The first time I met Freda...

Earlier this year, we heard the sad news that Freda Sack, the renowned British type designer had died. You can read more about her career here on the ISTD website.

In May there was a small memorial celebration for family and close friends which was held at the Fitzrovia Chapel (formerly the Chapel of the Middlesex Hospital) which was particularly apt as Freda's studio had been close by.

This superb little publication was produced for those at the memorial and for those who were unable to go. It very simply records people's stories about when they first met her...

Size of the publication is 150mm square and actually became an 84pp publication because so many people wished to record their first meetings.

The paper chosen is our Sixties range in 60gsm - the choice being just right as the paper is light enough to produce just a multi page booklet and because of the show through, the words are beautifully layered throughout the publication...

Click on images to enlarge

SIXTIES is a new paper which has the same translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels like a normal paper …hopefully you can see the translucency in the images:

The publication is singer sewn and the image below shows the centre spread.

Singer sewing uses a pale blue thread.

Below shows the superb singer sewn spines.

Design is by Clare Playne of Playne Design one of the many friends and colleagues who contributed to the memorial.

You probably won't have realised that this job is digitally printed. It was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour and was produced on their Xerox digital press and the finished result is superb. Printing digitally made this limited run viable - even on a material such as this, which many other printers are scared of.

It is a superbly produced little publication and a wonderful way to remember Freda.

https://playnedesign.co.uk/

http://www.typecast.co.uk/

https://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.07.2019

Freda Sack

Last week it was announced that British type designer Freda Sack died. Freda had a long career starting at Letraset in the 1970's followed by a host of other groundbreaking type design companies. Eventually Freda went freelance and then collaborated with David Quay setting up The Foundry together. Over her long career, Freda is credited with a large number of typeface designs which I shall not attempt to list here.

Freda was deeply involved in education, both as a governor and external examiner. From the mid 1990's she was heavily involved with the smooth running of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) in a variety of roles, culminating with being President from 2006-2010.

Last Summer, Freda was made an Honorary Fellow of the ISTD in recognition of her significant contribution to the Society and the typographic industry. The award was made at the ISTD 90th anniversary, which I wrote about here and where I took the rather over-exposed picture above.

It was a pleasure to know Freda and she was a tireless worker for the causes she was involved with. She was always giving and yet so appreciative to others for their efforts. Freda was a fellow member of the Wynkyn de Worde Society and I was honoured to have her as my guest at last year's Summer party, where she kindly gave me a wonderful 'sign of the sun' brooch, which I treasure.

You can read more about Freda's life here:

https://www.istd.org.uk/blog/freda-sack

Freda touched many lives and will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

https://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.foundrytypes.co.uk/about-the-foundry/the-foundry-partners/freda-sack

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.02.2019

ISTD Student Awards 2017

Last Friday, I was invited to  the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their wonderful studio in Notting Hill with Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening is for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going.

 

Below is ISTD education officer John Paul Dowling talking through the judging process.  

Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presented all the certificates and also an excellent goody bag. There were students from universities from all over the country and further afield, with one student from Moscow. The Vincent Steer award, which is the highest accolade, was awarded to Conor Foran a student from NCAD.

Contents of the goody bags was excellent, with items generously supplied by Cass Art and a copy of Logo published and donated by Laurence King.

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.07.2017



ISTD Student Awards 2016

Last Friday, I was invited to  the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their studio in Notting Hill with one of the newest partners Luke Powell, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going and in fact on Friday, there were two awards made to two young ladies who came all the way from Sri Lanka – Sushanthi Dissanayake and Fathimah Azmah Nihar from Academy of Design, Columbo, Sri Lanka.

ISTD organisers and board members, Freda Sack and John Paul Dowling (education director) talked through the judging process and gave their thanks to the tutors, without whom the scheme would surely flounder. 

Awards being presented by Luke Powell:

 Importantly, there were two commendations awarded to Chia-Lin Lin (who also picked up the Vincent Steer award) from London college of communication (LCC - tutor: Tony Pritchard) and Emile Toledo from University of West England, Bristol - tutor: Gabriel Solomons.

