Tuesday 27 September 2016

Going Public: International Art Collectors in Sheffield.

Comprising five exhibitions and an international summit, Going Public brought an array of outstanding twentieth century and contemporary art to sites across the city of Sheffield last year. The shows ranged from a focused exhibition on Marcel Duchamp, to a survey of leading contemporary Chinese artists, and a presentation at Sheffield Cathedral including Jake and Dinos Chapman.
The project draws on collections from four leading art patrons: Nicolas Cattelain (London), Dominique and Sylvain Levy (dslcollection, Paris), Egidio Marzona (Berlin) and Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin).

This is the literature to accompany the project....

The main catalogue is an A5 (210x148mm) portrait format and is saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on our Colorset Deep Orange 120gsm (Colorset is 100% Recycled). There is a bound in 8pp section which is printed on a house gloss coated paper (I don't know which one) and this is untrimmed, so left folded at the top - see pic below- so you have to fold it up to reveal the images....
The Colorset cover featuring four die cut circles from the brand identity. Printed on an HP Indigo press using white ink which looks great against the deep orange.
The 28pp text is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm, which combined with the 120gsm cover giving it a nice floppy feel.The paper is uncoated with a neutral white shade giving the publication a feel which really works with the images and most importantly, the pages which are purely type.
A survey of leading contemporary Chinese artists, including Cao Fei, Yang Jiechang, Jiang Zhi, and Zhou Tao drawn from the DSL collection formed part of the project.
An interesting feature is that the booklet has a square spine, even though it is saddle stitched. This is a development by a company called Watkiss and their Spinemaster machine. For certain jobs it is a perfect way of getting a sqaure spine without having to glue bind.
The accompanying 4pp invite is on Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm. Size is A6, portrait and is also digitally printed on the HP Indigo.
...and the summit booklet (below) is also A6 format. 4pp cover on Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm with a 4pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm, saddle stiched.
The identity for the project is by Dust, a multidisciplinary design collective based in Sheffield, founded by Patrick Walker. Designer of this literature is Ashleigh Armitage.

Print is by ASAP Digital who are also based in Sheffield.

You can read more about the project here: http://du.st/articles/going-public/

http://du.st/
http://www.asap-digital.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2016

Friday 23 September 2016

UOP BA Hons 2016


Some readers may remember that back in the summer I went to New Designers exhibition, I also mentioned that the UOP course showcase publication which was piled up at the show was printed on our paper and that I would write about it at a later date ...well, here it is!

Size is 240x130mm, portrait and is perfect bound. It has a 4pp cover with a 64pp text and has a quality look and feel. The cover is printed (offset litho) in a stunningly bright fluorescent green which just pops off the paper!
...and as I hope you can see from the image below, the cover has been beautifully hot foil blocked in a white gloss foil.
The paper used is our Starfine White, which is an uncoated paper with a tactile feel. The cover is printed on 240gsm and the text is printed offset litho in CMYK throughout on 115gsm. This paper paper has excellent opacity for it's weight.
www.joshuaboughtondesign.com
Here are just some of my favourite spreads...
www.maxeb-gd.myportfolio.com
www.zoefouracredesign.tumblr.com
From the New Designers show, I particularly remember Thomas Mcleod's project Top Five most visited underground stations:
www.tmcleod.squarespace.com
www.dorsapedaridesign.tumblr.com
As well as showing the work of the students, it shows some insights into the life and times on the course. the spread below shows the trip to Berlin:
...and the annual charity pub quiz below...
Below is the credits page on the inside back cover:
 
The 64pp text gives the publication a 6mm spine:
The catalogue design team is Harry Lewis-Irlam and Ryan Robinson. Print is by Bishop Printers in Portsmouth, who have made an excellent job of the print production.

