we made this

Alistair Hall from "we made this" has just sent me pics of his new set of stationery and he's dead chuffed with it. The business card is foiled with matt silver foil on our Kapok 500gsm board and the comp slips and letterhead are on Episode IV, 115gsm (100% recycled)

And this lovely pic below shows the depth and clarity of the deboss (but on a white material)
Foiling and printing was done by Benwell Sebard (London)

All looks very, very smart ...thank you Alistair.

http://www.wemadethis.co.uk/

http://www.benwells.co.uk/

Land Securities - Studio Awards 2009

I popped into see Magpie's new studio in Shoreditch last week (it's a nice light studio) and was given a copy of a very nice job they've produced for Land Securities.

This publication catalogues the selection and work of three artists that have been selected and sponsored by Land Securities.

Scott O'Rourke, Petros Chrisostomou and Mike Tuck have been the fortunate recipients of studio space, funding and artistic freedom and this publication documents the show that they put on at the end of a year.

It's a beautifully produced 64pp catalogue (165x245mm) with text printed on Neptune Unique FSC 155gsm. The cover is foiled on a black self coloured black (Sirio, I think)

The three founders of Magpie are Jamie Ellul, David Azurdia and Ben Christie.

The book has been well printed by Gavin Martin Associates, especially given the diverse range of the artists media.

Studio photography is by Paul Grundy and Murray Scott

www.landsecurities.com

www.sw1gallery.co.uk

http://www.magpie-studio.com/

http://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

An incredible story about paper ...from Space!

In February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry from space over Texas. Seven astronauts lost their lives and because of the type of altitude and explosion most of the shuttle and contents were simply vaporised.

However, incredibly, paper survived ... and not just any paper, but parts of the personal journal of one of the astronauts, Ilan Ramon from Israel. Amazingly these charred remains floated down to earth and were found two months later in Texas swampland. The highly degraded and damp papers, written in Hebrew, were given to his widow Rona Ramon. She recognised that they were a personal account rather than technical references and they were passed on to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and Forensic science department of the Israel police for preservation and restoration.

Remarkably and in some cases character by character, sections of this remarkable diary have been reconstructed, the process having taken months and months of dedicated work.

To celebrate this miracle, a limited edition of "facsimile" diaries has been produced for the Ramon family in a boxed set which contains a replica notebook incorporating the found and restored sections of the journal and a booklet describing the reconstruction of the Space Diary.

It has been designed and produced by Ornan Rotem and Num Stibbe from Sylph Editions here in the UK. It is not published as a commercial project but as a labour of love as they are friends of the Ramon family.


It is not available for sale as this was very much a private project for the Ramon family but it is a privilege to be able to tell the story and show you the pictures.

It was an amazing job to have been involved with, the story being so fascinating but also incredibly sad as sections of this highly personal journal describe his private feelings about being in Space and how much he is looking forward to being reunited with his family after landing back on Earth.

The project was digitally printed by Good News Press on an Indigo digital press and was printed on Neptune Unique SoftWhite. The facsimile notebook has been bound using nylon cords supplied by NASA which is how the original notebook was bound.

http://www.sylpheditions.com/

http://www.goodnewspress.co.uk/

New ranges from Lagom

I have received two new ranges of Greetings Cards from Lagom.

The (predominantly) blue series called HYGGE are designed by Kelly Hyatt at Lagom and are printed in CMYK plus a special blue and a Gloss UV varnish .

The Monsieur Boudin series (below) is designed by LAB PARTNERS in San Francisco and features a very cute pooch, presumably called Monsieur Boudin! They are published in the UK by Lagom Design.
Both of these new ranges are printed on our uncoated OMNIA range (280gsm) - and for a bit of interesting product info, not only does it have a high bulk and tactile feel but unlike most uncoated products, UV varnish works really well! - if you want to see for yourself, you can always e-mail me and I'll send you an example...

www.lagomdesign.co.uk

Crispin Finn does it again!

I just received some more lovely samples from Anna Fidalgo at Crispin Finn. Silkscreen printed in one colour. Produced for the very talented illustrator, Emma Kelly.

The material used is our (lovely and oh, so competitively priced!) Matrisse 200gsm
I love the "Whilst you were out" note! as well.http://www.crispinfinn.com/
Emma Kelly: info@iliketodrawthings.com

PrintWeek Awards 2009

Last night it was the PrintWeek awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. It's a glitzy affair and although I was invited (a big thank you to the wonderful Helen Morris) sadly, I couldn't go.

