Showing posts with label Boss Print. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boss Print. Show all posts

Friday 26 August 2016

Boxes in Boxes

The nature of this blog means that most of the projects I write about are either on paper supplied by Fenner Paper and more often than not, because I've had some personal involvement in the project. However, sometimes a piece of print comes along (where I have had no involvement) that is so utterly worthy of note that I feel it needs bringing to your attention and this is one of those pieces!

This is actually quite a high profile piece of work having won a yellow pencil at D&AD this April, so you may have seen it before but for those of you who haven't read on...

Firstly I'll explain the background. Boss Print are a printer based in Acton, west London, who's work has appeared on this blog many times before. Over the years when they had put out box-making to various 'trade' box-makers, they had been frustrated with the quality of the boxes they had received back and however hard they managed the project there was always some dissatisfaction with the quality of the end result. Just to clarify, we are talking about 'paper over board' rigid boxes here. Consequently, last year they invested in their own equipment, staff and  (most important of all) staff training so that they could make their own boxes 'in-house'. They started to make beautiful boxes (and they really are the most amazing quality) but were faced with the problem of letting their existing and new customers know about this new service ...enter Studio Sutherl&!

Jim Sutherland has worked with Boss for many years and having seen the amazing quality of the boxes created this superb demonstration piece using the words "There was an old lady that swallowed a fly" - from a well known cumulative children's song and working the story into the "Russian doll" type set of boxes.
To give you an idea of scale, the size of the first box (which is a lid pictured above) is 208(h) x 178(w) x 83(d)mm. The lid comes off to reveal what is described as a 'flush finish box'.
The 'flush finish box', (in white) which has a magnetic flap, opens to reveal a 'clamshell' box (in sand colour)
Click on images to enlarge
The clamshell box opens to reveal a 'flush finish lid/tray box'
 ...just look at the superb finish on these boxes - an amazing snug fit and beautifully turned edges and corners. This is real craftsmanship. 
The Flush finish box opens to reveal an 'overlap lid/tray box' (pale blue)
As you can see the hot foil blocking appears on the top, sides and even insides of the boxes.  
 
Inside the overlap box is a 'matchbox' (yellow)

Opening like so... 
Inside the matchbox (which has a red liner) is a slipcase (grey)
...and inside the slipcase is a little casebound book.  
The book gives the lyrics of the whole story/poem/song written by Alan Mills with lyrics by Rose Bonne in 1952. It also lists all the styles of boxes and all the credits for those involved, including all the paper, which was supplied by Fedrigoni.
Design is by Studio Sutherl&. Creative director is Jim Sutherland and the designer on the project is Alice Tosey.

It really isn't easy to try and convey the quality of manufacture of these boxes. Everything fits superbly and there isn't a ripple or a bowing of the board to be seen on any of these boxes. The two images below, I hope will demonstrate the super tight tolerances that the boxes are made to:
This is the whole set of boxes sitting together...
You can read more about the project and see much better images that I can take on the following link:

It most deservedly won a yellow pencil at this years D&AD awards and was shortlisted in two categories of the DesignWeek Awards, winning the award for Print Communications.

...and I'm sure if you have a project, where you are looking for a beautiful bespoke rigid box, Boss print would be more than happy to hear from you! ...just email Bonnie Lo (bonnie@bossprint.com) at Boss and I'm sure she will be pleased to help.

https://www.bossprint.com/
http://studio-sutherland.co.uk/
http://www.fedrigoni.com/en/
Posted by Justin Hobson on 26.08.2016

Wednesday 25 May 2016

The Graphic Lexicon Poster Series

At the D&AD awards last Thursday, this project was awarded a wooden pencil. This series of posters has been created using the 'running sheets' from the sections of a book produced by Jim Sutherland. The book is called The Graphic Lexicon and is a celebration of the stories – fact and folklore – behind English words, symbols and punctuation.
I shall write about the book in a future post, suffice to say that it is just printed in two colours, offset litho. For these posters, the title was overprinted (in red) on one side of each section - hiding and highlighting parts of the words - the result in some instances, being the creation of new words. The results were not contrived, they are all happy accidents!
Click on images to enlarge
The paper used in the book and consequently the posters is Shiro Echo, White 100gsm (100% Recycled) which has just the right neutral shade of white for a book.
Printed Offset Litho in two colours with a further one colour overprint by Boss Print who are based in Acton, London.
I've only reproduced a few here, in total, it is a series of twelve posters.. You can read more about the project here: http://studio-sutherland.co.uk/projects/the-graphic-lexicon

www.dandad.org
http://studio-sutherland.co.uk/
https://www.bossprint.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 25.05.2016

Monday 30 November 2015

DesignWeek Awards 2015

On Thursday I was lucky enough to be at the DesignWeek Awards, held at the Roundhouse in London's Camden Lock. I was kindly invited by Fenton Smith and Bonnie Lo from London print company BOSS, who were also one of the sponsors and printed the awards catalogue. Along with paper industry colleagues Pari Blackbeard (Fedrigoni) and Megan Simpkins (GF Smith) we were joined on a table with some of the other award sponsors. Fenton and Bonnie with Pari pictured below:
Photo courtesy of Pari Blackbeard at Fedrigoni
The Roundhouse was an excellent venue, with 40 tables packed with the design industry's finest. In total there were twenty awards covering the diverse world of design from graphics, signage, product design, interiors etc.
The awards were hosted by the ever popular Sue Perkins who did a good job of rattling through the categories as rapidly as she could!
Every one of the winners deserves massive congratulations but in particular I must mention Magpie, who were nominated for five awards and scooped three on the night! Pictured below are David Azurdia, Ben Christie and Mike Fischer from Magpie.
Image courtesy of Magpie Studio
Below shows the contents of the excellent goody bag which included the awards catalogue printed by BOSS (paper donated by Antalis) and a cute, bright red Moleskine notebook, supplied by Noted in Style.
Image courtesy of Noted in Style. http://notedinstyle.co.uk/
It was a great evening - good company and food and my thanks go to BOSS for inviting me and my fellow industry companions!
http://www.designweek.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 30.11.2015

Friday 13 March 2015

Discover better - Green Park

...just the cover makes the difference!

