Monday 3 March 2014

Jobs from the past - Number 53

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...

Children Nationwide - Annual Review 1995/96
The charity was originally set up in 1977 under the name “Kidney” by an individual whose friend’s daughter had died of kidney disease with the aim of funding research into kidney disease. At that time there was virtually no research into children’s health issues and the specific treatment of children with kidney disease had only just begun. Over the years, “Kidney” evolved into “Children Nationwide Medical Research Foundation”, and moved towards supporting all areas of paediatric research.

This beautifully crafted report was produced in 1996, to both report on the charity's progress, financial status and a document to encourage further donations. For the record, it's worth pointing out that the charity awarded £2,093,868 in research grants in 95/96.

The size of the report is 310x235mm, portrait. It has a 4pp cover on our Kapok 400gsm, which is a brown board with a raw look and feel. The cover is printed in just one colour both sides but the outside cover has a printed self adhesive label (printed one colour, halftone in blue) "tipped on" which registers with the one colour printed surround - very effective.
The 24pp text is printed on our Neptune Unique 135gsm and is printed in two colours throughout. It's worth remembering that back (nearly twenty years ago) two colour offset litho printing was substantially cheaper than four colour which is the norm, these days. Beautifully printed, with flat solid colours.
The photography throughout is by Andy Rumball:
As a result of this charity, there have been major clinical advances in many areas of paediatric research, especially in Kidney treatment. In 2003, Children Nationwide was renamed “WellChild” to better reflect the broadening remit of the research.
The report was designed by designer, Marek Gwiazda. It's a superb example of a well thought out, beautifully crafted piece of literature which has stood the test of time. It certainly isn't a lavishly produced job and shows then, as now, that a well considered design with the right materials can be produced in a cost effective way and still look fantastic. Marek Gwiazda is now based in Bristol.

The report was printed by Principal Colour, who are still based in Paddock Wood in Kent.

www.wellchild.org.uk
http://www.marekdesigns.com/
http://awrprojects.blogspot.co.uk/
www.principalcolour.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 03.03.2014

Friday 28 February 2014

CIA Calendar 2014

 
Mind of a child, Eye of an Artist 
This is the lovely 2014 desk calendar produced by the Central Illustration Agency (CIA). In September, a team of CIA illustrators held a children's workshop at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London. During the workshop each child was asked what they imagined the future might look like. These thoughts were then turned into briefs and sent out to their international network of illustrators!
 
A few weeks later, forty of those artists had created illustrative interpretations of those children’s thoughts and on 12th October they returned to the museum. Alongside those exhibited images, a dozen CIA illustrators took to the stage and created giant live artworks, accompanied by the children who had dreamt up those artists’ briefs and very much beholden to their unequivocal art direction.
 
During an extraordinary project, a child’s vision was realised by a professional artist and the results are presented on this lovely calendar  
Cover illustration: Jakob Hinrichs
 You can read more about the project here: http://www.centralillustration.com/projects/
Telegramme
Brian Grimwood
David Holmes
Le Gun

The 140mm square calendar is printed on Omnia Natural 120gsm, chosen so that it would have an uncoated look and 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 of the calendar was handled by Charlotte Hanlon. Printing and finishing is by L&S Printing based in Worthing, West Sussex.
 
Posted by Justin Hobson 28.02.2014

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Fifty Shades of Black

David Crompton at litho and digital printers, Quadrant (part of the Linney Group) tweeted about the large number of black samples that he had amassed from us and some other companies, for one of his customers....
...and that got me thinking about just how many black papers and boards we keep here at Fenner Paper.

So I started compiling a list and it turns out that we have over thirty items in black ...in fact it may be even more than stocked up in Hull (...by you know who!)
  • Colorset Nero (100% Recycled) - 100, 120, 170, 270, 350gsm
  • Notturno - 90, 110, 140, 170, 200, 250, 300, 350, 390, 450, 700gsm
  • Monoblack - 1400microns
  • Stardream Onyx - 110, 120, 285gsm
  • Dali Nero - 200, 285, 360gsm
  • Dali DorĂ© Nero - 125, 205, 290gsm
  • Modigliani Nero - 145, 200, 320gsm
  • Tube Black - 130, 260, 340gsm
  • Astralux Black- 250gsm
  • Astralux Black/Black - 250gsm
  • Flockage Colours Black -100gm, 400gsm
....WOW! - so if you need something black, get in touch.

...and thanks to David at Quadrant for pointing out the blindingly obvious! davidcrompton@linney.com

www.linney.com/quadrant
Posted by Justin Hobson 26.02.2014 

Monday 24 February 2014

WITHIN - Howard Tangye

This post is about a beautifully produced book, titled WITHIN, showing the work of artist Howard Tangye. It was published and launched in Paris last year and the London book launch took place in London in January, to which I was invited.
 
The launch was at the Hus Gallery in Hanover Street, W1, combined with a solo exhibition of the artist's work, entitled "Casting the Line"  
Now this isn't the first time that this book has been mentioned on this blog. I profiled it last year as a project that had been launched on Kickstarter. If you follow the link, you can read the original piece, as there's no point in my duplicating the entry:
 
The Kickstarter campaign was a roaring success and the funds were raised and therefore the project could actually be printed and the vision of the publication be realised.
  