Anyway, by all accounts it was a great night (probably quite boozy!) ...the results and report of the evening is available on http://www.printweek.com/business/news/946356/PrintWeek-Awards-2009-winners-announced/

The above pic shows NOISE FIVE, Designed by Attik and produced by Evolution Print, winner of "Innovative Printer of the Year"

From the results, there are a few mentions that affect our side of the industry that are worthy of note:

Digital Printer of the Year - Screaming Colour (London) http://www.screamingcolour.com/

Innovative Printer of the Year - Evolution Print (Sheffield) http://www.evolutionprint.co.uk/

Brochure Printer of the Year - Chapter Press (London and Bucks) http://www.chapterpress.co.uk/

Annual Report Printer of the Year - Beacon Press (Sussex) http://www.beaconpress.co.uk/

Well done to all those companies that won Printweek awards - Quality is not dead!

www.printweek.com

The American School in London

This is a beautifully designed and produced "mini" prospectus for The American School in London. Design is by Powell Allen. Copy by Howard Fletcher is combined with some splendid portraits and photography by the wonderful Phil Sayer.

There is a strange thing about this job which I can't explain. I have just measured it to give the dimensions and was very surprised to find it is 150x210 - or in other words pretty much A5! BUT it just doesn't feel like an A5 job at all - if you had asked me before I measured it I would definitely have said it felt squarer, definitely portrait, but certainly squarer. Looking at it now I wonder if I get that feeling because the dustjacket isn't full height, coming in at only 180mm high? ...maybe - we shall never know!

Anyway, the dustjacket (on which the type is beautifully foiled in Orange and Grey) works very cleverly with the cover images.

Inside, the book is divided in sections by age with the text being on smaller "tipped in" sections (180x130mm) - again maybe this adds to the square feeling?

And now for the paper plug! It is printed on our Neptune Unique FSC , with a 300gsm Cover, 135gsm Text and 120gsm tip in leaves.

Print is by Push

http://www.asl.org/

http://www.powellallen.com/

http://www.philipsayerpartnership.com/

http://www.howardfletcher.co.uk/

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

It's Nice That - Issue 2 - out NOW!

Yes, issue 2 of It's Nice That is out now - and if you pre-ordered your copy, you will also have received your Rob Ryan screenprint as well.

There's some amazing stuff in here, far too much to list but my particular favourite is the "camouflage" by Noma Bar (page 90/91).

Production details are all as my post for Issue#1 (25/06/2009) except for the colour of the Colorset on the cover.

Nice one again Alex and Will!

http://www.itsnicethat.com/

2010 Year Planner

The lovely Anna Fidalgo from Crispin Finn has sent me this excellent 2010 year planner. It is a full 700x1000mm (B1) size and is hand printed, silkscreened in two colours. The planner is produced on our Colorset 100% Recycled 120gsm in White.

It comes beautifully packaged in it's own brown paper bag and closed with a Crispin Finn seal.

A chance to get really organised for next year...

It looks far to nice to put on the wall and write on! ...but I will. Every good design studio should have one of these on the wall next year - and luckily you can, because they are available on the Crispin Finn website!

...and thank you Anna, for the lovely note.

...there's a lovely Tea Towel as well but I haven't got a picture of that yet - a great Christmas present idea!

http://www.crispinfinn.com/

'Mr Álmos' Big Pen Ship'

...nothing to do with paper but I thought this might be of interest:

'Mr Álmos' Big Pen Ship'Illustration Show

From the 22nd - 26th October 2009

The Rag Factory - 16 Heneage Street - London - E1 5LJ

For artists details, other stuff to look at

check out - http://www.bigpenship.blogspot.com/

Reinventing the Square

This is a superbly produced little book called "Reinventing the Square". It is designed and published by ico Design.

The project was overseen by ico Founder Niall Henry. Creative Director is Ben Tomlinson, Design Director is Vivek Bhatia and the writer is Gerard Ivall.

This publication is about ico's work on the branding of Dolphin Square, a 1930's residential development in London which has been redeveloped over the last few years. The book looks into the branding of the building including the sub-brands: Dolphin House, Dolphin Bar & Grill and Dolphin Fitness Club.

It will be of great interest as a reference source for anyone looking at branding or re-branding a property development.

The book is175x125mm and has 52pp. It is printed on our BrandX FSC 150gsm (this is part FSC virgin fibre and part recycled). The material was chosen so that it would not be bright white and give the historical mono images a period feel whilst still giving a bright vivid reproduction for the new images showing the new brand at work.

