Alex Dordoy - The Moss is Dreaming

Blain|Southern is a contemporary art gallery with galleries in London and Berlin. It was started in September 2010 by Harry Blain and Graham Southern, who had sold their previous gallery, Haunch of Venison, to Christie's.

 

Alex Dordoy was invited by Tom Morton for the first in a series of exhibitions, collectively titled “Lodger”, a new series of exhibitions at Blain|Southern, Running concurrent to the exhibitions in the central space, the series expands Blain|Southern’s programme into new territories. Alex Dordoy for his exhibition titled “The Moss is Dreaming” developed a new body of work exploring a central characteristic of 21st Century visual culture: the restlessness of the image, and the instability of the surfaces on which it manifests.

 

This is the catalogue for the exhibition which ended in November last year.   

This size of the catalogue is 210x148mm, portrait. It has a 4pp cover printed on Omnia white 200gsm with a 12pp text printed on Omnia 150gsm. The Omnia works superbly, tactile - lots of character but no loss of quality in the reproduction.

Click on images to enlarge

A lovely feature is the use of white wire for the wire stitches (staples) - although  it's not immediately obvious why use white on the outside, but you can see why, when you see the centre spread - excellent attention to detail.

Click on images to enlarge

Detail showing white wire on centre spread.

Printing is by Identity, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. The job is digitally printed using a Ricoh digital press.

Art direction and design is by Blain|Southern.

https://www.blainsouthern.com/
http://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.01.2018

Lino King

When I started writing this blog back in 2009, it was because I wanted to share printed projects (mainly on our papers) with a wider audience than I can ever hope to visit personally. As this blog has evolved over time, a rewarding aspect has been showing work which has then inspired designers working in other areas. For example I have had a designer working in fashion promotion tell me they have been inspired by an article about a property brochure ... that's a satisfying feeling!

This project I believe will be one of those that will be of interest to all readers as it combines superb design, digital technology, hand embossing and wonderful use of colour.

Ashley Hutchinson is the designer and printmaker behind Ash Leaf Printmaking Studio. He produces limited edition lino and wood cut prints with a twist, as he incorporates embossing into all of his designs. All of the prints are embossed by hand using his three etching presses including his 1920s proofing press 'GEM'. Ash has been designing and publishing contemporary greeting cards for over 10 years.

This range of eight cards is called the Stardust Floral range. They are all printed on our Stardream range of pearlescent and metallic papers in 285gsm. Colours used are Opal, Rose Quartz, Lagoon, Vista, Azalea, Citrine, Fine Gold and Flame. Stardream is made by Gruppo Cordenons in Italy.

The 4pp cards are 145mm square

Showing anything in relief with my limited photographic abilities is hard, so it's easier for me to show the card printed on Stardream Opal 285gsm above ...and the inside of the same card below:

The embossing of the designs is truly outstanding but you'll have to take my word for it. It's also the colour combination of this range which I find so inspiring...

Production at Linoking is all in house. Printing is on a Canon inkjet printer and they are hand embossed.

As I mentioned earlier, the colour combinations is something I find inspiring - this purply/blue shade printed on the Stardream Azalea (below) is stupendous.

Sarah Glennie is my colleague who deals with our products that we sell into this market. The greeting card "industry" is quite a separate area of the creative world. It's interesting to me that there is so little crossover between the "corporate" design for print market and greeting card publishers who are responsible for putting the cards on the shelves in our shops around the country.

...anyway, I hope this article will inspire all creatives out there!

https://www.ashleafprintmaking.co.uk/stardust-floral-range
http://www.cordenons.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.06.2017

2016 Christmas Card by S-T

Thank you to everyone who has kindly sent me cards this festive season. I've received a wide selection of really lovely designs and beautifully produced cards, not all on our paper, of course! ...but many are.

Click on images to enlarge

This one particular card, I did think I would write about, because not only is it printed on our Colorset Crimson 270gsm (100% Recycled) but it is printed in an unconventional way. The card is designed by London based studio, Design by St. Titled "Who will you be this Christmas?" it is an infographic flow diagram which is very funny and well written. 

The finished size of the card is A6 (105x148mm) and it is an 8pp concertina format.
 The card is printed in just one colour - white. The result is fantastically effective and I looked at it to see how it has been achieved:

 Was it matt hot foil blocking? Silkscreen? HP Indigo digital white?
...Nope, none of the above!
In fact, it is printed by a Scottish printer called Kestrel Press based in Irvine. They have a digital press which is toner based and this is the result - in just one pass! The result is truly superb and as I discovered from speaking to Graeme Ferguson at Kestrel, achieved at a much more economical price in comparison with the processes I listed above.

Click on images to enlarge

Creative Partners at Design by St are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard.

http://www.designbyst.com/
http://www.kestrelpress.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.12.2016

Christmas card by S-T

Thank you to everyone who has kindly sent me cards this Christmas. I've received a wide selection of really lovely designs and beautifully produced cards, not all on our paper, of course! ...but many are.

 

This one particular card, I did think I would write about, because not only is it printed on our Colorset Bright Red 270gsm (100% Recycled) but it is printed in an unconventional way. The card is designed by London based studio, Design by St. The size of the card is A6 (105x148mm) landscape format and is hinged at the top of the card.

Click on images to enlarge

The card is printed in just one colour - white. The result is fantastically effective and I looked at it to see how it has been achieved:

Was it matt hot foil blocking? Silkscreen? HP Indigo digital white?
...Nope, none of the above!
In fact, it was printed by a Scottish printer called Kestrel Press based in Irvine. They have a digital press which is toner based and this is the result - in just one pass! The result is truly superb and as I discovered from speaking to Graeme Ferguson at Kestrel, achieved at a much more economical price in comparison with the processes I listed above.

Creative Partners at Design by St are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard.

http://www.designbyst.com/
http://www.kestrelpress.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.12.2015