Lotus EXOS

 

This is a most beautiful limited edition book produced for Lotus. The Lotus Exos experience is for those lucky enough to have the funds to secure the package which includes racing on some of the best circuits in the world.

This limited edition (500 copies) book is a whopping 302mm x 400mm, portrait and is casebound with black bookcloth on the spine - this is called quarterbound.

It has a 44pp text printed on our Omnia 200gsm plus a 6pp throwout on 200gsm high Gloss coated.

As you can see from the above images, there is lots of colour and black is prevalent - and it just looks beautiful on the Omnia - no mottle - just gorgeously even dark areas (and we all know that blacks and blues can be a problem!) Even the images with CMYK dark areas - with loads of ink going down, looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the dark mono images as well, whilst retaining all the detail. The photography and reproduction is amazing - the list of photographers would require a post all of it's own! so I'm afraid I can't credit everyone here.

The book is art directed and designed by Interstate. Creative Director is Nigel Gray. Printing is by Gavin Martin Colournet and they have made a beautiful job of both the print and the binding.

www.lotuscars.co.uk
http://www.interstateteam.com/
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.10.2012 

BLUE {NOT} MONO

I was sent this new typeface by Peter at Volcano types. I like it, so I thought I'd share it:

( ...don't worry, I'm not getting paid to advertise it!)

And here's the blurb...
As a binary system, at the junction to two antagonist drawings, the Blue (Not) Mono typeface is an hybrid between the monospace and the humanistic sans-serif families. Declined to several variants and weights: a true monospace and a proportional one, a roman and italic style, bold and the main purpose is obviously to maintain in the same time a calligraphic identity, and a computing legacy. Jérémie Nuel studied graphic design at Strasbourg (France). Afterwards he worked as an independent graphic designer at Lyon (France) for three years. Then he lived in Tokyo for one year, working as an artistic director for a design agency. Since he went back to France, he works with Simon Renaud (A is a name). They are putting the notion of evolution into their design process as a cycle of graphic research concentrated on typographic systems.

http://www.volcano-type.de/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.10.2012

Design by St

What could be better than this?

 

Beautiful new business cards for Design by St. 

 

Design by St is the studio founded by Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard who both used to work at Studio8 until they closed in May this year. Seizing the initiative, they set up their own studio and have been busy ever since! They have a new website as well: http://designbyst.com/home/

 

The lovely cards are hot foiled blocked with gloss black foil and edge printed on Neptune Unique FSC 400gsm and they look beautiful. Print production is by Danny Kirk at Push.

www.designbyst.com
www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.10.2012

British Museum 2010/2011

This is a beautiful project printed earlier this year. It's the British Museum Review 2010/11. Although it is called a "Review" it is really an Annual Report - and it's a great shame that we don't see Annual Reports like this in the corporate sector.

The format is 190x267mm portrait. It has a 4pp cover and a 76pp text. It is perfect bound but with grey binding tape applied to the spine. The cover is hot foil blocked in matt white and matt grey foil.

The cover is on our Colorset Nero 270gsm. 60pp of the text is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm with the last 16pp appendix printed 1 colour on sugar paper. 

As you can see with the above spread, each section is prefaced with an introduction spread, which are printed in solid black and the solid black on the Redeem is a really good, solid black - testament to both the paper and the printer!

It is designed by McConnell Design and Zach John was the senior designer on the project. Beautifully printed by Gavin Martin Colournet.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/
http://www.mcconnellstudio.com/
http://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

  Posted by Justin Hobson 19.10.2012

TYPO London 2012: Social

TYPO is a series of International design talks pioneered in Germany and now also hosted in London and San Francisco. Each TYPO event focuses on a topical and relevant theme, which the speakers relate to with their personal presentations.

The theme for TYPO London 2012 is Social. The conference will endevour to investigate the many ways in which designers can function socially (...that doesn't mean in the bar!).

Now although it's short notice, the event is actually this weekend - Friday and Saturday -19/20th and I believe there are still some last minute tickets available. The days are long (10am-8pm!) so although the tickets are pretty expensive, they represent good value for money. The event is held at Logan Hall and Jeffery Hall, off Russell Square.

