Tuesday 30 July 2019

Community Clothing 03

Patrick Grant photographed by Richard Tymon
Founded by British Fashion Designer Patrick Grant, Community Clothing is a social enterprise with a simple mission - to make excellent quality affordable clothes for men and women, to create great jobs for skilled workers and by doing this help to restore real pride in Britain’s textile communities. They do this by working with under utilised UK factories during their quiet periods. What a wonderful concept.

This is Community Clothing's lookbook and catalogue and it is an absolutely superb publication, wonderful art direction, photography and printing.
 
The size is 330x230mm, portrait and is a 32pp self cover which flops and rolls really nicely in the hand....
The publication is printed on our Shiro Echo, White 90gsm which is 100% Recycled and also carries the FSC Recycled classification.

Shiro Echo is available in two shades; there is a white shade (which is a natural/off white) with a newspapery looks and feel and a Bright White shade too.
Centre spread is a map showing the locations in the UK where the factories are located.
Click on images to enlarge
 Solids look excellent
Below is a detail image which shows the excellent image quality - note the excellent fleshtone reproduction.
Very nicely finished too as you can see from the wire stitching
Credits for the Design and paper...
Design is by Moving Brands. Printing is by Principal Colour. A really superb piece of design and print.

https://communityclothing.co.uk/
https://www.movingbrands.com/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 30.07.2019

Thursday 25 July 2019

Laings receipt wallets

Laings is a prestigious family-run jewellers with over 177 years’ experience in the industry. Established in 1840 they are now one of the largest independent jewellery businesses operating six stores across the UK. I wrote about the covers of the brochures here and these are the receipt wallets used throughout the stores.
The 4pp wallets are 148x105mm, portrait with a half height pocket on the inside back cover....
The wallets are digitally printed in white ink plus an all over digital varnish with the L monogram - the result is superb as the white is strong and the varnish subtle.
The receipt wallets are printed on one of our new Colorset shades - Colorset Deep Blue in 270gsm. Print is by Kestrel Press, as with Laings, Kestrel are also a family owned company based in Irvine in Scotland and founded over 40 years ago. My thanks to Graeme Ferguson at Kestrel for sending me these copies.

https://www.laingsuk.com/
http://www.kestrelpress.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 25.07.2019

Tuesday 23 July 2019

The Tube - new range

Many readers of this blog will know that we stock a range from Favini called The Tube. For those not familiar with this range, The Tube is engineered to give a gorgeous flawless matt effect. The smoothly tactile surface exudes luxury.
The range has just been revised and is available in nine shades and is available as a single or double-sided finish of paper and board.
The below swatch shows the new colour palette....
As well as the new shades, there is the new Hide finish which replicates the look and feel of real leather giving a luxurious touch and matt finish, in five shades. The below image shows the Hide finish.
Click on images to enlarge
The Tube is suitable for most major printing techniques including screen printing and foil blocking and is perfect for adding value and luxury to premium print and packaging applications!

...if you'd like a new swatch, just email me justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.favini.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 23.07.2019

Thursday 18 July 2019

Leinster Square

The core theme that runs throughout the design of the 13-19 Leinster Square development is a focus on the superb quality of finish, the stunning craftsmanship and design that makes the raw natural materials take on new meaning and added value. As a result, this publication really can't be described as a "property brochure" it is so much more...
Front cover image by Virginie Khateeb
Studio 91 embraced the simple idea of 'material and craft first’ and took prospective buyers on a journey from the marble quarries and old oak forests of Italy, to the bookmatched bathrooms and fine Versailles parquetry of the finished apartments.
The photography showing the sources of the materials is stunning....
Click on images to enlarge
Size of the publication is 380x270mm, portrait and is section sewn with an 8mm spine. The cover is on a silk coated 350gsm with a soft touch lamination. The 68pp text is printed on our StarFine White 130gsm, an uncoated text paper which has printed beautifully, with the solids and the mono images looking brilliant. Additionally, there is a 12pp section printed on gloss coated paper showing detailed images of the materials. There are some superb interior images too...
...but the real gems are the images of the materials and their original environment.
Below image shows the raw materials - Brass and Marble printed on gloss coated.
This is an exquisitely produced book where the choice of paper does convey all the special materials that have gone into this very special development offers. Design is by Studio91 Design based in London. Sam Hextall is the Creative Director.

