Christmas Crackers using Crush Corn

Luisa Vicinanza-Bedi only started learning how to make bean to bar chocolate in 2017. Since then she has established her own shop Luisa's Vegan Chocolates based in Sneinton Market, Nottingham and has a strong online presence. Luisa has also picked up a handful of awards at the Academy of Chocolate including  ‘UK Rising Star’ in 2019.

Photographs courtesy of Luisa's Vegan Chocolates

As part of Luisa's special Christmas offerings, there are these yummy Christmas Crackers - packed full of goodies and all products happen to be vegan too!

Photographs courtesy of Luisa's Vegan Chocolates

These beautiful crackers are printed on our CRUSH range of papers, made using 15% agro-industrial residues combined with post consumer waste and virgin fibre (all FSC accredited). The cracker body is using Crush Corn 200gsm and the chocolate box wraps are 120gsm. They are superbly digitally printed and foiled by Rose Press in Nottingham, who usually specialise in Wedding stationery.

Photographs courtesy of Luisa's Vegan Chocolates

Luisa's Vegan Chocolates is the first and only Bean-To-Bar chocolate maker in Nottingham, taking her chocolate through the delicate artisan process by hand. Luisa directly sources her beans to pay her farmers a better than FairTrade price for their crop, at least double the standard market rate which is wonderful.

So in this year of the online Christmas Shopping, how about supporting an ethical small enterprise?... and what better present to get your Mum, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, Grandma, Children etc etc - You can buy online HERE.

https://luisasveganchocolates.co.uk/

https://www.rosepress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.12.2020

Crush 03

Crush is a beer 'zine, which is an ongoing side project for design and branding studio O Street. The project allows the studio to combine a bunch of things they love: illustration, print, design and beer!

The focus of issue 3 is 'women in beer'. Historically, brewers were primarily women, until many were targeted as witches and this subject provides a rich seam of content for illustration ...perfect, as we are only a few weeks from Halloween! 

The size of the zine is 297x105mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. There is a 4pp cover printed on our Colorset (100% Recycled) Amethyst 270gsm with a 32pp text on our Crush Corn 100gsm, which is made using 15% residues from the processing of corn plus recycled and FSC fibres. You can read about it here.

Click on images to enlarge

There are articles about six beers, breweries and women in brewing, all beautifully and wittily illustrated.

Click on images to enlarge

There is also photography but you might have noticed that the images have an unusual look. The reason is that this 'zine is 'Riso' printed as all good zines are! If you aren't familiar with Riso printing, you can read about it here. Image reproduction is quite crude as it is a monotone with a coarse screen but the result is really unique and characterful and the illustrations have a wonderful quality to them. 

The below image shows all the illustration spreads, all printed 2 colour Riso - SUPERB! 

Click on images to enlarge

The project was co-ordinated by Jonny Mowat at O Street and my thanks to him for sending me file copies...

The zine is Riso printed and saddle stitched by Good Press who are based in the centre of Glasgow and they really have made a beautiful job of it.

https://www.ostreet.co.uk/

http://goodpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.10.2020

Healeys Notebooks

Who doesn't love a notebook ...?

This is a lovely series of promotional notebooks manufactured by Healeys Printers in Ipswich. Healeys are one of only ten carbon balanced printers working with the World Land Trust (the same organisation we work with, when we supply carbon offset paper) and have been since 2013. They are also FSC accredited and a member of the Two Sides campaign group.

This collection of notebooks highlights their commitment to the environment and uses the Crush range, manufactured by Favini and supplied by Fenner Paper in the UK. The paper is made partly using the residue from the industrial processing of crushed citrus fruit, coffee, nuts, olives, kiwi, corn, lavender cherries and grapes, these agro-industrial "end of life" products replacing up to 15% of conventional tree pulp.

The notebooks are A5 (210x148mm) portrait, with  4pp cover and 28pp text. The covers are on a variety of different shades in 250gsm and the text pages are printed on Crush, Corn 100gsm.

Intro pages...

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You'd be right in thinking that there's not much to write about a notebook, after all it's just ruled lines...

...but you'd be wrong, as the singer sewn binding is superb!

Everyone loves Singer sewing!

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There are also a couple of pages of useful information about print and paper:

...and the World Land Trust endorsement:

A couple of other things worth pointing out. The paper for the text pages is 100gsm, which is the right weight (or lighter) for a notebook, otherwise you don't get enough pages in the book and it could also 'gape' in the inside spine of the book, which as you can see, this book sits nice and flat.

The books which are printed on deep shades are printed using Healeys digital white toner, as you can see on the cover below. Digital white toner is a much more cost effective solution than white silkscreen, hot foiling or other methods of digital white printing and the results are great...

The notebooks have been produced during the lockdown period and are being sent out now a part of a marketing campaign focusing on Healeys commitment to the environment.

https://healeys-printers.co.uk/
https://www.worldlandtrust.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.08.2020

Sustainable Print

Park Communications in London has an enviable reputation as being one of the Capital's foremost corporate printers and one with the highest environmental credentials, having won Printweek Environmental Printer of the year in 2017 followed by a highly commended in 2018.

Park has produced this guide aimed at providing tips about sustainable printing for brands and includes articles on sustainable materials, sustainable large format, and the creative opportunities of sustainable printing.

Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait. The 4pp cover is printed on Crush, Corn 250gsm with the 8pp text on Shiro Echo, White 120gsm.

