Justin's Amazing World At Fenner Paper

Picasso and Modern British Art

2012-02-15T16:18:00.003Z

Pablo Picasso
The Three Dancers 1925
Tate © Succession Picasso/DACS 2011

This Monday I was invited to the press view of this major new exhition at Tate Britain. Unfortunately I was unable to go but it certainly requires a mention here...

"Picasso and Modern British Art explores his extensive legacy and influence on British art, how this played a role in the acceptance of modern art in Britain, alongside the fascinating story of Picasso’s lifelong connections to and affection for this country.

It brings together over 150 spectacular artworks, with over 60 stunning Picassos including sublime paintings from the most remarkable moments in his career, such as Weeping Woman 1937 and The Three Dancers 1925.

Picasso and Modern British Art is the first exhibition to trace Picasso’s rise in Britain as a figure of both controversy and celebrity. From his London visit in 1919, working on the scenery and costumes for Diaghilev’s ballet The Three Cornered Hat; to his post-war reputation and political appearances; leading up to the phenomenally successful 1960 Tate exhibition.

Full of beautiful and inspirational artworks, this exhibition is an unmissable treat and a fascinating insight into how British art became modern"

Pablo Picasso Nude Woman in a Red Armchair 1932
© Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2011. Tate

The exhibition is on from today until 5th July 2012.
...and thanks to the Tate press office for inviting me.

www.tate.org.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson15.02.2012

Linotype: The Film

2012-02-14T09:44:00.018Z

Now I'm not a great one for reading film reviews, but here's one that I found tucked away on the Printweek.com site which I read with great interest....

Review - Linotype: The Film

Published in PRINTWEEK By James Chase Thursday, 09 February 2012

Tucked away from the roar of the Super Bowl, a rather more unassuming event is taking place on New York's 23rd Street - the world premiere of Linotype: The Film. This narrative may be comparatively modest but its subject was world-changing:

It’s Friday night in the Big Apple and Super Bowl weekend is underway. Local heroes the New York Giants are preparing for battle against perennial foes the New England Patriots in Sunday’s big showdown and the whole place is buzzing

Meanwhile, down on 23^rd Street, a much smaller crowd, of maybe 250 hardcore fans, is assembling for a very different occasion. But their enthusiasm, passion, loyalty and commitment is no less intense. If any of them gives a damn about the Super Bowl at all, they don’t show it.

Tonight, the School of Visual Arts Theatre is hosting the world premiere of Linotype: The Film and, in the first of the evening’s many thrills, Steven Heller takes the stage for the opening remarks. Author, curator, lecturer and an art director of The New York Times for 33 years, Heller is something of a typographical cult hero in these parts. They lap him up.

Just five words in and, already, I am out of my depth. "Is Etaoin Shrdlu here tonight?" Heller asks. Immediately, around a third of the audience squeals with delight and – just like that – the tone is set for the rest of the evening. Etaoin Shrdlu spells out the first two rows, or rather columns, of keys on a Linotype machine. They represent the most common 12 letters of the English language, in approximate order of popularity. Apparently, one of the more common outcomes of the "90 or so things that can go wrong with a linotype machine" was the rogue appearance of these two words in a row of printed type. Mr Shrdlu, it seems, has long been a part of typesetting folklore, and don’t this lot just know it.

If nothing else, it’s a reminder that we’re here to see a movie about a machine. Don’t worry – as terrible as that might sound, turns out it’s brilliant.

There are really only three things you need to know about the Linotype machine. One, it’s pretty much the most complicated thing ever invented. Two, it completely transformed our society. And three, few folks outside of SVA Theatre tonight are aware of that. Or, as the film’s director and producer Doug Wilson put it in the Q&A session following the film, "The more I learned how it impacted the world, the more I was surprised that none of us knew about it."

But once you do know about it, it becomes a source of frustration. The story goes like this: in 1886, Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German watchmaker, invented a machine that enabled lines of type to be set six times faster than by handsetters. Printers went from talking "minutes-per-line to lines-per-minute," says one of the film’s subjects. Guess what? It revolutionized mass media communication, generating huge demand for print, driving down the cost of newspapers and spawning a gigantic leap in literacy. So how is it that Mergenthaler is barely even acknowledged for such a gargantuan contribution to society? Heck, he even died tragically young, aged 44 from tuberculosis. What more did he have to do to become an international hero?

Wilson's movie does, of course, pay homage to Mergenthaler’s greatness, but it’s not really about him. In fact, for much of it, even the machine takes a back seat. Like you couldn’t see this coming, it turns out it’s all about people.

Linotype: The Film somehow manages to reconstruct history in the most gripping fashion, without ever calling on a narrator. Essentially, it’s one glorious piece of footage after another of the most naturally gifted, genuinely interesting, passionately crazy storytellers — and they are mostly very funny, too. All are operators, but forget any preconceptions of this job title for a moment.
"Operators were the artists who created this wonderful typography that we try to emulate digitally," says one of the movie’s stars. "They are artistic people posing as industrial types in dirty overalls."
And so Wilson takes us on an unforgettable journey, from character to character, each blissfully unaware that their performances are superb. "We would just show up at people’s doors and invade their lives for a day and they would let us do it," he tells tonight's audience. "People just opened up their lives and told a story to us."

Wilson himself was amazed at how the human stories took over. "I started out just loving the machine; I thought it was an amazing machine," he says. "But I realized what you need is these operators. They worked with these machines for 60 years. The machines were the hearts of these people. So I think that’s when we realized we had a film." Perhaps the fact it takes years and years to get any good at operating a Linotype that makes these folks so unique. "It’s one of the most complicated machines I’ve ever seen, and it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever been around," says one subject. "It’s a cacophony of sounds, but in itself a symphony." In fact, Wilson pointed out that many of the operators he interviewed were musically gifted in some way. It’s this synergy, this love affair between man and machine, that really comes through, time and time again.

One of the film’s biggest stars, Carl Schlesinger, spent 35 years operating Linotypes at the New York Times. He recalls a visit from Marilyn Monroe one day while he was at his workstation. She asked him to print something for her, so he wrote her name in bold because he thought she’d like it in bold (Monroe’s favorite font was Garamond, according to Heller in the Q&A). She then kissed him on the top of his head for his troubles. "There goes the day," he says in the movie. "All I’m going to think about now is my head."

The New York Times was produced with Linotypes for 80 years, until they were decommissioned in July 1978. Schlesinger, a VIP guest at tonight’s premiere, had the foresight to document that final day on film, some of which was used in the movie. "We poured some glasses and said: ‘To yesterday—goodbye to the past, hello to the future,’" he recalls.

Despite its historical context, Linotype: The Film is not meant to be nostalgia trip. "The last thing we wanted was for the whole thing to be narrated by honky-tonk music and old blues," explained audio and sound man Jess Heugel in the Q&A. "We wanted it to feel clean, fresh, and we didn’t want it to be overly dramatic." The majority of the soundtrack comes from friends’ bands Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and Cornbelt Chorus, along three original cuts from Heugel’s own group The Preservation Society.

The film’s finest moment comes right at the end when another of its stars, Joel, has little choice but to get rid of his linotype machine. After a fruitless search to find a museum that will take it, reluctantly he calls a salvage guy to take it away. The cameras follow him to the scrap yard where a quite brilliant scene ensues, in which Joel cannot bear to turn around and watch as a giant claw attempts to smash his beloved Linotype into the piles of already-twisted metal on the ground. This should be a tear-jerking scene but somehow it becomes as funny as hell. The machine refuses to break up at first and we all start laughing. Joel eventually turns around and, with a mixture of pride and genius comic timing, declares: "This is pretty devastating… but it shows you the durability of the thing!"

Wilson is just 29 years old and, on the face of it, had no business making a film about Linotype machines. He was introduced to it at university and a fascination set in, but while he’d had the idea for a film in his head for a while, it was several years before an accidental opportunity arose.
"I was set to go to grad school in Switzerland and they wouldn’t give my wife a visa," he says tonight, "So, I said ‘screw it, I’m making a film.’" Wilson had never made a film before, but is hugely proud of what he has achieved (and extremely grateful to Kickstarter for two rounds of fundraising).
"Sadly, a lot of operators are passing away and five years from now probably 30% of the people in our film won’t be around any more," he continues. "We thought someone had to tell the story."
At the end of the evening, Heller summarises the movie as "a major contribution to the history of communications".

While the triumphant trio of Wilson, Heugel and director of photography Brandon Goodwin have clearly shown a relentless passion and commitment to both the movie and subject over the past couple of years, you get the feeling they could use a break from Linotype machines for a while.
"I think the next film would be about something that’s happening now, not something that already happened," declares Wilson as he wraps up the event. "It’s so hard to reconstruct history in an entertaining way. Oh, and we’d shoot it in one week. With an $8M budget. Not some obscure thing, but something that I could explain at the airport. Like Justin Bieber or something. But not type-related."

Talking of big bucks and celebrities, later that weekend, the New York Giants would go on to create history of their own in the Super Bowl. But that's not world-changing history on the scale of Mergenthaler’s contribution. And while Linotype: The Film is a hugely engaging wake-up to the importance of his invention to society, you don’t need a penchant for history and machines to appreciate its brilliance. If you’re interested in human beings at all, then you’re going to love it.

--- THE END ---

Thanks to the author James Chase and Printweek for an interesting and well written review.

The screening at the SVA Theatre in New York that is written about in the article was on 3rd February. I don't know if there are any plans for it being shown on this side of the Atlantic, unless anyone out there knows differently....

www.printweek.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.02.2012

Typographic 69 - Australasian issue

2012-02-10T10:12:00.002Z

This is the latest edition of Typographic, published by ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) issue 69.

This is a good read and always something in it to inspire and as the "Australasian Issue", the content is entirely devoted to those practising typographic design, both past and present, in the Southern Hemisphere.

The contents are eight articles by/about: Cal Swann, Gail Devine, Simon Pemberton, James de Vries, Annette O'Sullivan, Stephen Banham, Jack Yan and Vince Frost. The Editor is Nick Kapica.

Design is by Frost based in Sydney, Australia. Art direction and design is by Vince Frost, Ray Parslow and Graziela Machado.

It is A4 Portrait, with a 4pp cover and 48pp text, perfect bound ...and in true Oz fashion, all the folio numbers are printed upside down.

And now for the paper plug! ...now if the truth be known, because Vince is is on the other side of the planet, he'd originally spec'd Mohawk Superfine but it's bonkers expensive! So after getting real and looking at the budget and considering the page count and postal weight, I suggested our StarFine 115gsm text and 240gsm cover. It came in on budget and the Fluoro pink looks brilliant on it. It is beautifully printed by Gavin Martin in London.

If you aren't already a member, you should really think about joining - there are many benefits, this is just one! www.istd.org.uk

...and if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - it costs less than £10 per month - still excellent value!

www.istd.org.uk
www.frostdesign.com.au
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.02.2012

CDG Brochure

2012-02-08T09:07:00.022Z

This is a lovely, simple piece of literature for legal maritime specialist CDG. The brochure is designed by Crescent Lodge who had also previously designed the CDG identity a couple of years ago.

Brochure size is 260x220mm, portrait, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on Omnia 280gsm and 24pp text on Omnia 150gsm.

The photography for the four section divider spreads is by Rodger Banning. I believe, he created the images by mixing oil and water (photographed on glass, I think?). Very effective.

Creative Director on the project is Lynda Brockbank and the designer is Malcolm Metcalfe.

Now this was only a short run job of 200 copies and was printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by the re-incarnated FS Moore at DG3 - see previous post... http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/sad-end-for-fs-moore.html

www.cdg.co.uk

www.crescentlodge.co.uk

http://www.mooreprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.02.2012

News from down under...

2012-02-07T09:37:00.029Z

Yesterday I received some news from down under from my old friend Vince Frost - and he's cooking! Vince is joining hundreds of other Australian CEOs and many celebrity chefs to raise money and awareness related to homelessness.

