Jobs from the past - Number 70

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...

Splash of Paint - 1999
"Why not go out on a limb... that’s where the fruit is" is a quotation from Mark Twain and forms the introduction for this excellent piece of print from over fifteen years ago. Splash of Paint are a design consultancy based just outside Reading and this was their promotional brochure produced in 1999.  

Click on images to enlarge

Size is 330x240mm portrait. The brochure is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite and is just a beautiful piece of print. It has a 16pp text on 155gsm and a 6pp cover on 250gsm, but more about that later!

The brochure is three hole sewn but with a difference ...there are two banks of thread, making it six hole sewn in total! The thread is a natural colour.

One of the things that I'm sure you will be able to see from these pictures is just how exceptional the image reproduction is. The retouching is credited as being by Film Creative Services but I can't seem to find them online. The publication is printed offset litho in four colour process and the result is superb, it looks just as fresh and vibrant now as it did back then.

Earlier I mentioned it was a 6pp cover (with a difference). The extra flap is on the inside back cover but it is pasted down, which not only adds extra weight to the cover but allows the die cut tabs to pop out to hold either an A4 letterhead or card. Smart idea!

Below picture shows the exterior shot of the binding:

Design is by Splash of Paint and the creative director is Malcolm Hatton. Print production was by Alex MacLennan who is now a partner at Urban Print Support.

The project was printed  by a west London company called Fernedge, who were an excellent print company in their day. Pippa Redmond (Mustoe) was Managing Director at Fernedge. They ceased trading, having become Image Litho, in around 2003.

This brochure is exceptionally well printed and is still one of the best samples on Neptune Unique SoftWhite that I have in my collection. From my recent contact with Judith Evans at Splash of Paint, they still consider it as one of their favourites as well!

http://www.splashofpaint.com/

http://www.urbanprintsupport.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.08.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 38

 

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 and here's one from 2004.

Annual Review 2003

Campaign to Protect Rural England

 

This modest, yet exceptionally beautifully produced, piece of literature is deliberately "newsy" in look and format. It's A3, portrait in size and is a 24pp self cover on our Redeem 100% Recycled 70gsm to give it that large, floppy, newsprinty look and feel. It is saddle stitched with two wires.

With a foreward by the then president, Sir Max Hastings, this is a hard hitting policy document - not just to contain some pretty pictures of the countryside (I remember being told that when I was being briefed on the job by Andrew) but to get across the CPRE objectives and to be used for lobbying. It also neede to be produced on recycled paper.



 

The photography is by Phil Sayer and the images are amazing. It looks as fresh today as it did then. Images are printed in Duotone on the Redeem 100% Recycled, printed in black and grey.

 

Art direction and design is by Andrew Ross at Osborne Ross. Big format with lots of space  and dramatic photography gives this job a beatifully crafted feel.

 

It was printed by a west London printer called Fernedge who have sadly since gone bankrupt and disappeared.

 

www.cpre.org.uk

www.osborneross.com

http://www.philipsayerpartnership.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.12.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 27

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...

V&A Zoomorphic Exhibition Literature

2003/2004

Personally, I think this is one of those projects which will be written about in design books and blogs for many years to come as it is a beautifully clever idea, simply executed.

Johnson Banks designed the campaign to promote this exhibition which is on architecture inspired by animal forms that imagined what animals would look like if drawn as architectural pieces. The project is based around a series of three main posters, with the other event literature using elements from each of the posters.

 Click on the images above and below to get the full effect.

...and the exhibition blurb is as follows:

Zoomorphic looks at the emerging trend towards buildings that emulate nature, presenting leading contemporary architecture inspired by animal form.

The exhibition shows an eclectic mix of architects’ models and preserved animal specimens to illustrate the zoomorphic analogy, with works by leading British and international architects including Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano and Wilkinson Eyre. Some of the architects featured employ animal metaphors quite explicitly to create iconic signature buildings, for others the animal likeness emerges as the design evolves.

Zoomorphic documents a highly significant new trend that will extend and enrich the language of modern architecture and asks: What will it be like to live in zoomorphic buildings and walk around zoomorphic cities? and: How might the buildings of the future be transformed as architects continue to explore the lessons of biology in more depth?

The exhibition was curated by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

The main posters (above) are 760x515mm. Other literature includes the A5 leaflet, below, which folds out like so:

...and down again

to reveal the 594x420mm poster:

a different version of the armadillo poster as 394x594mm folding down to 197x297mm:

Simple A6 invitation/reply card:

Design is by Johnson Banks. Creative director on the project was Michael Johnson and the designer (and, most importantly, the illustrator as well) was Sarah Fullerton (now Dezille).

The posters were all printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm with the cards on 315gsm. Redeem 100% Recycled was chosen because a blueprinty/dyeline paper feel was required and this was the paper that did it! Interestingly, it might look like that it is just the natural/neutral shade of the Redeem coming through but although it was just printed one colour offset litho in a bluey/purple pantone colour, it was further enhanced by having a very small percentage tint of the colour printed all over the sheet, thereby reducing the hardness of the edges, especially on the "pencil type" lines.

It was printed by a west London printer called Fernedge who were a very progressive printer and one favoured by many design companies at that time. Sadly they have since ceased trading. Pippa Redmond (Mustoe) who was MD at Fernedge, now runs the Norwich Kall Kwik franchise.(http://www.kallkwik.co.uk/norwich/aboutus.cfm). - and I'm dead sure it was printed by them, because as you can see from the label, my file copies are still in the original job bag!

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.01.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 18

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. So now all the April Foolery is over, here's the first serious post of the month...

V&A Annual Review 2001-2

This is the Annual (or bi-annual) review published by the V&A. It was an exciting time in the V&A's history as the new British galleries had just been opened in late 2001 and there was a lot of activity at the museum. Visitor numbers were up (breaking a record in 2002) and the outlook was extremely positive.

This review is 330x240mm, portrait, saddle stitched and is 4pp cover with a 28pp text. It is printed (as I recall) as a tritone - using a green, a grey and a black but with type also in a pale red (still a job using four colours).

It goes without saying that the V&A has an amazing collection of art and objects and this report makes the very best use of the subject with excellent art direction and photography.

The publication is designed by Johnson Banks. Creative director was Michael Johnson and the superb photography is by Philip Gatward. The above spreads convey some of the powerful images and space that has been created. The images work incredibly well in the tri-tone with rich, rich blacks and the muted red. The format works well with the material, the pages open nicely and it is pleasingly tactile.

The job was printed on our Neptune Unique (white) 250gsm and 135gsm. It was printed by a west London company called Fernedge (v.good in their day) who have sinced ceased trading. Pippa Redmond (Mustoe) who was MD at Fernedge, now runs the Kall Kwik franchise in Norwich! (http://www.kallkwik.co.uk/norwich/aboutus.cfm). It is exceptionally well printed and still constitues one of the best samples on Neptune Unique that I have in my collection.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

http://www.philipgatward.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.04.2011