Friday 27 April 2018

Multiplicity Bristol

Yesterday evening, we were pleased to be the sponsor of  Multiplicity in Bristol. Hosted by Foilco, this is the fifth multiplicity event held at various cities around the UK. Just over 200 creatives came together at the exhibition space at The Paintworks in Bristol to hear three great speakers.
The three Multiplicity speakers were as follows...

Stu Tallis from Taxi Studio
www.taxistudio.co.uk

Graham Wood, founder of Tomato
www.cargocollective.com/grahamwoodwork

Mark Paton & Kate Marlow, co-founders of Here Design
www.heredesign.co.uk

They were introduced by Matt Hornby, Sales Director at Foilco, pictured below.
The event was a total sell out and the money raised from the nominal ticket price was all donated to local Bristol charity, Studio Upstairs. The event was also supported by the West of England Design Forum (WEDF).
Graham Wood, below,  with his "magic" talk...
During the talk by Stu at Taxi Studio, a new initiative was introduced - they launched WEDF UP ... a design community advancing women's aspirations in the West of England. It was apt for Taxi to launch this campaign as at Taxi, they have more female staff than male. It was two of their (female) staff came on stage to make the announcement. A really interesting campaign, you can read more about it here.
During the day, the Foilco team ran a series of hot foiling workshops for both students and creatives. The below picture shows the workshop set up (and the Fenner Paper stand too!)
 There were posters and giveaways, all produced on Fenner Paper - Colorset and our SUMO 1mm.
This is the fifth event hosted by Foilco at cities around the country. Multiplicity is curated by Dave Sedgewick at Studio DBD and he does a wonderful job, picking great venues and getting fab speakers.

...and now a plug for Foilco! This company has been serving the graphic arts industry for over 25 years, offering the largest range of hot stamping foils in all sectors. With a wealth of expertise on all types of applications, they have a wide range of colours and grades offering endless creative possibilities to designers the world over. This is their sample selection - if you are a graphic designer, you really should have one of these sample packs, which you can get by emailing sales@foilco.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 27.04.2018

Wednesday 25 April 2018

AA Public Programme - Spring 2018

The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme of exhibitions, lectures, symposia and publications have given it a central position in global discussions and developments within contemporary architectural culture.

This is the leaflet produced to promote their public programme.
Size of the leaflet is 105x222mm, folding out to 630x444mm. It is printed in just one colour both sides, offset litho.
Click on images to enlarge
It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 60gsm, which is a neutral white recycled paper with a utilitarian feel that really works well for this project with it's simplicity and wonderful illustration by Constanze Hein, Book Book. A beautifully simple piece of literature which just used all the elements correctly and sets this piece miles away from what most organisations do ... which is a 4 colour leaflet on a bit of silk coated paper!
The Redeem 100% Recycled flops and folds well in the hand...
Click on images to enlarge
You can see from the detail below, the natural white of the Redeem 100% Recycled, similar in shade to newsprint:
Print and finishing is by Push Print based in London. Printed offset litho in just one colour. Graphic design is by Jan Blessing at the AA Studio.
A superb example of a really well considered publication where the design, materials and processes are just right for the content.
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/
http://www.push-print.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 25.04.2018

Friday 20 April 2018

Elefantenhaut

Originally launched in 1950’s, Elefantenhaut is a speciality paper with a distinctive veining effect typical of papers produced in Germany at the time.
The name of the product directly translates to “Elephant Hide” which indicates the toughness and durability that this paper possesses - but I should point out that no Elephants were harmed in the production of this paper!

Elefantenhaut is a graphic paper manufactured using a special production process which results in a paper which is resistant to scratches, abrasion and dirt and can also be wiped clean. The paper has long fibres and is very strong making it the perfect covering material for books and boxes.
We now have this new swatches which shows the seven different colours that the range is available in. The detail image below shows the distinctive veining effect.
Elefantenhaut is ideal for menus, certificates, envelopes and all applications where a durable, natural product is required.

These fine papers are manufactured at the Reflex Paper mill in the town of Düren in Germany, which was founded in 1857 and the mill also produces transparent papers, label papers and artists papers. Elefantenhaut is made from Chlorine Free pulp (ECF) and carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification

If you would like one of the new swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.04.2018

Tuesday 17 April 2018

LCM Examinations Brochure

The London College of Music was founded by G Augustus Holmes in 1887. The College actually began as an examining body, but a teaching element was then created early in it's history. The LCM awarding body is the University of West London and this is the literature which explains the history, syllabus and accreditations.
Click on images to enlarge
The size of the brochure is 210x210mm, square, saddle stitched and features a 4pp cover printed on Omnia 280gsm with an 8pp text printed on Omnia 150gsm.
Omnia was chosen because it would work with the rich detail that is present in the images but that would still give a natural look and tactile feel. As you can see from images, some of the photography is quite dark, but there is no loss of detail, which is what can often happen printing on an ordinary uncoated paper.
Click on images to enlarge
Printed offset Litho throughout plus a dark grey special.
Printing is by Dayfold, who are based in Dorset, with David Crompton handling the project. Dayfold have made a superb job of it - colour reproduction and solids are excellent.

http://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/
https://www.dayfold.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2018

Friday 13 April 2018

St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

The Annual St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose takes place next month on Sunday - 20th May
Wayzgoose is a term (unfamiliar to many people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an away-day to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.
 