The CEO CookOff is a joint initiative of OzHarvest and Qantas. The event will bring together 30 celebrity chefs and 200 CEOs to raise awareness around food security and one of Australia's major social issues, homelessness.

You can help support Vince by clicking here http://www.ceocookoff.com.au/profile/776

to check out the site and then click on the 'donate now' button to help fund this worthy cause.

Is it my imagination, or do they just seem to have a lot more fun down in Australia?!

www.frostdesign.com.au

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.02.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 28

2012-02-02T16:39:00.004Z

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

Christmas at Liberty 2007

Press Invitation

This is quite simply one of the most stunning invitations that I've seen, it is one of the most beautiful and innovative pieces produced on our Flockage Litho.If you click on the image below, it will enlarge and hopefully you'll be able to see what I mean...

The size of the invitation is 210x148mm (A5). It is totally unprinted on the flock side, just "heat de-bossed" - This is a process where you make a block as if for hot foil blocking, and using the foiling machine you simply de-boss using the combination of heat and pressure but with no foil. On the Flocked surface this has the effect of flattenning the pile, so that it becomes smooth and the effect is subtle yet very noticeable.

The Flockage Litho 300gsm has been mounted (duplexed) onto another thicker white board, probably another 300gsm (unfortunately the type of board has been lost in the mists of time) giving a total thickness of about 700microns. The text on the reverse of the invitation is printed in litho silver.

Design is by Studio Thomson. Print production, which is simple (but very well executed) is by Xtraprint based in London EC2.

http://www.liberty.co.uk/
http://www.studiothomson.com/

http://www.xtraprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.02.2012

Bywa

2012-01-31T18:46:00.006Z

Last September I was contacted by Cornish based artist, Natasha Chambers. She produces and sells her own prints and she also makes a calendar every year.

Bywa - means “to be alive” in the ancient Cornish language of Kernewek and is also the name given to her series of limited edition prints. The calendar is to be a showcase of twelve of these prints and here it is....

The finished size of the calendar is 165x245mm. The text pages are on Flora Avorio 130gsm - for those that aren't familiar with it, Flora is a 50% recycled paper with natural deliberately visible inclusions and fibres and it works amazingly well with these beautiful artworks.

These are two interesting things to add about this job. Natasha showed me the calendar that she had done the previous year, which was a similar format but with just one "pin-hole" to hang on a nail. We discussed that this always looked a bit wrong and I suggested two holes with a "treasury tag" device but Natasha went one better and used the two holes with a lovely black ribbon, as below:

The other thing was that the cover is on our lovely Chagall, Fragola 260gsm (which is a strawberry coloured, feltmarked board) and the reason that Natasha chose it was because when I sent the samples, I wrote a note on a postcard that used the Fragola and she liked it so much, she used it!

It is a lovely calendar and it's well worth having a look at Natasha's website. The calendar was printed by Redruthian printer, Active Colour. Thanks to Natasha for sending me a file copy and a lovely note.

www.natashachambers.co.uk

http://www.activecolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.01.2012

icrossing - a belated thank you

2012-01-30T10:40:00.002Z

Here's the beautiful Christmas card that was sent to me from Brighton based design company, icrossing.

The front of the card is a lasercut snowflake which registers perfectly with a clear gloss hot foil blocked snowflake on the interior. A lovely idea and well produced.

Size is A6, portrait and is produced on our Omnia 280gsm. Print, lasercutting and foiling all produced by Evolution Print based in Sheffield.

...and thanks to Matt and Marc for sending me some file copies.

www.evolutionprint.co.uk
www.icrossing.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.01.2012

A new face at Fenner Paper

2012-01-29T09:38:00.000Z

Now I'm sure that most readers know that we aren't a massive company and we're a small (and perfectly formed!) group of individuals at Fenner Paper. So expanding our team is a big deal for us and I'm pleased to announce that Gillian Thomas has joined us.

Many of you will know Gill from her previous role at Howard Smith paper, where she worked for many years promoting papers that aren't as good as ours (...just kidding!) Anyway I'm pleased that she is now working with us and representing Fenner Paper.

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.01.2012

Thanks to my fans in Berlin!

2012-01-27T15:25:00.004Z

This afternoon I received a lovely e-mail from Jen at an agency called Wolf&Lamm based in Berlin. It turns out that she's a big fan of this blog and they use it as "a daily source of inspiration"! ...and of course, I'm very flattered.
Here they are:

...and you should have a look at their showreel, on which Jen uses her real talent as a rapper (MC Jenny) http://www.wolfundlamm.de/reel

www.wolfundlamm.de

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.01.2012

2012-01-26T08:59:00.033Z

This is the latest brochure for tableware designers and producers Robert Welch Designs.

I wrote about the company and some of their literature on a post last year:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/robert-welch.html

This brochure is a 32pp self cover, saddle stitched. Size is 297x155mm, printed on our Marazion Ultra 135gsm. The cover is varnished with a gloss UV varnish. It is printed CMYK throughout plus a pantone silver - which given the flat mattnes of the paper works beautifully well, while all the metallic tabelware reproduces exceptionally in four colour process...

Design is by Dowling Duncan. Art direction and design was by John Dowling who works closely with Alice and Rupert Welch. Photography is by Trevor Innes and Tony Muranka. Print is by Gavin Martin Colournet

http://www.robertwelch.com/

http://dowlingduncan.com/

www.gavinmartin.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.01.2012

fc:kids

2012-01-24T09:31:00.002Z

Here's a lovely fashion lookbook for the French Connection Kids label. It has a 4pp cover, 20pp text. Size is 148x210mm (A5), portrait, saddle stitched and is printed CMYK throughout on Marazion Ultra 300 and 135gsm.

Art Direction, design and production is by French Connection. It just has a fantastic feel - the text and cover give the images a real flat mattness that works superbly with the backgrounds which are "shabby country cottage chic"!

Design is by Graeme Williams. Production by Kay Trew. Print is by Fox Print. A lovely piece of print and thanks very much to Aleks Klimanski at Fox Print in Tunbridge Wells for the file copies...

www.frenchconnection.com
www.foxprintservices.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.01.2012

Cyril Mann - Tribute Exhibition

2012-01-20T08:44:00.001Z

This is a beautiful invitation for London art gallery Piano Nobile, to the private view of the Tribute Exhibition of the work of Cyril Mann (1911-1980)

It is a 6pp invitation 210x255mm. Cover pictured above, opening like so (below)

The inside open spread, below, shows some of the works which are either oil on canvas or oil on board.

This pic shows the outer spread:

The invitation is printed on StarFine Natural White300gsm which is a very "neutral" white shade - in fact it hardly looks off white at all! Being so neutral means that the shde of the substrate neither warms the images up or in the case of a bright white material make them too stark and bright. It has a lovely look and feel.

At the same event another "Nobile Folio" which is the series published by Piano Nobile and Sylph Editions was also launched. Called "St Pauls from Moor Lane" it is printed on Omnia, but I'll write about that one another time!

This project is art directed and designed by Ornan Rotem at London based Sylph Editions with production by Num Stibbe. Print is by Principal Colour in Paddock Wood.

http://www.piano-nobile.com/

http://www.sylpheditions.com/

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.01.2012

Birthday Exhibition

2012-01-17T15:19:00.017Z

Here's the latest project from artist Sam Winston...

Birthday Exhibition - Southbank Centre
27 January 2012, 10am - 29 January 2012, 11pm
Royal Festival Hall - Cloakroom Lobby - Level 1

The installation forms part of The Southbank Centre’s ‘Death - A Festival For The Living’ in which The Southbank Centre takes a look at how culture can provide an essential role in helping us under- stand and come to terms with this unknowable certainty.

Photography Andy Sewell

Here's a description about the installation:
Try bringing to mind four friends, simultaneously, within the space of a second. If you managed that then you’re getting close to imagining how many people are being born onto the planet right now.

So why is it when we hear such information we are usually awed by the scale at which it’s happening yet somehow that very information soon becomes another piece of trivia? It’s a question artist Sam Winston has been working on for a few years and in collaboration with The Southbank Centre he’s proposing an experiment.

“What if we took certain statistics - like the ones close to our hearts , say our birth and death rates - and literally tried recording each birth or death with a drawn circle - how long would it take to portray 12 hours of life on our planet?
For the work I am inviting people to the Royal Festival Hall to register a birth or death by drawing a circle to celebrate one of the 1/4 of a million lives that come and go every day. This in turn sits beside a wall of names registering these birth and deaths.

Photography Andy Sewell

The effect is a transformation of a seemingly incomprehensible statistic into a very real sea of 260,082 brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. And this is an invitation for people to partake in that.”
Sam Winston is creating a pop up registry office in Royal Festival Hall commemorating the quarter of a million lives that are born and die in the space of 12 hours around the world.
http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/hayward-gallery-and-visual-arts/tickets/birthday-1000190

Here's a short film that he's made:
http://youtu.be/GycPPNtRy9U?hd=1

There's no plug for our paper here as he's not using our Colorset (well not as far as I know!) although I have worked with Sam before and he's an interesting artist producing these thought provoking works.
www.samwinston.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.01.2012

UCA Graphics 2011

2012-01-16T10:52:00.000Z

This is a piece of literature produced for the BA (Hons) Graphic Communication 2011 course at UCA Farnham. The finished size is an oversize A5 size at 150x215mm size and is saddle stitched. The reason for the slightly larger size is because of the multi size/section approach, the (smallest) outer 16pp section being 130x185mm, the middle 16pp section being 200x140mm and the inner 32pp section being the full 150x215mm, so the stepped effect works like so...

The 64pp publication is a self cover piece printed on StarFine White 100gsm. It is printed in three special colours including a Fluorescent Orange. From a size/production and print point of view, it's made an interesting job and still quite economical to produce.

The Art Direction and book coordination is by Maria da Gandra who is a part time lecturer at UCA and also a partner in the design company MWM Creative.

Designers were Michal Polak, Giorgio del Buono and Alex Sokolov. Print is by Pureprint.
...and thanks to Maria for the file copies and the lovely note:

www.ucreative.ac.uk
www.mwmcreative.co.uk
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.01.2012

Blush Publishing

2012-01-12T15:20:00.003Z

It's lovely when you come across something that's so interesting that you really want to share it with others and this is one such occasion!

I was recently contacted by a company called Blush who describe themselves as a "modern letterpress printing studio working in an old paper mill in North Wales"

They have a lovely website and a seriously impressive blog - please have a look, it's brilliant:

http://www.blog.blushpublishing.co.uk/

Although you won't see any of our materials used in the case studies ...yet (I hope to be able to change that!) it is really beautiful work.

www.blushpublishing.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.01.2012

Toujouri - Xanadu Collection

2012-01-10T16:24:00.003Z

This is a beautiful lookbook for fashion house Toujouri produced for the launch of their Xanadu collection.

The size is 174x230mm Portrait, section sewn with an 8pp cover and 48pp text. The text is are printed on Omnia 150gsm and the result is just simply stunning - especially with the amazing embroidery on the evening gowns. The photography (by Thomas Cooksey) is superb and the colours are really vibrant ...see for yourselves

All images on the right hand page with the description on left hand page. Lots of space. Thumbnail images on final spread, below.

Brand Marketing and design is by In+Addition.

Creative Director is Paul Hetherington and production was dealt with by Annalyn King ...and thank you for the lovely note and the file copies.

Print is by Fulmar Colour.

This is a fabulous example of print on Omnia - this job does truly have the tactile feel of an uncoated with the reproduction of a coated - it does look amazing.

http://www.toujouri.com/

www.in-addition.com

http://www.fulmarcolour.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson10.01.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 27

2012-01-06T11:39:00.003Z

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

V&A Zoomorphic Exhibition Literature

2003/2004

Personally, I think this is one of those projects which will be written about in design books and blogs for many years to come as it is a beautifully clever idea, simply executed.

