Sublime Data

For over 20 years, the British artist Dan Holdsworth has been blending art, science and nature to produce works which challenge our perceptions and reinvent the notion of landscape. He studied photography at the London College of Printing (1998), and has exhibited internationally including solo shows at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, and Barbican Art Gallery, London; and group shows at Tate Britain, London, and Centre Pompidou, Paris. 

Published by Alaska Editions, Sublime Data is divided into three sections, each being accompanied with an essay.

The size is 320x230mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover using a 115micron acetate and a 136pp text.

So the amazing thing about this publication is the use of a one sided 90gsm for the text, which is a lightweight 'cast-coated' paper which is high gloss coated on one side and dead flat uncoated on the reverse - our Astralux 90gsm. Above image is a gloss coated spread and below is an uncoated spread... 

Colour reproduction is superb and with the light 90gsm weight, the pages flop and fold beautifully.

You probably won't be able to guess, or even believe, is that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. It was printed on their Ricoh C901 digital press and the result is superb. For a limited run (this is a limited edition of 75 copies) printing digitally makes a project such as this viable - and on a a material like this, which many litho printers are worried about!...just look at the print result in the detail image below...

The 136pp, sit nice and flat...

...and barely 'gapes' in the middle.

The saddle stitching with black wire is really neat:

My thanks to Typecast Colour for allowing me to photograph their file copy. Publication is designed by Sébastien Montabonel and this really is a superb example of a limited edition artbook. 

http://holdsworth.works/

http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Zanders - see a paper mill in 1 minute!

This new video has recently been posted by Zanders in Germany. It is just one minute long but gives a great insight of the size of machines, the number of coaters and the capacity at the mill ...it's got to be worth taking one minute to watch it:  

As many of you will know, we are the UK stockists for the Chromolux range of cast coated papers...

If you would like Chromolux samples, just drop me an email justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://zanders.de/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.12.2019

Chromolux Swatch

Chromolux is a 'cast coated' paper which has a very high gloss and lustre and has an international reputation for quality. Last year we became their UK stockist and distributor.

 The mill has produced some "fan" swatches which are housed in this foam book cover.

Chromolux 700 is a white premium, super glossy, coated board with an ultra smooth surface. Ideal for luxury packaging applications. The range has excellent flatness and dimensional stability and is direct food contact approved (ISEGA). FSC Certified 

https://zanders.de/en/home.php

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.04..2019

Extreme Imagination

The first ever exhibition of works of art created by artists who have no “mind’s eye” casts new light on the creative brain. Extreme Imagination: inside the mind’s eye features works by people who cannot visualise, alongside works by those who have particularly vivid mental imagery.

This is the catalogue for ‘Extreme Imagination: inside the mind’s eye’, an art exhibition produced by the Eye’s Mind research team at The University of Exeter College of Medicine and Health, curated by Susan Aldworth and Matthew MacKisack.

Extreme Imagination: inside the mind’s eye presents their artwork, inviting us to consider the impact of these phenomena on the creative process. How can someone make anything without being able to imagine what they want it to look like? Is there a distinctly hyperphantasic kind of art? Aphantasia and its opposite teach us about human diversity: the easily-missed, potentially startling differences between individuals’ inner lives. The work of the participating artists – and designers, architects, and writers – demonstrates the diversity of means by which things come to be made, challenging long-held beliefs about what it means to be ‘creative’. Find interviews with participating artists here.

The catalogue is divided in two halves in what I would describe as a 'double-ender' - the catalogue can be read from either side – essays on the art, science and philosophy of ‘extreme imagination’ one way; turn it over and you see artist interviews preceding their work on the other.

Size of the publication is 190x115mm, portrait and is perfect bound. The 108pp text is printed on Chromolux 1 sided 120gsm from Zanders in Germany. Chromolux is a cast coated paper, which is gloss one side and uncoated reverse. This publication has been collated in such a way that the gloss coated is one side facing an uncoated side as you can see in the image below:

The uncoated side is matt and tactile as you can see below...

Gloss spread on left, uncoated on right...

reading the other way, uncoated on left, gloss spread on right...

The cover is printed on the black cover material from that other, Hull based, paper merchant! Below shows the very neat, perfect binding.

