Fenner Paper Diary 2025

If you are a user of the Fenner Paper ranges and therefore one of our wonderful customers, you may well have already received one of our wonderful new 2025 diaries... 

The cover has been designed by Carol Kemp using drawn lettering and brush calligraphy. In a career of over 30 years, Carol has produced lettering for over 800 books and logos for numerous brands worldwide

The 4pp cover is printed on our Creative Print, Diamond 270gsm using an HP Indigo digital press. The 40pp text is printed in one colour, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

The diary has been put together by long term collaborator and friend David Coates using typefaces from Buy Fonts Save Lives that raises money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support.

As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

Buy Fonts Save Lives sells typefaces to raise money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. 100% of the proceeds go to the charities and to date, over £150,000 has been raised!

Founded by Paul Harpin in memory of his niece Laura who sadly died from cancer, aged just 26. We’re delighted to support and help promote the initiative with our diaries. Any purchases of the fonts help to raise vital funds that literally save lives.

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post. If you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk. For people who aren't customers, they are available to buy through the St Bride Foundation here:

https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/product/fenner-paper-diary-2025

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.12.2024

Garden Scenes from James Ellis

 Here are two beautiful new notecards published by James Ellis in a handy wallet pack containing eight cards.

Garden Bird House by Matt Johnson

The notecard designs are titled 'Garden Fork' and 'Garden Bird House' illustrated by Matt Johnson who lives and works in Cornwall. 

Garden Fork by Matt Johnson

Full images of the notecards are also displayed when the wallet is opened, along with information about the artist. The wallet measures 134 x 134 x 16mm. The cards are 120mm square, and the envelopes are 130mm square. 

The two designs are printed on the front and back of the wallet and each wallet contains four of each notecard together with envelopes.

The cards and the wallets are both printed on our Starfine, Natural 300gsm, which is an natural white, uncoated board with a lovely feel and great surface for printing. It is FSC accredited and also free from OBA's (optical brightening agents). The cards and wallets are printed offset litho by Alpha Colour in Gloucester.

The whole package is plastic free and 100% recyclable, which you can see from the handy information illustration on their website.

https://www.jamesellis.com/collections/notecard-wallets/products/garden-scenes-wallet-of-eight-notecards-by-james-ellis

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 

https://mattillustration.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.12.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 181

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 2017.

Wildwood Deli - Pannettone Wrap Christmas 2017

This is a lovely project which was produced for Christmas 2017. I received a call from Richard Davey (who is now at London printer Empress Litho) who asked if we could supply a 60gsm in a red and black paper. We discussed the project further and it turned out that paper was to be printed with a metallic gold text and sent to Italy to wrap the traditional Panettone cake for sale in the Wildwood Deli.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a readily available red/black 60gsm stock paper available from one of our supplying mills and the quantity wasn't enough for a 'mill making',  so I suggested that he could successfully print a solid colour onto our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and the metallic gold text with excellent results. I sent Richard a printed sample of a McQ project to show how well a solid could work.  

The sheets were printed on a B1 Heidelberg offset litho press, in a solid pantone (not panettone colours!) colour plus a metallic gold and as you can see, the paper has printed beautifully. The size of the finished sheets are 550x750mm.

Not only does Offenbach Bible print beautifully, it also is very strong and "scrunches" beatifully! making it ideal for this type of wrapping, where a tissue paper (which you wouldn't be able to Litho Print) would actiually not be strong enough ...and here is the finished packaged article

Couldn't resist trying a slice!

Thanks to Richard Davey for giving us the opportunity to be involved with this very tasty project!

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.12.2024

Monocle at Christmas

Monocle is a premium media brand with print, audio and online elements, not to mention their ever expanding retail network and on-line business. The Monocle Shop is at street level in six cities - London, Zurich, Merano, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Toronto. The shop keeps everything from luggage and clothes to stationery and furniture.

The finished size is 216x102mm, portrait and is a 16pp folded format folding out to a flat size of 405x432mm.

The above folds out to reveal the first spread below...

Click on images to enlarge

...and then folding out again, left and right.

and then folding up to reveal the full spread below.

The below image shows both sides.

The whole publication is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm ...and it looks and feels absolutely gorgeous - it flops and folds in a delightful way when handling the publication as I hope these images demonstrate. The below image shows the way it folds.

Click on images to enlarge

Print quality is superb as I hope the image below demonstrates, fleshtone reproduction is excellent.

Design is by the team at Monocle. The publication is printed offset litho, CMYK throughout. The excellent print is by Park Communications, who are based in East London.

https://monocle.com/shop/ 

https://www.parkcom.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.11.2024 

ROH Christmas card

This is the Christmas card produced for the Royal Opera House. The 4pp card is A5 size (210x148mm) portrait. The brief was to create a Christmas card that showed a variety of work done by the ROH over the year...

Graphic Designer at the ROH, Ana Peres, collated three pictures showing The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The captions for the original pictures are: 

1. Artists of The Royal Ballet in Untouchable in The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage. 

2. Jonathan McGovern in Apollo and Daphne in 4/4, The Royal Opera.

3. Artists of The Royal Ballet in Within the Golden Hour in The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage.

All images ©ROH. All photographs by Tristram Kenton.

Above is a detail image showing the composite mono image. The card is printed in 1 colour (black) on a toner based digital press. The festive look of the final picture is completed with the sparkles of the paper as it is printed on our Stardream, Crystal 285gsm...

Below is an image showing the plain unprinted Stardream,Crystal:

Printing was handled by Indicia.

