Bamboo Paper

Our friends at the Favini paper mill in Italy pioneered the use of alternative fibres. In the 1990's Maggie Philbin on BBC Tomorrow's World (...do you remember that?) introduced the original Favini ecological paper Alga Carta and the mill has continued development of other eco-products over the last thirty years.

Tree Free has been setting the standards for papermaking with zero impact on forestry for more than twenty years. Now with an improved recipe and a refreshed range that includes a new 380 gsm weight ideal for tags, cards and packaging, Tree Free uses 75% Bamboo Fibres with 25% cotton linters. Both are renewable annual crops which yield high quality fibres giving a natural tactile finish to the paper and excellent printability. 

To complete the story of sustainability, Tree Free is recyclable, biodegradable and made using EKOenergy from a hydro electric power station. Tree Free carries the FSC™ certification, even though like the name implies it has no impact on forests.

It is available in two shades, Bamboo Natural and Bamboo Cream. If you would like one of these lovely swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.03.2024

SUMO - up to 3mm thick!

SUMO is our a heavyweight, thick board manufactured by FAVINI in Italy. It is available in black and white and the consists of 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm up to a whopping 3mm thick  ...seriously chunky! Originally just in Black and White, the range has now been extended to include a small range of colours - five shades all available in 1mm thick and below is the new lighter weight swatch...

 Size of the swatch is 240x152mm with 10mm spine

Thanks to the dyeing process, the colour distribution is consistent throughout to give excellent results especially when the edge is visible. The finest quality makes Sumo perform excellently for invitations, tags, covers, business cards, luxury POS material and high-end packaging.

The SUMO range is FSC certified. Below shows the five new shades, all available in 1mm thick.

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

https://www.favini.com/gs/en/products/sumo/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2023

Garden Scenes by James Ellis

Here are two beautiful new notecards published by James Ellis in a handy wallet pack containing eight cards.

Garden Bird House by Matt Johnson

The notecard designs are titled 'Garden Fork' and 'Garden Bird House' illustrated by Matt Johnson who lives and works in Cornwall. 

Garden Fork by Matt Johnson

Full images of the notecards are also displayed when the wallet is opened, along with information about the artist. The wallet measures 134 x 134 x 16mm. The cards are 120mm square, and the envelopes are 130mm square. 

The two designs are printed on the front and back of the wallet and each wallet contains four of each notecard together with envelopes.

The cards and the wallets are both printed on our Starfine, Natural 300gsm, which is an natural white, uncoated board with a lovely feel and great surface for printing. It is FSC accredited and also free from OBA's (optical brightening agents). The cards and wallets are printed offset litho by Alpha Colour in Gloucester.

The whole package is plastic free and 100% recyclable, which you can see from the handy information illustration on their website.

https://www.jamesellis.com/collections/notecard-wallets/products/garden-scenes-wallet-of-eight-notecards-by-james-ellis

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 

https://mattillustration.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.07.2023

Community Clothing 04

Founded by British Fashion Designer Patrick Grant, Community Clothing is a social enterprise with a simple mission - to make excellent quality affordable clothes for men and women, to create great jobs for skilled workers and by doing this help to restore real pride in Britain’s textile communities. They do this by working with under utilised UK factories during their quiet periods, which is a great concept.

This is Community Clothing's look-book and catalogue CC4 and it is an absolutely superb publication, wonderful art direction, photography and printing. I wrote about the previous publication CC3, last year.

The size is 315x210mm, portrait and is a 32pp self cover which flops and rolls really nicely in the hand....

Click on images to enlarge

The publication is printed on our Shiro Echo, White 80gsm which is 100% Recycled and also carries the FSC Recycled classification. 

Shiro Echo is available in two shades; there is a white shade (which is a natural/off white) which is a bit like a newsprint/newspaper shade and a Bright White shade.

The publication is printed offset litho in CMYK throughout. The colour is bright and vibrant and the image reproduction is excellent as I hope you can see - bear in mind it's printed on an 80gsm 100% Recycled!

Below is a detail image which shows the excellent image quality - note the excellent fleshtone reproduction.

Click on images to enlarge

The below spread explains the mission and the locations in the UK where the 28 factories are located.

Design is by Moving Brands. Printing is by Principal Colour. A really superb piece of design and print.

https://communityclothing.co.uk/

https://www.movingbrands.com/

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.12.2020

New SUMO swatch

SUMO is our a heavyweight, thick board manufactured by FAVINI in Italy. It is available in black and white and the consists of 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm up to a whopping 3mm thick  ...seriously chunky! Last year, the range was extended to include a small range of colours - five new shades all available in 1mm thick and below is the new lighter weight swatch...

 Size of the swatch is 240x152mm with 10mm spine

Thanks to the dyeing process, the colour distribution is consistent throughout to give excellent results especially when the edge is visible. The finest quality makes Sumo perform excellently for invitations, tags, covers, business cards, luxury POS material and high-end packaging.

The SUMO range is FSC certified. Below shows the five new shades, all available in 1mm thick.

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

http://www.favini.com/gs/en/fine-papers/sumo/features-applications/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.08.2020

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

Shiro Echo is 100% Recycled Paper

Many readers will know of our lovely range of ecological papers from Favini called SHIRO. Favini is a paper manufacturer based in Italy with mills in Vicenza near the city of Venice and at Crusinallo. They have taken a lead in the utlisation of non wood pulps since the early 1990’s and they are the manufacturers of the SHIRO range.

With the demise of the ArjoWiggins recycled mills and with it the products Cyclus and Cocoon, many printers and designers have been turning to Shiro Echo as an alternative.

Shiro Echo is available in two shades; there is a white shade (which is a natural/off white) and similar to the old shade of Cyclus and a Bright White shade which is similar to the old Cocoon. It is 100% Recycled and also carries the FSC Recycled classification.

As you can see from the image below, we have good stock availability in the UK, in fact many, many tonnes!

You can see the range here.

If you would like a swatch, please email me Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.05.2019

REMAKE swatch

This is the new swatch for the wonderfully exciting REMAKE range from Favini. This paper really is unique as it is made partly using the discarded residue of the leather manufacturing process and is a revolutionary example of ‘upcycling’.

The dictionary definition of ‘upcycling’ is to reuse discarded objects or materials in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the origin. Remake is leather ‘upcycling’ on an industrial scale and represents the latest frontier in upcycling in the paper sector. This unique and innovative paper replaces 25% of wood tree pulp with leather residues.

Click on images to enlarge

Remake comes in six natural shades and in weights from 120gsm and with three shades available in 520gsm! Remake is not only a unique paper made of leather: it’s also 100% recyclable and compostable, and perfectly suited to luxury printing and packaging.

Click on images to enlarge

The residues, which are visible on the surface (as you can see in the above image) give the paper its distinctive look and its amazing soft and velvety feel. Remake contains 40% of post-consumer waste, is also FSC accredited and the leather by-products are sourced from traceable Italian origin.

Favini have also produced an "inspiration booklet" titled Up-Cycling. The book shows different print examples, including foiling, silkscreen, offset printing etc...

Favini won the top award at the European Recycling Awards last year. The awards are organised by the European Paper Recycling Council (EPRC) and the ceremony was held at the European Parliament in Brussels last October.

If you would like a swatch or print booklet, email me: Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.05.2018