 

This is the confirmed list of speakers:

Kirsty Carter & Emma Thomas (A Practice for Everyday Life) • Rick Banks (Face37) • Paul Barnes • Béa Beste • Tim Beard (Bibliothèque) • Sara de Bondt • Irma Boom • Anthony Burrill • Matthew Butterick • Tony Chambers (Wallpaper*) • Patrick Cox • Joshua Davis • Noel Douglas & Tzortzis Rallis (Occupy Design UK) • Ken Garland • Peter Gregson • James Jarvis • Rian Hughes (Device Fonts) • Hjalti Karlsson (karlssonwilker) • Erik Kessels (KesselsKramer) • Eike König (HORT) • Henrik Kubel (A2/SW/HK) • Gerry Leonidas • Simon Manchipp (SomeOne) • Sean McBride (Typekit) • Grant McCracken • Kate Moross (Studio Moross) • Vaughan Oliver • Lucienne Roberts • Freda Sack (Foundry Types) • Mariana Santos & Mark McCormick (The Guardian) • Paula Scher (Pentagram) • Anna Gerber & Britt Iversen (Visual Editions) • Marius Watz

It might be time to raid the piggy bank and get inspired!

http://typotalks.com/
http://typotalks.com/london/blog/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.10.2012

Birdwatching Map

The 2012 Graphic Design Walk, organised by Graphic Birdwatching is a combined open studio walk and design exhibition celebrating the work & practise of both local & international female creatives.

This year's walk took place over two days in September during the London Design Festival and there were 12 studios in East London who opened their doors alongside a design exhibition at the 71a space on Leonard Street.

 

When you registered to go on the walk, you were given this lovely map to navigate your way around the studios. Size of the map is 544mm x 800mm folding down to 136x200mm.


On the reverse of the map is information and work of the various studios. The map was printed and finished by Newgate Concise who sponsored the printing. The map is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled in CMYK on both sides and we sponsored the paper for the map, as we did last year.

 

The map is designed by Catherine Nippe, who is also one of the organisers of Graphic Birdwatching.

 



http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/about.html
http://www.graphicbirdwatching.com/
www.cnippe.com

http://www.newgateconcise.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.10.2012

Soho House Berlin

Soho House opened their doors in May 2010 at No. 1 Torstrasse in Mitte, Berlin. The building was originally opened in 1928 as department store Jonas & Co and has since been put to a  succession of uses including government offices. The latest addition to this gleaming white eight storey Bauhaus period building are 20 new short let luxury apartments.

London based design studio, Material Organisation, were commissioned to create a launch package for the new apartments. Their design and use of materials reflects the diverse history of the building, turning the utilitarian plans from function to form and utilising the substrates of record keeping to luxury packaging

Size of the brochure is 168x205mm, portrait. It has a 4pp cover with a 20pp text and an additional 12pp of A6 inserts and is singer sewn with complementary orange thread. The text is printed on our Omnia 120gsm which has worked beautifully with the excellent interior photography. The colours are fantastically rich and there's so much life in the images of the interiors - which as we all know is about having a great original, the good repro and print with the right paper.

The cover is a light brown manilla file board from that other, Hull based, paper merchant!

Design is by the creative team at Material Organisation. Creative Director is Sam Wilson. Thanks to Rosy for sending me some copies and a lovely note.

Print and the excellent finishing, including the 'singer sewing' is by Chapter Press.

 

www.sohohouseberlin.com

www.m-o.tv

www.chapterpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.10.2012

PaperlinX gets stroppy!

Oh deary me! Last Friday I received a legal notice from posh solicitors Shoosmiths, acting on behalf of Paperlinx about a post on this very blog! - it's almost made me feel important!

 

Rather sadly I can't actually post the letter on the blog because of it's legal nature, so I can only show a "redacted" letter (that's the word that everyone used last year connected with the parliamentary expenses scandal) ...so you can't read it!



Anyway, you'll all be pleased to know that although it's about alleged defamatory allegations, they aren't ones I've written - it's been sent to me because I posted a link to an Australian based website, written by Paperlinx shareholder Graham Critchley. Obviously, I've now removed the link, but this was the original article:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html

 

You may remember from previous posts that PaperlinX is the global, loss making, Australian company which owns Robert Horne, Howard Smith and The Paper Co - names of UK paper merchants which many of you will be familiar with. 

 

Picture courtesy of www.printweek.com

Unfortunately PaperlinX is in a financially perilous state which has been much reported in the press and is now headed by Dave Allen ( ...not the erstwhile Irish comedian!). Personally, I would have thought he might do better working to get the figures looking better for the banks and shareholders than worrying about nice people like me and the links I put on my blog!

 

However, this could be useful information for readers of this blog, because I certainly didn't know that by linking a site, you are in fact re-publishing that site and therefore also responsible for what's been published - interesting eh? So thanks to Paperlinx and Shoosmiths for the heads up! 

 

www.paperlinx.com.au

www.shoosmiths.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.10.2012



Ideas Illustrated Magazine issue 5

The fifth issue of Ideas Illustrated magazine has been published by YCN. It has been re-designed and has a new editorial focus. Issue 5 takes the theme of luck as a starting point and presents a mix of content aimed at those in the business of creativity and ideas - from the history of the Michelin Man to the future of the penal system.

"An idea a day keeps the sack away" is one of the smart points" (aka helpful advice) by advertising legend
John Hegarty that made me laugh (...and also, think!)

