Workshop Fun

Last week, I organised for a small group from The Partners to spend the evening in the print workshop at the St Bride Foundation. There were about twenty of us in all and after an introduction and briefing by Michael Clayton the group were encouraged to have a go at setting type, inking up and printing.

For those not familiar with the St Bride Foundation, it was established in 1891 to fulfil social needs in the Fleet Street printing area. Facilities included a library, baths and a swimming pool (as hygiene was poor) and a printing school which was the forerunner of the LCP. Nowadays, this historic building houses a world renowned printing library with a large letterpress collection, a community theatre space, a bar, print workshop, meeting and conference rooms. It is still located in the original building, just off Fleet Street.

As well as printing, Andrew Long demonstrated lino-cutting and most people had a go. As the name suggests, this technique is actually engraving into a piece of floor linoleum, which is then inked and used to print from. The results can be amazing! ...you can see the concentration at the lino cutting bench below:

Andrew, selected one of Stanley Donwood’s London Flood prints. The engraving which was divided into 15 pieces which were then individually cut by different people over the course of the evening. I even had a go and this was my section (as you can see, I initialled it with a cheeky J!)

At the end of the evening the pieces were assembled and below, you can see Marc Spicer printing the result: 

...and here he is holding up the finished result:

Below is the comparison with the original on the right hand side

You might have spotted there is a head floating in the river which looks like me! Thanks to Nick Eagleton's lino cutting skills, he used his piece of lino to produce a likeness of me, which he also used to print me a card below

You can read a far more erudite version of the evening on The Partners blog written by Marc: http://www.the-partners.com/blog/2017/8/11/letter-heads

It was a really fun evening, where everyone got a chance to have a go and join in. We had some food and a few drinks laid on at St Bride's and a few of us even made it to The Old Bell on Fleet Street afterwards!

My thanks to all the staff and friends at the St Bride Foundation with special thanks to Mick Clayton, Andrew Long and Bob Richardson who made the evening really good fun.

I just wanted to note that Peter Smith who is resident wood engraver at St Bride was unable to join us as he is recovering after an operation but I want to wish him well and a speedy recovery.

www.sbf.org.uk

http://www.the-partners.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.08.2017

40 years of posters, circulars & talks...

Yesterday evening I was privileged to have been invited to the Typographic Circle 40th Anniversary exhibition, celebration and party!

TypoCircle, as it is usually referred to, was formed in 1976 to bring together anyone with an interest in type and typography. They stage a variety of type and typography related events including a series of diverse monthly lectures by well-known industry speakers, and the annual New York Type Directors Club exhibition. The list of previous speakers have included Alan Kitching, Stefan Sagmeister, Mike Dempsey, Ken Garland, Studio8, Erik Spiekermann, MadeThought, Michael Johnson, Anthony Burrill, Michael Wolff, Sir John Hegarty… to name just a few.  This event also launched the new logo (above) designed by NB: Studio and Studio Sutherl& and made by Bruno Maag.

Besides being serious about type, they are a very sociable organisation with a reputation for staging enjoyable events and this was certainly one of them!

The exhibition was curated in a large part by NB:Studio, working with Studio Sutherl&, Jon Bateson and everyone on the small but dedicated committee. The exhibition features 40 years of TypoCircle posters and Circulars, as well as some incredible ephemera, diligently squirrelled away by past committee members for such an occasion as this.

The exhibition includes a selection of nineteen issues of Circular, the Typocircle publication which in recent times has been designed by Domenic Lippa, printed by Richard Davey on paper sponsored by GF Smith.

This gives you an idea of some of the posters that were on display - printed by Gavin Martin Colournet on paper sponsored by GF Smith.

A publication comprising of three parts has been produced to support the exhibition. Designed in collaboration by NB:Studio, Studio Sutherl& and Jon Bateson. The first section is written by Lynda Relph-Knight and Sallyanne Theodosiou. The second is dedicated to spreads from all of the Circulars produced by Domenic Lippa and his team at Pentagram. And the final section contains 40 individual posters from the TypoCircle archive.

Above is a picture of the book, together with with the poster (designed by Studio Sutherl&) also printed by Gavin Martin Colournet on Colorplan 175gsm sponsored by GF Smith. The superb orange tote bag is sponsored by Streamline. Copies of the book are available from Typocircle.

My thanks to the TypoCircle committee for inviting me. This small band of people need some serious recognition for their time, drive and dedication. They are... Chairman: Alan Dye | President: John Bateson | Honorary Secretary: Val Kildea | Vice Chairman: Louise Sloper |Treasurer: Sallyanne Theodosiou | Membership: Antony Long | Committee Members: Jon Checkley, Dominic Lippa, Jim Sutherland, Olly St John. All these people freely give their time for the benefit of others and must be admired.

