Pentagram Papers 48

Pentagram Papers are an anthology of documents, cataloguing areas of interest of the partners behind the world renowned design firm, Pentagram. They are produced to be given to clients and colleagues of the firm and have been produced since 1975. The quirky booklets cover a range of curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative and occasionally controversial points of view.

This is the latest edition, produced by one of the most recently appointed partners in the London office, Luke Powell. The title of this edition is "Long Lens, Wide Angle" and the subject is the Magnum photography cooperative, founded in 1947.

Size is 210x140mm, portrait with an 8pp cover and 48pp text.

The text pages are printed on Omnia 150gsm and it is a great example of just how well this paper prints, having said that, images such as these would look pretty good on anything! The high bulk of Omnia gives this 48pp publication a respectable 6mm spine.

Click on images to enlarge

Omnia was chosen is because it would beautifully reproduce the wide variety of very different images and feel special - with the reproduction that you would expect on a silk or gloss but with a natural tactile uncoated feel.

I must make a special mention about the printing, which is exceptional. Print is by Boss Print, based in West London and it is is printed offset litho using their Vivid Colour™ process. This colour technique has been combined in this project with the mono images being printed in duotone using two blacks (see above) and as you will see from the detail image below, the colour reproduction is superb.

The publication is section sewn in 12pp sections as you can see above and the thread used is black coloured thread which coordinates with the cover (below image).

The cover is printed on an embossed coverboard from that well known "Hull-based" paper merchant! ...and I must point out that it is printed black litho onto a white board with the type and keylines reversed out - but what about the black edge? I hear you ask. Well, the cover has been colour edged black, so there is no white edge. Great attention to detail by the printer Boss Print.

Design for this edition is by Luke Powell's team at Pentagram. This is a really special piece of print. Beg or steal a copy if you can...!

https://www.magnumphotos.com/
https://www.pentagram.com/
https://www.bossprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.02.2020

ISTD Student Awards 2016

Last Friday, I was invited to  the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their studio in Notting Hill with one of the newest partners Luke Powell, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going and in fact on Friday, there were two awards made to two young ladies who came all the way from Sri Lanka – Sushanthi Dissanayake and Fathimah Azmah Nihar from Academy of Design, Columbo, Sri Lanka.

ISTD organisers and board members, Freda Sack and John Paul Dowling (education director) talked through the judging process and gave their thanks to the tutors, without whom the scheme would surely flounder. 

Awards being presented by Luke Powell:

 Importantly, there were two commendations awarded to Chia-Lin Lin (who also picked up the Vincent Steer award) from London college of communication (LCC - tutor: Tony Pritchard) and Emile Toledo from University of West England, Bristol - tutor: Gabriel Solomons.

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.07.2016