The magazine is printed on a combination of materials which really work with the content. The cover is on our Omnia 200gsm (nice and lightweight, thereby retaining the magazine feel), the text is a mixture of StarFine White 115gsm and our high gloss coated, Concorde Pure Brilliance 115gsm for the photographic spreads which require ink lift (see below spread)



...and in the interests of unbiased posting (!) there is also a section, printed on Cyclus Offset 100gsm.



The creative team at YCN on the project is as follows: Editor is Nick Defty, Art Director is Alex Hunting and the Staff Writer is Thomas J Hughes. This magazine looks and feels fantastic - the design, content and materials and quality of the print all working really well together.

 

http://shop.ycnonline.com/products/view/ideas-illustrated-the-luck-issue/category/publications/#.T-MYpCtYu1c

 

Ideas Illustrated is published quarterly by YCN Ltd. Print is by Push.

 

http://studio.ycnonline.com/

www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.10.2012

Favela Dream #01

Guillaume Cornet aka “Mr Guil” is a London based artist working with illustration and painting (Camberwell College of Arts, FDA Illustration, 2009 The Arts Institute At Bournemouth, ND Fine Art, 2007)

...and this is what he does (taken from his website) "he explores notions of abstract geometry, influenced by surreal perspectives and architecture to construct sometimes monochrome but mostly colourful and vibrant visual spaces. His works tend to be filled with intricate characters positioning themselves in unexpected geometrical environments. Creating a humorous visual language he frequently depicts unusual and bizarre situations"

He's just produced a series of limited editions of 6 silkscreened, fully hand coloured prints.(500 x 353 mm), titled Favela Dream, using our Colorset White 270gsm:

Click on the pics to enlarge

Guillaume is currently working on some larger prints, also on Colorset but in 350gsm. Do have a look at his website:
www.guillaumecornet.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.10.2012

National Poetry Day 2012

 

Today is National Poetry day. I'm not a poet, so I'm not going to bother you with any of my poetry but I thought this might be a worthwhile time to mention that I've actually been at Fenner Paper for 20 years! (the actual anniversary was last month). I started as a paper merchant with the James McNaughton Paper Group in 1987 and after five very happy years, I met up with Chris and Tony Fenner ...and the rest is history!

 

One of my colleagues at McNaughton's was Debbie Wigglesworth, who over the years has also moved on in the industry, most recently working for that other, Hull based, paper merchant!  Anyway, at my 'leaving do' in 1992, she gave me a poem printed on translucent paper, mounted on a gorgeous piece of handmade paper made with flower petal inclusions. Needless to say, it's amongst my most prized posessions.

 

...and this is what she wrote (for the sake of context, I used to drive a VW polo):

Did you ever drive around London

and see a little tiny Polo with a long,

long man sticking out ...?

He was the local Paper Consultant

or something like that.

 

Before long it was realised that

not only were his legs unusually big

but his many talents were too.

In his new office , in front of him,

sat a new sign which read

'Advertising Manager' and was he!!

 

Very soon oodles of 'really good stuff'

was dropping through designers doors

splattered in magazines,

wacking printers between the eyes,

everyone was happy...

until one day, when his desk sign fell completely over

everyone tried to pick it up

but it wouldn't budge.

 

Across the city, some miles away,

a party could be heard.

Folks were preparing for the coming

of their new Marketing Manager.

The cleaning lady with her arms fully stretched

and balancing on her tiptoes

just managed to reach the new

name plate on the door

so she polished it until it sparkled

it read Justin Hobson.

 

So many people were sad to see him go

but liked him so much

that they had to wish him well...

...and so wish him well they did

and off he went to be a great success

 

My thanks to Debbie for the (v. flattering) poem and thanks to Fenner Paper for twenty amazing years and happy National Poetry day to you all.

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.10.2012



Jobs from the past - Number 36

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 and here's one from 2004.

National Portrait Gallery - Off the Beaten Track 2004

This is the invitation to the Press View for the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called Off the Beaten Track, celebrating three centuries of women travellers in portraits. Journeying to distant parts of the world from the 1660s to the 1960s, before the age of mass travel, these women had experiences and encounters almost unthinkable today. The exhibition brought together 60 portraits from the National Portrait Gallery's collections, alongside souvenirs, photographs and paintings made by the women on their travels.

This 'passport style' invitation is 90x125mm, portrait and is saddle stitched with black staples (very nice) and also features round corners. It has a 4pp cover on Colorset Nero 270gsm with a 4pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm. The cover is hot foil blocked with a matt white foil & blind embossing and the text is printed in four colour process.

Above: centre spread

Detail showing the printed 'intaglio' pattern. Redeem was chosen as it has a neutral white shade with an aged look and feel.

The reply card printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 240gsm and then rubber stamped by hand.



This beautifully conceived and produced invitation was by Frost Design, London. Creative directors on the project were Matt Willey and Zoë Bather. Designer was Laura Hains. 

www.npg.org.uk
www.frostdesign.com.au

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.10.2012