However, in this instance the St Bride's Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale. There are companies selling type, letterpress accessories, ink and lots of letterpress printed books and cards and the proceeds from the event go towards the St Bride Foundation.
Why not come along... ?
 
For interest, this is what it was like last year:
 
Posted by Justin Hobson 13.04.2018

Tuesday 10 April 2018

Roksanda Accessories #2

In the decade since it launched at London Fashion Week in 2005, the ROKSANDA fashion house has evolved an unmistakable woman-centered design aesthetic. The brand is favoured by Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama and is described as "Sophisticated and feminine yet playful and effortless, its iconic ready-to-wear and accessories are instantly recognisable...."

This is a piece of supporting promotional literature produced for their accessories collection. The format is a very simple 16pp broadsheet. Size is 594mm x 420mm folding to 148mm x 210mm.
Above image shows the front, folding out to the spread below...
...and then out again:
...and then out into the full A2 size broadsheet below:
The paper chosen is our Omnia 120gsm - because it would work with the dark image and still maintain the detail that is present, especially in the shadow areas but still giving a natural look and tactile feel. It is printed offset litho in four colour process (CMYK) and there is no loss of detail, which is what can often happen printing on an uncoated paper, just superb reproduction. Printed one side only, the reverse is left plain white and unprinted.
Creative direction and design is handled by the in house team at Roksanda. Print is by Avenue Litho who are based in Hackney in East London

http://roksanda.com/
http://www.avenuelitho.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 10.04.2018

Saturday 7 April 2018

Outside - David Magee

Outside is a limited run hardcover book which is a twenty-five year retrospective by landscape fine-art photographer David Magee. The book accompanies an exhibition shown at the Herrick Gallery in Mayfair in February.

The 116pp book, contains words and 48 images from the exhibition, which is a selection of Magee’s work, taking in landscape photography of scenery in Ireland, Greece, India and the US.

The book is 310mm square and is published by Concentric Editions. Printing is by Boss and uses their Vivid Colour process and the result is truly spectacular!
The book is printed on a variety of text and cover papers from our friends at that other well known "Hull based" paper merchant including the cover material on Iwahada Rockskin from Takeo in Japan, but the book also includes a number of French-folded chapter sections, as well as short page tip-ins on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

The great news is that it's just been announced that the book has been awarded a Silver Award at the 2017 Tokyo International Foto Awards
The Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) receives thousands of international entries, which are judged by an equally international Jury. During May, there is an exhibition of TIFA award winners at the CA Gallery, just in case you happen to be in Japan....

Congratulations to David Magee, who I have known for many years. Speaking about this retropsective book, he says “In my photographs, there is no real sense of time or specific place. The location is totally secondary to the feeling.The feeling is everything. I aim to portray not just what exists, but what is not obvious; that imperceptible element that stirs emotion and a sense of contemplation…”

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.04.2018

Tuesday 3 April 2018

Jobs from the past - Number 102

Regular 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 1997.

4th Estate
New Titles Jan-Aug 97
The Fourth Estate is a publishers that many people will be familiar with. Founded by Victoria Barnsley in 1984, Fourth Estate built a reputation as one of the most innovative and eclectic imprints in the industry, with a reputation for publishing a wide variety of critically-acclaimed and beautifully-produced titles including many prize winning authors (Booker, Orange etc).

One of the things that made the Fourth Estate stand out from the crowd was their catalogues - they were simply amazing pieces of design and print! I was lucky enough to work on a few different catalogues in the late 90's and early 2000's. Every single one was different and brilliant. Good designers were commissioned, Bogue & Hopgood, Instinct, Pentagram, Rose Design, Frost, Neville Brody, Tom Hingston to name a few. In line with their reputation for publishing unconventional yet innovative titles, the design of the catalogue was equally eclectic.

This was a one of these very distinctive catalogues. The major difference between this edition and the other catalogues is that this one is A4, portrait, whereas normally they were a more unusual format.
This catalogue is quite simply made up from an artwork of badly made photocopies, which have then been photographed on backgrounds or with appropriate objects.
Click on images to enlarge
The whole publication is printed in just one colour as greyscale - it's worth remembering that this is back in the days when one colour print was significantly cheaper than four color printing. The result is amazingly effective, as I hope you can see from these spreads....
Click on images to enlarge
The 4pp cover is printed on 250gsm and 48pp text on 120gsm. The paper used is our Neptune Unique SoftWhite, which is an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - just the right material for black type to look brilliant on.
As you can see from the image below, the 48pp text on the 120gsm sits nice and flat, without 'gaping' in the middle of the book.
The below image shows the spread on the inside back cover, with the credits. Design is by Vince Frost and Derek Samuel at Frost Design in London. Photography is by Glen Erler and printing is by House of Naylor.
So, where is everyone now....

Victoria Barnsley, founder of Fourth Estate, joined Harper Collins as CEO and Publisher in 2000 when it acquired her company. These distinctive publications continued to be commissioned and produced for a few years after becoming part of a larger group. Sadly (and I guess it was just a matter of time) the Fourth Estate became a section within the Harper Collins specialist catalogue.

The House of Naylor went into liquidation in the early 2000's. Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia in the early 2000's and runs Frost* in Sydney. Derek Samuel worked in London and New York and has returned to his native Australia.

...and Fenner Paper? Yep, we're still here!

Looking through my pristine copies, it still looks and feels fantastic.

http://www.dereksamuel.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 03.04.2018