Jobs from the past - Number 173

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 - this project is from ten years ago

Ex Duris Gloria - 2014 

This is a very simple 'leaflet' or 'flyer' - so what makes it so special and why does it deserve space on this blog? Basically it is simple, well written, beautifully designed and exquisitely produced piece of literature and printed on lovely paper!

Produced by Rapha, the specialist cyclewear brand, it is an essay written by the author and broadcaster, Graeme Fife, who has written many books on cycling and the Tour de France in particular. Titled in Latin 'Ex Duris Gloria' (Glory through Suffering) the essay is about the pain and suffering that road riders endure on their bike.

Size is A5, portrait and it is a 2pp, yes, just a single sheet of paper. Printed Offset litho in two colours, black and a grey special for the background tint which reads 'Kings of Pain'.

It is printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

It is used, very simply, as a supporting piece of branding that Rapha uses in a variety of ways, including sending it out with online purchases - a very nice touch.

Art direction and design is by the in-house team at Rapha. Printing is by Generation Press.

https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/kingsofpain
https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 150

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 this one is from 2012.

V&A Annual Review 2011/2012

Pieces of print like this don't come along every day! This is the beautiful 2011/2012 Annual Review published by the V&A.  The museum celebrated it's highest attendance ever, at 2.88 million! The report is divided into various sections combining the pictures and words about the collections and the life of the museum with a major section on the museum's Futureplan.

The cover is hot foil blocked in a white gloss pigmented foil on a Cool Grey 350gsm material from the well known, Hull based paper merchant!

With image reproduction being so important, it was essential that everything reproduced amazingly! The text chosen for the project is Omnia 150gsm because the print includes solid colours and images of exhibits - and it looks brilliant.

Click on images to enlarge

 

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the book is 265x200mm, portrait format, perfect bound. The 68pp text is printed in CMYK throughout - beautifully. Additionally, there are 4 tracing paper inserts as section dividers and an 8pp coloured section for the accounts.

Generation Press wrote about it on their blog and kindly supplied me with the images. They also showed the foiling die used for the cover - very nice to see...

Design is by Jo Glover. Photography is by David Short and the V&A photography studio.

Print, foiling and finishing is by Generation Press.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/

https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.05.2022

Invitation to Void

Presented as part of last year's London Design Festival, VOID is an installation by photographer Dan Tobin Smith and creative studio The Experience Machine, a multi-sensory spatial installation at Collins Music Hall, Islington.

A selection of Mozambican rubies and Zambian emeralds from their supporter Gemfields’ mines, which date back millions of years, were brought to life through photography of tiny microcosms magnified to become abstract, galaxy-like structures.

Click on images to enlarge

This is the beautifully produced private view invitation. Size is A5 landscape (148x210mm). The invitation face is is printed on our Colorset, Dark Grey 270gsm, heavily debossed (see above) and hot foil blocked in metallic black foil. Below, shows the detail of the hot foil blocking 

The invitation is triplexed, with the Colorset Dark Grey on the face, our Sumo Black 1.5mm in the centre and a HP Indigo printed reverse, giving an overall thickness of 2mm.

Different images from the installation were used on the reverse of the invitations, the below image shows two of the images...

Design is by Sandra Zellmer. The superlative print and finishing is by Brighton based Generation Press, who are unusual in having litho, digital, letterpress and hot-foiling all in house.

https://www.londondesignfestival.com/event/void
https://gemfields.com/

http://www.sandrazellmer.com/
https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.06.2020

Jobs from the past - Number 122

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 this invitation is from 2006.

Aquascutum - Spring Summer 2006 
Set up by John Emary, Aquascutum began as a Mayfair tailors in 1851. Seeing an opportunity for more refined rainwear, Emary created and patented the first waterproof wool. This unique creation led to inspire the brands name, which translates as "water shield" from Latin and was the first company to provide the British army with innovative waterproof cloth during the Crimean war.

This is the invitation to the Spring/Summer 2006 private view. The size is 148x210mm folding out to 297x420mm (A3)

The above and below images show the printing on the 'outside' showing SS06

Above is the front showing the SS, which folds out to reveal the below image:

...which then folds upwards to reveal the whole invitation:

I have the description, given to me at the time by Mark Thomson "The invite was inspired by the Aquascutum collection which had a shipwreck theme - the invite is meant to resemble a transparent boat sail, when you hold it up to the light you can read the whole title of the show". The invitation is printed offset litho in CMYK in both sides by Generation Press.

Below you can see the detail of the translucency achieved between the printing on either side of the paper...

It is printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and it looks and feels gorgeous. The format, combined with the paper, gives the publication a light, malleable, tactile feel and as I'm sure you can see from the below image.

