Jobs from the past - Number 167

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 2013

AMC² Issue4

Archive of Modern Conflict is an independent publisher based in London and this is issue 4 of  their series of journals. (their books on photography and art have won or been shortlisted for many prizes). This is a truly beautiful book, which is just a delight to hold and leaf through.

 

AMC² issue4 comprises photographs from Collected Shadows, an exhibition curated by the AMC for Paris Photo 2012. The works span a period from the early 1850s to the present day and are by photographers both known and unknown, amongst them Bertha Jaques, Gustave Le Gray, Robert Frank, Willi Ruge, Paul-Émile Miot, Johann Böhm, Ferdinand Quénisset, Mario Giacomelli, Eugene Atget, Josef Sudek and many others, while subjects include earth, fire, air, water and ether as well as divinity, astronomy, meteorology, flight and dance (these words from AMC books)

The size is 230x200mm, portrait and is perfect bound. The publication has an 8pp cover on StarFine White 200gsm. The text is made up using "French-folded" sections on Marazion Ultra 90gsm which gives it a sensational light feel and flows beautifully in the hand. The book has a 14mm spine.

The book has 140pp or printed pages (which I would normally describe as 70 x 4pp French-folded sections) - this actually makes 280pp but because the other side is unprinted and the ends are bound, each 4pp = 2pp. It's a bit tricky but if you think about it, it makes sense. French folding with a material like Marazion Ultra 90gsm feels fantastic because the weight of the material lets the pages flop and flow beautifully. The 8pp cover (pictured below) on Starfine 200gsm contributes to the soft feel. 

The picture below shows the foredge with the "french-folded" text

The book is printed by a Belgian printer, Die Keure, who are based in Bruges. They are one of the most renowned European book printers and they print for many of the high end publishers in Europe. The print and binding is superb on this book. It is printed CMYK throughout but most of the images have a mono/sepia reproductions and it's hard to get the consistency of look and feel in one publication from multiple image sources but this is an admirable result.

 

The designer is Melanie Mues, who I have worked with for many years. It was great to have the opportunity to work on a book project together, especially one as exquisite as this. 

https://archiveofmodernconflict.com/amc2-journal-issue-4/
https://www.muesdesign.com/
https://www.diekeure.be/printing/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.10.2023

Jobs from the past - Number 111

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...

Turner Prize - Invitation 2006

Each year the Turner Prize jury shortlist four artists for an outstanding exhibition.The prize was first awarded in 1984, founded by a group called the Patrons of New Art under the directorship of Alan Bowness. They formed to encourage wider interest in contemporary art and assist the Tate in acquiring new works. The Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist although ‘British’ can mean an artist working primarily in Britain or an artist born in Britain working globally and the prize focuses on their recent developments in British art rather than a lifetime's achievement. 

This is the invitation to the award event - one of the hotest tickets in town for the art world. The award was being presented by Yoko Ono. The four nominated artists are Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren...

The invitation is a 6pp gatefold. The size is 230x140mm, portrait, folding out to 230x420mm. It is printed on our sturdy Omnia 320gsm.

During this period (2006/2007) all private view invitations produced for the Tate were produced on Omnia at the instigation of designer Melanie Mues. All the invitations featured an image of the work of the artist combined with a solid colour on the reverse - you can see many of the invitations on the link here. Omnia was chosen because it would reproduce the wide range of media superbly plus the solid would always look excellent. This invitation followed the style but as it was not possible to reproduce the work of four artists, the names are simply (and beautifully) hot foil blocked on the outside of the invitation, and this time the solid colour is a metallic amethyst ...and because metallic inks actually look metallic on Omnia, the result is superb.

The foiling is a multicolour, holographic foil, which I hope you can see from the image below, really does shimmer and change shade as it catches the light.

Birds eye view...

Detail of the holographic foil

...and that literally is it - simply printed offset Litho in one special metallic pantone shade, well creased, beautifully designed, superbly hot foil blocked and no images - what more can I say?

Designer is Melanie Mues. Production is by the graphic design department at the Tate. Print is by Push print in London.

http://www.tate.org.uk/

http://www.muesdesign.com/

http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.01.2019

Stranger

This project is an entire book printed on transparent paper! Stranger is a beautiful book of photographs by Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur.

