This week we visited a paper mill in Italy called Favini. It was quite a "whistlestop" tour but Chris (Fenner) and I hadn't been there for many years and it was time to become re-acquainted.Favini is a group of two mills, one in Rossano (not far from Venice) and one at Crusinallo (pictured). They make a wide and varied range of products including uncoated text and cover papers, feltmarked papers, label papers and Cast Coated papers - many people will be familiar with the ASTRALUX brand of Cast coated papers ...well these are guys that make it!
As you can see from the pictures above, they were making red paper on the day we visited!
Favini have been developing some new products which will hopefully be introduced into the UK market next year. Chris Brown is the Sales and Marketing Director (pictured here) who was showing us around and I must also thank Antonella Agostini, Michele Posco and Caroline Wagner who looked after us very well and who made it a really interesting and enjoyable visit - thank you. 
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The first job that I recall being involved with was an invitation for PREEN by Thornton Bregazzi in 2005, printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.
This casebound book has a 72pp text and is 250x350mm. It is printed on a combination of Omnia and a coated silk paper (not sure which one!) and has a fantastic quality about it.
...and here's one of the most beautiful and innovative pieces produced on our Flockage Litho. An invitation for Liberty to their Christmas viewing. 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]
Anyway it was a fab party, thank you Mark and Chris. Unfortunately I only took a few party pics to share.
Exhibition space at b-store with Studio Thomson exhibits:
...and a view through the window at b-store showing the books specially produced for the event.
The tree stumps were presented as a “ghost forest” in Trafalgar Square in London from 16-22 November 2009 (so if you didn't see it, sadly you missed it!) and are moving to Copenhagen for 7-18 December 2009 to coincide with the UN's COP15 Climate Change Conference.
Anyway, I like the piece so much I thought I would share it with you, so have a look at 
The publication uses a lovely selection of illustrations and combined with the typography and the choice of material gives the whole job a very "honest" feel. It is printed in just two special colours, Green and Brown.
There is also an 4pp A5 Christmas leaflet (pictured below) which contains a guide to the seasonal foods available together with activities at the Farm, including Sleigh rides, which sound rather fun! 
And of course I should mention the material it is printed on ...our Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm - and as you can see from the lovely note below, Charlie and Jess are big fans!
All award winners deserve congratulations, but in particular, there are some people who I must mention: 
...and the list goes on - The Chase for their marvellous woodblock letters made from chocolate, Studio 8 for FUTU magazine and Henrik and Scott from A2/SW/HK for a clutch of awards.
It was an excellent evening which showed a fantastic array of international typographic excellence. It is REALLY important for our industry that we retain societies such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability.
It's A5 in size and just very simply foiled in two colours on our Monoblack 1400mics (...yes that's nearly 1.5mm thick!) Lovely typography and foiled to a very high satandard by IST printing services in Ayrshire.
...and thank you, Chris, for the lovely note.
To complete the ration book feel, the booklets were "stab stitched" (that's where the staple goes through the whole book, from front to back - like a cheque book - although the term cheque book binding normally implies, the application of binding tape over the stab stitches).
A particularly nice touch is that the front of all the books are "crash numbered" on the covers. For those of you who aren't aware of this process, it is an old letterpress process which uses a numbering box on a platten. It is an "impact" process which simply thumps the number on the sheet and then (in a clockwork style) clicks on one digit. 
It turns out that we supplied one of our materials (called Kapok) to Richard Harnasz, who is a student at LCC (School of Printing and Publishing) and this, in part, helped him on his achievement of winning the 2009 Printweek Student of the Year award! 
The job was printed by a company called Litho-Tech based in Kennington, London who at the time was one of the leading corporate printers in London if not the UK. Sadly like many printers of that era, the company no longer exists. It was printed offset litho in six colours. My notes aren't completely clear but I think the run was either 5,000 or 10,000 copies. Peter Roberts was the sales executive, Les Baker, the production manager and Paul Watson the Managing Director.