Growing through the Seasons 2026

The "Growing through the Seasons" calendar, beautifully illustrated by Isla Middleton and written by Bryony Middleton, is a guide for gardeners and vegetable lovers. 

Images kindly supplied by Isla Middleton

This calendar is a celebration of seasonal flowers, fruit and vegetables illustrated with full page original designs.

The calendar has been created to inspire, encourage and teach how to sow, grow and harvest fresh produce straight from the garden. It is 300mm square in size and a month to view format.

It is printed on our PaperWise Natural 130gsm and 295gsm, which is manufactured from 100% agricultural waste - this is the stems and leaves left over the harvest and which is usually left in the field and burnt. You can read all about PaperWise HERE. As you can see from the images PaperWise is a natural shade and is completely unbleached and home compostable too ...a perfect choice for this calendar!

You can see the designs for each month here...

Isla has created this calendar with her sister Bryony Middleton, Head Gardener at Sharpham Trust in Devon and also a Growing Chart will feature at the back, with an overview of the sowing and harvest schedule as you can see here:

The calendar is superbly printed, offset litho by Ashley House Printing in Devon.

I was on holiday a couple of weeks ago and popped in to Halen Môn, the Welsh sea salt manufacturer and saw the calendar for sale in their gift shop!

Strangely enough Halen Môn have appeared on this blog before as the designer of their identity and packaging (Sid Madge) printed a casestudy back in 2011 using our Omnia, which you can read about HERE.

My thanks to Isla for sending one of the calendars and also allowing me to use the images from the website.

The calendar is for sale in many excellent shops and is also available to buy on-line here: https://www.islamiddleton.co.uk/product-page/2026-growing-through-the-seasons-calendar

https://www.islamiddleton.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.08.2025

John Morgan 1973–2025

An announcement from John Morgan Studio...

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of John Morgan, who died on 2 September 2025, in his library, surrounded by his family and his books. He was 52.

John was a devoted husband to Claire and a proud father to Rudy, Francis and Iris. He was the cherished son of Bob and Maureen, and a much-loved brother to Jane.

In 2000 John founded John Morgan studio in London where he developed a widely celebrated body of typographic work that was quietly radical: elegantly simple, powerfully expressive. His creativity also extended to theatre and film, with projects including Blank Dummy and Julie. In 2017 he co-founded the digital type foundry Abyme.

Alongside his practice, John was a dedicated teacher. He lectured at institutions including Central Saint Martins and the University of Reading, where he taught on the MA Book Design course from 2007–2016. Since 2016 he was Professor of Design, Typography and Book Art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he established Klasse John Morgan.

Those who knew John remember an uncommon honesty and steadiness. He held his course with strength and humility – ‘so strong and so mild’, as one friend put it. His integrity bred a rare trust, and when making design decisions many colleagues would find themselves asking, ‘What would John do?’ He was a mentor and a friend, connecting people and giving form to words and work for nearly 30 years.

Books were central to John’s life. His own book Usylessly, which explores the non-literary aspects of the 1922 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, was published in December 2021. In 2025 he set up the publishing imprint Ten Thousand Angels Press. Its first title, Usylessly (edition two), will be published later this year, followed by Baskerville’s Teardrop Explodes: A Selection of Books as Muses, completed shortly before he died.

A funeral will take place in John’s Oxfordshire village on 11 September 2025. On that day, we invite those who knew and loved him to take a moment to reflect and remember his life.

Messages of condolence and support for John’s family can be sent to info@morganstudio.co.uk

John Morgan

6 January 1973–2 September 2025

John Morgan studio

info@morganstudio.co.uk

morganstudio.co.uk

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This is such sad news. My contact with John was infrequent but always a pleasure. He was always considered, thoughtful and respectful of me as a supplier. My condolences to his family, friends and the studio.

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.09.2025

DO Radio

The "DO" lectures is an organisation started by David Hieatt one of the founders of howies. The idea is to get together people who are real "doers" to do lectures and make them as widely available as possible. Now they have launched Do Radio to broadcast new and the previously recorded lectures.

My first post of the month is to look back at work from previous years, so what better time to revisit this wonderful promotional mailer produced for the Do Lectures in 2009. It was designed by the howies in house team and was specified on Offenbach Bible 60gsm. It's A2 folding down to A7.

 

The size is A2 (420x594mm) folding down to A7 (105 x 74mm)

Claire Margetts (administrator at the do lectures) was very grateful as I put them in contact with the printer who would print on Offenbach Bible and said I was a real "doer" 

The job was printed in 2 colours offset Litho by Principal Colour. It was machine folded and then hand finished. http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Above are some previous howies catalogues that we have supplied Colorset (100% recycled) for the covers. Designed by Nick Hand

https://thedolectures.com/

https://thedolectures.com/do-radio/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.09.2025