Extreme Imagination: inside the mind’s eye ran at the Tramway in Glasgow, from January to March and is now at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, until the 2nd of June.

Catalogue concept and design is by Valle Walkley. Print is by Push.

http://sites.exeter.ac.uk/eyesmind/2018/12/12/extreme-imagination-inside-the-minds-eye/
https://en-gb.facebook.com/thevisualimagination/
http://www.vallewalkley.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2019

Chromolux celebrates 60 years!

There are many paper companies which can claim to have been around for hundreds of years, but there are very few brands which have been in existence for sixty years.

First produced and sold in 1958, Chromolux is sixty years old this year.

Here I am with Karsen Kahmann, sales manager for Zanders on their stand at the Packaging Innovations exhibition at Olympia yesterday for an impromptu Chromolux 60th Birthday party!

Chromolux is a 'cast coated' paper which has a very high gloss and lustre and has an international reputation for quality and we are pleased to be their UK stockist.

https://zanders.de/en/home.php

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2018

Fenner Paper 2018 Diary

If you are a wonderful customer and therefore a deserving user of our papers! ... you will be receiving your new 2018 diary in the post next week. Here's a sneak preview...  

 

As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format. The cover board is printed offset litho in two special pantone colours on Colorset 270gsm.

The 40pp text is simply printed in one colour, offset litho, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

 

The diary has been produced in collaboration with the London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA) and features cover artwork by William Luz.

Tucked into your diary will be a handy Chromolux desk calendar to celebrate the fact that the Chromolux range from Zanders is now available through Fenner Paper! 

www.londonbookarts.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.12.2017

What is ...Cast Coated Paper?

What is ...Number 5
Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.

 

What is ...Cast Coated Paper?

'Cast Coated' papers and boards have an extremely high gloss, reflective surface on one side with an uncoated reverse (see below about 2 sided boards).

The coating formulation is a mix of china clay, satin white (calcium sulphate and alumina) and precipitated calcium carbonate (chalk) held together with binding agents such as latex - so basically the same coating as for all coated papers (matt/gloss/silk).

The high gloss result is due to the use of a chromium plated roller, heat and elongated drying line. The wet coating which is applied in the traditional manner, via a series of applicator rollers, is pressed against a highly finished chromium plated metal cylinder which is heated on the inside. As the coating film dries, it takes on the even, level glossy surface of the casting surface (ie the chrome plated roller).

 

The process used today has remained largely unchanged since the early 1950's when an American company called S.D Warren developed and then patented the process. In order to stimulate the market in other areas of the world, they 'licensed' the technology to paper manufacturers, including two in the UK: Star Paper Mill (Blackburn) in 1954 and Tullis Russell (Scotland) in 1989, plus various other paper mills in Europe.

 

Cast coated papers and boards are mainly used in labelling and the "luxury packaging" market. In the 1960's and 1970's, when glossy was seen as modern and luxurious, cast coated products were really big. The products had names such as Astralux, Chromolux, Lustrulux - (you probably get the common "lux" theme!) and luxury packaging for such brands as Chanel relished in the clean, sleek, modern look.

 

A development was the addition of pigments (colours) on the coating and self coloured boards with a colour one side and a white uncoated reverse became a highly desirable board for business cards and membership cards - back in the 1960/70/80's when colour printing was expensive and much printing was still letterpress, using a coloured board (especially a glossy one!) was a way of introducing colour, cost effectively into a black and white world! 

Further developments have included the additions of metallic colours and pearlescent colours. Also, two sided products (in white) are now available by 'pasting' two one sided boards together back to back.

You maybe thinking from the way I am writing this that cast coated papers and boards are a thing of the past, they most certainly are not! It's just that with the advent of film lamination (more commonly known as gloss lamination) a large part of the market for cast coated boards disappeared. Although it should be remembered that gloss lamination is a plastic based process and makes recycling, much, much harder. If you want to see a beautiful job produced on Astralux, you don't have to look any further than the Alexander McQueen project here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/mcq-aw13.html

 

Fenner paper is the UK stockists for the market leading Astralux range manufactured by Favini in Italy (although, as they say on the BBC "other brands are also available")

The range comes in 27 different shades and also includes a black board, reverse, with a shiny black coated front - very nice... 

www.favini.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.05.2014