Here's a project that is exceptional, because of the way the cover is used to add to the quality and feel of the whole project.

Green Park is a business park located close to Reading.  Managed by Oxford properties, Green Park extends across 195 acres of landscaped parkland encouraging biodiversity. More than 50 bird species have been ‘twitched’ there, while Longwater Lake, a 1,200 freshwater lake bisecting the site is home to an abundance of fish and invertebrates. All Green Park buildings have solid ‘green’ credentials and there is a 120 metre wind turbine designed by Foster + Partners generating 2.3 megawatts of power annually.
This publication is to promote the development for Oxford properties and has a deliberately 'notebookey' look and feel. The size is 252x190mm, portrait and is perfect bound with an 8mm spine.  The cover is printed on Colorset Lime 270gsm ( ...which is 100% recycled - in line with the development's eco credentials) and is hot foil blocked in matt white foil.
The cover has a tactile, engaging, notebook feel, it features two bound ribbon bookmarks, rounded corners and a pocket on the inside back cover.
The below image shows the capacity pocket on the inside back cover, complete with 'thumbcut' - beautiful detailing.
This image shows the way that the pocket is also round cornered. Excellent.
The 80pp text is digitally printed on an uncoated sheet, as the budget dictated, although there was a subsequent run which was litho printed and section sewn. The cover gives it a quality feel and keeps it miles away from the naff "glossy" brochures which are often produced for property companies - the cover sets the tone and feel for the whole publication
Another lovely detail is the grey elasticated band which goes round the whole book, attached on the back cover and looks great.
Below image shows the detail of the rivet and where the elasticated loop attached on the outside back cover, which is also hot foil blocked.
Design is by Purpose and the design director on the project is Lee Manning. Production was managed by Jim Campbell.

Print is by Boss based in West London - incidentally they are one of the few printers who have hot foil blocking 'in house'.

http://www.greenpark.co.uk/
http://www.purpose.co.uk/
https://www.bossprint.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 13.03.2015

Thursday 21 March 2013

Landor: Little book of tweets

 Landor produced their liitle book of tweets containing some of their favourite highlights from 2012. 
Size is 120mm square and it's 24pp self cover, saddle stitched. Printed on our Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm throughout. This is an "Indigo ready" sheet for digital printing, manufactured by Favini so this was printed digitally on an HP Indigo press and as you can see, it looks excellent.

Needless to say, design is by Landor. Printing, on their HP Indigo press, is by West London based BOSS
 
Posted by Justin Hobson 21.03.2013

Monday 25 July 2011

Print Innovation

These days,they're often not very much good news to be had in the printing industry, but here's a good news story from West London based printers BOSS.

This printer has always been innovative  - they had one of the very first Indigo digital presses - ten years ago!  They specialise in producing high quality Litho & digital print across a wide range of sectors and markets and they have now launched a seperate online business producing online greetings cards on their new site:  www.bosscards.com

Using their Indigo press with a range of selected artists they produce all the cards individually. As you would expect,  you can personalise the designs to include your own messages and names but there is also a degree of typographic freedom which other online card suppliers don't offer. 

Each week they have a featured artist and the image below is from the current featured artist, Joseph Shepherd  http://www.becomingsustainable.net/josephshepherd/gallery.html

Now there are obviously the other card companies (...you know, the spacepigs which advertise on the telly!) but for those that are a bit more design savvy, I think it's well worth having a look at Boss cards...

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.07.2011

Thursday 5 May 2011

Whistles S/S 2011

This is the latest Spring Summer lookbook for fashion retailer Whistles.
The size is 235x290mm Portrait, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover (which is deliberately lightweight) on our Colorset (100% Recycled) Light Blue 120gsm which is printed in just one colour litho (black) with a 28pp text on Marazion Ultra 90gsm, so the whole job has a deliberately 'floppy' feel.
As with the previous issue, there is lovely sense of light and space with this piece with some spreads having a completely blank page on left or right. It really allows the superb photography and the subject room to breathe. The brochure is printed in one colour (cover) and CMYK for the text.

Art Direction and design is by Simmonds Ltd. Photography is by Karim Sadli and Styling is by Francesca Burns.

Print is by Boss based in West London - incidentally their press, which is a Heidelberg CD 74-6LX is fitted with an inking/blanket/impression cylinder washup device - which (in theory) means "hickey" free printing ...impressive stuff! (and interesting in a sort of nerdy way!)

NOTE - Added 26.10.2011. Following my visit to Heidelberg UK, I've found out that this system is called a Vario Dampening System and here's how it works: "Vario operation reduces the formation of hickeys on the printing plate due to a differential speed from the dampening form roller to the plate. The reduced speed is attained by the separately driven distributor roller spinning around 12% slower" ...very clever stuff.  Thanks to Paul Chamberlain at Heidelberg (www.uk.heidelberg.com) and Fenton Smith at Boss for explaining it all to me.
http://www.simmondsltd.com/
http://www.bossprint.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 05.05.2010