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

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!

https://www.bossprint.com/

http://www.designweek.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.11.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 66

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...

Meyouheshehimherthings - 2000

This is a project produced as a student promotion for the Salvation Army Trading Company.

The 'Meyouheshehimherthings' promotion travelled nationwide to student fairs to draw attention to Salvation Army charity shops, tempting students in to buy second-hand clothing for prices much lower than high-street retailers. Peter & Paul (at DA) created this perforated postcard book as a giveaway, to highlight the clothes and to give students something to write to friends and family on (in this pre-digital age!)

The finished size of the postcard book is A5 portrait (210x148mm)

It is formed of 6 panels, making a 12pp concertina folded booklet, with images one side and space for writing on the reverse.

Click on image to enlarge

Below are the spreads as they appear in the book:

Front Cover

The cards are perforated horizontally and vertically to produce A6 size cards. It is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 250gsm, which has a neutral whiteness and just suits this piece of literature perfectly.

A clever feature of these cards is to include a discount card. This is a perforated credit card size card which punches out  and when presented with a valid NUS card, gives the holder a discount. Of course, these days, there'd be an app for that!

A particular feature that is worth pointing out, is the perforations. As you can see from the below picture, perforations can look great, even beautiful. As I have pointed out on this blog previously, these perfs only look this good because the designer took the time to explain what they wanted to the printer it's worth asking the printer to show you different types of perforations that are available - it doesn't cost a penny more!

 

This project was designed at a now defunct agency called DA in Leeds, but the creative directors on the project and the two people who drove the project are Peter Donohoe and Paul Reardon and the project is attributed to Peter and Paul who went to found their agency under that same name: http://www.peterandpaul.co.uk/. Unfortunately I can't find it in my records who printed the project.

 

Interestingly, this project was the overall winner in the 2001 DesignWeek awards in the Print Design category. Interestingly this piece won the award over a commended entry by The Partners and other shortlisted entries from Pentagram, GBH, Addison, Salter Baxter and Lippa Pearce ...and I still have the awards supplement!

The fact that it won the overall winner is testament to this piece of print design. As it says in the DesignWeek awards supplement 'Bright colours and bold typography gives the design direct impact, appropriate for the student market  - who said charity work had to look worthy?'

 

http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/

http://www.satradingco.org/

http://www.peterandpaul.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.04.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 31

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...

Ballpoint 

Exhibition Catalogue 2004

In 2004, Angus Hyland, a partner at Pentagram's London office, curated an exhibition celebrating 50 years of the Parker ballpoint jotter. Introduced in 1954, the Parker Jotter sold more than 150 million pens worldwide and was Parker's first ever ballpoint pen. Angus's aim was to explore and celebrate the artistic potential of the humble ballpoint pen. His inspiration came from a collection he had begun to make of the doodles and drawings made by his fellow Pentagram partners during their international meetings. A conversation with his wife, the illustrator Marion Deuchars, gave rise to the idea of an exhibition of artwork created using only ballpoint pens. The result was Ballpoint, a collection of works by over 50 fellow creatives from around the world.

I remember that I went along to Pentagram for a meeting with Angus together with Gary Bird from Gavin Martin. Angus briefed us about the project as a whole and the exhibition catalogue in particular. He showed us some of the submitted exhibits including the school desk (see below) which illustrator Billie Jean had submitted - not just a photograph, Billie went out and bought a desk, illustrated it and sent the whole desk to Pentagram - how cool is that!

A spread showing work by Ian Wright and Billie Jean.

The brief was to produce something that had the actual look and feel of a sketchbook rather than something that just reproduced the images. He didn't want a pastiche, just something that felt realistic ...and of course a solution that was also affordable. After discussing pagination and economical formats with Gary, the result is a book of 235x300mm, portrait, saddle stitched. The 72pp text was printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm, which has the utilitarian feel but which would reproduce some of the more demanding images really well. The cover is Idaho Blu Sky 275gsm, which has an "excercise book feel" and colour and which worked really well with the blue binding tape that went down the spine. The tape is also used to create a pen holder - there is a full flap on the inside back cover which is glued  down allowing a slot with the loop of tape which cleverly holds the pen.

A spread showing a detail from Roderick Mills’ “The skies are full, 101 aircraft, 101 pens (no.2).”

Work by Angus Hyland and Marion Deuchars.

Invitation to the private view:

Images from the exhibition:

I wasn't sure how I could pick one or two people to highlight in this piece, so I've listed all the contributors here:

Ceri Amphlett, Lorenzo Apicella, Ron Arad, Alan Baker, James Biber, Nicholas Blechman, Anthony Burrill, Margaret Calvert, Nina Chakrabarti, Paul Davis, Mike Dempsey, Ryan Denton, Marion Deuchars, Stephen Doyle, Daniel Eatock, Jonathan Ellery, Sara Fanelli, Alan Fletcher, Jeff Fisher, Jason Ford, Tom Gauld, Michael Gillette, Fernando Gutiérrez, George Hardie, Thomas Heatherwick Studio, Julian House, Sharon Hwang, Angus Hyland, Benoit Jacques, Billie Jean, Kerr Noble, David Lancashire, Uwe Loesch, Ross Lovegrove, Fernando Medina, Abbott Miller, Roderick Mills, Flavio Morais, Christoph Niemann, Woody Pirtle, Shonagh Rae, Lucinda Rogers, Paula Scher, Sophie Smallhorn, Leonardo Sonnoli, DJ Stout, Adrian Taylor, Patrick Thomas, Peter Till, Aude Van Ryn, Ian Wright.

From my point of view, it was a great project to be involved with. It won  many awards including the 2005 DesignWeek Award for Promotional Brochures, the Best in Book Creative Review Annual 2005 and the main award in the Books and Exhibition Catalogues category at the 23rd International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno in 2008 and probably many other awards I'm not aware of!

A particularly lovely touch (especially from my point of view) is the beautiful way in which our business cards were illustrated on the credits page:

Art direction is by Angus Hyland with artwork by Marion Deuchars. Designer on the project was Charlie Hanson. Charlie has since established her own studio together with Jessie Earle called Studio 10½. The exhibition was co-curated by Steven Bateman, PR and gallery coordinator at Pentagaram, he is now an established and revered wordsmith.

It was beautifully printed and finished by Gavin Martin in London.

If you've got a copy, you're lucky as it's an absolute gem!

http://www.parkerpen.com/
www.pentagram.co.uk
http://mariondeuchars.com/
www.tenandahalf.net
Steven Bateman: http://www.26.org.uk/members.asp?ID=3442
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.05.2012