Bentply

Bentply is a London based shop established by Bruna Naufal in 1989 specialising in 20th century, modernist furniture. This post is about a unique business card produced for Bentply, which also works as a promotional piece - it simply makes up into a cut-out miniature of the iconic 1934 bent plywood chair designed by Gerald Summers.

Now this is a project which began well over a year ago for me, when I was contacted by the designer Richard C. Evans, who explained what he was trying to achieve and was researching into materials and processes. I sent samples and we discussed various print finishing techniques that might make the idea work.

Now this project has already been featured on some design blogs, but as is common with other blogs, not much detail is written about the actual project (...they just show pretty pictures!)

After testing, Richard decided on our Flora Tabacco 240gsm which had the correct "woody" look and feel. As this wasn't a big budget project, Richard struggled to find a printer in the UK who could produce the project within the budget. Eventually he came across a letterpress printer called Elegante Press based in Lithuania. Now unlike some other paper companies, we're not afraid to pack paper up in a strong box and send it overseas! ...so that's exactly what we did. Elegante Press then triplexed the 240gsm board (echoing the properties of plywood) making 720gsm. The card is then letterpress printed in 2 colours and kiss-cut - just beautiful! Size of the card is 57mm x 136mm.

...and here's a close up pic:

I don't know what more I can add. A brilliant idea, perfectly excecuted and on the right material for the job!

www.bentply.com
www.elegantepress.com/
http://richardcevans.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2012