Here are the words about the project, from the publisher, Fishbar:
On 8th April 1961 the MV Dara, a ship carrying passengers between India, Pakistan and the Gulf, sank just off the port of Dubai. An estimated 238 people lost their lives.

Some bodies were never found and relatives of the missing continue to this day to search for their loved ones. Stranger, a new project by photographer Olivia Arthur, imagines a survivor returning to Dubai fifty years later, and what they would see. Through photographs and small anecdotes, the viewer is taken on a journey through a city that is both awe-inspiring and alienating. A city which has grown at breath-taking pace from a population of 90,0000 in the 1960s to over 2 million in the current day, and continues to draw people from all over the world with its promise of riches.

The backbone of the project is the story of the shipwreck, transporting the viewer back and forth in history and acting as a reminder of the fragility and skin-deep nature of Dubai.

Reflecting this fragility and suggesting the feelings of loneliness and disorientation often experienced by residents of Dubai, the book is printed on transparent paper. The result is that the layered images fade in and out of view, interspersed with quotes, memories, and images of the shipwreck itself.

Click on images to enlarge

This is the second published book for Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur and is the result of a residency of the artist in Dubai in 2014.

Concept and book design is by London based designer, Melanie Mues. In her words: "The book is printed entirely on transparent paper, juxtaposing images directly with the help of the show-through. The viewing experience is more like a film or a slide show, supporting the sense of loosing orientation and chronology of events." The book is printed offset litho in CMYK and is section sewn and casebound with a hard cover.

The paper chosen is ZANDERS Spectral White, 100gsm which is from the Reflex Paper Mill in Germany, who also make the ZANDERS Zeta range. Spectral  was chosen for it's uniformity of translucency and high whiteness.

 

The project was recently reviewed on the Grafik site:  http://www.grafik.net/category/case-study/unbroken-view

 

Stranger is printed by Belgian printer, Die Keure, based in Bruges. They are one of the most renowned book printers in Europe and print for many of the high end publishers in Europe.

 

http://fishbar.ph/shop/stranger

http://www.oliviaarthur.com/

www.muesdesign.com

http://www.diekeure.be/nl-be

http://www.reflex-paper.com/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.11.2015

AMC² Issue 9

Archive of Modern Conflict is an independent publisher based in London and this is issue 9 of  their series of journals. AMC's publications on art and photography have won or been shortlisted for many prizes.

AMC² 9 comprises photographs from an exhibition curated by the AMC at the 2014 Brighton Photo Biennial -Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy. The works span a period in the tumultuous decade of Italy's Years of Lead – a period when bombings, kidnappings and assassinations became the standard currency of Italian politics.

"The press photographs collated for Amore e Piombo from the archives of Rome-based agency Team Editorial Services reflect the manifold aspects of the period, as the photographers oscillate between pursuing film stars at play and capturing the violence on the streets against a backdrop of industrial unrest and a sexual revolution embracing free love, divorce, abortion, feminism and gay rights."

The front cover has been distressed with jagged pellet/shrapnel holes which has been done brilliantly (they are lasercut). These 'random' marks truly demonstrate the violence that defined these times.

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the publication is 280x205mm, portrait. 4pp cover is on Colorset Bright Red 120gsm. Printed offset litho in one colour both sides. Below image shows inside front cover and page 1 of text.

The next set of text pages is on Colorset Sandstone 120gsm, again printed offset litho in one colour.

The 96pp text is mainly printed on a coated paper (Phoenixmotion 115gsm from Scheufelen ) with the copy (12pp in total) all printed on our Colorset 100% Recycled. You can see from the image below, the way the text runs through the image pages.

The images are incredibly evocative of the time.

The publication is 'three hole sewn' in bright red thread and below shos the binding in the centre spread:

Text section in Colorset Bright Red 120gsm

Text section in Colorset Deep Orange 120gsm:

The below image gives you an idea of just how thick the book is. It is quite unusual to find any publication this thick which is three hole sewn, certainly the thickest that I have ever come across. It still sits nice and flat and works really well.

Inside back pages...

