Sustainable Print

Park Communications in London has an enviable reputation as being one of the Capital's foremost corporate printers and one with the highest environmental credentials, having won Printweek Environmental Printer of the year in 2017 followed by a highly commended in 2018.

Park has produced this guide aimed at providing tips about sustainable printing for brands and includes articles on sustainable materials, sustainable large format, and the creative opportunities of sustainable printing.

Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait. The 4pp cover is printed on Crush, Corn 250gsm with the 8pp text on Shiro Echo, White 120gsm.

The above image shows a project for Spitfire Audio, printed by Park on a combination of Shiro Echo and Flora Giglio, which I wrote about on this blog here.

Our Crush range from Favini in Italy, is manufactured using 15% agro-industrial residues from the processing of corn and hopefully, in the below image, you can see the small specs and inclusions in the paper.

The guide is written, designed and printed by Park Communications and is digitally printed using their HP Indigo press. It is also available as a pdf download here.

https://www.parkcom.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.07.2020

PIE

PIE is a new breed of recruitment agency for automotive, consumer goods and B2B. Their mission is to cut out all the hassle that typically comes with job search and have a straightforward, direct approach. London based design and branding studio, Studio Mean have produced for them, a no-nonsense brand that doesn't mince it's words. You can see the strong branding working across the PIE website here.

An important part of the branding is the business cards. The 54 x 84mm cards, literally have a slice of pie cut out of them! They are digitally printed on our Colorset 100% Recycled 350gsm in Deep Orange, which has been duplexed to make 700gsm, which is 1mm thick.

The cards are digitally printed in black on the face and the name and contact details are all printed in digital white (HP Indigo printed) on the reverse, with the angle die-cut off...

Colorset is a range of 36 colours, available in 120, 270 and 350gsm. The below image gives you an idea of the thickness achieved with the duplexing.

Design is by Studio Mean. Print and finishing is by MTA Digital, based in South London.

https://pie-recruitment.com/
https://www.studiomean.co/
http://www.mtadigital.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.07.2020

Hackney Winter Night Shelter Annual Report

Each winter, Hackney Winter Night Shelter (HWNS) provides food, shelter and a warm welcome to homeless people in Hackney. They help get their guests out of homelessness and into homes. A project of Hackney Doorways, HWNS is a grassroots project run by volunteers from Hackney churches and the local community providing a meal and a bed for homeless people at 7 different venues around Hackney.

This is their annual report for the latest financial year...

The size of the publication is 225x152mm, portrait and is a 28pp, self cover on our Omnia 120gsm. The design uses bold, solid colours made out of CMYK...

As you can see from the image below, 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 as well and the darker shadowy areas - all with an uncoated tactile feel and unlike many of the publications featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!

Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job.

The look and feel of the whole publication is very uncoated and tactile but there is absolutely no loss of detail as you can see in the detail image below...

This 28pp self cover publication flows superbly in the hand.

An interesting feature is that it is saddle stitched but has a square back! ..as you can see below. It is produced on a Morgana PowerSquare machine which produces this SquareBack™ finish.

The result is the book sits nice and flat and the finishing is well done, with no cracking on the spine.

Creative Director is Louise Desborough at Loud Creative. The job was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent.

https://www.hwns.org.uk/
https://www.loud-creative.com/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.07..2020

Shakies go Green...

James Ellis are a greeting card publisher who have been publishing their own ranges of cards since 1997. Based in Bristol, they actually print and make all their cards in the UK (so no horrible carbon footprint to China!). You'll find their ranges of cards in Paperchase, Waitrose, Harrods and John Lewis and all good card shops! 

They’ve been manufacturing their 'shakies' cards since 2003 and they have undergone quite a few style changes, but items shaking around within the card idea has more or less remained the same.

In an effort to be as environmentally friendly as possible, the latest change has been to ditch the plastic panel on the front of the card which forms the pocket for the shakeable items to move in. By removing the plastic and replacing it with a translucent paper, which is itself printed, the appearance of the card has changed little but is now recyclable. The paper chosen for this job is our Spectral, Digital White 110gsm from the Reflex Paper Mill in Germany.

...and you can see the way the coloured paper discs move around.

The size of the card is 176x127mm and the board which form the cards and the window are from our Dali range. If you aren't familiar with the Dali range, it is a 'felt-marked' paper with a linear effect and a natural, tactile feel. If you click on the image below, you will be able to see the texture in the paper.

Click on images to enlarge

...and you can see (above) the printing on the translucent Spectral. The digital printing is by Pureprint on their HP Indigo presses and the result is superb.

To make the cards as green as possible, they have eradicated the use of glitter, the plastic and replaced the outer bag by applying a peelable pricing label.