The above image shows a project for Spitfire Audio, printed by Park on a combination of Shiro Echo and Flora Giglio, which I wrote about on this blog here.

Our Crush range from Favini in Italy, is manufactured using 15% agro-industrial residues from the processing of corn and hopefully, in the below image, you can see the small specs and inclusions in the paper.

The guide is written, designed and printed by Park Communications and is digitally printed using their HP Indigo press. It is also available as a pdf download here.

https://www.parkcom.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.07.2020

Crush - a truly sustainable paper

Many of you will know about our lovely range called CRUSH made by Favini in Italy. The paper is made partly using the residue from the industrial processing of crushed citrus fruit, coffee, nuts, olives, kiwi, corn, lavender cherries and grapes, these agro-industrial "end of life" products replacing up to 15% of conventional tree pulp. The range is available in 100, 120, 200, 250 and 350gsm and the shades are natural, earthy tones and the feel of the paper is natural and tactile.

The 15% process residues are combined with 40% recycled fibres (post consumer waste) and the remainder is FSC virgin pulp and the product is FSC certified. The range is produced using green energy and is carbon balanced at the mill gate (we can also supply the paper in the UK, certified as carbon balanced)

This is the current swatch which shows the colours and range of weights...

Below are more detailed images and hopefully you can see the small specs and inclusions in the paper. Corn, Citrus and Grape, pictured below, are totally natural shades produced without the use of any dies, which can result in an amount of shade variation from batch to batch.

Click on images to enlarge

The deeper shades are produced with the addition of environmentally friendly vegetable dies which ensure greater colour consistency...

To accompany the swatch, the mill have produced a wonderful photographic book called X-RAY, printed on a the Crush range (in CMYK) throughout.

Nick Veasey is an internationally renowned photographer and has specialised in using incredibly detailed X-Ray photography and can quite legitimately be described as an Xray artist.

Above images are CMYK, below the images are reproduced as Duotones.

Below image showing right hand page printed in Silver (Pantone 877)

The book is French folded and is 16pp (made using 8x french folded sections) which I hope you can see from the below image. The book is made using all the different shades in various weights and too complicated to list here!

The book is perfect bound and is beautifully finished with binding tape wrapped round the spine. The book has a dustjacket (with 118mm flaps).

Design and art direction is by Silk Pearce.

If you would like a copy of the X-Ray book, just ask me for one! Email justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.nickveasey.com/
https://www.favini.com/gs/en/
https://www.silkpearce.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.04.2020

Chernobyl - Truth in our Times

Historian Serhii Plokhy's masterful book, 'Chernobyl: History of a tragedy' was the winner of the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. This is a publication based on the Baillie Gifford prize lecture delivered by the author at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2019. 

This small booklet is published by Edinburgh International Book Festival and printed in Edinburgh by Stoneberry Press. The size is 198x128mm, portrait. The cover is printed letterpress on Crush, Almond 350gsm, one of our ranges made by FAVINI in Italy and is made using 15% residues from the industrial processing of agricultural foodstuffs. As a result, the paper does have inclusions and a "rustic" feel, which you might just be able to see from the image detail below:

The 24pp text is digitally printed on our StarFine Natural White 115gsm, which is a lovely neutral white and gives the publication the correct look and feel of a book.

Above is the centre spread, which shows the 'singer sewn' binding and a detail image below...

Below shows the spine, with the singer sewing. The cover has two parallel creases, which has "squared off" the spine. Clever and really effective.

Below shows the detail of the outside back cover. The cover is beautifully printed letterpress in two browns.

Published by the Edinburgh International Book Festival with support from the Baillie Gifford prize. Design, print and production is by Evgenia Kochkina at Stoneberry Press in Edinburgh.

http://stoneberrypress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.03.2020

Bricks & Mortar

Bricks and Mortar is a project by third year graphic design students at the University of the West of England (UWE). The project culminated in an exhibition at The Vestibules (Bristol City Hall) on Monday 18th November showcasing the student work followed by a discussion about the housing crisis...

"The scale of Bristol’s housing crisis has been revealed in a detailed new report that presents the latest facts and figures, including the housing market, rental prices, council housing and homelessness in the city. Number after brutal number sets out the harsh reality for thousands of Bristolians, as well as the complexity of the problem facing city leaders: More than 11,000 languish on a waiting list for a council house. Average house prices approach £300,000. Average rents exceed £1,000 a month. Around 120 people sleep rough every night. The list goes on. Many of these issues go unnoticed; nothing can be solved if the issues remain invisible. Our challenge is to highlight the problems to passers-by, in ways that are hard to ignore."

The team of UWE student organisers for this project are: Emilia Bermejo-Ford, Marta Celio, Ella Staines and Olivia Bellingham. The UWE tutors are Jennifer Conway and  Jessie Young known as Jen and Jessie of Conway and Young.

These promotional flyers for the project are digitally printed on our Crush, Corn 120gsm. Size is A4 folded to A6.

If you aren't familiar with Crush, it is one of our ranges made by FAVINI in Italy and is made using 15% residues from the industrial processing of agricultural food processing. As a result, the paper does have inclusions and a "rustic" feel, which you might just be able to see from the image detail below:

This is an excellent example of using an interesting material to raise the production values on a little project and has made all the difference.

http://bricksandmortar.site/empty_houses.html
http://www.conwayandyoung.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.01.2020