Jobs from the past - Number 146

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...

Nougat Preview S/S 2005
This is one of those simple pieces of print which is just exquisite. It is the preview piece produced to excite fashion buyers and to let them know at which fashion shows around the globe they will be showing the new collection. From that point of view, it can simply be described as a piece of 'direct mail' but that term is generally applied in a derogatory way and really doesn't do justice to this project.

It is simply a 6pp creased and folded card. Deceptively square, it's actually 150x140mm, portrait. It is printed in one colour on the outside and CMYK on the inside.

So what is it exactly that I find so special about this job? It was one of the first ever pieces to use Omnia and what is amazing is the way it feels so beautifully tactile and uncoated and then the way it reveals the amazing images inside. The outside cover is a continuous vignette as a halftone going from 0 to 100%. This is ingenious as it graduates in a crisp even way across the front cover - the even-ness in part, due to the way the Omnia prints and retains the integrity of the monotone.

The cover opens to reveal part of a stunning image plus reversed out type on a great solid, which is, of course, the continued solid from the front and back cover. Printed on Omnia White 280gsm.

 ...and then opening the right hand page reveals the image in all it's glory:

Below you can see the way the continuous vignette works from Zero to 100% 

 and here is a detail showing the subtlety of the tint:

This project together with the Nougat look-books at this time were designed by BOB Design. The creative partners at BOB were Alexis Burgess, Mireille Burkhardt and Kieran O'Connor. Lexi now runs his own studio in East London, Burgess Studio.

The excellent printing was by Principal Colour based in Paddock Wood in Kent. It's also worth pointing out that this job isn't "sealed, varnished or coated" in any way and this is the main reason that it feels so good - you can actually feel the paper and the ink. Since the time this was printed (2005) there has been a trend to install presses with coaters and most pieces of printed literature are smeared with a coating or sealer which (although making the printer's lives easier) betrays the feel of the paper ...and (what a lot of printers fail to mention) it discolours with age - now that's definitely something worth thinking about!

http://www.nougatlondon.co.uk/
www.bobdesign.co.uk
www.burgess-studio.co.uk
www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.01.2022

Manufactory

Yesterday, I popped into Old Spitalfields Market to an event that is part of the London Design Festival 2017. For this event Kingston School of Art’s Design Departments has migrate en-masse to the old market. They've reshaped the metal stalls as makerspaces and are inviting in locals, visitors, schools and businesses to re-imagine the Market together. It is Kingston's first whole-School event run by tutors, students and recent graduates and it runs 21–23 September at Old Spitalfields Market - so you can still catch it now - on today and on Saturday.

...and why should you go? Because there are 31 activities including live Signwriting (by Josh Hallam Holden who I met and is a very nice guy) to making chairs out of rubbish, a scribe and the wonderfully named Megatron.

Of particular interest is the "Paper-Print-Bind" section run by tutors Rose Gridneff, Andrew Haslam and Simon Goode.

Using waste card and paper collected from the Market itself, you can experience the process of book production from start to finish—through paper making, letterpress printing, and bookbinding.

Here is Simon Goode demonstrating handmade papermaking:

 ...and here is a visitor participating - she is actually couching (pronounced ‘coo-ching’) which is the term papermakers use to describe transferring a newly formed sheet of paper from the mould to the drying felts, which serves to remove the moisture:

 ...and a finished sheet of paper that I made!

Below is Andy Haslam printing on the Farley proofing press

...and Simon Goode getting visitors involved in book-making

These processes were historically prevalent in this area of the city - particularly towards Clerkenwell and are now used in the workshops at Kingston School of Art. Working with pre-digital processes gives their students a deeper understanding of materiality within graphic design. Well done to Kieran O'Connor for all his hard work co-ordinating the event.

..and a quick plug for the paper! the A2 size 'maps' are riso printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm - lovely.

Why not go along today or tomorrow and have a go and connect to these traditional, locally significant methods of making, and take away your very own sketchbook in which to develop ideas for a productive future for Spitalfields!

www.manufactory.works

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.09.2017

Pocket Book by Jack Beveridge

I received a superb little a superb little Christmas book from London agency BOB Design. This beautifully presented, package arrived in a substantial envelope and wrapped in silkscreen printed (in two colours) tissue paper.

As you can see from the wording below, BOB set a design brief - re-inventing the book as an object isn't an easy brief!. ...and then producing the end product.

...which is this amazing, pocket book.

This 160pp casebound, notebook is around 130x120mm, formed into the shape of a pocket. Covered in red bookcloth, it not only forms the basic shape but also is rounded so that it follows the contours of the cheek in the back pocket!

The whole thing is exquisitely made - all aspects of the binding are perfect - the V shape in particular is a triumph.

Below is a close up of the leather tab and the sewn sections (10x16pp sections) - this is a truly exquisite piece of binding.

The silkscreened poster, which tells the story of the whole project also incorporates thumbnail sketches of the students designs.

Close up of the thumbnail sketches:

The book is produced by one of the leading book-binderies of the world: BuBu. A few years ago I visited Buchbinderei Burkhardt (BuBu) in Mönchaltorf  near Zürich in and was amazed at the combination of the commercial bookbinding, hand bookbinding studio and digital book production. BuBu is an amazing business producing quality, long forgotten in some areas of the UK printing industry.

Jack Beveridge graduated in the summer with a first class honours degree and you can find him here:
www.jackbeveridge.com

Creative directors at BOB are Mireille Burkhardt and Kieran O'Connor.

www.jackbeveridge.com
www.bobdesign.co.uk
www.bubu.ch
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate-course/graphic-design/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.12.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 58

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...

Nougat Preview S/S 2005
This is one of those simple pieces of print which is just exquisite. It is the preview piece produced to excite fashion buyers and to let them know at which fashion shows around the globe they will be showing the new collection. From that point of view, it can simply be described as a piece of 'direct mail' but that term is generally applied in a derogatory way and really doesn't do justice to this project.

It is simply a 6pp creased and folded card. Deceptively square, it's actually 150x140mm, portrait. It is printed in one colour on the outside and CMYK on the inside.

So what is it exactly that I find so special about this job? It was one of the first ever pieces to use Omnia and what is amazing is the way it feels so beautifully tactile and uncoated and then the way it reveals the amazing images inside. The outside cover is a continuous vignette as a halftone going from 0 to 100%. This is ingenious as it graduates in a crisp even way across the front cover - the even-ness in part, due to the way the Omnia prints and retains the integrity of the monotone.

The cover opens to reveal part of a stunning image plus reversed out type on a great solid, which is, of course, the continued solid from the front and back cover. Printed on Omnia White 280gsm.

 ...and then opening the right hand page reveals the image in all it's glory:

Below you can see the way the continuous vignette works from Zero to 100% 

 and here is a detail showing the subtlety of the tint:

This project together with the Nougat look-books at this time were designed by BOB Design. The creative partners at BOB were Alexis Burgess, Mireille Burkhardt and Kieran O'Connor. Lexi now runs his own studio in East London, Burgess Studio.

The excellent printing was by Principal Colour based in Paddock Wood in Kent. It's also worth pointing out that this job isn't "sealed, varnished or coated" in any way and this is the main reason that it feels so good - you can actually feel the paper and the ink. Since the time this was printed (2005) there has been a trend to install presses with coaters and most pieces of printed literature are smeared with a coating or sealer which (although making the printer's lives easier) betrays the feel of the paper ...and (what a lot of printers fail to mention) it discolours with age - now that's definitely something worth thinking about!

http://www.nougatlondon.co.uk/
www.bobdesign.co.uk
www.burgess-studio.co.uk
www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.08.2014