The academic team is Sarah Houghton, Andrew Denham, Mike Harkins, Dan McCabe, Estelle Taylor, Sandra Zellmer, Michael Wamposzyc.

www.portsmouthgraphicdesign.co.uk
http://bishops.co.uk/
http://www.port.ac.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2016

Tuesday 20 September 2016

British Rail Corporate Identity Manual

Many of you may be aware of this successful Kickstarter project - a high specification reproduction of the iconic British Rail Corporate Identity Manual. It has been widely profiled in many design magazines, blogs etc, even making an appearance on BBC news!

The book is the brainchild and passion of Wallace Henning, who first read about the Manual around seven years ago, which in turn lead to his dedicating his MA to creating an identity for a renationalised transport network and also began collecting British Rail ephemera.
Image showing the original Manual
The foreword is by Michael C Place, creative director and founder of Build. The introduction is written by Tony Howard, former head of design at British Rail, now managing director of Transport Design Consultancy. There is an essay from James Greenfield, creative director of Koto together with an essay from Dr Paul Rennie, writer and Context Subject Leader at Central Saint Martins. There is also an interview with Gerry Barney, designer of the British Rail double arrow symbol.
Image showing pre-production copy of the new book
The publication is now in the production phase, so I thought I'd write a little about the production and the selection of the paper
The book itself is 310x247mm, section sewn and casebound, covered in a white bookcloth with 472 pages and five 'gatefold' spreads, with the whole production weighing just under 2 kilos! The pages are all printed offset litho, with the original pages reproduced in CMYK and the additional pages printed in two spot colours.
 
When I was first briefed about the project, the material that was used for the original book was described as a 'hard calendered' smooth white cartridge paper. This would have been commonly used for guidelines as it is more robust than a coated paper and for the reproduction, mainly illustrations, this paper would give the best result.
 
...now it's important to remember that this book is a "high specification facsimile" not trying to reproduce an exact copy, so a paper that was sympathetic to the original was important, but not necessarily an exact match.
 
A wide range of quite different papers were considered for the project, but the one that Wallace felt had the right 'feel' for the project was Lessebo Design Smooth White in 130gsm. The Lessebo Mill is located in remote area of southern Sweden called SmÃ¥land. The mill is named after the town in which the mill is situated (Lessebo) and is surrounded by a rugged terrain full of boulders and dense forests between large shallow lakes. Bruk is the Swedish word for mill, hence Lessebo Bruk.


Founded in the middle of the 17th century as an iron mill, it was granted permission by the local government to produce paper in 1693. It should go without saying that all paper was made by hand at this point in time and it wasn't until the 19th century that paper machines were invented. It is also worth noting that the mill still has a Handmade Paper studio ...where I have actually made paper!

 Lessebo Bruk is a mill with complete focus on forest based products with a modern product mix of graphical papers, dissolving cellulose and energy - in fact their power plant heats the town swimming pool as well as a great many of the houses in the town!

The paper was manufactured during the summer and the below picture shows the pallets and pallets of paper at the printer.
Print is being handled by Jon Arnold at JDA Graphics and it is printed on a Komori, offset litho, B1 format HUV press. The advantage of HUV is that the ink is cured at the end of the press, without the need for 'sealing' or 'coating' the paper - certainly a significant advantage in terms of speed of turnaround for finishing. Here is the paper on press...
Another important factor as you can see from the image above, the sheets have 16pp to view (32pp per sheet). An important factor of book production (and arguably for the production of all printed literature) is that the 'grain direction' of the paper runs from the head to the foot of the book (i.e. parallel to the spine). This is important because of the way the paper feels and 'rolls' and the way the text flops and lays open. The grain direction refers to the way the fibres lie in the direction of the paper machine and is one of the most important physical characteristics of a paper. The paper for this project had to be ordered as 'short grain' so when the sheets are folded into sections, the direction of the grain will run parallel to the spine.

All the sections are now printed and on their way to the bindery ...I can't wait to see the finished copy.

The good news is that there are still copies available to buy - over and above the copies which are already committed to those who supported the Kickstarter campaign. You can still pre-order copies at a cost of just £60. You can read more about the project and pre-order here:
http://www.britishrailmanual.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.09.2016

Friday 16 September 2016

Grunts & Grapples!

