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:

http://studio-sutherland.co.uk/projects/boxes-in-boxes

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

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

D&AD President's Lecture - Philippe Starck

Yesterday evening I went to the D&AD presidents lecture to hear eccentric designer, Philippe Starck at Shoreditch Town Hall.

It was billed as follows: "Notes from Elsewhere" will open new windows into the inner workings of this prolific and profound creative ‘supermonkey’, as he challenges us to explore the space between dreams and reality via carefully chosen topics to entertain, inspire and provoke the audience"

Yep, well I reckon he did that OK! He certainly did jump around the many subjects he spoke about and as promised to his wife, hardly swore or mentioned sex at all!

In my opinion, attending events like this is very important. It helps to get other people's perspective and hear what else is going on. At £15 per ticket, it's good value too....

 

http://www.dandad.org/en/creative-advertising-design-events/?j=48

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2015

What is ...a Crow's foot?



What is ...Number 4

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 ...a crow's foot (in printing)?

Crow's feet

When the term "crow's foot" is thrown into a print related conversation, it leaves many who haven't been immersed in printing terminology baffled. Most people have heard of the term "crow's feet" applying to those narrow lines around the outside corners of your eyes which becomes more prominent as you grow older (don't worry, I haven't started writing a beauty hints blog!)

In the world of print and print finishing, the term "Crow's foot" refers to the creasing that you can get on a folded sheet which looks rather ugly, as the picture below: 

showing detail



A real crow's foot

Needless to say, the term is derived from the shape and pattern of a Crow's foot, a Crow, unlike some other birds, having a three toes. The problem of this ugly creasing appears to be caused by two factors which can either happen individually or in tandem. Firstly, there is the distortion caused by folding paper on itself and on itself again and again etc. The problem is that paper roughly doubles in size with each fold and this makes it harder to bend and results in the distortion (creases) on the inside sheets.

 

This effect happens whether paper is folded by hand or by machine. The second factor that causes or more particularly accentuates the "rippling" generally making more creases is mechanical folding. The increase in the creases is caused by air escaping, as it has nowhere to go (-readers familiar with printed sections being folded for binding will know that a rough perforation is made along the fold to allow the air to escape).

 

So, as you can see, this is clearly a problem - although it is one of those issues which generally rears it's ugly head when you are least expecting it! Many people think by using a lightweight material, such as our Offenbach Bible in 40, 50, 60gsm it will solve the problem - sadly the lighter weight material won't solve the problem on it's own!

 

How to get round it? - if producing an item which requires folding down, the best thing is to concertina one way and then concertina the other way. This means that the paper is never folded on itself and on itself again. It reduces the stress, prevents distortion and means that you never see a crow's foot! There are many examples of this already on the blog, here's a couple of perfect examples by NB:Studio and Studio8: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/d-new-blood-2010.html, http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/shop-london.html

 

However, I can also show you a perfect example of just how not to do it! This folded down poster is a project for D&AD. Unfortunately there is no design or printer credit, so I can't reveal who was responsible, but it's the perfect example of a great idea but executed with lack of thought and poor production!

A5, portrait in size, reveals this amazing spectacle on the first spread...

close up detail

I'm sure that because of the quantity that would have been printed, the likelihood is that it would have been machine folded as this looks like the creasing that happens when air is trapped. The point is that it could still be machine folded but in a concertina which would have prevented this unsightly effect:

The whole poster:

...as many of my school teachers would have said about me ..."could have done better"!

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.04.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 51

Regular followers of this blog 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...

Manchester Dogs Home Annual Review
2001-2002

This is a stunningly produced charity annual report. Manchester based agency, The Chase provided creative services for the dogs home on a pro-bono basis which resulted in many great pieces of literature being produced in the early 2000's. This report, under the title, 6,796 Dogs, was produced by the London office of The Chase and was much talked and written about, winning several awards. 

Size of the report is 420x297mm, portrait and is a 28pp 'self-cover' and is unbound. It was produced on our Optimale, Blanc Naturel 120gsm (which sadly is no longer available, since the mill closed).

The superb photography is by Manchester based photographer, Mat Wright.

Above, one of the illustrated images made up using binary code characters.

Picture below, showing the fact that it is unbound - left loose, just like a newspaper:

The report won the DesignWeek Award for Annual Reports in 2003, was nominated for a D&AD award, received a Gold award from the Art Directors Club together with various other accolades and regional awards.

Creative Director on the project was Harriet Devoy at The Chase in London, senior designer was Stephen Royle. Harriet moved to Apple in 2007 and Steve has since returned to his roots in Manchester and is creative director at The Chase in Manchester.

 

The report was printed offset litho by New Leaf Press, based in Manchester who made a beautiful job of printing the project. The project was sponsored by the Co-Operative Insurance Services (CIS) who funded the printing, so it's only fair that over ten years later, they should get some credit. 

http://www.thechase.co.uk/

http://www.dogshome.net/

http://www.matwright.com/

www.co-operativeinsurance.co.uk

http://www.newleafpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.01.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 26

Regular followers of this blog 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...

D&AD Membership Campaign

August 2006

Having introduced several new membership categories, D&AD appointed NB to produce a comprehensive promotional campaign. In NB's own words: "To appeal to the target audience – the creative industries – we opted for clarity and wit. Using objects commonly found in creative environments and items related to specific membership benefits, we created collage set pieces which were photographed by John Ross. Striking, cohesive and cost effective, the campaign launched with a fold out poster."

The A1 posters which folded down to A5 were printed on Offenbach Bible in 60gsm because at this weight (and if folded correctly - i.e. concertina and concertina, therefore allowing all air to escape) there are no "crows feet" appearing - if you're not familiar with that term, it's where a rather ugly crease appears crinkled from the centre of the fold, splaying out like the bird's foot.

Creative Directors on the project were Nick Finney Ben Stott and Alan Dye. Designer was Eng Su.

It was printed and finished by Pureprint (48,000 copies, as I recall). Pureprint were the print sposnor of D&AD at that time.

http://www.dandad.org/

http://www.nbstudio.co.uk/

http://www.benstott.com/

www.johnross.co.uk/

http://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.12.2011