Jobs from the past - Number 94

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...

From the Cradle to the Grave

Selected Drawings - Damien Hirst ...2003

Half Skull 1998

In 2003 Damien Hirst, one of Britain’s most celebrated artists, accepted an invitation from the Ljubljana International Biennale of Graphic Arts to produce a completely new show for their 25th Biennale. The invitation followed in the wake of the prestigious Biennale Grand Prize awarded to Hirst in 2001 for his suite of ‘Last Supper’ prints. For Ljubljana, Hirst chose to put together his first-ever exhibition of drawings. Spanning his entire career, the exhibition consisted of approximately 150 drawings drawn from a large number of public and private collections. They ranged from early drawings done when Hirst was a teenager to intimate drawings made for close friends. Hirst also included his sculpture From the Cradle to the Grave (2000) in the exhibition.
The exhibition was organised by Visual Arts, British Council for the Biennale and it subsequently toured with the British Council to other venues around Europe.

This publication was published by Other Criteria in association with the British Council.

Size of the publication is a whopping 670x480mm. It is then 'endorsement folded' (ie in half to 335x480mm). This large format catalogue has a deliberately news-papery look and feel. It is a 20pp 'self cover' printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 115gsm (special weight was made for this project) and is unbound.

Click on images to enlarge

The Beheading of John the Baptist 2002

The Last Supper (The Blood of Christ) 2003

Away from the Flock 1994 

For a sense of scale, below is a spread pictured with a piece of A4 paper ...remember the size of the publication is 670x480mm!

An Unreasonable Fear of Amputation/Death and Dying 1998

The publication is printed offset litho. Although this looks like a one colour print (halftone or monotone printing) it is not! The reason that the pencil looks so much like pencil is because it's a two colour job, with a continuous tone printed as the background. This means that there is never a hard edge when the pencil line finishes because it blends in with the continuous tone of the background colour. A very effective solution and I've been asked many times how the amazing reproduction of the pencil drawings was achieved. Below image shows detail of the pencil work: 

Click on images to enlarge

The paper is already a neutral white shade gives the publication a 'newsy' feel which really works with the images and most importantly, the pages which are purely type (centre spread) as below:

Outside back cover:

Design is by Jason Beard at Other Criteria. It's a superb example of a well thought out, beautifully crafted publication which has stood the test of time. It demonstrates that a well considered design with the right materials can be produced in a cost effective way and still look fantastic.

Printing was by Principal Colour, who are still based in Paddock Wood in Kent. The production was handled by Chris Saunders who now runs his own print management consultancy, Print Source.

http://www.damienthirst.com/
http://www.othercriteria.com/
www.principalcolour.co.uk
www.print-sourceuk.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.08.2017