Yesterday evening, I was invited to the opening of a new exhibition at the Tunbridge Wells Museum. Grunts and Grapples is an exhibition which celebrates the popularity of live and televised wrestling from the 1950's up until the 1990's.

"Greetings Grapple Fans" was the opening line by Kent Walton, the wrestling commentator on ITV's World of Sport, first broadcast on the new ITV in 1955 up to 1989 with audiences peaking at twelve million!

Wrestling was a central part of British national life in this period with iconic figures such as Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy appearing in hundreds of UK town halls and theatres night after night as well as featuring on TV. Through posters, photographs, souvenirs and costumes, the exhibition reveals the origins of wrestling’s interplay of sport and spectacle and the development of personas.
The exhibition features the original costumes of the legendary wrestlers Big Daddy and Adrian Street together with a mask from the mysterious Kendo Nagasaki. A Pathé film from 1964 showing women’s wrestling at the Victoria Hall, Hawkhurst is shown, alongside posters and programmes.
Also featuring in the exhibition is So Many Ways To Hurt You, The Life and Times of Adrian Street, 2010; a film by Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.
The show is curated by Kerry William Purcell, writer, theorist and historian. He has written and published books on art director and designer Alexey Brodovitch, photographer Weegee, and Josef Muller-Brockmann, all published by Phaidon. He is a Senior Lecturer in Design History at the University of Hertfordshire.

Exhibition design and graphics is by Jess Harris.
The exhibition runs until January and entry is free.

http://www.tunbridgewellsmuseum.org/
http://www.gruntsandgrapples.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2016

Monday 12 September 2016

Yorkshire House

Yorkshire House is a landmark 1960's building in Greek Street, central Leeds. Having undergone a major refurbishment, it now provides 83,000 square feet of prime office space. The refurbishment has been done in such a way that this is now a low carbon office environment. The scheme incorporates 'the Yorkshire Hub' which is a range of flexible office spaces specifically aimed at the creative and media industries.
 
This is the sales brochure for the new complex, which is designed to appeal to the design savvy clients that are the target audience.
The size is 297x240mm and the cover, or covers are silkscreen printed on 2000micron Greyboard, which has been mounted on the actual cover to make a nice chunky cover.
Click on image to enlarge
The book has two front covers, a format I have described before as a 'double-ender'. The white cover is the "Introduction to Straight Thinking" and the Red cover introduces the fact that this is a buzzing creative environment with a distinctive Yorkshire touch....
You can see below with the cover spread out...
The actual 4pp cover is printed on our Colorset Bright Red 350gsm (which then has the Greyboard mounted on the outside. The below spread shows the inside front cover, with the Colorset on the left, which has been silkscreen printed in one colour (white).
A striking feature is the 'three hole sewing' used for the binding (see below image). There are two 'banks' of three hole sewing - making six holes in all, using white thread.
Click on images to enlarge
The 32pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm. This choice of materials works with the design superbly. Lots of white space, with the paper feeling tactile and the predominant red and blacks looking really punchy and the four colour images looking fabulously detailed and crisp, in a way that they just wouldn't on a traditional uncoated paper.
Omnia has an uncoated look and feel but it has a surface treatment which means the printed result is similar to that of a coated paper - bright, vivid and punchy. The text throughout is printed offset litho.

The centre spread (below) with the two banks of three hole sewing in the spine.
Below image shows the top and foredge of the book and the way that the Greyboard is mounted on the cover. The total thickness is 9mm.
To go with the brochure, custom envelopes (324x265mm) were manufactured using Colorset Bright Red 120gsm and also silkscreen printed in white.

Detail of silkscreen on envelope
Art direction and design is by creative consultants Heavenly. Creative director on the project is Tony de.Ste.Croix.

Printing, including production of the silkscreen cover and the superb finishing and three hole sewing, is by Gavin Martin Colournet.

http://yhleeds.com/
http://heavenly.co.uk/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 12.09.2016