Print production is by Push based in London. The quality of reproduction on the uncoated StarFine is superb and the finishing is excellent.
 
Posted by Justin Hobson 18.07.2019

Monday 15 July 2019

ISTD Student Awards 2019

Last Friday, I was invited to  the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) Student awards, hosted by Pentagram at their wonderful studio in Notting Hill. Pentagram partner, Sascha Lobe, presented the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening...
As with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on, for well over a hundred guests. The evening began with an introduction by Jonathan Doney, the Chair of ISTD (below) who gave a brief re-cap of the society's history, founded over 90 years ago by Vincent Steer. Jonathan reminded us that the Student awards programme has been running continuously for over 40 years, with programmes in six regions around the world.
This presentation evening is for the main student assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going.
Pentagram partner, Sascha Lobe gave a brief talk (above) and presented all the certificates (printed on our StarFine) and also an excellent goody bag (sponsored by Cass Art). There were students from universities from all over the country including eight students from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin together with their tutor Jamie Murphy (The Salvage Press)
My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD board and education committee who freely give their time for the benefit of others.

Thanks must also go to Pentagram and to Sascha Lobe. It is wonderful that a respected agency such as Pentagram freely gives their resources for such an event, it is inspirational for the students and is a great way for the partnership to give something back to education.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 15.07.2019


Friday 12 July 2019

Villa Saletta 980AD

Villa Saletta is a 1,760-acre estate in the heart of Tuscany, featuring an historic borgo, three luxurious holiday villas and a boutique winery. The estate was purchased by British investor, Guy Hands around 15 years ago and a great investment has been made in the vineyard.

This promotional booklet is an introduction to the winemaking on the estate and the 2015 vintage.
The size is 170x100mm portrait, with a 4pp cover and an 8pp text. The cover is hot foil blocked in gold metallic foil and the text is digitally printed using an HP Indigo press.
Click on images to enlarge
The paper used is our StarFine Natural White 150gsm. This uncoated paper is a subtle, neutral, white which perfectly suits the imagery and typography in the publication. The images have reproduced superbly, as you can see from the vibrant indigo blue shirt below.
...another nice touch, which is worth noting is the use of copper wire for the stitches which works well with the gold foiled cover.
Printing and production is by Stuart Van Den Bergh at Intaglio Communications who are based in London.

https://www.villasaletta.com/
http://www.intaglioltd.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 12.07.2019

Tuesday 9 July 2019

The first time I met Freda...

Earlier this year, we heard the sad news that Freda Sack, the renowned British type designer had died. You can read more about her career here on the ISTD website.
In May there was a small memorial celebration for family and close friends which was held at the Fitzrovia Chapel (formerly the Chapel of the Middlesex Hospital) which was particularly apt as Freda's studio had been close by.

This superb little publication was produced for those at the memorial and for those who were unable to go. It very simply records people's stories about when they first met her...
Size of the publication is 150mm square and actually became an 84pp publication because so many people wished to record their first meetings.
The paper chosen is our Sixties range in 60gsm - the choice being just right as the paper is light enough to produce just a multi page booklet and because of the show through, the words are beautifully layered throughout the publication...
Click on images to enlarge
SIXTIES is a new paper which has the same translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels like a normal paper …hopefully you can see the translucency in the images:

The publication is singer sewn and the image below shows the centre spread.
Singer sewing uses a pale blue thread.
Below shows the superb singer sewn spines.
Design is by Clare Playne of Playne Design one of the many friends and colleagues who contributed to the memorial.

You probably won't have realised that this job is digitally printed. It was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour and was produced on their Xerox digital press and the finished result is superb. Printing digitally made this limited run viable - even on a material such as this, which many other printers are scared of.

It is a superbly produced little publication and a wonderful way to remember Freda.

https://playnedesign.co.uk/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 09.07.2019