Johnson Banks designed the campaign to promote this exhibition which is on architecture inspired by animal forms that imagined what animals would look like if drawn as architectural pieces. The project is based around a series of three main posters, with the other event literature using elements from each of the posters.

Click on the images above and below to get the full effect.

...and the exhibition blurb is as follows:

Zoomorphic looks at the emerging trend towards buildings that emulate nature, presenting leading contemporary architecture inspired by animal form.

The exhibition shows an eclectic mix of architects’ models and preserved animal specimens to illustrate the zoomorphic analogy, with works by leading British and international architects including Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano and Wilkinson Eyre. Some of the architects featured employ animal metaphors quite explicitly to create iconic signature buildings, for others the animal likeness emerges as the design evolves.

Zoomorphic documents a highly significant new trend that will extend and enrich the language of modern architecture and asks: What will it be like to live in zoomorphic buildings and walk around zoomorphic cities? and: How might the buildings of the future be transformed as architects continue to explore the lessons of biology in more depth?

The exhibition was curated by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

The main posters (above) are 760x515mm. Other literature includes the A5 leaflet, below, which folds out like so:

...and down again

to reveal the 594x420mm poster:

a different version of the armadillo poster as 394x594mm folding down to 197x297mm:

Simple A6 invitation/reply card:

Design is by Johnson Banks. Creative director on the project was Michael Johnson and the designer (and, most importantly, the illustrator as well) was Sarah Fullerton (now Dezille).

The posters were all printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm with the cards on 315gsm. Redeem 100% Recycled was chosen because a blueprinty/dyeline paper feel was required and this was the paper that did it! Interestingly, it might look like that it is just the natural/neutral shade of the Redeem coming through but although it was just printed one colour offset litho in a bluey/purple pantone colour, it was further enhanced by having a very small percentage tint of the colour printed all over the sheet, thereby reducing the hardness of the edges, especially on the "pencil type" lines.

It was printed by a west London printer called Fernedge who were a very progressive printer and one favoured by many design companies at that time. Sadly they have since ceased trading. Pippa Redmond (Mustoe) who was MD at Fernedge, now runs the Norwich Kall Kwik franchise.(http://www.kallkwik.co.uk/norwich/aboutus.cfm). - and I'm dead sure it was printed by them, because as you can see from the label, my file copies are still in the original job bag!

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.01.2012

Happy New Year

2012-01-04T13:37:00.002Z

Happy New Year to everyone and especially those that are regular readers of this blog. I hope 2012 will be a peaceful year. In the UK, it should be an exciting one with the Olympics being hosted in London and various locations around the whole country. Whatever some people's misgivings, I think that it will be a great event that will be held in the public consciousness for years to come.

Last year, at the DesignWeek awards, I bumped into Bryan Edmondson from SEA. He was kind enough to give some encouraging words about this blog and mentioned that it would be a great idea if I invited other people to occasionally write for it as well.

www.seadesign.co.uk

Having mulled it over (for some considerable time!) I've decided to introduce a "SOAPBOX" piece. Written by an invited contributor, it will be published on the blog at the end of the month (in the same way that "Jobs from the past" is the first post of every month). The piece doesn't have to be about any particular subject, other than it should be of relevance to the type of designers who are interested to read this blog (...also, it can't be libelous, slanderous or defamatory!)

Anyway, that's my new year resolution, so as the idea was his I'll ask Bryan if he'd like to write the first one, otherwise I might have to start ringing around!
Happy 2012.
Justin

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.01.2012

M&S Invitation - A/W 2011 Collection

2011-12-29T10:35:00.005Z

This is a very luxurious looking invitation to the launch of the Autumn/Winter collection for Marks & Spencer.

The size of the job is 154x218mm portrait. It uses Flockage Colours 400gsm in Navy. For those of you which are not familiar with this product, it is a flocked board which feels like a velvety cloth/material to the touch but which remarkably you can actually "flatten" the pile by use of a "heat de-boss". In this case the square pattern is "heat de-bossed" and it is then hot foil blocked in silver.

Flockage is an expensive material, but because of the small quantity used and the fact that only two similar processes are being used on it (and waste is therefore minimal) a luxury, high impact impression can be achieved for a relatively low cost.

To give these invitations extra weight (and gravitas), they have been duplexed together with a chocolate brown board ( ...from the other well know Hull based paper merchant!) The total thickness is just over 1mm and the edge is edge in silver.

Design and Art Direction is by Iain White at Pure Design. Print is by Push.

www.marksandspencer.com

www.pure-design.co.uk

www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.12.2011

Ding Dong

2011-12-27T10:52:00.010Z

This is the clever little festive greeting card (...or should that be parcel?) from Magpie Studio.

Have a look and then I'll explain...

As Magpie see it, posties are the unsung heroes of Christmas. Up early in all weathers contending with impossible addresses and dogs nipping at their heels, this is their tribute to these troopers.

Working with photographer John Angerson, Magpie contrived to getting as many of the posties from around the Shoreditch area and the various routes (or walks as they call them in the PO) as possible ending up with thirteen in total. Words are written by Scott Perry (Bard of Bray).

The outer cover which looks like a package is formed using our Rib-Tone 2 sided 340gsm and forms both the cover and envelope. The fourteen cards are "bound" in using the Royal Mail red rubber bands that we are so familiar with, littering the outside of many front doors and workplaces! The cards are printed on our Omnia 280gsm, which as you can see from above, prints a solid red, just beautifully.

Print, finishing and rubber-banding (!) is by Gavin Martin Colournet. It's also worth pointing out that the Rib-Tone is printed in 1 colour - white - on their new HP Indigo digital press! not silkscreen or hot foil ...it's white ink!

www.magpie-studio.com

www.johnangerson.com

www.bardofbray.com

www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.12.2011

RCA Alumni 2010

2011-12-22T10:41:00.008Z

Current membership of the organisation that represents the Alumni of the Royal College of Art, called AlumniRCA is 5,335. Each year they produce a publication to communicate with and about the Alumni and the current activities/developments at the college.

It is a simple, economical format, easy to use for both mailing and display purposes. The format is a 16pp, closed gatefold. Size is A5 folding out to A2 (420x597mm).

Front Cover:

opening out to...

opening out again to...

folding out to...

Design is by Europa and the designer on the project is Paul Tisdell. The publication is printed on Omnia 120gsm which was chosen because of the tactile feel and the way it would reproduce the images, including the one on the reverse, which is a fantastic photograph by Noemie Goudal (RCA MA Photography 2010)

The job was printed and finished by Pureprint.

www.rca.ac.uk/alumni
www.europaeuropa.co.uk
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.12.2011

New digital installation

2011-12-20T10:52:00.021Z

I popped in to see London based printer Gavin Martin Colournet last week and they are excitedly experimenting with their new bit of kit, a digital press - an HP Indigo 5500 ...so I took a picture of their new machine:

This new press is their first digital installation and is to compliment with their existing Heidelberg B1 Offset Litho press. The press features a capability to print special colours and opaque white.

Personally I was also excited about their other machine installation, a new Nespresso machine, which Gary Bird was kind enough to operate for me...

www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

www.hp.co/indigo

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.12.2011

CIA Calendar 2012

2011-12-16T09:31:00.001Z

This is an excellent 2012 desk calendar produced by the Central Illustration Agency (CIA). There are 52 illustrations (one per week) and all the illustrations all relate to this year's Olympian theme "The Alternative Games..."

Unusually for a desk calendar, the front sheet is actually a folded poster, printed on Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The Size of the calendar is 140mm square - the poster folds out to 420x560mm

The poster design is by Jonas Bergstrand.

...and now for the calendar itself:

The 140mm square calendar is printed on Omnia Natural 120gsm, chosen so that it would have an uncoated feel but reproduce the wide and diverse illustrations superbly. The "tent card" (which is the commonly used term for the supporting cardboard frame) is made from a sturdy sheet of Trojan Whiteback 510gsm (below pic):

Production (at the CIA) was dealt with by Charlotte Hanlon. Design is by Staziker Jones and print is by Hartleywilprint based in Wales.

http://www.centralillustration.com/

http://www.stazikerjones.co.uk/
http://www.hartleywilprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.12.2011

V&A 2010/2011

2011-12-14T12:13:00.003Z

This is a superb piece of print - the 2010/2011 Annual Review published by the V&A. The report is structured in such a way that it literally goes through the year on a month by month basis, showing the exhibitions and the life of the museum in a close up way.

With image reproduction being so important, it was essential that everything reproduced amazingly! The text chosen for the project is Omnia 150gsm - chosen because the print includes solid colours and images of exhibits - and it looks brilliant.

The cover is hot foil blocked in a grey pigmented foil. It is a 350gsm material from the well known, Hull based paper merchant, in Smoke with a morocco embossing. It has an elastic loop which is riveted to the cover - a very nice touch.

Size of the book is 200x265mm, portrait format, perfect bound. The 72pp text is printed in CMYK throughout - beautifully. Additionally, there are 6 tracing paper inserts.

The report was designed in house at the V&A by Nadine Fleischer and Lindsay Pentelow. Since the publication of the report earlier this year, Nadine and Lindsay have left the museum and set up their own design practice called Irish Butcher (www.irishbutcher.co.uk)

The excellent print, foiling and finishing is by Generation Press.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

www.generationpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.12.2011

New 2012 Diary

2011-12-12T11:08:00.004Z

I just received a very nice e-mail from James Blakeborough at Manchester based "Only a northern soul". The e-mail shows a picture of a tired and well loved 2011 diary which is his "freelance booking bible" - and particularly appropriate, given that it is printed on Offenbach Bible! James was simply checking that we were producing a 2012 diary and making sure I had his new address details.

...never fear! The 2012 diary is going in the post this week (hopefully!) so should be with you before Christmas.

I can't tell you what colour it is because you could be getting one of many colours - all printed on our Colorset 100% Recycled 270gsm.

This year, we are also doing a seperate Colorset desk calendar as well...

So keep an eye out for the postman.

...and thanks to James for the pic of his well thumbed diary
www.onlyanorthernsoul.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.12.2011

Surface View

2011-12-08T09:22:00.087Z

This is an exquisite piece of literature for a company who's business is all about image.

Surface View is an enterprise who are in the business of collaborating with designers and architects to produce bespoke images installed in buildings, spaces, businesses and homes, either as murals, mounted prints, blinds, textiles or a host of other substrates.

This brochure, titled "Handbook" is about what they do and the way they work. With image reproduction being such an important part of their business, it was essential that everything reproduced amazingly! The text chosen for the project is Omnia 120gsm - chosen because the imagery from Marvel to Getty Images to the V&A looks brilliant. The 270gsm cover material is from the other well known, Hull based paper merchant, in Smoke Grey.

Size of the book is 172x240mm, portrait format, section sewn binding. The 4pp cover is silkscreened in white, 50pp text is printed in CMYK throughout - with some particularly good four colour black and white images.

Design is by Ben Stott and it is superb. Print is by Push and it is also superb. Not a lot more to say other than I have used the word "image" six times and "superb" twice in this one post ....but hey, who's counting?

http://www.surfaceview.co.uk/

http://www.benstott.com/

http://www.push-print.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.12.2011

University of the Arts 2012

2011-12-05T13:31:00.010Z

...just the cover makes the difference!

Here's a job that is worth a look, because the cover is used to add to the quality and feel of the whole project. This is the 2012 course guide for the University of The Arts which is produced in many different languages (Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese - to name but a few). The size of the job is 170x240mm portrait. This was quite a large run and what makes it a worth noticing is the way in which Omnia 200gsm has been used for the cover to give it a more tactile engaging feel. The text is on an uncoated offset as the budget dictated. The cover is hot foil blocked in matt white foil which gives it a quality feel and keeps it miles away from the naff "glossy" brochures which are often produced for university guides - the cover sets the tone and feel for the publication

This is an excellent example of using a material for a part of a project which can just lift the whole look and feel and make a piece of literature special.