It is a really well designed, simple and cost effective solution with great impact. Thanks to Ana for the images and information about the project.

https://www.roh.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2024

TIC CC

TIC CC is a UK brand of performance cycling clothing. Created for road athletes looking to achieve extraordinary things, their products are defined by the finest technical fabrics, hours of development and testing time, and a unique ‘peloton style’ aesthetic. The brand is also passionate in their commitment to sustainability...

Make responsibly — protect the irreplaceable! As riders we see it as our duty to do all we can to reduce the harm, protect the irreplaceable and make a positive difference. We are as passionate about ‘how we make’ as we are ‘what we make’

This is the printed promotional literature for their collection, used both as a mailer and sent out together with orders. The format is a 16pp, folded concertina, as you can see here...

The finished size is 240 x 170mm, folding out to 480 x 680mm.
Centre spread...

The idea for their photo shoot was based around the notion of ‘where we have been and where we are heading’. "We are more aware of the fragility of the world we live in based on our recent experiences of the pandemic. But tough challenges can lead to reflection, empowerment and renewed optimism. It’s the human spirit in action. The photography captures the optimism and sense of progression for the TICCC brand"

Fully extended spread...

Folding out to...

Click on images to enlarge

Be the Change - main spread

This promo represents their commitment to setting new industry standards for sustainability.

...and what about the paper? Well it has to be 100% recycled and our Shiro Echo, White in 100gsm was chosen, not just because it is recycled but it would handle the high density black CMYK coverage and the fluoro yellow would "pop" out!

...and it works beautifully.

Printing is by Identity Print in Paddock Wood and as I hope you can tell from the images, they have made a fantastic job. The solid black is amazing but still letting the images and the detail within them work. 

Creative direction and design is by TIC CC and Hugh Miller.

Interestingly, having spoken to the company founder, Andrew Monk, about the project, I learnt that this is their first piece of promotional print. As an online retailer, all their information is available online, but he increasingly regards print as an important way of getting their messaging and brand across, which is great news. After all, in this virtual world, there's nothing as immediate as something physical you can just pick up and read.

https://tic-cc.com/

https://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.11.2024

COP29 starts today

Today, the United Nations Climate change conference, known as COP, launches COP29 at Baku, Azerbaijan in Egypt, attended by leaders of governments, environmental organisations and NGO's. I thought it would be a good day to remind you that it was exactly three years ago, we launched PaperWise, made using 100% agricultural waste, at COP26...

Fenner Paper has launched PaperWise at an online event to coincide with the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. PaperWise is an entirely new concept, a range of paper and board manufactured from agricultural waste - this is the stems and leaves left over the harvest and which is often left in the field or burnt.

At the online launch, Justin Hobson, Marketing Manager at Fenner Paper said “PaperWise users give a second life to agricultural waste. In doing so they lower their ecological footprint, add value to waste, and prevent wastage”

There are additional benefits: PaperWise is produced in factories in India and South America that make a big difference to local communities. Investments are made in education, infrastructure, and healthcare while the manufacturing process is geared toward safety, zero waste, and preserving local ecology.

Lifecycle analysis (LCA) conducted by the University of Amsterdam (IVAM) has concluded that the environmental impact is 47% lower than FSC-paper made from trees and 29% lower than recycled paper...

The natural shade, manufactured from 100% agri-waste is also completely unbleached and has lower Co2 emissions than virgin fibre or recycled papers.

The PaperWise range is held in stock by us at Fenner Paper in Tonbridge. European stocks are held in Rotterdam and include a wide range of packaging boards and lightweight papers with food approval, copier paper and even corrugated boards. 

You can read more about this new range HERE and about how this fits with the UN sustainable development goals...

The paper and boards are suitable for all print work and packaging, with a one side coated packaging board up to 465microns.

In December we will showing PaperWise at the Packaging Innovations Exhibition in Olympia and PaperWise founder Peter van Rosmalen will be there too. You can watch this 1 minute video about PaperWise by Peter here:

If you would like samples, please drop me an email justin@fennerpaper.co.uk or have a look at our website.

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.11.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 180

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 2014.

Ted Baker "Take the scenic route" Autumn/Winter 2014

This is an exquisite print campaign from Ted Baker, one of the UK's leading clothing brands. Recognised for using interesting themes and stories for its marketing, the company has become a desired designer label through engaging with customers through word of mouth rather than just advertising.

Titled "Take the scenic route" it showcases the Autumn/Winter collection and is shot on location at Pickering station on the classic North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The Pullman steam train evokes a strong period scene in which the clothing and accessories play the central part.

The publication contains womenswear, menswear and accessories "so try something new (at the drop of a stylish hat) and always take the scenic route with Ted."

The paper used throughout is our lovely Omnia text and cover range - 320gsm for the cover and 120gsm for the text. As you can see from the images, there is lots of bright colour and images with CMYK dark areas (especially as it's Autumn/Winter) - lots of heavy coverage going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the dark winter colours, whilst retaining detail in the dark areas. ALSO...solid colours such as the solid black below, look just beautiful, flat, matt and tactile. 

This publication is produced in two sizes, 297x210mm (A4) portrait and 210x148mm (A5) format, both with a 4pp cover and a 72pp text.Perfect bound.

The superb printing was by Absolute Ink in East London who have sadly gone bust since. Design and art direction is by the in house team at Ted Baker.

The front cover and spine is hot foil blocked with metallic silver foil - beautifully done and reinforces the quality of the brand.

Image showing foiling on the spine - spine is about 6mm

 

All in all, this is a superb piece of print. This book also heralds the launch of the wonderfully named "Phormal" range of clothing!

https://www.tedbaker.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.11.2024