Business Cards for Stefano Marinaz

From its London base, the Stefano Marinaz Landscape Architecture studio works alongside international architects and designers on projects ranging from small private gardens to larger landscapes, and historical restorations to installations for garden festivals.

These are the most beautiful and beautifully produced business cards I have ever had the privilege to write about on this blog!

Stefano Marinaz appointed Mercer Design for a brand refresh, part of which was the design of new business cards, which as many people now identify are the most important piece of print that most businesses produce.

I shall let the words of Stefano Marinaz explain...
If you know me you must also know how keen on plants I am. My passion for the natural world and understanding of plants started when I was very young sharing some special moments with my grandfather in the glass house, he was growing vegetables to be sold in the shop. More than 70 years ago he started a business in Trieste, Italy, where he was selling seeds and plants to professional and amateur growers. As the business developed further my father and my mum became part of “Marinaz Agraria e Giardinaggio” and after almost 40 years of work they managed to expand the company by selling, throughout Italy and abroad, seeds, plants, gardening tools, machinery and everything else that can assist professionals and amateurs in the gardens and in the fields. The seeds have been the core business of my family since the beginning and I am personally fascinated by their beauty and by the fact they are able to generate new life and endless possibilities for us as human beings as well as in my case for designers. Sometime it is important to see things with a closer look and this is why I have chosen the beautiful pictures by Robert Llewellyn to be part of my new business cards.

I selected nine seeds which I found very interesting mainly in relation to the plants they develop. It has been a very enjoyable design process with the fantastic team of Mercer Design

These gilt edged business cards are printed four colour process one side (seed images) and one colour on the face and are also hot foil blocked on the face in a bronze foil (Foilco Ref: 6732). The gilt edging is in a matching bronze colour.

You may be thinking that these 1mm thick cards are duplexed ...but you'd be wrong! They are printed on our Sumo 1mm thick board - so how are they printed I hear you ask? - they are printed flat bed, offset litho by a very clever company called Avenue Litho, based in Hackney, East London.

One of the reasons that this solution was chosen because the client wanted to avoid the card being 'bendy' which is characteristic of duplexed boards. Because Sumo is 'mill laminated' (a process that uses a lot of pressure and very little glue) the moisture balance is not interfered with, which is why the sheet maintains the correct moisture balance and therefore remains flat.

https://www.stefanomarinaz.com/

https://www.mercerdesign.com/

https://www.avenuelitho.com/

https://www.robertllewellyn.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.03.2023

Villa Saletta 980AD

Villa Saletta is a 1,760-acre estate in the heart of Tuscany, featuring an historic borgo, three luxurious holiday villas and a boutique winery. The estate was purchased by British investor, Guy Hands around 15 years ago and a great investment has been made in the vineyard.

This promotional booklet is an introduction to the winemaking on the estate and the 2015 vintage.

The size is 170x100mm portrait, with a 4pp cover and an 8pp text. The cover is hot foil blocked in gold metallic foil and the text is digitally printed using an HP Indigo press.

Click on images to enlarge

The paper used is our StarFine Natural White 150gsm. This uncoated paper is a subtle, neutral, white which perfectly suits the imagery and typography in the publication. The images have reproduced superbly, as you can see from the vibrant indigo blue shirt below.

...another nice touch, which is worth noting is the use of copper wire for the stitches which works well with the gold foiled cover.

Printing and production is by Stuart Van Den Bergh at Intaglio Communications who are based in London.

https://www.villasaletta.com/
http://www.intaglioltd.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.07.2019

Villa Saletta

This is one of the most wonderful books to have appeared on this blog, it is quite simply stunning. Villa Saletta is a 1,760-acre estate in the heart of Tuscany, featuring an historic borgo, three luxurious holiday villas and a boutique winery. The estate was purchased by British investor, Guy Hands around 15 years ago and it is used both as a family holiday home and is also being developed with apartments and houses as a resort for Tuscany loving guests.

This superb case-bound book is bound in leather. The size of the book is 300mm square and has 284pp text pages given an overall spine thickness of 35mm.

The book which is subtitled 'History in the Making' is divided into seven chapters, explaining the history, the estate, the wine and produce and the vision for the future...

In the centre of the book there is a gatefold throw out showing a stunning panorama of the Italian countryside surrounding the Villa.

The one thing that has struck me about this publication is the space. It is unhurried and nothing is crammed in. Photography by Richard Waite is allowed the space to breath and it really makes the most of the wonderful images.

It is printed offset litho throughout in CMYK. The paper chosen is our StarFine, White 170gsm. StarFine is a quality, uncoated paper and as the images show, image reproduction is excellent. The solids chapter dividers, photographic images and the illustrations all look equally stunning - a great amount of detail for an uncoated paper.

One of the chapter divider spreads, the terracotta colour is made out of CMYK, not a solid special colour.

Image below shows the head and tail bands and the way the text moves. The edge of the book is gilt edged in gold.

The below image shows the thread in the centre of the 24pp sections...

Below image shows the ribbon marker and also the gilt edge binding.

The book is published by Terra Firma Holdings Ltd. Photography is by Richard Waite.

The truly stunning printing and production is by Stuart Van Den Bergh at Intaglio Communications who are based in London.

https://www.villasaletta.com/
http://www.intaglioltd.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.10.2018

JLR Editors Club Brochure

This is a piece of literature produced for Jaguar Land Rover PR and press department. The publication embodies all the core values that JLR stand for and consequently is produced to a very high specification.

The brochure comes in a slipcase/pocket, which together with the 4pp cover is made using Plike Black 330gsm from Cordenons. Size of the brochure is 240x168mm, portrait.  

The slipcase and cover is hot foil blocked in silver foil and the edges are gilded in silver, which does look exquisite.

The 40pp text is printed on our Omnia 120gsm offset litho - and it is printed wall to wall, solid black, CMYK images plus a special silver - all the type is printed in silver.

In line with the quality look and feel of the brochure, the biding is Singer sewing, which is totally characteristic for this brand.

The reproduction on the Omnia is magnificent, the CMYK, the solids and the silver which looks metallic, as you can see from the image below.

Art direction and design of the catalogue is by Imagination. Graphic designer on the project is Amish Shah  (www.work-in-process.eu). This is an exquisitely produced brochure which conveys exactly the right look and feel of luxury. Print is by Identity, based in Paddock Wood.

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en/

https://www.imagination.com/

http://www.identityprint.co.uk/

http://www.work-in-process.eu/

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.05.2016

Beautiful Wedding Invitation

This is a beautifully produced invitation for a wedding held this summer. Katherine Heaton is Account Director at Johnson Banks, so the invitation designed by her colleagues in the studio was bound to be something special.

The invitation and supporting items are all 140mm square. The items are all printed on our Colorset, Natural (100% recycled). The main invitation is triplexed 350gsm which makes it over 1.5mm thick.

The invitation is gilt edged in gold which makes the best of the thickness and looks just beautiful. 

The 140mm square cards all fit into the 155mm square envelope that we also keep as a standard size in the Colorset range.

Print production for the invitations and supporting cards is by Pureprint. All items were digitally printed using an HP Indigo press.

The wedding and reception was held at Voewood, a renowned arts and crafts house in Norfolk which is owned and run by the celebrity antiquarian bookseller Simon Finch.

www.johnsonbanks.co.uk

www.pureprint.com

www.voewood.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.11.2014