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.07.2016 

ISTD Student Awards 2014

Last Friday, I was invited to  the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their studio in Notting Hill with Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going and in fact on Friday, there were two awards made to students from Sri Lanka.

ISTD organisers and board members, David Coates, Freda Sack and John Paul Dowling (new education director) talked through the judging process and gave their thanks to the tutors, without whom the scheme would surely flounder.

Before the presentation, Angus gave a short inspiring talk about his experiences in graphic design. Each certificate was awarded by Angus Hyland, of which there were over 100 and the students were each given 'goody bags' kindly provided by Cass Art. Fenner Paper also supplied some bags for the tutors (made from our Colorset Lemon 270gsm) which you can see hiding under the table...

Above is Eric Downer being presented with his certificate. Eric is the graduate from University of Portsmouth who won the top award at 'New Designers 2014' that I wrote about on this blog last week - he's had a busy week! (www.eric-downer.co.uk)

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2014

ISTD Student Awards 2013

On Friday evening I was invited to the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted at the lovely Pentagram building in West London. Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presented the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly event with the drinks provided (kindly sponsored by Mike Daines of eLexicons).

Angus Hyland presenting the awards

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. Judging took place in March and in total, there were 64 passes, 12 Merits and 5 Commendations. This year, the University of West England (Bristol) had most success, with 18 passes, merits and Commendations. Tutors are Gabriel Solomons and John Paul Dowling.

As a special presentation, Angus Hyland was awarded Fellowship of the ISTD in recognition of his contribution and typographic achievement over the years. The picture shows Angus receiving his certificate, presented by Alan Kitching.

After the presentation, Angus gave a short talk which included a description about his early beginnings as a designer and his start in typography using sheets of his parent's Letraset rub down lettering, sitting at the kitchen table!

 

The Student awards take place over all over the globe throughout the year, the next being the South African Assessments and then the Australasian Assessments covering Australia and New Zealand.

 

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

www.elexicons.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.07.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 42

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 2008.

The Ghost in the Fog

This project is the ghost of a book. It documents corrections made by the editors, translators and contributors to How to Address the Fog: XXV Finnish poems 1978-2002. Published in 2005, the original went through five sets of amendments. This book documents those changes. Only the corrected text, the marginal notes and the proof-readers' marks remain, forming a different kind of poetry - one of an accidental, concrete kind. It is a book of absences. (all I've done is repeat the original text taken from the jacket - I really can't improve on it! J)

The size is 195x128mm, portrait and is section sewn. It has a 4pp cover with an 8pp 'dust-jacket' wrapped around it and 128pp text. The text and jacket are all printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The text is mainly printed in two colours (black and red) with specials used on the 'endpapers' - yellow and on the jacket. The materials have a beautifully light and ethereal quality and with just the faintest hint of showthrough, it works with the ghostly subject, perfectly.

In 2009, this project won an ISTD premier award an this is what the judges said about it ( ...and in particular note what is said about the delicate stock): The idea of a book that only includes the corrections and observations of the authors and proofreaders is unexpected and unusual. Using typography that suggests concrete poetry, the rythmical pattern through the pagesgives the sense of a musical score. The tactile quality of the delicate stock reveals and documents the changes through layers of amendments, allowing the reader to only sense the actual text. Fittingly titled, The Ghost in the Fog is a ghost of a book. It really is, as the designer describes it, 'a book of absences'. An intriguing book that is a delight to handle  ___Freda Sack

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/istd-awards.html

Art direction is by Barrie Tullett & Philippa Wood at The Caseroom Press. Design and production is by Barrie Tullett. Print is by The Short Run Press based in Exeter.

The foreward is by Ken Cockburn and the corrections, observations and alterations of the original publication are all made by Ken Cockburn, Anni Sumari, Robin Fulton, David McDuff, Donald Adamson and Robyn Marsack.

www.the-case.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2013