The job is designed by Unlimited in Brighton. Designer on the project is Patrick Morrissey. It was produced in conjunction with Simon Goode at the Department of Communications and Development at the University of the Arts. Print is by Tradewinds.

www.arts.ac.uk

www.weareunlimited.co.uk

www.tradewindslondon.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.12.2011

Matt Hill wins World Championship

2011-12-03T12:42:00.019Z

Ever wondered what other people who follow this blog get up to? Matt Hill is a talented young tap dancer who was selected to represent England at the IDO World Tap dance Championships held last week in Riesa, Germany.

Being selected was one thing, but yesterday evening he walked away with the World Title of Junior Male Soloist on behalf of England.

If the truth be told, Matt isn't particularly interested in paper ...he's still at school, but as a family friend and inveterate blogger he has contributed to my enthusiasm for blogging.

Above are pictured the 2011 World Champions (Matt in centre)

Matt dances with the Redhurst School of Dancing in East Grinstead and with the group Tap Attack. Congratulations to Matt and all in the England team.
www.ido-dance.com
www.mrskayballeastgrinstead.co.uk
www.tapattack.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.12.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 26

2011-12-02T12:13:00.015Z

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

D&AD Membership Campaign

August 2006

Having introduced several new membership categories, D&AD appointed NB to produce a comprehensive promotional campaign. In NB's own words: "To appeal to the target audience – the creative industries – we opted for clarity and wit. Using objects commonly found in creative environments and items related to specific membership benefits, we created collage set pieces which were photographed by John Ross. Striking, cohesive and cost effective, the campaign launched with a fold out poster."

The A1 posters which folded down to A5 were printed on Offenbach Bible in 60gsm because at this weight (and if folded correctly - i.e. concertina and concertina, therefore allowing all air to escape) there are no "crows feet" appearing - if you're not familiar with that term, it's where a rather ugly crease appears crinkled from the centre of the fold, splaying out like the bird's foot.

Creative Directors on the project were Nick Finney Ben Stott and Alan Dye. Designer was Eng Su.

It was printed and finished by Pureprint (48,000 copies, as I recall). Pureprint were the print sposnor of D&AD at that time.

http://www.dandad.org/

http://www.nbstudio.co.uk/

http://www.benstott.com/

www.johnross.co.uk/

http://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.12.2011

Camberwell College of Arts - BA Hons Sculpture 2011

2011-11-30T13:22:00.007Z

This is a piece of literature produced for the BA (Hons) Sculpture 2011 course at Camberwell College of Arts. It is A5 (148x210mm) size and is saddle stitched. It has a lightweight cover which is cut 40mm short at the head, which opens up, like so...

4pp cover on Neptune Unique 120gsm, 20pp text on our recycled Brand X FSC 150gsm which has a warmer, natural, shade which contrasts well with the whiter, lightweight cover material. Cover is printed in one colour (black) both sides, text is CMYK throughout. Nice clean job and fairly economical to produce.

The project was designed by Joe Hales who was working in conjunction with Josie and Julia who are two students on the course. It was printed by Calverts Press in London.

...and thanks to Josie and Julia for their lovely note and for taking the time to send me some file copies.

http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/camberwell/2011/ba-hons-sculpture
http://josiecockram.com/
www.juliagray.co.uk
http://josephhales.co.uk/
www.print.coop

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.11.2011

Fish and Chip paper

2011-11-29T12:14:00.068Z

Some readers of this blog may be old enough to remember when fish and chips were actually served in old newspaper (I do and I'm not that ancient, honest!).

Well, I was pleased to be able to help out on a lovely little touch at a wedding, where they served fish and chips at the evening reception. Two pages of the local newspaper from the day that the couple were both born was reproduced on our Redeem 100% Recycled 60gsm. As you can see from the pics, it all worked rather well!

...and here are the happy couple, Ben and Gemma:

The idea and production was by Phil Bold, designer at GBH, who is Gemma's brother! ...and he lovingly printed them all too.

www.gregorybonnerhale.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.11.2011

3D Printing - the future is coming!

2011-11-28T13:22:00.001Z

I was recently contacted by a company offering a 3D printing service, which I thought I'd share.

I have heard a bit about 3D printing or "rapid prototyping" as it is sometimes called, but hadn't really looked into it in too much detail. This new technology has the ability to change the way we manufacture individual (custom) items and could literally be the pathway to us having the ability to make individual items in our own homes and offices - and has the potential to produce everything from machine parts to replacement teeth!

The company that sent me the information about their 3D printing service is positioned at the more "novelty" end of this new technology, although a very nice novelty it is...

Have a look ...maybe there's a Christmas present idea here!

http://www.miniaturemoments.com

for more info about 3D printing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.11.2011

French Connection

2011-11-24T10:29:00.027Z

This is a few months old now but I've only just got some file copies - It's the publication to accompany the French Connection marketing campaign for the Summer - it was a big press campaign, so I'm sure that some of the images will be familiar. As you can see from the pics below, it is a beautiful piece. Art direction, photography and reproduction is superb.

It's a 40pp self cover. Size is 240x345mm, portrait and it's printed on Marazion Ultra 90gsm. It is loose bound - no saddle stitches.
Art Direction, design and production is by French Connection. It just has a fantastic feel - it is difficult for me to say much more about it - just look at the images, they speak for the job...

It is a "double ended" publication - ie two front covers, one way works as Womens (above) the other way works as Mens (below)

Design is by Graeme Williams. Print is by Geoff Neal Litho. A lovely piece

www.frenchconnection.com

www.geoffneallitho.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.11.2011

Mantis World 2011

2011-11-22T09:27:00.004Z

This is a catalogue produced earlier in the year for ethical clothing company Mantis World.

For this catalogue, the desire was for a "tactile" cover material that had an uncoated feel but that wouldn't let down the brightness of the colours and to introduce a "magazine" section with interviews and news. The factory that makes these clothes is in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and they use 100% certified organic cotton and are a pioneer in ethical manufacturing, therefore using environmentally concious materials is important.

The eventual choice of materials combined the tactile Omnia as a cover but only in 200gsm (which is very bulky) with our lightweight Redeem 100% Recycled in 70gsm which has a newsprint look and feel for the "magazine" section. This was combined with some Hanno Art Gloss (FSC) for the basic text pages.

All the below spreads show imagery reproduced on Redeem 100% Recycled 70gsm - exceptionally vibrant result:

The job is 4pp cover with a 124pp text. Size is 165x220mm, portrait, perfect bound.

Print is by Quadracolour.

Design is by Astroman. Creative Director on the project was Doug Hurcombe. Designer on the project was Katerina Karamallaki and thank you for the lovely note...

http://www.mantisworld.com/

http://www.astro-man.com/

www.quadracolor.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.11.2011

New Press at Push

2011-11-21T16:53:00.003Z

Regular readers of this blog will know that apart from some beautifully printed work demonstrated on this blog, there isn't very much good news in the printing industry. Many companies have simply gone bankrupt Midas Press, Good News Press, SV2, Moores, to name but a few, so positive news is hard to come by.

However last week, I popped in to London printer Push who are in the middle of installing a brand spanking new B1 Heidelberg Press (a CX102) ...and below are the pics of installation in action.

This represents an extremely big investment but demonstrates that if a company wants to continually improve quality and keep up with the latest technology, it must invest.

Good luck and good printing!

www.push-print.co.uk

www.uk.heidelberg.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2011

Morgan McKinley

2011-11-17T10:01:00.001Z

This is an excellent example of a corporate brochure. It is beautifully designed, with innovative print and finishing features and is produced to a very high standard.

Morgan McKinley are a company working in the global professional recruitment industry and this corporate brochure is to give a company overview to potential clients.

Hot foil blocking in gloss black foil together with matt red foil features on the front cover and on the endpapers, gloss UV varnish used to great effect, below.

The publication is 215x280mm, Landscape, perfect bound. It has a 4pp cover, 2x2pp endpapers (front and back) and a 28pp text printed on our Omnia 150gsm - which as you can see from the mono photography and the flat solid areas of red and black, have given this job an amazing mattness and tactility.

Design is by Glazer. Creative director on the project is Jonathan Wybrow. Print and finishing is by Gavin Martin.

One final word ...how lovely to see an outstandingly produced corporate brochure that doesn't rely on stock photography, bright four colour work and glossy paper - it looks great.

www.morganmckinley.com

www.glazer.co.uk

www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

BSME Art Director of the Year 2011

2011-11-16T18:19:00.003Z

Simon Esterson

Last week, at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards, Simon Esterson, editor of Eye Magazine won Art Director of the year (Business publications). Congratulations to Simon and the whole team at Eye for this success.

In the last few years since Esterson took control of the publication, Eye magazine has truly gone from strength to strength and at a time when magazine publishing, in general, is going through a difficult period.

Although we do supply a small amount of material for the magazine (not the main text) I wouldn't want anybody to think reading this that I'm just "sucking up"! Quite apart from the paper, in my opinion it is an excellent publication and well worth subscribing to ...so there!

Here are some previous posts about Eye:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/02/eye-78-seven-colour-marathon.html
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/08/eye-76.html

www.eyemagazine.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.11.2011

And the Sun will Shine...

2011-11-15T09:33:00.004Z

Well if your Tuesday, November morning is looking as grey and dank as mine, here's something that will brighten it up!

I've just received a lovely screenprint from designer and illustrator Billy Allinson, who produced this print on our Colorset, Natural 270gsm (100% recycled) ...and he very kindly sent me one.

Size is 330x475mm

I first met Billy at Kingston University as he was arranging the invitations and promotional material for their graduation show. Since then he worked for many years at Formula One, designing a wide range of their promotional material including a party invitation for one of Petra Ecclestone's extravagant parties!

Billy now combines working with his own clients with freelancing and has his own silkscreen studio - a man of many talents!
www.billyallinson.com

...and thanks for my lovely print which is definitely brightening up the day!

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.11.2011

London 2016

2011-11-10T16:39:00.000Z

This is a fascinating and beautifully produced book commissioned by leading international property consultancy, Knight Frank to visually communicate their predictions for London's commercial property market, in a project titled 'London 2016'.

Five years doesn't seen too far away, but the invitation to their September conference is worded as follows:
"In 2006, no one owned an iphone, Lehman Brothers' market capitalisation was $40 Billion and Bear Stearns' was $20 Billion, Iceland had a triple A credit rating, Twitter signed up it's 50th tweeter in July - think how different the world will be in five years time..."
(...that makes you think!)

Knight Frank commisioned London based agency YCN to produce the conference collateral, including this specially produced book to be given as a take-home pieces for select clients detailing the company's view of London in five years time.

The size of the book is 185x245mm, portrait. It is printed on SHIRO Echo, White (50% FSC and 50% recycled) which has a "natural" off white shade and works well with the illustration and text. The book is made using two text weights 160gsm for the three throwout pages and 100gsm for the main text made up of 45 "French Folded" sections.

The casebound book is covered in dark grey bookcloth and is hot foil blocked in silver.

All the text is "French Folded" as you can see below:

The creative team at YCN on the project is as follows:

Project Director: Alex Ostrowski

Art Direction & Design: Alex Hunting

The text features illustrations by Samuel Green and infographics by Chris Clarke

...and particularly remarkable (other than the paper, of course!) is that the job has been printed digitally by Pureprint on an HP Indigo press and the result is just superb. The solid colours alone compete with the quality achievable with offset litho. Simon Cooper at Pureprint handled the project.

...and a lovely touch is the rubber stamp used to personalise and number each of the 150 copies:

http://www.knightfrank.co.uk/
http://agency.ycnonline.com/
http://agency.ycnonline.com/people/portfolio/samuel-green/
http://www.chris-clarke.co.uk/
www.pureprint.com

Posted bu Justin Hobson 10.11.2011

Westerham Press set to close

2011-11-10T13:32:00.015Z

St Ives has announced the closure of the award-winning report and accounts and fine art printer St Ives Westerham Press (together with its Blackburn print site). Although it has been phrased as an "intention to close" (because of employment legislation) it is certain that it will close, thus marking an end to a sixty year history.