Art direction and design is by brothers Mark and Chris Thomson at Studio Thomson and I still have the note that Mark kindly sent me with the file copies:

Print and finishing is by Generation Press, based near Brighton in Sussex. A wonderfully simple job, beautifully printed and finished ...yet another one of those projects that looks as fantastic now as it did thirteen years ago! In fact I wrote about Studio Thomson celebrating their 5th Birthday in 2009 here!

https://www.aquascutum.com/
https://studiothomson.com/
https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.12.2019

Jobs from the past - Number 116

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 - this project is from 2006.

Paul Smith Black A|W 2006

The Paul Smith Black collection combines luxurious tailoring, identified by its witty twist on classics with directional and modern seperates. for this season the collection takes it's inspiration from elegance of the transatlantic jet set traveller of the 1950's

This is the lookbook for the Autumn Winter collection. The finished size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait with a 4pp cover and 28pp text.printed on Omnia 320gsm and 150gsm.

 

Click on images to enlarge

The material chosen is our Omnia which gives it that dead matt, tactile feel but with great reproduction.

Click on images to enlarge

...and here's the plug for the paper!  - As you can see from these images, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours, whilst retaining detail in the dark areas (in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?) See the detail in the bag image below

The 28pp text flow nicely throughout the book...

Sewn sections and glued binding making a 3mm spine

Art Direction, design and production is by London design agency Aboud Sodano, which has sinec become Aboud + Aboud. The creative director on this project was Alan Aboud.  The piece has a fantastic feel - lots of space (just one image per spread) giving the publication an airy spacious feel - it is difficult for me to say too much more about it - the images speak for the job...

The superb print is by Generation Press.

https://www.paulsmith.com/uk

http://aboud-aboud.com/
https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.06.2019

NBBJ iAlter

At last year's 100% Design — the UK's largest design event — NBBJ showcased iAlter, an interactive design installation designed as a hub space for the work environment.

Inspired by the simplicity of kinetic sculpture and the complexity of computer-generated design algorithms, iAlter flexes in response to the flow of people and gently encourages serendipitous encounters. The hub is designed to hover above the main exhibition hall like a cloud, offering a space for networking and a place to rest, while highlighting the necessity for similar spaces in the modern office environment.

Here's the model:

...and here it is in real life!

In order to explain the concept and design, NBBJ produced an information sheet which were available on the stand at 100% Design. These sheets were produced as pads, so sheets could be torn off and taken away.

Size of the sheets is 297x420mm (A3) and they are printed in two colours, offset litho. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 60gsm which has a natural, off white and very lightweight feel.



The line thickness used is extremely fine and yet the reproduction is excellent.

Design is by NBBJ Architects and the designer is Ming Lee. Print and pad production is by Generation Press. You can read more about the project here: http://www.100percentdesign.co.uk/library/International-architecture-practice-NBBJ-to-create-Workplace-installation-Workplace-installation-for-100-Design

Click to enlarge

Thanks to Ming for kindly sending over the samples.

www.nbbj.com
http://www.nbbj.com/news/2014/9/3/nbbj-designs-interactive-installation-at-100-design-london/
www.generationpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.01.2015

What is ...Round Cornering?



What is ...Number 10

Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.

What is ...Round Cornering?

Round cornering is a print finishing process which does "exactly what it says on the tin"TM! As you can see from the image below, the book has been 'round cornered'

Common examples of round cornering are books and invitations. Below is a hand round cornering machine - it's the one we have in our sample room - so, yes, we can even do round cornered dummies and samples!

The way it works is a right angled sharp blade, called a cutter is brought down under pressure and it literally 'shaves' off the square corner in one easy movement, cutting a radius corner. Just to give you a sense of scale, the book in the picture above and below is A5. The effect is both aesthetically pleasing and unlike square corners is less easily caught and creased.

Round cornering can also be used on casebound books and normally the cover is also round cornered, although the case (cover) normally protrudes outside, as below:

It's also quite commonly used on invitations. Below is an invitation for Marte Marce at Riflemaker which was printed on Flockage Litho 300gsm and round cornered - works beautifully with the image, design and material. Printed and finished by Generation Press.

One thing that readers may not be aware of is that there are different radius cutters available, so it is possible to have a tight radius or a shallower cut, as demonstrated in the pictures below: 

It is true to say that this is a 'print-finishing' process which very few printers have available in house and is normally put out to trade finishers. The above example is a hand finishing piece of equipment, but "serious" or heavy duty finishing is done by larger mechanical presses, such as this one:  

http://www.chilvers.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=43

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.10.2014