James Ellis have also signed up for 1% for the Planet scheme where companies commit to giving 1% of their turnover to environmental non-profit organisations.

This card is designed by Katherine Hartley and my thanks to James for sharing these new samples with me.

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 
https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.06.2020

StudioThomson portfolio

Brothers Mark and Christopher Thomson founded StudioThomson in 2004 as a multi-disciplinary agency specialising in design and art direction and in the last 16 years have built a reputation as one of London’s leading creative studios. Based in Portobello in London, they work with a wide roster of clients in fashion, skincare, photographers and many more ...and they have appeared on this blog many times over the years.

This is a superb printed portfolio showing their work...

Size is 250x176mm, portrait and is a 36pp self cover but is completely unbound. Many people might think this wouldn't work and would fall apart but because due consideration has been taken to choose the right material and weight, it holds together perfectly...

The text material chosen is our Omnia 120gsm, which would beautifully reproduce the variety of different images especially the vivid colours and not forgetting the fleshtones ...and it looks wonderful! Above shows the unbound sections fanned out. Below, shows the inside front and back cover, which works as a spread with the text pages placed underneath.

As one might expect, the images are superb and show a selection of their design and art direction projects...

Click on images to enlarge

Centre spread below...

Unlike many publications featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel, every bit as good as litho.

Omnia is now kept as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This special treatment is applied to papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent fleshtone reproduction.

Inside back spread...

The Omnia 120gsm is a bulky sheet but in the unbound format, it flops and folds beautifully in the hand.

The art direction is by Mark and Chris Thomson and the quality of the direction and photography is matched by the exceptional digital print by Screaming Colour.

https://studiothomson.com/
http://www.screamingcolour.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.05.2020

Le Ster

Aishleen Lester established her London based jewellery brand, Le Ster, in 2018. As a child with an active imagination and a magpie of colour and stories, Aishleen has always been drawn to the power of objects and the stories they can tell and her jewellery designs are testament to that. In 2018 Aishleen won Designer to Watch at International Jewellery London and her work has been featured in a number of publications including International Wall Street Journal and Departures Magazine.

This is a series of five 2pp, A5 size cards produced under the title of 'Light the Grey' which shows each individual jewellery piece.

Click on images to enlarge

The cards are printed on Omnia 320gsm. Unlike many of the printed items featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the cards have a tactile look and feel. Being a digital print process it also means that small quantities can be printed economically and updated frequently, without the pressure of having to do a large print run. Below image shows the reverse of the cards...

Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent reproduction of the fleshtones and in the dark areas.

Brand strategy and marketing agency is Studio Luxmore. Photographer and lighting specialist is Rhys Gray. Design is by Laura Purdy and digital printing is by Screaming Colour.

https://www.le-ster.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.03.2020

Simply Stunning!

Pureprint are an extremely well known UK printer. They are held in high regard for their work with art galleries, magazines, retail brands and quality commercial printing as well as having an enviable reputation for their environmental accreditation and awards. They are now also one of the largest digital printers and the first in the UK with three B2 size digital presses.

To educate and promote their digital abilities, Pureprint have produced a new 'Digital Special Effects Pack' to show some of the techniques. To demonstrate the use of their white ink on coloured paper, they chose our Colorset 100% Recycled range in an Amethyst shade

Click on images to enlarge

As you can see from the above image, the Amethyst board has been printed using white ink plus a CMYK image printed on to of the white ink. On the reverse (below) is just the white ink printed on the Amethyst shade board

As it says on the card "Simply Stunning Results"!
https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.04.2019

Namma Menu

Kricket is a modern Indian restaurant group with three restaurants in Soho, Brixton and the former Television Centre (White City). Founded by partners Rik Campbell and chef Will Bowlby, Kricket has recently expanded into the takeaway market, launching a new brand Namma by Kricket.

The partners were inspired by their travels across India and while they were in Mumbai they hired a couple of Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles. It was this trip that inspired both the takeaway brand and their dishes with a twist.

The 8pp menu is a 'pocket size' 135x90mm, folding out to 360mm long...

Click on images to enlarge

Top image shows the inside and the bottom image shows the outside, featuring a Royal Enfield Bullet Motorcycle. The below image shows the 8pp concertina fold

The Namma by Kricket branding is by &Smith and they created a suite of literature including the menus and other collateral.

Designer on this project is Cécile Dumetier. The project is printed by Gavin Martin Colournet and is produced on their HP Indigo press, printed on our Shiro Tree Free, Cream 250gsm, which is an off white, natural board, manufactured from 100% non-tree fibres.

https://www.namma.co.uk/
https://kricket.co.uk/
http://andsmithdesign.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.12.2018