Westerham Press has been one of the most important offset litho sheet-fed printers in the UK, both from an innovation and quality point of view, since I have been involved in the industry. This move signals the further diversification of the St Ives group away from the core activity of printing.

The full article on Printweek is here:
http://www.printweek.com/Business/article/1103549/St-Ives-Direct-announces-Westerham-Press-Blackburn-closures/

Earlier in the year I wrote about the passing away of the founder of Westerham Press:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/rowley-atterbury-printer.html

Sadly, there is little positive news in the print (or paper) industry at the moment.
http://www.westerhampress.co.uk/westerham
http://www.st-ives.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.11.2011

The Necessary Cat

2011-11-09T08:41:00.002Z

This is a self published book by photojournalist Chris Kelly. Chris has previously produced other publications but she sometimes felt that the material choice could have been more considered.

For this new project, she met with Emma Horner at London printers Push and Emma suggested that Chris call me to discuss materials. Chris popped in to our office in Tonbridge and I showed her various materials and how they worked with mono images. The end result is this modest, simple but beautifully produced publication.

The book is 203x152mm Landscape, perfect bound. The paper used is our Marazion Ultra, 4pp cover on 250gsm with a 46pp text on 135gsm. The cover is matt laminated with gloss UV varnish over the images.The mono images are reproduced in CMYK throughout.

If you like cats, you'll love this book (I think it's on Amazon)

...and thanks to Chris for her appreciative note.

ckeditions@blueyonder.co.uk

www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.11.2011

2011 International year of the forest!

2011-11-07T15:55:00.020Z

Well here's an interesting one...

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests to raise awareness on sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests. All in all, very laudable and interesting from a paper point of view ...but we're now in November and I've only just found out about it!

It appears that there have been some good events throughout the year but personally, I think it has been poorly promoted. Had I been aware, I would certainly have been interested and tried to raise awareness. Sadly, I don't think we feel very positive about forestry and far too much emphasis is placed on negative publicity about "saving trees" as opposed to planting and growing trees in a sustainable way.

http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.11.2011

It's Nice That...

2011-11-04T14:52:00.000Z

The It’s Nice That’s one-day conference has just been announced and the "earlybird" tickets have already sold out! However, there are still regular tickets available so why not have a look?

In Progress promises a deliberately curated programme of talks and insights from some of the most exciting and forward-thinking people in the creative industries. The aim is to explore future trends, insights and potential highlights for 2012, opening up discourse about the direction of practice, process and innovation across a broad range of disciplines for the coming year.

There is a panel of influential creatives, commentators and industry specialists, including the following:
Tom Uglow creative director of Google and YouTube, Matt Jones of Berg, Lindsey Hilsum Channel 4’s award-winning international editor, Mills co-founder of UsTwo, publisher and writer James Bridle, Saatchi and Saatchi creative partner Kate Stanners, Emer Coleman director of digital projects at the GLA, Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth from W+K London, Dazed's Francesca Gavin and David McCall director of Hyper Island UK plus there will be additional names to be announced over the coming weeks.

...if you're sitting there reading this thinking "what's the point?" then ponder on this:
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
W. Edwards Deming (US business advisor & author 1900 - 1993)

www.itsnicethat.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.11.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 25

2011-11-02T09:24:00.004Z

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

British Council

Design, Architecture & Cultural Relations - 2008

This is a modest and cost effective publication produced for the British Council in Spring 2008. The publication covered recent projects, showcasing the best of UK creativity and the way in which the work of the council engaged in international cutural relations.

Although the pictures make them look like a series, they are simply the same publication but with a change of coloured cover board. Extremely simple, very effective and bringing the project a lot more value than if the covers were all the same.

They are A5 portrait, wire stitched (with black stitches - nice touch!) The covers are all 4pp printed on 5 different shades of Colorset 100% Recycled 270gsm (Spring Green, Mango, Deep Orange, Magenta and White)

Fronts:

Backs:

Covers are printed in two colours (special blue and black) common, on all colours. The 16pp text for reasons of cost was printed on a cheaper uncoated offset (which is called Evolve, I think) is printed in CMYK.

The job was printed by Beacon Press (now Pureprint).

Design is by Wood McGrath and even though it was three years ago, I've still got the lovely note they sent me with the file copies (which also happens to be printed on Colorset Solar 270gsm!) Thank you Martin and Suzy:

www.britishcouncil.org

www.woodmcgrath.com

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.11.2011

Celia Sings

2011-10-31T07:56:00.001Z

Some of you may remember the post that I wrote last December about the sad passing away of Celia Stothard. http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/12/celia-stothard-1949-2010.html. Well, I can now happily report that a fantastic book celebrating her life has now been published, a book of which I am sure she would have been proud.

Celia was Alan Kitching's partner both in life and work. They happily collaborated on so many projects and this book is Alan's testament to Celia's creative life from working at the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1970's up to recent projects, at the same time as covering her life as a singer and performer.

It's a beautifully produced book. Look at the pictures and then I'll describe it!

End papers (Colorset 120gsm) with a pocket including a CD:

Unfolded wrap, that forms a dustjacket around the book, printed letterpress by Alan Kitching:

OK, now for the details....

The book is 280x205mm, portrait. It is section sewn, with blue cloth tape around the spine and has 3000 micron greyboard mounted to form the front and back "hard" covers. The outer front cover is hot foil blocked in two colours (red and blue) and there is a "plate sunk" panel with a picture of Celia mounted in the panel. The endpapers are blue in the front and red in in the back, both produced using Colorset 120gsm. There is 80pp of text which is all printed on our StarFine White 150gsm (an uncoated text and cover paper) which looks amazingly printed aaaaaand, (here's the slightly incredible bit) it's is all printed digitally on an Indigo press, printed by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

The book is art directed by Simon Esterson. Designer on the project (and researcher and archivist) is Jon Kielty with Alan Kitching overseeing and orchestrating the whole project.

Richard Owers at Pureprint handled the print. Aaron Archer, Technical Director at Pureprint dealt particularly with the Indigo printing aspects of the production.

Alan Kitching presented last week at the AGI Congress 2011 in Barcelona, his work and the work that they had made together, as well as this lovely book:
http://www.a-g-i.org/5184/current-articles/barcelona-2011-agiopen-and-the-agi-congress.html

The book can be bought in all good bookshops (such as Magma) and on line, with all profits from the publication going to the Stothard/Kitching Trust. (PS only a limited edition have the signed poster/dustjackets)

www.thetypographyworkshop.com

www.pureprint.com

www.estersonassociates.co.uk

www.jmgstudio.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.10.2011

Other blogs...

2011-10-27T10:34:00.014+01:00

It's always nice when you see projects that you've been involved with on someone else's blog - and here's one of those instances!

Paddock Wood based printer, Principal Colour have recently started their blog (they also twitter and facebook which is way more advanced than me!)

Illustration by Kellie Black

(Above is the lovely illustration by Kellie Black (http://www.misspearlgrey.com/) of Martin and Alan, the two founders of Principal Colour. The illustration was commissioned to celebrate the launch of the last book for amelia's magazine)
Anyway, one of their very first posts is about paper and the coated/uncoated debate. It shows Amelia's Magazine (with a scratch and sniff cover! - on our Omnia) ....I shan't say anymore, otherwise you won't want to read their post:

http://principalcolour.tumblr.com/post/11948257268/coated-or-uncoated-paper

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.10.2011

Simply beautiful

2011-10-26T08:59:00.001+01:00

What does a business card do?

It is hard to argue that a good business card will guarantee lots of business and have potential clients queueing at the door! ...however, I remain convinced that a poor business card leaves little or no impression and worst of all may leave a bad impression.

This is a simple job about which I can't write very much because it is a business card, simply and beautifully produced.

The material is our Flora Tabacco in 350gsm (manufactured by Cordenons in Italy) which is a substantial board with a high bulk, an industrial look & feel and with deliberate "inclusions" or specks. This rough and ready looking material has been juxtaposed with some exceptionally fine hot foil blocking in a matt white foil - and it really is superbly done as you can see. The small lettering in a serif typeface has been well maintained and is a testament to the foilers ability to get the heat, pressure and dwell time on the foiling machine just right.

Design is by Emily Chicken. Foiling is by Birmingham based Tuckey Print.

www.guttfieldarchitecture.co.uk
http://www.emilychicken.co.uk/
http://www.tuckeyprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.10.2011

Studio Cookbook

2011-10-24T09:01:00.001+01:00

Studio cookbook is a collection of recipes aimed to inspire social lunches at the workplace. The first edition is a collection from åbäke, Alex Bettler, Front yard company, Goodwin Hartshorn, Jerome Rigaud, Martino Gamper, Mind Design, Sara De Bondt studio and many more.

The book is 170x240mm, portrait with a 4pp cover and 32pp text. The cover and endpapers are cut 25mm short at the head. It uses "3 hole sewn" binding which is lovely. It is printed on our range called Coriandoli which is our range which has multi-coloured "inclusions" (...in other words, bits!). The cover is on the lovely, bright, Coriandoli Solare, 250gsm and the text on Coriandoli Avorio, 130gsm.

The book has been printed and published by Hato Press, a specialist Riso printing and publishing house (if you want to know about Riso printing, have a look at: http://hatopress.net/1/category/printing/ ). It is designed by Ken Kirton Studio.

The book launch, or rather lunch, was held in July and gathered previous studios with new participants, to realise the form of the cookbook live at The Bökship!

...here are the pics of the event

Contributing chefs include:
Patrick Lacey (åbäke) in collaboration with Erika Wall
Jerome Rigaud (electronest)
Sarah Gottlieb (Household) and Dario Utreras
Holger Jacobs (Mind Design)
Sophie Demay (Department 21)
Holly Willats (Art Licks)
Patrick Coyle
PraxisPlay
Johanna and Elin (Studio Åh)
Matthieu Becker (Studio K)

www.hatopress.net/1/shop/studio-cookbook/
http://bokship.org/index.html
http://kenkirton.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2012

ISTD Awards 2011

2011-10-20T09:14:00.006+01:00

I was lucky enough to go to the ISTD awards on Friday evening and it was an excellent event. It was held at the The Museum of Brands and Packaging in London's Notting Hill. Now, I've never come accross this museum but as guests we were allowed to have a look around and I would suggest you have a look, especially if you are doing a packaging/branding project (http://www.museumofbrands.com/). As with all ISTD events, there is a real warmth, maybe because there is always an international element? or because people interested in type are friendly? ...I don't know.

Steve Fenn, Tom Heaton, Toby Burkill, Tom Pollard, Zoë Bather

There was no 2011 Overall Winner but there were 50 Awards representing design from 19 countries and 12 nationalities – 36 Certificates of Excellence, 14 Premier Awards, awarded for outstanding typographic achievement.

All the award winners deserve congratulations, but in particular, there are some people who I must mention:

Cartlidge Levene for the V&A Ceramic Galleries (... not on paper, but still great work!) http://www.cartlidgelevene.co.uk/

Raw for their lovely 11 out of 10 poster (printed by Adams of Rye), Studio 8 for Elephant magazine and the Central School of Speech & Drama identity and Paulus M Dreibholz for numerous awards!
http://www.rawdesignstudio.co.uk/
http://www.studio8design.co.uk/
http://dreibholz.com/

A piece that particularly intrigued me was a book called Another Reason designed bu Al Mohtaraf, a studio based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:

http://www.mohtaraf.com/

http://mohtarafbooks.com/m/al-mohtaraf-publishing,1.html

It was an excellent evening which showed a fantastic array of international typographic excellence. It is SO important for the design industry that we retain organisations such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability. Congratulations to the awards team: Belinda Magee, Clare Playne and Gilmar Wendt - a huge amount of time and work goes into these events and it is fair that they should be recognised and applauded.

The awards catalogue perfectly illustrates the awards, the diversity of media and approach and an inspiring overview of international typographic design. It is 130x185mm, portrait, perfect bound. Printed on our Neptune Unique 300 and 170gsm.

