McQ Women

McQ, is the contemporary brand from Alexander McQueen which takes inspiration from street culture "evoking the varied and ever-evolving style tribes that spring up around Britain’s rich music and art scenes. Drawing on references from uniform and the military, core staples of the British wardrobe are re-imagined each season in new guises. Traditional techniques are used in contemporary ways, creating pieces that are both functional and beautiful"

Creative Director of Alexander McQueen and McQ is Sarah Burton. This is the season's lookbook for women.

The size of the publication is 450x320mm, portrait and is a 12pp self cover. It is printed on our lightweight Offenbach Bible 60gsm and is a beautifully designed piece of literature.

The lookbook is printed in four colour offset litho and is a superb example of printing on Offenbach Bible - superb solid coverage and deep monochrome images reproduced in CMYK.

Click on images to enlarge

Due to the lightweight nature of the paper it just flops beautifully, with a bewitching feel.

Design and art direction is by Rupert Smith who is a freelance art director based in London. This is an elegant and splendidly produced publication. To get these dark images to look this good on an uncoated paper is a real achievement. Print is by Rob Squires at Pureprint.

https://my.mcq.com

https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.07.2023

UPM plans to close its Plattling Mill in Germany.

 

More sad news for the paper industry. This move would take out 380,000 tonnes of uncoated publication paper and 215,000 tonnes of coated publication paper. Around 400 jobs would go in this latest graphic paper capacity reduction by Finnish based UPM.

You can read the full article on Pritweek here...

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/german-energy-supply-uncertainty-a-factor-in-upm-mill-closure-plan

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.07.2023

Garden Scenes by James Ellis

Here are two beautiful new notecards published by James Ellis in a handy wallet pack containing eight cards.

Garden Bird House by Matt Johnson

The notecard designs are titled 'Garden Fork' and 'Garden Bird House' illustrated by Matt Johnson who lives and works in Cornwall. 

Garden Fork by Matt Johnson

Full images of the notecards are also displayed when the wallet is opened, along with information about the artist. The wallet measures 134 x 134 x 16mm. The cards are 120mm square, and the envelopes are 130mm square. 

The two designs are printed on the front and back of the wallet and each wallet contains four of each notecard together with envelopes.

The cards and the wallets are both printed on our Starfine, Natural 300gsm, which is an natural white, uncoated board with a lovely feel and great surface for printing. It is FSC accredited and also free from OBA's (optical brightening agents). The cards and wallets are printed offset litho by Alpha Colour in Gloucester.

The whole package is plastic free and 100% recyclable, which you can see from the handy information illustration on their website.

https://www.jamesellis.com/collections/notecard-wallets/products/garden-scenes-wallet-of-eight-notecards-by-james-ellis

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 

https://mattillustration.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.07.2023

Paper production in Europe falls further

This is a new article from Print Business magazine... "Paper production across Europe dropped faster last year than in the Covid years according to the Confederation of European paper industries (Cepi). Paper consumption and production across Europe in 2022 fell to a greater extent than in the Covid years. According to Cepi, the consumption of paper and boards fell 3.5% while production of paper and boards fell 6.5% in the same period."

"In many sectors, consumption fell by double digits, while production was hit by the loss of mills and paper machines, cutting overall production capacity. There were 23 fewer mills at the end of 2022 compared to the year before with 21 fewer carton board making and paper machines."

Read the full article here...

https://printbusiness.co.uk/european-paper-production-dives-says-cepi/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.07.2023

Orange Peel

Orange Peel is a publication with one goal... to put a smile on the readers face. It is designed to provide a sense of joy through positive content. Issue No.1 is an accumulation of artistic forms, including photography, illustration, painting, screen prints, poems and interviews. These transform the publication into a collectable work of art that provides the reader with an experience.

“Orange Peel” is the final major project by Alice Emery, a graduating student from the Arts University Bournemouth on the BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communications course.

Orange Peel features our Crush Citrus 120gsm, which is paper made using residues (15%) from the processing of citrus fruit and juicing process in Italy. This is sustainably sourced paper from Favini that uses waste and recycled fibres reduces the number of trees required to make the paper.

Crush Citrus 120gsm forms most of the text pages and is combined with other papers from that other well known "Hull based" paper merchant! (GF Smith)

Alice says..."These colourful pages of artwork make the publication feel more vibrant with a happy tone with the textures providing a tactile experience to ground the reader. The publication is size 270x360mm. This large format compliments the artwork in the publication making it feel important. The publication is bound with two short wire bindings allowing the pages to lay flat to fully appreciate the artwork on each page for an easy reading experience. To open the publication there is a wrap around using orange ric rac trim that the reader needs to unpeel to get to the content inside. This changes the way the reader interacts with the publication providing a tactile experience they can get their hands on and enjoy!"

