Hello Woolwich!

London printer, Gavin Martin Colournet have moved from their East London home in Hackney, south of the river to new premises in Woolwich. Although I just described them as 'new' the printworks is actually in a refurbished Victorian works, which I believe formed part of the old Royal Dockyard in Woolwich. It is a lovely building with period features, so I made a visit to see for myself...

The new pressroom looks great and they've decorated their Heidelberg XL102 printing press with some very lively graphics. Below is a picture of Gary Bird, modelling the new press...

Period features have been lovingly maintained in the refurbishment of the building.

Their 'Printlounge' customer suite has been safely installed and their HP Indigo digital press has much more space than at their previous premises.

A positive move and great to see a London printer staying in London rather than moving out of town.
https://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.08.2018

Jobs from the past - Number 74

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...

Le Touessrok Brochure 2003
Located on the east coast of Mauritius in one of the island’s most spectacular bays, the Le Touessrok five-star resort is among the world’s most distinguished. It has three villas and 200 guestrooms and suites, all of which have sea views. Along with extensive water and land-based activities, it offers guests access to two islands: Ilot Mangenie, a private, secluded isle with 3.5 kilometres of pristine beach, and Ile aux Cerfs, where the 18-hole, par 72 championship golf course designed by Bernhard Langer is located - sounds perfect for Christmas!

As you can tell from the description above, this is anything but a normal resort and this is anything but a normal hotel brochure! It has a sense of scale and luxury that really has to be experienced to be truly appreciated and I'm afraid that it's unlikely that these images will do this project justice.

The size of the publication is 340x290mm, portrait and is a 32pp self cover. It is printed on our lightweight Offenbach Bible 60gsm and this brochure is undoubtedly one of the finest printed examples on Offenbach Bible that I have ever seen.

Above is the introduction spread, below, shows the way it the pages just beautifully flop over.

The cool grey, pantone special used on the cover runs throughout the brochure, between spreads, creating a perfect sense of pace and space, with captions. Below is ...so tropical

Click on images to enlarge

Design is by Pentagram. Creative director is John Rushworth and the designers on the project are Rob Duncan and Leigh Brownsword. The brochure is printed offset litho in four colour process plus a special grey and was printed by Gavin Martin Colournet.

Click on images to enlarge

...normally I do a "where are they now"? paragraph - as with many of these projects having been completed so long ago people and companies have often been scattered to the four winds! Not so in this case:
Rather fittingly for this article, the Le Touessrok resort (now the Shangri-La Le Touessrok Resort) reopened at the beginning of last month following a six month refurbishment. John Rushworth remains a partner at Pentagram in London. Rob Duncan now lives and works in San Francisco and is a partner at Mucho. Leigh Brownsword is a freelance design director based in London and Gary Bird is still merrily printing away at Gavin Martin Colournet!

www.letouessrokresort.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.12.2015

Café Royal

This year, Café Royal has re-opened as a 5 star hotel. Still in it's original 19th century building in the John Nash designed terrace in Regent Street, the building has recently been transformed under the direction of David Chipperfield Architects. The hotel now boasts 160 contemporary guestrooms, including 49 suites, five restaurants and bars, two banqueting suites and an amazing well-being centre.

This brochure is A5 size (210x148mm), has an 8pp cover and a 16pp text. Cover is printed on Curious Metallics Gold 250gsm from Arjo. The text is printed on our Marazion Ultra 115gsm - if you're not familair, it's a fully coated paper but it really does have a dead flat MATT surface. There are many papers on the market which profess to be matt (and some which incorporate the word matt in the name, but aren't!) ...but this really is - and if you don't believe me, just ask me for a sample.

The quality of the photography and reproduction is excellent.

Design is by Pentagram in London.

The project was printed by Gavin Martin Colournet (with Mr Gary Bird) and as you can see above, they've made a superb job of it. The brass wire used for the saddle stitches is a really lovely touch - which brilliantly compliments the gold hot foil blocking and metallic cover.

http://www.hotelcaferoyal.com/
http://www.pentagram.co.uk/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.07.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 45



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.

Mission - Case studies

 

Mission is leading independent PR and marketing agency with an enviable client list. They commissioned design consultants, &Smith, to create a flexible solution for their self-promotional communications.

&Smith developed a series of individual case study booklets that are also broadsheets enabling Mission to build a bespoke portfolio. The design incorporates repeating Ms of their identity with a subtle number identifier (white reversed out) on each cover.

Each booklet unfolds to reveal a project description and press coverage results, before unfolding once again to reveal a full colour campaign image - and this is where the material comes in! Part of the requirement was that the project description/press coverage pages should have a "newsprinty" or "scrapbook" type feel. However this was a little at odds with the amazing images that they had to work and which appear when you open out the broadsheet! The paper chosen is our Redeem 100% Recycled in 100gsm which is a natural looking recycled products, but as you can see from these pictures, it prints amazingly! ...although that's in no small part due to the quality of original and the printer.  



As you can see from the large images on the open broadsheet, they are exquisite and they look absolutely brilliant on this paper. The size of each booklet is 220x170mm, folding out to 440x 510mm.

Design is by &Smith. Creative directors are Rachel Smith and Dan Bernstein.

The superb print (and the finishing is good too - no buckling on the folds) was handled by Gary Bird at Gavin Martin.

 

http://www.thisismission.com/
http://www.andsmithdesign.com/
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.07.2013



See Opposite

This is the latest example of Pentagram's superb holiday mailings from the festive season of 2010. These pieces are never really “cards”! Pentagram mailings typically involve puzzles or another kind of visual diversion and this is no exception.



This year’s booklet features a series of antigrams illustrated with shadowy silhouettes. An antigram is a rare type of anagram. The object of the exercise is to discover a word or words that are the opposite of those printed using the same letters. The antigrams can be worked out with the help of a clue and the illustrations. The above and below pics show the illustration with the clue, Stargazers. The Antigram is No More Stars. The answer is Astronomers. Frustratingly clever!

 ...and this is the page with the answers:

The books are A6 landscape 148x105mm with an 8pp cover and a 28pp text. The paper chosen is Modigliani which is a feltmarked paper with a texture reminiscent of a watercolour paper. The cover was produced using Modigliani Nero 200gsm and the text on Modigliani Neve 145gsm. It has been beautifully printed in two colours (pantone specials) by Gavin Martin. Cover is hot foil blocked with a matt white foil. Another lovely feature is the "plate sinking" which is where a panel in the printed areas on the right hand pages have been de-bossed and not forgetting the singer sewing in black thread through the spine.

All in all, a beatifully produced job. Creative director on the project is Angus Hyland and the designer is Fabian Herrmann. Print production was handled by Gary Bird at Gavin Martin.

http://www.pentagram.com/
http://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.02.2011