The size of the book is 310x210mm portrait and is casebound in bookcloth. It is beautifully bound produced. There is a 170pp text which is printed on a split between Omnia White and Omnia Natural, both 150gsm. There are front and back text sections on the Omnia natural and the colour work is printed on the Omnia White. There are an additional 16 "tipped in" overlays, printed on our Tectonic Clear 150gsm, which is a translucent tracing paper. The art looks absolutely superb printed on the Omnia. which has reproduced the colours perfectly, whilst still giving the look and feel of an uncoated material.
The book is designed and published by Stinsensqueeze. Partners Louise Naunton Morgan and Stina Gromark conceived, designed and finally published the whole project, which they should be very pleased about. I think I'm right in saying, that the books have nearly all sold. They also designed the typeface for use in the book.

The book was printed and produced by Jigsaw Colour. The complexity of the book with the "tip ins" made this a challenging project, but the print and binding are both absolutely superb.

http://stsq.org/stsq/within-howard-tangye/
http://husgalleries.com/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/311248544/within-howard-tangye?ref=live
www.stsq.org
www.jigsawcolour.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 24.02.2014

Friday 21 February 2014

SHOP invitation

This is a lovely invitation that I picked up some file copies of this week. It is A2 size folding down to an A6 finished size. Printed in just two colours (specials - silver and blue) on one side only on our lovely Offenbach Bible. As you can see, the pantone silver 877U, looks great and actually looks metallic silver!  
The invitation is to the launch of the new Global Blue website and international shopping guides.
Design is by Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard, at their Clerkenwell based studio: Design by St
 
The Offenbach Bible 60gsm was printed by R.Young & Son.
Posted by Justin Hobson 21.02.2014


Thursday 20 February 2014

See what one or Toucan do for you...

Guinness is surely known as much for the quality of it's advertising as the quality of it's beer (controversial, I know!)

It all started back in the 1930's in a bid to halt the decline in sales, the brewers engaged advertising agency S H Benson and this strategy continues through the iconic 1980's TV ads to the present day.

There is a fascinating talk coming up at St Brides about the lost artwork from this most important period in the 1930's and 40's. The artist who has become synonymous with the Guinness advertising from this era is John Gilroy who painted illustrations of the toucans, zoo keeper and animals from the 1930s onwards. In 1971 all the original paintings belonging to S H Benson (who commissioned the work) were lost. 40 years on and the collection has resurfaced...

David Hughes is a former brewer at Guinness and has written a book "Gilroy was good for Guinness". Now the collection has resurfaced it is starting to be sold off in the USA through the art market. This is a chance to hear about the history and creation of the artworks and see much of the work that was never used ..not forgetting that Guinness was one of the first Global brands.

This talk will showcase the lost art, much of which is never previously seen work from rejected campaigns and some outstanding images have come to light.

The talk is on Tuesday 4 March 2014 at 7pm.

Don't put it off - book a ticket now - Tickets £15.00 • Friends of St Bride Library £12.50 • Students (bring NUS card) £10.00

www.stbride.org/events/oilpaintingstoadvertising
www.gilroywasgoodforguinness.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gilroy-Good-Guinness-David-Hughes/dp/1907593993
Posted by Justin Hobson 20.02.2014

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Manuel Canovas 2014 collection


Manuel Canovas is a luxury fabric brand based in the rue Saint-HonorĂ© in Paris. This unmistakably French collection is inspired by the spirit of the art de vivre associated with 18th century France re-interpreted to contemporary taste by design director Ariane Dalle.

“Canovas is the art of living Ă  la Francaise” says Ariane Dalle, “with a very special colour palette, and a real touch of originality.”

Manuel Canovas is one of the Colefax group brands and this piece of literature has been created in the UK,  for the new 2014 collection.
The size of the publication is 240mm x 170mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. it has a 4pp cover printed on 300gsm and an 8pp text on 200gsm. It is printed on our StarFine White, which is an uncoated paper, but as you can see, the reproduction is excellent - the images have reproduced with an amazing vibrancy and incredible detail for an uncoated paper.
There are a couple of extra things to point out about this job. Firstly the brass wire used for the saddle stitches is a really lovely touch - works brilliantly for this publication.
The brochure was printed offset litho but I just want to share a point about the origination. The repro for the publication was produced using Stochastic FM screening or what is also known as "random screening". This is system which makes up the four colours using a random distribution of the CMYK colours (created using algorithms of random pixel distribution) as opposed to the more normal halftone screening, made up of dots (AM screening)
 
The reason that this technique was suggested and successfully produced by the printer (Pureprint), was because there was the potential of a moirĂ© pattern appearing on the very detailed photography. MoirĂ© is a visually evident pattern created when two or more patterns are overlaid and in the case of this brochure, because of the detailed patterns (see image below) it was considered that a conventional screen (for halftone printing) which would effectively overlay this pattern (to create the dots to make up the image) and risk creating a MoirĂ© pattern.
 
An example of Moiré
MoirĂ© looks like a pattern is going wavy, almost in-front of your eyes and doesn't just happen in printing, it happens in screen based and other applications, anything where a "clash" occurs between patterns. One of the annoying things is that it is not certain that it WILL appear and it is difficult to second guess! The changing of screen angles (at the repro stage) may also get round the issue. If you haven't come across it before, you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern

Creative direction and production is handled in house at Colefax & Fowler, designer on this project is Rachael Ashley. Print production is by Pureprint handled by Richard Owers.

All in all, this is a lovely piece of literature which conveys the detail and the quality of the fabrics, beautifully.

www.manuelcanovas.com
http://www.colefax.co.uk/
www.pureprint.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 18.02.2014