The book is designed by Playne Design. Print is by Gavin Martin. It's well worth getting - you can buy the awards book through the ISTD website (£15, I think)

...and if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - it costs less than £10 per month - still excellent value!

www.istd.org.uk
http://www.museumofbrands.com/
www.playnedesign.co.uk
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.10.2011

Vincit Qui Se Vincit

2011-10-19T09:21:00.013+01:00

This is a beautiful prospectus for what looks like a very lovely private girls school in the Malvern Hills in the Midlands.

The publication is 210x280mm, portrait with a 4pp cover and 32pp text and is PUR bound. It is printed CMYK throughout plus two special colours (dark blue and gold) on our Omnia 280 & 150gsm. The cover has a silk finish lamination on the outside to prevent marking when handling. Interesting, because most people using Omnia would prefer the uncoated nature of the board but this is a sensible route given the fact that a dark blue is likely to mark against other lighter colours (however dry the ink is) and the lamination has worked exceptionally well on the Omnia.

There are also 4 x A5 size "tip-in's" on a 200gsm gloss coated which provides a contrast with the Omnia (see pic below).

...and as you can see from the picture below, the metallic ink on the Omnia, really looks metallic. On most true uncoated papers, metallics can simply look dead and like a flat colour. Metallics on Omnia, still look lively and have that pearly irridescent look.

The propectus was designed Mosaique Design Consultants based in Tewkesbury. Art direction and design is by Phil Ellis and the account director on the project was Geoff Smith. It's a very engaging piece of literature.

Printing is by Ortek printers in Walsall and they have made a superb job of it - colour reproduction is excellent - solid flat areas of colour work amazingly well as do the metallics. The job was handled by Graham Crisp and it was kind of him to send me file copies.

...and just to show my Latin O level wasn't wasted: Vincit Qui Se Vincit is the school motto and translates as "She conquers who conquers herself" (I use the female, as it is a girls' school - it also reads "he conquers who conquers himself").

http://www.malvernstjames.co.uk/

http://www.mosaique.co.uk/

www.ortek.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.10.2011

Sky Magazine Axed

2011-10-18T09:33:00.004+01:00

Last week, BSkyB announced that they have axed the print edition of Sky Magazine. Now you might not particularly see why this is important or relevant to me or this blog - as we don't supply the paper for the magazine anyway!

However, when I tell you that this is the UK's largest magazine by circulation with an average readership of almost 7.3million, you can see why it's significant.

Richard Gray, managing director of Prinovis, which printed all of the Sky titles, referred to the decision in a recent interview with PrintWeek and highlighted its significance for the print industry:
"We do have to be concerned when companies such as BskyB, who understand the benefits that print can offer, make decisions about their marketing budgets that drastically reduce the use of the printed medium. BskyB’s decision should be worrying for the printing industry, not just Prinovis."

...how true
For the full article in Printweek:
http://www.printweek.com/bulletin/printweekdailybulletin/article/1098565/sky-magazine-axed-favour-online-mobile-comms/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.10.2011

Biba

2011-10-14T09:42:00.002+01:00

Most people will be familiar with the name Biba. Starting as a mail order company in the early sixties and becoming a global fashion phenomenon by the early seventies, Biba became one of the great symbols of swinging London. Biba closed its doors in 1975 but was relaunched in September 2010 (exclusively at House of Fraser).

A lookbook for the re-launch was designed and produced by London based creative agency, Exposure.

The size of the book is 235x170mm, portrait, perfect bound. The 4pp cover is on Notturno 300gsm (a black board) and is hot foil blocked in gold on the outside cover. The 52pp test is printed on our Omnia 200gsm which, although quite heavy for text, really works because of the gilt (gold) edge which runs around the page edges (if you click on the image, you should be able to see the edge).

...and as you can see from the spreads below, the Omnia has worked amazingly well with the solid black and images:

Art Director on the project was Simon Boniface. The photography is by Leandro Farina.

Print and print production including the superb foiling and gilt edging was by Chapter Press.
It is quite simply, one of those jobs that you look at and go WOW!
http://www.mybiba.com/
www.exposure.net
http://www.leandrofarinastudio.blogspot.com/
www.chapterpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.10.2011

Fabergé Promotional cards

2011-10-12T08:55:00.008+01:00

This is a pair of promotional cards to accompany the Fabergé Horlogerie book (see post 30.09.2011). Produced in two sizes 190mm square and 142x175mm, printed on our Colorset Ash 270gsm. The images are just printed in one colour (black) offset litho, with a hot foil blocked Fabergé logo, in gunmetal on the outside. Simple and lovely.

Design is anonymous. Print is by Push.

...and thanks to Justin at Push for the file copies and his note, complete with an artful rendition of the Fenner Paper Logo:

http://www.faberge.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.10.2011

Rapha

2011-10-10T10:56:00.003+01:00

Here is yet another superb piece of literature produced by Rapha, the specialist cyclewear brand (see previous posts).

The amazing photography is again by Ben Ingham, the style of which is now defining the Rapha printed literature (and online). Below shows front and back covers:

This publication was produced for the German market and was used as a "loose insert" in a magazine which is the reason for it being slightly more conventional than the previous pieces. It is A5 (210x148mm) portrait, saddle stitched and is a 16pp self cover format printed on our Marazion Ultra 170gsm.

Art direction and design is by Ultan Coyle working for Rapha. Repro, print and finishing is by Orchid Print.

http://www.rapha.cc/
http://www.beningham.net/
http://www.orchidprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.10.2011

Work Experience 2011

2011-10-07T16:13:00.013+01:00

This week, we had the pleasure of having a pupil from one of our local schools (St Gregory's in Tunbridge Wells) for a few days of work experience.

Harry, pictured above, was able to see the workings of a paper merchant in action, spending some time in our warehouse (wrapping paper!) and in the sample room. I also took him out to visit a printer, Fulmar Colour in Croydon. It was a particularly worthwhile visit as the Croydon site, not only boasts printing, but foiling, die-making, lamination and finishing. It was very kind of Martin Stacey (above) at Fulmar to have taken the time to show us around.

After the tour of Fulmar, we visited GBH's lovely offices in Chiswick, so he could see what a graphic design company does and thank you very much to Bethan for the time that she spent with us.

...and then back to our warehouse, where he helped wrap mountains of paper having been instructed by two former St Greg's pupils (or Old Gregorians as they are known) Chris Vallis and Neil Fenner!

http://www.sgschool.org.uk/

http://www.fulmarcolour.com/

http://www.gregorybonnerhale.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.10.2011

Brunswick Review - Issue Four

2011-10-06T09:53:00.005+01:00

This is the latest edition of The Brunswick Review, a piece of literature produced by the global Corporate Relations and Communications company Brunswick. This publication is produced for circulation to clients of the fifteen Brunswick offices throughout the world. Guest contributors include senior people at Diageo, Goldman Sachs and Reuters combined with Kevin Spacey and Mark Twain (well actually, that particular article is a reproduction!)

The original concept and design style for the Brunswick Review was by Kirsten Johnston at Johnston Works (see previous post http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/brunswick-review.html) but it is now designed in house by MerchantCantos, a Brunswick Group company.

The size of the publication is 280x216mm. It is has a 4pp cover and 86pp text. It is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 240gsm and 100gsm. Print is by Fulmar Colour.

At a time when many companies are cutting down on print as a means of customer communication, it's impressive and refreshing to see one of the world's largest corporate relations companies printing this excellent publication - it might be worth reminding some clients that PRINT ...WORKS (if it's well designed and produced on the right papers, of course!)

Thanks to Russell Thompson for sending me file copies and a lovely note:

http://www.brunswickgroup.com/

http://www.fulmarcolour.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.10.2011

An ISTD trio

2011-10-04T10:13:00.006+01:00

Here's a trio from the ISTD: A new issue of Condensed, the ISTD awards and the new ISTD Australasia page....

1. ISTD Condensed 05

This is the society's news publication, which is a simply (but beautifully) produced piece which is sent to all members.

Printed in 1 colour, offset litho on StarFine White, 100gsm. Design is by Peter Dawson at Grade (www.gradedesign.com) and David Quay. Typeface used is Foundry Sans. Printed by Gavin Martin.

2. ISTD International Typographic Awards 2011

The awards ceremony is being held at the Museum of Brands and Packaging on Friday 14 October, where the winners will be announced and the awards presented.

The Museum of Brands and Packaging is in Notting Hill (W11) and the collection is being kept open for the duration of the awards - which is an added bonus!

If you would like to go, you can - you don't have to be a member.
Ticket price £35 non-members, £25 ISTD members.

Drinks and canapés will be served.
http://payments.istd.org.uk/awards-ceremony-2011

3. ISTD Australasia launches facebook page
In keeping with the society's international outlook and the increasing member activity in the region, they have launched a facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ISTD-Australasia/206895479331171
...and that's it! I don't think I've ever written about three things on one post before.
http://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.10.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 24

2011-10-03T11:22:00.010+01:00

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

Type Museum for Typecon New York - 2005

The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) holds regular conferences and in 2005 it was held in New York. The TypeMuseum, based in London produced this lovely piece of literature as a "leave behind" to promote the Museum and to make people aware of it's existence.

The piece is an A2 flat size (420x597mm) which folds down to A5 (210x148mm) finished size. The type has been printed in reverse our Offenbach Bible 40gsm, so you read it (the correct way round) - through the paper.

Folded to A5:

The piece is hot foil blocked in a copper foil which is stamped as a positive (the correct way round!) on the front cover:

...a New York skyline in type:

and this is reading it the correct way round (photographed against the light):

Design is by Tom Green and Kieran O'Connor. They both became involved with the project because they had been at the Museum lending a hand in practical ways, such as painting walls. This piece was very much a labour of love to help the preserve the Museum. As Tom said to me recently about this project, because of the budget, it had to be dead simple and cheap and because of the event, it "had to be covetable for type geeks" ...and it certainly is.

The job was printed by Reg Davis at Pica Press based in Tonbridge in Kent but he has since retired and the company no longer exists.

Tom Green is now a senior designer at Burgess Studio and Kieran O'Connor combines lecturing at Kingston University with his role at BOB Design.

Rather sadly the Type Museum appears to be effectively closed for business at present, although the website is still up: www.typemuseum.org
http://www.typecon.com/
www.bobdesign.co.uk
www.burgess-studio.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.10.2011

Fabergé Horlogerie

2011-09-30T10:14:00.007+01:00

This is a most beautifully produced book for the imperial Russian jewellers Fabergé. The company is well known for the famous eggs but over the centuries has also been a watchmaker of note and this book is produced to show the heritage and the current range of timepieces.

Size of the book is 215x215mm square and is casebound. The 56pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm which was chosen because of tactile uncoated feel which still prints so that metallics look metallic! It really is beautiully printed and bound. The endpapers are also on our Colorset, Ash 120gsm. The text is printed offset litho in CMYK plus a grey special.

The case is covered in a light grey bookcloth Brillianta 4003 from Winters with a hot foil blocked Fabergé logo, in gunmetal, silver.

Art Direction and design is anonymous. Print is by Push.

http://www.faberge.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.09.2011

Anthony Burrill Poster

2011-09-29T10:57:00.002+01:00

I've written before about the "DO" lectures - an organisation started by David Hieatt, one of the founders of Howies - see previous post: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2009/07/do-lectures.html
Below is a lovely promo poster designed by Anthony Burrill which is being sold to raise funds for the organisation, which held it's first US gathering, this year.

The poster has been printed using woodblock type in a limited edition of 150 copies. Size is 510x760mm - that's 20 x 30 inches or Double Crown in "old money"! Printed letterpress in two colours on our Colorset Solar 120gsm (100% recycled).