Publisher is Archive of Modern Conflict. Design is by Melanie Mues. This is one of those projects that has it all! History, an amazing subject, superb images with well considered use of the materials, colours and binding.

The print, finishing and binding is simply superb on this book. Print is by Push. The mono reproductions are superb with real depth and the finishing of the distressed holes and binding is superb.

http://www.amcbooks.com/amc2-journal-issue-9
www.muesdesign.com
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.04.2015

Addendum

I'm pleased to report that on 18th May, this publication won the coveted Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Award:

http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/kraszna-krausz-foundation-book-awards/2014-book-awards-results/

 

Since 1985 the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Awards have been the UK’s leading prizes for books on photography and the moving image. Winning books have been those which make original and lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contributions to the field.

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.06.2015

My Villages - Newsletter

myvillages.org is an international artist initiative, founded in 2003 by Kathrin Böhm (Ger/UK), Wapke Feenstra (NL) and Antje Schiffers (D).

Here's some information about the organisation "Our interest is the rural as a space for and of cultural production. The collective aims of myvillages.org are informed by the contextual nature of our individual practices and the autobiographical fact that we all come from small villages. myvillages.org activities range from small scale informal presentations to long term collaborative research projects, from work in private spaces to public conferences, from exhibitions to publications and from personal questions to public debate"

You can read more about the project here:
http://www.myvillages.org/index.php?a=work&id=62

This brilliantly executed newsletter is published on the occasion of Myvillages' 10th anniversary in December last year. It is printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm, offset litho in two special colours, one colour either side. Size is 594x840mm folding down to A5.

 

The format is of a poster which is folded down as a concertina and then folded as a gatefold - see pic below:

It is printed in just two colours, one of which is gold. Pantone gold printed offset litho on Offenbach Bible, really does look amazingly metallic as I hope the below picture shows:

Design is by Melanie Mues, who has a studio in East London. Printing is by Push and thanks to Roy Killen for sending me some file copies.

 

www.myvillages.org
www.muesdesign.com
http://www.push-print.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.04.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 52



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...

Association Gallery Leaflets 1997-2000

The Association of Fashion & Advertising Photographers (AFAP, although it later became AFAEP when editorial photographers were embraced) was originally founded in 1968, changing its name to The Association of Photographers in 1993.

 

During the late 1990's the AOP had their gallery and exhibition space at 81 Leonard Street, EC2 and the gallery manager was Alex Steele-Mortimer. Being a self funded 'trade body', resources were extremely limited, although the subject, brief and raw material was fantastically creative.  Alex commissioned Frost Design for the promotional leaflets for quite a long period. They stick in my mind as being incredibly simple, yet because of their powerful use of cropped, interesting images, single colour print and quality paper they had a consistency and quality that stands high today.

The finished size is 210x95mm (roughly a DL format) and is 12pp, folding out to a flat size of 210x570mm.

The format of this leaflet works particularly well as the text concertinas into the folded spine. This works particularly well for this type of leaflet as because it effectively creates a spine and the foredge of text - some leaflets fall open in all directions! This is neat and tight and as a result feels less like a leaflet and more like a piece of less throwaway literature.  

Text on the inside reads at 90degrees to the outer. Some people may disagree but I find this a very easy to read and inviting publication.

 Picture below shows the way the text folds into the spine

The papers used were a variety of the period, and depended on the use of the one colour that they were being printed (don't forget this was a time when one colour litho printing was substantially cheaper than CMYK!). Materials used were Matrisse 140gsm, Modigliani Neve 145gsm, Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm etc....
The crops of the fantastic images were always good. Below is the cover of June/Sept 97 edition with photograph by Spencer Rowell:

Below is a selection of covers from my collection.

Click on image to enlarge

Creative director was Vince Frost who now runs Frost in Australia. Various designers worked on these jobs in that period but I know for certain that Andrew Collier, Melanie Mues and Sonya Dyakova were responsible for the majority. They are all now independent designers working in London.

Print was offset litho by The House Of Naylor, one of the last printers based in Clerkenwell, they are no longer in existence.

http://www.the-aop.org/
www.muesdesign.com
www.atelierdyakova.com
http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.02.2014