Hockney himself, attached to the building. This was mirrored by smaller vinyl-type banners mounted on poles in the square.

In the queue I lost count of the number of people reading the Evening Standard. At least a dozen folk were reading paperback books, two people were reading on a Kindle, one person was doing something with a Nintendo and one other was using an iPad. Many were doing stuff on their smartphones.

An array of branded disposable paper coffee cups were clutched; sourced from nearby outlets including Pret A Manger, Eat and Costa Coffee. Costa also seems to have a nifty cardboard cup carrying device (cups slot into it and there's a handle on the top) that I hadn't seen before.

A woman in the part of the queue that snaked around opposite me was carrying one of those posh, rope-handled paper carrier bags but in an unusual format - imagine something a bit bigger than a landscape A4 folded lengthwise.

I was so intrigued by this I had to ask where the bag was from. Turns out it was from an upmarket macaroon shop on Piccadilly - the sort of place where a single macaroon can cost the best part of ?3, so naturally exquisite packaging is required and one would want to carry them home in a suitably luxe bag, oh yes.

Another on-trend item is the printed cotton bag, which seems to have become the accessory of choice and not just as a giveaway - you could buy a bright green Hockney version in the RA shop for ?3.95, or a more upmarket canvas variant for ?14.95.

The shop was rammed and other souvenirs included postcards, greetings cards, books, posters, exhibition catalogues (printed in Italy, damn) the list goes on.

And as for the actual Hockney artworks, his iPad drawings were printed on paper (by an unspecified method, would love to know who and how) and mounted on Dibond.

The long wait was worth it and proved one thing at least: from maroons to macaroons print in one form or another is always part of the big picture.