The posters are printed by Adams of Rye, which is one of the few places that prints letterpress using woodblock and cast metal type. The company has been used by Anthony Burrill and other artists extensively, they've even recently printed for Turner Prize winning Artist Fiona Banner

Adams of Rye is run by Ian and Derek and as they have no website, here are their details:

Adams of Rye Ltd.
8 High Street
Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7JH

Tel 01797 223136 Fax 01797 223380

...but I did find this on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/-phraser-/5025567731/

You can order a poster from the site below:
http://www.dolectures.com/

http://shop.thedolectures.co.uk/product/say-yes-more-than-no

http://www.anthonyburrill.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.09.2011

Treasures of Heaven

2011-09-27T08:53:00.003+01:00

This is the invitation literature for a current exhibition at the British Museum, called Treasures of Heaven. For the first time some of the

finest sacred treasures of the medieval age have been brought together and this exhibition features objects from more than 40 institutions around the world, including the Vatican.

The invitations are A5 in size. There were two criteria for this project: Firstly, the board had to print a really good black and secondly a nice heavy board was required. Our Matrisse in 450gsm (620microns thick) was used and the result is superb. Printed CMYK plus a dense black and a double hit of Gloss UV (silkscreened) varnish.

Design is by Constanza Gaggero. Print is by Fulmar Colour.

....and thank you to Paul at Fulmar Colour for sending me some samples and a note.

...you'll have to hurry as the exhibition ends on 9th October.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

www.fulmarcolour.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2011

Graphic Design Walk

2011-09-26T09:04:00.002+01:00

On Friday, the very first "graphic design walk", hosted by GraphicBirdWatching took place. The walk round East London involved 15 studios of acclaimed female designers working in the fields of typography, print-making, illustration, photography and film-making. By opening their doors, the studios allowed a unique insight into their working environments and practices.

...and over 300 maps (tickets) were sold, so the event was an amazing success. Good weather, meant that people could actually walk as well as cycle to make their way around the studios. It was a lovely day which ended up with a celebration at the base camp venue which had many installations and exhibits. I enjoyed being there and it was great to be involved.

This was a particularly amazing piece on display - made out of paper, by visual designer Alida Rosie Sayer:

It was a great day and congratulations to all those involved, especially Catherine Nippe, Lisa Sjukur and Joana Niemeyer.

http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk
www.alidarosie.co.uk

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.09.2011

Ultrabold No.10

2011-09-22T08:56:00.000+01:00

I have just received my copy of the Summer edition of Ultrabold magazine, which is the Journal of the St Bride Library - if you don't know about St. Brides - see http://www.stbride.org/

Fenner Paper is pleased to support this publication, by supplying discounted material - hopefully doing our bit to preserve the history of our industry for future generations. This edition has some really interesting articles, worth a mention.

In this issue, there is a very interesting article by David Preston, titled "Corporate Trailblazers" charting the path of a number of post war designers (as opposed to ad agencies). Designers such as FHK Henrion, Design Research Unit and Hans Schleger all come under the spotlight (spread below)

Given the "Riotous" summer that we had in the UK, there is a fascinating article about the posters and artworks that appeared during the student protests in Paris in 1968:

...and a fab article about the Stempel Schriftenservice letterpress museum and workshop in Darmstadt.

The publication is designed by Simon Loxley and is published by the Friends of St Brides.Printing is sponsored by Principal Colour. The journal is a 40pp self cover, 190x265mm Portrait, saddle stitched and is printed on Brand X FSC 135gsm.

As I've mentioned before, it's worth mentioning that this publication is free to friends of St Bride - so why not look into joining - might be cheaper than just buying the books!

http://www.stbride.org/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.09.2011

The Way We Live Now - Terence Conran Part2

2011-09-21T18:44:00.165+01:00

Photographer Neil Wilder
[John Parkinson Agency]

Yesterday evening I was pleased to have been invited to a talk/presentation /celebration for Sir Terence Conran. See previous post:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/way-we-live-now-terence-conran.html

Deyan Sudjic, Fiona MacCarthy, Christopher Frayling and Stephen Bayley gave talks about Conran's life, inspiration and achievements. It was interesting, historical and inspirational - when you review someone's achievements in this way, it can leave one feeling a little lacking!

He has influenced virtually every area of design – furniture, textiles, retailing home furnishings, interiors, commercial environments, airport interiors, designing and running restaurants cafés, bars and hotels.

Conran says he has a fundamental aim – to produce useful things at a price that most people can afford. This maybe so, but what I found most interesting was Stephen Bayley's comment that whether it concerned food or design (and he explained the interconnection) that Conran cared for these three principles:

Materials
Execution
Details

...maybe this is genuinely the route to intelligent design (and no, I don't think that sounds too pompous). It was fascinating too, that his interest in natural products mainly manifested itself in the use of wood - so I'm sure he has an appreciation of quality paper!

I also found interesting parallels with the piece I wrote recently about Robert Welch:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/robert-welch.html

...and it was interesting that the piece I wrote about the late Rowley Atterbury, listed three past recipients of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Bicentenary Medal: Terence Conran, Deyan Sudjic and Christopher Frayling, all people involved in this very evening...

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/rowley-atterbury-printer.html
sadly not a medal that I'll be receiving, but an interesting link between the past and the present.

I think talks/lectures/presentations like this are essential to go to. To hear dynamic people, to be inspired by recent history can surely only serve to enhance our daily working lives. I hope that the Design Museum and the Tate will do more of these events.

Thanks to Rose Dahlsen at The Tate for inviting me to come along.

http://www.designmuseum.org/

http://www.tate.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2011

Thick cards for a bright printer!

2011-09-21T09:55:00.001+01:00

Opal Print have just produced their new business cards and chosen Colorset (over the more obvious competitor product!). The production included triplexing 3 lots of 270gsm Colorset Lime Green, Dark Grey and White, making 810gsm (plus glue!). The cards are printed two colour offset litho, and hot foiled on the reverse in a clear foil and a metallic silver. It's great to see a printer using methods at their disposal for their own uses and this is certainly a business card which is a brilliant first impression.

Chris Pollard has recently joined Bath based Opal Print and has started an excellent blog, have a look:
http://creativeprinting.wordpress.com/

...and a little reminder that Colorset is made from 100% Recycled post industrial waste fibres.

http://www.opalprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2011

What are you doing this Friday? ...go for a walk!

2011-09-20T09:35:00.016+01:00

During the London Design Festival, GraphicBirdWatching is hosting an exclusive graphic design walk through East London’s graphic design studios, celebrating the work and practices of London’s female designers and I'm pleased, in our small way, to be one of the sponors.

This Friday, 23rd September, 15 studios of acclaimed designers working in the fields of typography, print-making, illustration, photography and film-making are opening their doors, allowing a unique insight into their working environments and practices. The ‘base camp’ will host special installations, exhibitions and workshops and will also be the starting and finishing point for the walk.

Visitors can buy tickets in form of a map for £5 at the ‘base camp’ on the day of the event. This detailed map allows visitors access to all the open studios as well as visiting the stalls at the ‘base camp’. In the evening all contributors and visitors are invited to celebrate with music and drinks at the base camp venue, giving everyone a chance to meet and share their experience of the day.

Base camp's location and address:
[SPACE] Gallery
19 Warburton Road
London E8 3RT

More details are available on:
http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.09.2011

Critical Tensions

2011-09-19T11:33:00.002+01:00

You may remember my post back in August (12.08.2011) about the forthcoming St Bride's Conference but now there's a shiny new poster and more speakers have been added including:
Tom Farrand, Tom Rowley and Dan Burgess from Good For Nothing, Amelia Gregory, Matt Jones & Matthew Webb and Jack Schulze from BERG.

...this is on top of the original line-up of speakers including Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook, Zoë Bather, Alan Kitching, Gerry Leonidas, Vaughan Oliver, Paul Rennie, Lucienne Roberts, Jack Schulze, Steve Watson, Rebecca Wright and Derek Yates.

Becky Chilcott and John Walters are co-curating the conference, which is being held on the 10th and 11th November 2011 at the St Brides Institute in London.

The conference is reasonably priced, and if you are an Eye subcriber, you get a discount too. Sign up now! http://stbride.org/events?show=criticaltensions

PS - You may also notice from the logo on the above poster that it's being sponsored by the other well known, Hull based, paper merchant ...who am I to deny them the oxygen of my publicity!
www.stbride.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.09.2011

Addendum - 15.11.2011: The above poster was designed by Roger Swindale and Katy Mawhood, students at the University of Reading using Infidel by Jonathan Barnbrook / www.virusfonts.com

Apologies for missing this off the original post

The Way We Live Now - Terence Conran

2011-09-16T12:43:00.008+01:00

Terence Conran/1950's

Photo: Ray Williams

Terence Conran’s vision, energy and achievements have shaped the look of our world and influenced how we lead our lives. His drive to make good design part of our everyday life has arguably had more impact on popular culture than that of any other designer of his generation. As his 80th birthday approaches, the Design Museum in association with Tate Modern is hosting a talk to celebrate his achievements.

Chaired by Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic, this evening of presentations and discussion draws together leading figures from the various worlds that Terence Conran’s parallel careers have influenced and informed. Fiona MacCarthy, Christopher Frayling and Stephen Bayley will each discuss an aspect of Conran’s way of seeing the world.

It's also worth mentioning that there is a Terence Conran exhibition at the Design Museum opening in November.

This event is on Tuesday 20 September, 6.30 - 8pm at TATE MODERN, Starr Auditorium, so hurry up!
See you there...
For more details, follow the links:
The Way We Live Now: An evening celebrating Terence Conran is on Tuesday 20 September 2011, 18.30–20.00
The Way We Live Now at the Design Museum is open 16 Nov 2011 – 4 March 2012

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2011

Soundwave Festival Programme 2011

2011-09-15T09:55:00.007+01:00

I'm sure that many of those reading this will be familiar with the Soundwave Festival held in Croatia (I wasn't, I guess I'm just not groovy enough!) Now in it's third year, the festival is bigger and better than ever. The line up included Bonobo, Roots Manuva, Little Dragon, Zero 7 with DJ's Mr Thing and Jenna G. Another feature of this festival is the hosted boat parties - a truly unique facet of this event.

...and this post is about the programme ( -on our paper of course!). It's a very comprehensive piece of literature which has been designed to convey the look and feel of the festival.

Above is cover showing Gloss UV varnish which is a subtle but effective use of the Soundwave mark and which works really well on Omnia.

The programme is an A5 portrait format, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and a 64pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.
The programme is produced by Beatnik. Editors are Sven Carlsson and Ali Raymond. Creative Directors are Rachel Crowther and Ali Raymond. Design and production is by Ali Raymond.

Print was Handled by Rob Squires at Pureprint. As you can see from the final spread, they have worked hard (and succeeded) on the readover which is printed on two very different materials.

...and with the wonder of modern technology, you can see the programme page by page:
http://vimeo.com/30493809
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StkKN9T25JY

www.beatnikonline.net
www.soundwavecroatia.com
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.09.2011

London Design Festival 2011

2011-09-14T13:52:00.001+01:00

Just a reminder that next week is the London Design Festival: 17th -25th September 2011.

We are supporting one of the events organised by Graphic Birdwatching: http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk

Have a look at all the forthcoming events:
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.09.2011

CN Originals

2011-09-13T09:40:00.027+01:00

This is an interesting job which is effectively a look book for Cartoon Network’s Originals, which highlights how brands can licence and apply the crazy original characters to create retro merchandise with attitude. So the items displayed are not available, it's setting the look and feel of possibilities.

The book is 280x195mm, portrait. Binding is "singer sewn" with yellow thread. 4pp cover on our Neptune Unique FSC 250gsm and 28pp text on Neptune Unique FSC 120gsm

The designs incorporate Cartoon Network characters - Samurai Jack, Johnny Bravo and friends and the characters are used on everything from clothing to mugs, pictures, cereal bowls etc.

