Jobs from the past - Number 171

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.

Big Book Parade 2013

This is the invitation to the showcase of new books from Harper Collins. Billed as 'The Big Book Parade', the function was held at the Crimson Bar at The Soho Hotel in May 2013.

Click on images to enlarge 

The size of the invitation is 145 x 975mm which concertinas down to 145 x 195mm. It uses our Modigliani Candido 260gsm, which has a "feltmark" texture similar to that of a watercolour paper which gives it exactly the right feel working with the beautiful illustrations of Brett Ryder (Heart Agency) commissioned to reflect the wide and diverse range of titles 'on parade' at the event.

Design and art direction is by Zoë Bather.

The invitations are printed offset litho in four colour process, machine creased and hand folded. Print was handled by Alan Mountain at Forward Print (sales@forward-print.com)

https://harpercollins.co.uk/
https://www.zoebather.co.uk/
https://www.heartagency.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.02.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 159

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 2016...

The Big Book Bonanza is the showcase of new books from Harper Collins and this is the bewitching invitation for the launch that was held this April at the Ham Yard Hotel.

The invitation is quite literally a gatefold! The delightfully lasercut gates are hinged over the inner invitation which is tipped onto the back panel of the main invite. 

Finished size of the invitation is 150x265mm with the inner card being 128x245mm. It is printed on Colorset Natural 350gsm (100% Recycled) throughout.

Click on images to enlarge

Below shows the corner cuts where the inner card sits, holding it in place.

Below image shows outside back cover with the corner slits.

Click on images to enlarge

The reproduction on the Colorset Natural is bright and vivid, the colours really lifting off the page.

The lasercut gates are wonderfully crisp and really set this invitation off.

Art direction and design is by London based studio, Design by St. Creative Partners are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard. The excellent print and production is by Hampshire based Senator Press.

www.harpercollins.co.uk
https://www.designbyst.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.02.2023

Jobs from the past - Number 143

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 projects from years gone by and this is from 2014.

The Big Book Bonanza - 2014

This is the  'The Big Book Bonanza' catalogue which showcases the new Autumn releases from HarperCollins publishers. Throughout the publication are wonderful psychedelic Kaleidoscope style illustrations by Emily Forgot. 

Size of the catalogue is 210mm square, saddle stitched. It is printed on our Omnia - 4pp cover on 320gsm and 32pp text on 150gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

The choice of material for this job was important, the reason being that the strong illustrations on the divider pages meant that it had to print solids really well but there's also lots of great commissioned photography included, so it was important to have a material which worked for both without compromising either and as I hope these pictures show, it looks really good.

Click on images to enlarge

The other very good reason that Omnia was chosen was the use of metallic gold pantone 'special' ink. On most traditional uncoated papers, metallics can look flat and with gold can just look a bit brown, but as I hope the below image demonstrates, metallic gold really does look metallic on Omnia.

Design and art direction is by Zoë Bather.

The catalogues are printed offset litho in four colour process plus metallic gold special. Print production was handled by Alan Mountain at Forward Print (sales@forward-print.com)

www.harpercollins.co.uk
www.zoebather.co.uk
http://www.emilyforgot.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.10.2021

Jobs from the past - Number 119

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 2002. 

Fourth Estate Catalogue 
July-December 2002
   

The Fourth Estate is a publishers that many people will be familiar with. Founded by Victoria Barnsley in 1984, Fourth Estate built a reputation as one of the most innovative and eclectic imprints in the industry, with a reputation for publishing a wide variety of critically-acclaimed and beautifully-produced titles including many prize winning authors (Booker, Orange etc).

One of the things that made the Fourth Estate stand out from the crowd was their catalogues - they were simply amazing pieces of design and print! I was lucky enough to work on a few different catalogues in the late 90's and early 2000's. Every single one was different and brilliant. Good designers were commissioned, Bogue & Hopgood, Instinct, Pentagram, Rose Design, Frost, Neville Brody, Tom Hingston to name a few. In line with their reputation for publishing unconventional yet innovative titles, the design of the catalogue was equally eclectic.

This is a particularly distinctive catalogue, printed in just one colour - white onto a black paper and board...

The effect of printing it onto black paper, means that the edge is a solid black and the white silkscreen ink looks really white and jumps off the page. Below shows the black edge.

The design and art direction is by Vince Frost with the superb illustrations by Marion Deuchars. This is a very special project where the creative direction, excellent execution of the images and high production values all come together.

Click on images to enlarge

 

The size of the book is 225x160mm, portrait. It has an 8pp cover and a 72pp text. The 8pp cover has full width flaps (148mm wide) which you can see in this birsdseye image here...

Click on images to enlarge

It is printed on our Colorset Nero (100% Recycled) 270gsm and 120gsm. Some of the pages towards the back of the publication are just listings, which again are superbly printed given that it is silkscreen ink, which cannot print as finely as litho.

Click on images to enlarge

 Detail showing the quality of the type reproduction:

 The spine measures 7mm...

 The 120gsm text weight flows really nicely...



Design and art direction is by Vince Frost. Illustrations by Marion Deuchars. The print production was undertaken by Lauren Displays in Ayelsford in Kent and they made a superb job of it.

 

So, where is everybody now?....

Victoria Barnsley, founder of Fourth Estate, joined Harper Collins as CEO and Publisher in 2000 when it acquired her company, leaving in 2013.

 

The silkscreen printer, Lauren Displays, have been taken over and are now part of the DS Smith Group.

Marion Deuchars is a very popular illustrator and works through the Heart Agency in London.

Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia around eighteen years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney.

...and Fenner Paper? ...yep, we're still here!

http://www.4thestate.co.uk/

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/about-harpercollins/Imprints/4th_Estate/Pages/4th_Estate.aspx

http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.08.2019

Big Book Bonanza Catalogue 2016

The Big Book Bonanza is the showcase of new books from Harper Collins and this is the 2016 catalogue. I wrote about the  bewitching invitation for the launch at the Ham Yard Hotel here.

The catalogue is 148x265mm, Landscape and is saddle stitched.

Click on images to enlarge

The catalogue has a 4pp cover with a 56pp text, all printed on Colorset Natural 350gsm (cover) and 120gsm (text) printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

The illustrations commissioned for the catalogue reproduce superbly on the Colorset Natural and is bright and vivid, the colours really lifting off the page.

Bearing in mind this job is printed on Colorset Natural, which is our 100% recycled coloured paper range which doesn't have any particular surface enhancements for printing, the areas of solid CMYK black look amazing:

The 4pp cover is blind embossed, where the text and filigree for the "garden gate", which is where on the invitation, the same area was lasercut - unfortunately this isn't something that you can photograph!

Colorset is a bulky paper, so with a 56pp text, this is about as much as you can really use with a saddle stitched binding. It works, but if it were any more pages, it would be too "gappy" in the centre.

Art direction and design is by London based studio, Design by St. Creative Partners are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard. The excellent print and production is by Hampshire based Senator Press.

www.harpercollins.co.uk

http://www.designbyst.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.08.2016