Crossing the Channel

This is an exhibition catalogue produced for the Gagosian Gallery in London for an exhibition held in the summer and it's just an exquisite piece of literature. The exhibition examines the cross-germination of ideas between London and Paris in the post war years focusing on the work and relationship of three artists, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Alberto Giacometti.

The size of the catalogue is 216x268mm, Portrait. The cover is our Construction Blackstone 1500 micron which works as a "raw" uncovered cover. The title is printed on paper and tipped on to a plate sunk panel on the front cover - really beautiful attention to detail.

The text pages are a combination of Offenbach Bible 60gsm which are 'French Folded' (32pp) and the 'Work'section which is printed on Hello (not ours ...from Robert Horne). The end papers are printed on Omnia Natural 150gsm.

Much of the work is reproduced in four colour black and white and a great deal of effort has been made at repro stage to make these not too colourful, they are very monotone but incredibly rich. Colour seperations are credited as being done by a company called Echelon in Los Angeles.

The image below shows the way in which the binding works - a cloth spine with the Construction Blackstone mounted over the top.

Design and art direction is by Sinéad Madden and it really is a beautifully designed publication. The superb print and finishing is by Beacon Press.

http://www.gagosian.com/

http://www.sinead.de/

http://www.beaconpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.11.2010

THE LIGHT - Portraits of the Hibakusha

...and I thought no one had noticed how tall I was!

Anyway, this beatifully folded and superbly executed piece, was sent to me by Leah and Sara at Happily Ever After. Below is the finished (folded up) piece which is A5 size:

- which then folds out like so...

THE LIGHT - Portraits of the Hibakusha - is an exhibition which runs from the 5th August- 8th October at the Brunei Gallery at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

The subject of the exhibitions is as follows: At 00.15am on the 6th August 2010 in London it will be 08.15am in Hiroshima and it will have been 65 years since ‘Little Boy’ was dropped on Hiroshima by the USA’s B-29 bomber ‘Enola Gay’. The exhibition of the 65 Hibakusha portrait paintings will last for 65 days, one for each year since the bombs were dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Each painting will be accompanied by a detailed description of each subject’s haunting recollection of exactly how they came to survive and be found after the bombing.

Hibakusha are survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japanese word translates literally to “bomb affected people”. There are no names on any of the Hibakusha Portraits as is the tradition in Japan all are ‘subjects’ and always remain unnamed.

The open size is 592x420mm. The job is printed on our beatifully thin and lightweight Offenbach Bible in 60gsm. It was printed and finished by Beacon Press, who have produced this really well - not only the print but the very tricksy folding!

...and thanks to Leah and Sara for sending it to me and for the lovely note - yes, it certainly is a blogworthy piece!

http://www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/hibakusha/

http://www.happilyeverafter.co.uk/

http://www.beaconpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.08.2010

Eye 76

Here are some images of Eye 76: The Music Design Special Issue. 

We have supplied Colorset Solar 120gsm for a section in the magazine which looks awesome!

Just printed in one colour, the section makes a real impact in the magazine and below are a couple of pictures taken at Beacon Press ...love the stack of Colorset on the end of the press. Thanks to Simon Esterson for sending me the pics.

See more at:  http://www.blog.eyemagazine.com/

Just goes to prove the power of using a self coloured paper - especially one that's 100% recycled and that costs a lot less than other, well known, coloured text and cover papers!

Eye 76 is available now from all good retailers!
http://www.eyemagazine.com/
ww.beaconpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.08.2010

Jobs from the Past - Number 7

Regular followers 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 twelve years ago.

Fairbridge Annual Review 1997/98 - Supporting inner city youth

This is one of my favourite pieces from the heady days of the 90's.

Designed by Lapot in 1998.

The material for this annual report was chosen to have a deliberately "inexpensive" feel but at the same time deliver a hard hitting message and have a real quality to it.

The size was A5 (reduced from A4 the previous year) portrait and is saddle stitched. 

The cover is a self cover material called EpisodeIV and is 115gsm. It is unusual to use a paper weight as a cover but it really works with this job. It is a cover but without a weighty, expensive feel.

It has a 44pp text which was printed on Optimale [Blanc Naturel] 120gsm which is a beautiful natural shade and works really well with the mono photography (sadly the mill that used to produce this paper, no longer exists)

The printing was by Beacon Press using their recently developed "Pureprint" environmental print technology. I recall that the images were reproduced as tritones and the detail, depth and reproduction is superb. http://www.beaconpress.co.uk/.

Photography was by Christine Donnier-Valentin

So what about the designers? Well sadly Lapot does not exist anymore. The founder Alexandra Lapot now works as a consultant http://www.alexlapot.com/. The creative Director on this project was Kate Hutchison who now works at Saffron http://www.saffron-consultants.com/ and Caroline Mee was the designer on the project and she is now at Irving http://www.irvingandco.com/

It is such a lovely piece of print.

http://www.fairbridge.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2010