The book is encased in a bespoke yellow envelope with a lovely "disc and string" closure - lovely! - see pic below. The piece was commissioned to be used at the International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.
For those that aren't familiar with the term "disc and string" - click to enlarge picture below. Basically, it's a fairly self explanitory term. A pair of small discs of board - in this case the same material that the envelope is made from (so it's colour coordinated) is cut out and riveted onto the envelope. A piece of thin string (in this case black) is then riveted/glued under one of the discs. The string is then wound in a figure of eight pattern around the discs. It's a lovely idea and solves the problem of permanently sealing with glue, an envelope which may need to be re-opened several times.

Design and Art Direction is by CRUSH based in Brighton. Print production is by Print-Source, who it's worth pointing out, made a superb job of the "disc and string" envelopes

http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/

www.crushed.co.uk

www.print-sourceuk.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2011

Flockage with real Swarovski Crystals

2011-09-08T12:09:00.003+01:00

Here's a fantastic luxury greetings card range called TU&Co produced using our Flockage Colours. The cards are beautifully foiled and have Swarovski crystals stuck onto the cards by hand.

Not only is this a truly lovely range but the designer responsible, Phan Tu has been nominated (and is a finalist) for "The most promising Young Designer or Artist at the Henries Awards (The Henries are the Awards for the greeting card industry)

www.thehenriesawards.co.uk

The cards are produced by Abstract Greetings and are made in the UK. They are hot foil blocked on our Flockage Colours -Anthracite, Black and Bright Red in 400gsm and Flockage Litho White 300gsm. They are really lovely and good luck to Phan at the awards on 11th October.

http://www.abstractgreetings.com/AGL1/HOME.html

http://www.thehenriesawards.co.uk/categories.html#YoungDesigner

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.09.2011

A sad end for FS Moore

2011-09-07T18:39:00.044+01:00

This is the report that appeared in Printweek, yesterday, about the demise of London printer FS Moore, which I reproduce below...

FS Moore owed almost £2m when administrators appointed
By Adam Hooker Tuesday, 06 September 2011

East London printer FS Moore went into administration owing almost £2m to creditors, according to the administrator's report.

The Bank of Ireland was the largest creditor, owed £517,000, but a number of paper companies, print finishers and trade printers were also included.

One paper company was hit for £137,000, while another two were each owed just under £50,000. One finisher included in the creditors' list was hit for as much as £70,000, although most were owed £10,000 to £20,000.

The company also left £250,000 owed to HMRC, around £50,000 of which was for VAT. Redundancy claims accounted for £182,000. Insolvency practitioner BDO was appointed as administrator on 28 July, before selling the business and assets to DG3 Europe in a pre-pack deal the same day.

The report reveals that the business was bought for £140,000, comprising £135,000 for plant and machinery and £5,000 for stock. DG3 also agreed to pay 1% of annual turnover from FS Moore up to £1m and 2% over £1m annually for a period that has yet to be agreed.

According to the report, FS Moore saw turnover drop by around £800,000 in the two years leading up to its administration, from £4.2m in 2008 to £3.4m in 2010.

Initially the directors planned to sell the company in November 2010, however the deal fell through when HMRC refused to defer the repayment of its debt.

It's a real shame when companies which have a good reputation, such as Moores (who's work has appeared before on this blog) hit the buffers. However, it is indicative of the current state of the print and paper market.

You can read the article in full on the following link:
http://www.printweek.com/news/1089465/FS-Moore-owed-almost-2m-when-administrators-appointed/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.09.2011

Robert Welch Catalogues

2011-09-06T12:03:00.003+01:00

Here's a lovely suite of literature produced for tableware designers and producers Robert Welch Designs.

For those that are unfamiliar with Robert Welch, here's a quick CV. He trained as a silversmith at the Royal College of Art and in 1955 set up his studio in Chipping Campden. The company blossomed and has become a household name for quality cutlery and tableware, all produced with strong design principles. Robert was made and MBE and a Royal Designer for Industry. He passed away in 2000 but since 1993, the company has been run and managed by Robert's son Rupert and daughter Alice.

John Dowling has been designing their catalogues and promotional material for the past seven years which has given the brand a consistency and uniformity across it's promotional activity which many companies struggle to achieve.

Robert Welch normally produce one catalogue but this time they produced three, to emphasise the different areas in which RW products fall – Kitchen, Dining and Living and the production of an all encompassing folder.

The folder is produced using our Plexus 350gsm which is a 100% recycled board in a mid brown shade (reflecting the traditional cotswold colour) – and contrasts with the coated material of the catalogues and high gloss UV varnish of the three front covers. The "generic" folder picks up on the history of Robert Welch and illustrates the working of the studio and showcases the newly refurbished shop in Chipping Campden, designed by architect Lorenzo Apicella at Pentagram.

The three brochures are a variety of paginations in a concertina format, folded 297x155mm, printed on our Millennium Real Silk 200gsm. The cover page on each is varnished with a gloss UV varnish.

Design is by Dowling Duncan. Art direction and design was by John Dowling working closely in association with Alice and Rupert Welch - and as you can see, it is based around the beautifully commissioned and art directed photography combined with the simplicity of the folder. Print is by Gavin Martin.

http://www.robertwelch.com/

http://dowlingduncan.com/

www.gavinmartin.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.09.2011

UCADF

2011-09-05T12:08:00.002+01:00

UK China Art and Design Festival is an annual art and design festival which aims to create an international pageant of art and design through celebrating creativity under two different cultural contexts from the UK and China. It is an official partner of the London Design Festival.

The festival is organized by the UK China Art and Design Association (UCADA), with the official support from the Embassy of People’s Republic of China in the UK and the British Council.

It is structured around four principal events:

Main Exhibition: Cheers2011 – The Catalyst – Collective Exhibition of Chinese Artists and Designers in the UK.

Forums Series: Seminars and conferences for Chinese artists and designers.

Talents of the Year: Annual Awards for Chinese artists and designers

Exhibition tours around China: ...sounds good to me!

Starting in London this Thursday, the festival will celebrate Chinese artists and designers in the UK as an official partner of the London Design Festival. Following this the best examples will be invited to participate in the Beijing International Design Week as part of its London Guest City programme.

Admission to the exhibition is free, places for the talk are limited so please email office@greatwesternstudios to book or call 020 7221 0100

...nothing to do with our paper but I thought it was interesting!

http://www.ucadf.com
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/uk-china-art-and-design-festival
http://www.greatwesternstudios.com/events/391-05-08-11-cheers

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.09.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 23

2011-09-02T13:29:00.001+01:00

Regular followers of this blog will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" so that I can show some of the really good work from years gone by...

The Small Creature - British Heart Foundation (2008)

Hat-Trick Design created a sensitive and honest identity programme aimed at children who have suffered a bereavement due to heart disease - surely one of the most difficult subjects to address. Hat-Trick and the BHF worked closely with Katrice Horsley, a professional storyteller who developed a children's story with multi sensory dimensions, to reflect what happens when a child loses someone close to them.

The story features a character called 'The Small Creature', who encounters a number of friends who go through a range of emotions including sadness, anger, loneliness and bewilderment. The character is produced as a felt toy in a range of colours to represent these emotions.

The finished piece (which includes the toy and the printed literature) is packed in a cloth bag containing a kit of parts which were the inspiration for the design - the toy, the story, a CD version and exercises to help overcome grief.

The picture below shows the items of literature plus the felt toy:

The picture below shows the cloth bag, the felt toy and the story book. The cover of the story book is printed on our Flockage Litho 250gsm (our litho printable furry paper!) which as you might imagine, perfectly complements the toy and the illustration.

...and to complete the branding, the small creature even made an appearance on the mailing carton.

The superb illustrations are by Becky Sutherland - and to be honest the pics and description on her site are a lot better than I've achieved! so have a look at this link:
http://rebeccasutherland.co.uk/#575956/The-Small-Creature

The project won a DesignWeek Benchmark Award in 2009 - and deservedly so.
http://awards.designweek.co.uk/benchmarks/2009/category/best-of-show/the-small-creature/the-small-creature.php

The campaign was designed by Hat-Trick. Creative director on the project was Jim Sutherland, Senior Designer was Mark Wheatcroft. The design manager at BHF who worked on this campaign is Louise Kyme. When I spoke to Mark Wheatcroft about this project, he remarked that this particular job could genuinely be described as a real team effort - everyone all pulled together in the most extraordinary way - a reflection on the gravity of the subject, I shouldn't wonder.

www.bhf.org.uk
www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk

http://www.wheatcroftand.co.uk

http://rebeccasutherland.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.09.2011

Project D A/W 2011

2011-08-31T10:27:00.006+01:00

Project D is the exciting new clothing label designed by founders Danni Minogue and her friend Tabitha Somerset-Webb whom is already an established designer. The first collection launched last year to great acclaim and the range contains pretty day dresses, cocktail chic and glamorous red-carpet-ready dresses (...you can probably tell I didn't write that last bit!) For the forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2011 collection they have produced this superb new lookbook.

The size is 170x240mm, portrait. It is made up using 32pp of our Omnia 150gsm which is just simply stunning with the images used. The cover and translucent dividers printed (and hot foil blocked on the cover) on 100gsm tracing paper (not ours - I'm waiting to find out and will hopefully add this detail in) is printed in a rich, deep red. The finishing is "singer sewn" along the spine - absolutely beautiful.

Design is by Anthony Hodgson at Face based in Pool in Wharfedale near Leeds. Printing, including the lovely hot foil blocking on the cover, is by Chapter Press. It is a beautiful piece of literature.

www.projectdonline.co.uk

www.weareface.com

www.chapterpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.08.2011

Wedding Day 2011

2011-08-30T09:04:00.048+01:00

Now some of you may remember with some disappointment that I wasn't actually invited to the Royal Wedding in the summer - even though I had all the gear!

However, here's one wedding that I did make it to. Anyone who's called when I'm out of the office will probably have spoken to my colleague Mark Bassett who was married on Saturday to his lovely fiancé Claire.

They were married at Tonbridge Castle (yes, we have a real Norman castle in Tonbridge!) with a reception afterwards. It was a lovely day and I wish them a long and happy married life.

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.08.2011

WORK

2011-08-26T09:10:00.003+01:00

This is an unusual but very effective use of our Omnia text and cover paper - all the branding material for a new London based Gallery called WORK.

WORK is a new gallery set up by Black Dog Publishing to exhibit work, host exhibitions and talks in the areas of art, design and achitecture. It is based in Kings Cross area of London.

The extremely simple but effective identity is Litho printed in black and hot foil blocked in a gloss black foil. Letterheads are on Omnia 120gsm, cards on 320gsm.

...and here was the other attraction of using Omnia for their literature. Because the work feature in the gallery could be of a diverse nature, they wanted an uncoated but that would reproduce well over a wide range of imagery - and in this case, an image which was also gloss UV varnished. The A5, 2pp invitation (printed on Omnia 320gsm) was also duplexed, making it a sturdy 640gsm.

Art Direction and design is by Matt Bucknall at Black Dog Publishing. The print, foiling and duplexing was by SP Litho in Rainham, Essex - an excellent job, really well produced.

...and thanks to Matt for the lovely note and for sending me some files:

www.workgallery.co.uk

www.blackdogonline.com

www.splitho.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.08.2011

Friends Of Print and Paper

2011-08-24T12:12:00.000+01:00

Now I know this sounds like a "self help" group that I might have founded, but this is serious, honest!

Earlier this week I was sent a link to a site of a (realtively) new organisation called Friends of Print and Paper (or FOPAP for short).

This site appears to have been set up by individuals who are fed up with some of the claims made in and by the media about the environmental harm that paper does to the environment and the rush to both stop using or recycling paper. They have some interesting scientific information about the way in which paper works as a carbon "sink".

Now you might think that this is paper industry "propaganda" but I'm fairly sure it's not - it seems to be run by individuals and isn't backed by industry bodies or any of the pulp and paper companies, so maybe, just maybe, there's something in it.

Now, I know there'll be a lot of criticism about the logo and the site design, but get past that and have a read... http://www.fopap.org/

(and if you have any comments, let me know)

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.08.2011