Alice Emery is from Portsmouth and has always loved being creative, enjoying painting and drawing in her spare time. She has just graduated with first class degree BA (Hons) Fashion Branding & Communications. 

“Orange Peel” was a real passion project for me bringing together my love of art and fashion into creating a carefully crafted publication including content creation, branding and marketing. I am hoping to launch my career in fashion marketing using these skills and developing my practice.

The publication was digitally printed by Dayfold in Dorset with silkscreened additions.

Congratulations to Alice on a very accomplished piece of work and our best wishes for a successful career ahead.

https://www.graduatefashionweek.com/search-portfolios/alice-emery

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.07.2023

Lana paper mill to close

More sad news from the world of paper...

In April, Lana Papier, based in Strasbourg entered into an insolvency procedure and now, in the absence of a rescue deal or buyer for the business, a liquidation process began last month. The mill is now closed and machinery awaiting a buyer.

Lana made a range of specialist and bespoke papers spanning security, labels, publishing, technical, fine art and stationery papers, including the Distincton and Director brands of watermarked stationery papers.

This is very sad news both for the owners and the 67 staff at the mill but also for the industry.

You can read the full Printweek article here... 

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/specialist-papermaker-shuttered

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.07.2023

Blue Angel Certification

 Last week our new 'Blue Angel' certification arrived...

Fenner Paper has been certified for many years and I am often telling people about the Blue Angel mark as here in the UK, it is hardly known about or recognised, whereas in Germany (where it was established) and in mainland European countries, it is both highly visible on products and very highly regarded.

The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel) is a German certification for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects. The Blue Angel mark is the oldest ecolabel in the world, and it covers some 10,000 products in some 80 product categories!

It was originally conceived and put in place by the government of the former West Germany and has been awarded since 1978. The Environmental Label Jury (Jury Umweltzeichen) is an independent, decision-making body for the Blue Angel and includes representatives from environmental and consumer associations, trade unions, industry, the trade, crafts, local authorities, academia, the media, churches, young people and the German federal states. As a result, it isn't open to political interference, industry pressure groups or vested interests, either from industry or the fanatical green groups. This is the reason that I rate the scheme so highly and it frustrates me that the UK government has never had the guts to put such an independent system in place in the UK - equally it's a shame that there isn't a pan European system.

The award of the Blue Angel is preceded by a review of the entire life cycle of the products. Such review considers as many aspects of environmental and health protection as possible for the respective product. Subsequently, the criteria limit or rule out those environmental impacts which are considered to be the most important impacts for the respective product. The Basic Award Criteria for a product are specified for each product group and they are all published.

The Blue Angel covers a wide range of different products including paints, gardening products, construction, electronics and many more, including paper and board.

We carry products which have been awarded the Blue Angel mark. The Creative Print range of 100% recycled text & cover paper manufactured by Koehler Greiz mill carries the Blue Angel mark, as do the majority of the recycled colours in our Colorset range.You can read more about the scheme here:
https://www.blauer-engel.de/en

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.07.2023

Jobs from the past - Number 164

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 this one is from 2014

Jimmy Choo - Bridal 2014

This is a beautiful lookbook for the Jimmy Choo bridal range. Jimmy Choo is a now iconic luxury fashion brand defined by an empowered sense of glamour and a confident sense of style. The cut, design and exceptional Italian craftsmanship has created a global luxury brand being awarded 2008 'Designer Brand of the Year' from the British Fashion Council.



The size is 210x148mm portrait. The 16pp text is printed on our Omnia 120gsm with the 4pp cover on a 300gsm "house silk". The weights are just right - Omnia is a very bulky sheet, so this works perfectly at this , opening nicely with the pages turning well.

As always (...this is the plug for the paper!) the images look superb on the Omnia; the fleshtones and the reproduction of the jewels and metallic images with their darker areas and heavy ink coverage - keeping all the detail in those heavy areas of CMYK together with uncoated paper tactility which would be lost on any other paper.  The other important thing to note is that unlike most uncoated products, you can successfully gloss UV varnish on this paper (with a single hit) and it works really well - as you can see in the below pic...

Another luxurious touch is the binding. It is 'singer sewn' in a white thread, which exudes quality whilst also being a practical binding solution.

Art direction and design is by the Jimmy Choo in house design team. Print and print production is by Gavin Martin. Printed offset litho in four colour process.

 

https://www.jimmychoo.com/en/bridal-boutique/

https://www.jimmychoo.com/

https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.07.2023