I must also mention the Typocircle sponsors, without whom none of this would have been possible: JWT, GF Smith, Pentagram, Baseline Magazine, Magma, NB Studio, Gavin Martin Colournet, Wynkyn De Worde Society, Laurence King, Creative Review, Streamline, Studio Sutherl&.

...and lastly, courtesy of Alan Dye at NB:Studio, here's a great picture of me with Kath Tudball from The Partners, in front of the TypoCircle logo inspired blackboard.


Membership of TypoCircle is open to anyone with an interest in type and typography, and there are no entry tests or examinations. As I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the TypoCircle and events such as this - why not get involved! ...individual membership is just £30.00!

The exhibition at the Protein Gallery, Shoreditch, runs until Sunday 23rd October, 10-5pm and entry is free.
https://www.typocircle.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.10.2016

Johnson Banks 21 years #4

To mark their 21st birthday, Johnson Banks has produced a series of four brochures. Johnson Banks was established in 1992 and is now a studio which has an international reputation.  Previously I have written about 'Blue Chip and Commercial projects' 'Charity and Not for Profit' and 'Education and Government', so this is the last of the series.

I'm writing about each of the four brochures individually. This post is about 'the Cultural side'.  As you can see from the projects below, there is a fantastic body of work for museums and galleries, including the Science Museum, the V&A, BFI  and the promotional work for Parc de La Villette, a cultural park in North East Paris with whom JB worked with over a nine year period.

Posters for Parc de La Villette, a cultural park in North East Paris. showing work over a nine year period

Size of the publication is 148mm square with a 4pp cover with a 32pp text and is perfect bound. It is printed on our StarFine White 300gsm and 150gsm. The spine is 3-4mm thick. As you can hopefully see from these images, the printed result on this StarFine uncoated text & cover paper is superb. The whole project is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

Outside back cover

StarFine is not a 'digital' paper but it has been "sapphire treated". This treatment is a pre-coat and is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (different to litho inks) adhere to the paper surface. If you would like to know more, you can read about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-is-sapphire-treatment.html
This project doesn't have a 'digital' look and feel like many digitally printed projects in part, due to the materials chosen.

Creative director is Michael Johnson, designers on the project being Kath Tudball and Julia Woollams.

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.06.2015

Johnson Banks 21 years #3

To mark their 21st birthday, Johnson Banks has produced a series of four brochures. Johnson Banks was established in 1992 and is now a studio which has an international reputation.  Previously I have written about 'Blue Chip and Commercial projects' and 'Charity and Not for Profit'.  

 

I'm writing about each of the four brochures individually. This post is about 'Education and Government'.  As you can see from the images below, they have worked on a many projects for the government in the 'noughties' and the Design Council, British Council, Kings College London and Ravensbourne, amongst many others.

 Size of the publication is 148mm square with a 4pp cover with a 32pp text and is perfect bound. It is printed on our StarFine White 300gsm and 150gsm. The spine is 3-4mm thick. As you can hopefully see from these images, the printed result on this StarFine uncoated text & cover paper is superb. The whole project is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

StarFine is not a 'digital' paper but it has been "sapphire treated". This treatment is a pre-coat and is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (different to litho inks) adhere to the paper surface. If you would like to know more, you can read about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-is-sapphire-treatment.html
This project doesn't have a 'digital' look and feel like many digitally printed projects in part, due to the materials chosen.

Creative director is Michael Johnson, designers on the project being Kath Tudball and Julia Woollams.

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2015

Johnson Banks 21 years #2

To mark their 21st birthday, Johnson Banks has produced a series of four brochures. Johnson Banks was established in 1992 and is now a studio which has an international reputation.  I wrote about the first brochure titled 'Blue Chip and Commercial projects' here: 

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/johnson-banks-21-years.html 

 

I'm writing about each of the four brochures individually. This post is about the one titled 'Charity and not-for-profit'.  As you can see from the images below, over the last two decades, they have worked on a wide range of large charity branding projects, advertising campaigns as well as working for some smaller charities.

Size of the publication is 148mm square with a 4pp cover with a 32pp text and is perfect bound. It is printed on our StarFine White 300gsm and 150gsm. The spine is 4mm thick.

As you can hopefully see from these images, the printed result on this StarFine uncoated text & cover paper is superb. The whole project is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

StarFine is not a 'digital' paper but it has been "sapphire treated". This treatment is a pre-coat and is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (different to litho inks) adhere to the paper surface. If you would like to know more, you can read about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-is-sapphire-treatment.html

This project doesn't have a 'digital' look and feel like many digitally printed projects in part, due to the materials chosen.

Creative director is Michael Johnson, designers on the project being Kath Tudball and Julia Woollams.

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.03.2015