Now the really clever production thing about this job is that every spread also folds upwards to reaveal an 8pp "broadsheet" type spread. The spread below then folds up to reveal....
this spread...

It has been very well printed and finished by printers FS Moore. Keith Arnold handled the job at Moores. Bearing in mind that every section has been back to back laminated, it has been done really superbly and certainly my copy is perfect (...as I'm sure they all are!)

The good news is that they have been published with an ISBN number and are available to buy at a very reasonable cover price of £9.99. It's worth buying to see the finishing alone!

http://www.icodesign.co.uk/

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

Stella McCartney

This is a stunning lookbook for Stella McCartney's new range of sports clothing for Adidas.

Design is by Made Thought.

The job is 230x163mm Portrait and is 72pp and is printed on Omnia 200gsm and 120gsm.

As you will see from the spreads below, the photography (by Tim Barber) really conveys energy and style. Even though the book is divided into eight sporting sections, the design creates lots of space and an uncluttered feel.

The repro, print and finishing is also amazing - by Push. They have made very best of these excellent shots making the printed images really alive and working incredibly well with the substrate.

The finishing requires a special mention. It has an "open" section sewn binding. This is where the book is finished as a conventional section sewn block but glue is applied without the "text block" being placed into a cover. This gives an interesting and unusual effect, which I have seen before but not as well executed as on this job.

...and here are some close ups of the binding:


http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/stellaSS09/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=uk
www.push-print.com

www.madethought.com

...and you think you have a big collection of print!

I've just been reading an article in Printweek by Caroline Archer who's a "print historian". Apparently one of the largest (if not the largest) collections of printed ephemera in the world was collected by John Johnson, printer to the University of Oxford (1925-1946). It is housed in the Bodleian Library and numbers over one million items.

Most importantly this collection is of "jobbing" work such as leaflets, flyers, posters, labels, tickets not books or periodicals - pretty impressive - certainly competition for lots of designers that I know are serial collectors (of stuff)!

Jobs From The Past - Number 1

By their very nature Blogs are concerned with the now and the new. However, several people suggested that I should write about older pieces of work (which is a nice idea) BUT, so I don't fill the blog up with loads of old stuff, I will make the first post of every month a job from the "archive". So this is the first of the "Jobs from the Past" ....

Crafts Council Annual Report 1992/93 "Serving the public"

This beautiful Annual Report was produced in 1993 by Pentagram. Design Director is John Rushworth, the designer is Nick Finney and the photographer is Giles Revell.

The size of the job is 272x348 Portrait and it is a 40pp self cover, saddle stitched. 3,500 copies were printed.

The job is printed Duotone (using two blacks) and is printed on Neptune Unique 135gsm.
This is a really special job, one of those rare times when the quality of the art direction, design, photography, repro, print and material all come together in equal measure. Below are a few of the spreads.....


The job was printed by a company called Penshurst Press based in Tunbridge Wells. Sadly the company is no longer around. Alan Flack who was the printer who actually physically printed this job left Penshurst with Martin Darby to form their own printing company called Principal Colour. Barry Wright who was the Sales Director has left the industry (unless anyone knows differently?) and David Holyday who was the Managing Director still is active in print as a consultant.

This job was written about in Lithoweek printing magazine (27/05/1994) where the richness of the duotones and the use of an uncoated material praised (bear in mind that using uncoated for this type of literature was relatively unusual at this time)

It was around this time that Mohawk and Monadnock (papers both produced in the USA) were starting to make some inroads in to the UK market. The US were well ahead of the UK in terms of using uncoated materials for high quality literature and corporate publications. In 1993 we (at Fenner Paper) started having Neptune Unique manufactured for us in Europe and we were pleased to get this particular order as one of our first (this job wasn't actually the first - that was another job for Pentagram designed by Vince Frost for The Fourth Estate - but that's another story...)

The report was an unqualified success. I received a letter from the Chair at the Crafts Council saying how pleased they were with it and thanking us for our involvement:

...and below is the D&AD 1994 Awards supplement, as this job won a well deserved Silver Award for Annual Reports.
I hope this has been interesting for you reading it. I can tell you that this job still looks and feels fantastic today and bearing in mind it was produced "the old fashioned way" using scanned photographic prints and film to hand made (manually exposed) plates it is amazing - although maybe it's because it was produced that way it has such a great quality.
I have credited those people that were involved as best as I am able:
http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/
http://www.pentagram.co.uk/
http://www.nbstudio.co.uk/
http://www.gilesrevell.com/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/
d.holyday@googlemail.com