Modern Poetry in Translation 2024

This is the latest edition...

Cover art by Liliana Dmitrovic

Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) is a magazine, originally founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort. The first issue, published in 1965 was a 12pp broadsheet printed on a Bible paper and cost 2s 6d! MPT presented poems by a wide range of authors, particularly from Eastern Europe introducing them into a wider circulation in English in the West. The original designer of the publication was Richard Hollis, continuing until 2004.

This issue titled ‘Bearing the Burden of Sameness’ spotlights the poetry of care. Featuring Rachel Rankin’s new translations of Brynjulf Jung Tjønn’s experiences of adoption in Norway, the myth of the Chinese river snail reborn in Tuoya Wulan’s version of Xinyang Wu, and Beth Hickling-Moore’s translation of Carla Nyman’s radically physical poetry of the body. Also: brand new translations of Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Olga Ulturgasheva on Siberian animist poetry, and Jenny He interviews Fiona Sze-Lorrain. 

The magazine is 215x140mm, portrait. The 114pp text is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and printed in 2 colour, burgundy and black throughout with an overall tint over some of the sections. Images are reproduced as halftones. The publication is perfect bound.

This is a really lovely piece of literature which feels good in the hand and is definitely one of those publications which invites the reader in. It flops and flows beautifully.

The perfect binding is nice and neat as you can see below...

Design is by Brett Evans Biedscheid. Print is by Wakefield based Charlesworth Press.

https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/

https://www.charlesworth.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.07.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 173

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 ten years ago

Ex Duris Gloria - 2014 

This is a very simple 'leaflet' or 'flyer' - so what makes it so special and why does it deserve space on this blog? Basically it is simple, well written, beautifully designed and exquisitely produced piece of literature and printed on lovely paper!

Produced by Rapha, the specialist cyclewear brand, it is an essay written by the author and broadcaster, Graeme Fife, who has written many books on cycling and the Tour de France in particular. Titled in Latin 'Ex Duris Gloria' (Glory through Suffering) the essay is about the pain and suffering that road riders endure on their bike.

Size is A5, portrait and it is a 2pp, yes, just a single sheet of paper. Printed Offset litho in two colours, black and a grey special for the background tint which reads 'Kings of Pain'.

It is printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

It is used, very simply, as a supporting piece of branding that Rapha uses in a variety of ways, including sending it out with online purchases - a very nice touch.

Art direction and design is by the in-house team at Rapha. Printing is by Generation Press.

https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/kingsofpain
https://generationpress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 172

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 nine years ago.

GSA x Drygate 2015

Click on images to enlarge

Drygate Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in the east end of Glasgow and they celebrated their first birthday on May 29th 2015 marking the occasion with a small-batch birthday brew. Working with D8, who had also created the brand identity and packaging for Drygate's core range of beers, they partnered up with graduates of The Glasgow School of Art to create beautiful hand-wrapped, individually designed and signed packaging.

The six Glasgow School of Art alumni are: Fran Caballero; Rae-Yen Song, Isabella Widger, Paul Flynn Brady, Alice Hoskins and Matthew Bainbridge.

D8 worked to create unique packaging that would also reflect Drygate’s philosophy and values. The brewery believes in open, fearless brewing to achieve the exceptional, and the spirit of collaboration has always been one of their main characteristics.

There were 350 editions of six hand-signed artworks. Each is printed offset litho onto our Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The sheets are then hand wrapped around the 750ml bottles, sealed with a branded roundel and a tag held with string is tied to the neck of the bottle to secure the wrap.

The project was featured on the packaging design website the Dieline ...
"The idea is perfect for a birthday beer, allowing beer enthusiasts to open the gift of an amazing brew! The illustrations used on the “wrapping paper” are incredibly special and unique, coming from artists in the community, and they offer variety and individuality among the limited amount of this exclusive libation. The concept can also expand and be used for future brews, utilizing the same bottle style and different artworks, designs, and ideas for the outer wrapping"
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2015/6/1/drygate-limited-edition-packaging

Offenbach Bible is the perfect paper for this project, as it is light enough to be easily wrapped around a bottle, has an almost 'tissuey' feel and yet prints amazingly.

Creative direction and design is by D8 and the project was handled by Stephen Cappello. The bottle wraps are printed by J Thomson Colour printers, based in Glasgow.

All in all this is a most engaging piece of branding and packaging. A superb creative solution, beautifully executed and printed.

https://drygate.com/
https://d8.uk/
https://www.gsa.ac.uk/
https://www.jtcp.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.03.24

Fenner Paper Diary 2024

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 new 2024 diaries...

This year’s cover has been created by Oswin Tickler, a designer and lecturer based in London. Oswin’s initial experiments with code as a means of generating variable digital print were developed into the software HP Spark by HP Indigo. The result is that each cover is totally unique, generated by HP Spark.

Which one will you get...?

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 designed by long term collaborator and friend David Coates an independent designer and director of ISTD.  As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

The typeface used is BWord (2.0) designed by Matt Willey which is available through Buy Fonts Save Lives.

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 £115,000 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 will be available to purchase through an online store.

Posted by Justin Hobon 08.12.2023

destination by Caroline Penn

Book artist Caroline Penn was asked to collaborate with thirteen other artists on a project, published by WhnicPRESS and launched at the Bristol Artist Book Event (BABE). Project C is about inter-semiotic translation: the translation from images to words, and words to images and the paths that form between them. Each artist was given an anonymised book cover and asked to respond to it with another book form.  All of the resulting fourteen books are held within a slip case in an edition of 25 copies.

Caroline wanted the form of her book to reference dictionaries and an unfolding train journey, hence the choice of Offenbach Bible, a double-sided, single sheet of Offenbach Bible folded into a concertina, and sewn into a cover.

Click on images to enlarge

The finished size is 173x124mm with the 8pp concertina text folding out to a 494mm length. You can see from the below image how the text folds into the 4pp cover...

Concertina text fully extended...

Given the lightweight nature of the Offenbach Bible, you probably won't be able to believe that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood. It was printed on their Xerox digital press and the result is excellent. For a limited run, such as this (25 copies) printing digitally makes a project such as this viable.

Click on images to enlarge

The above image shows the '5 hole sewn' binding, which is hand finished, as is the hole punching. Five hole sewing is just an evolution of three hole sewing, which I wrote about on this blog before HERE. The below picture shows the text fully extended:

The Offenbach Bible is enclosed within a Pergamenata paper cover which was all put into a loose cover, with the photo of the train in snow, supplied by WhnicPRESS. The other 13 artists also had their books enclosed within similar printed covers. All 14 books were then put into a slip case, see below...

Image courtesy of whnicPRESS

This was a lovely project to be involved with and many thanks to Caroline for taking the time to send me a copy of the finished publication and a handwritten note.

https://carolinepenn.com/
https://whnicpress.tumblr.com/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.11.2023

McQ Women

McQ, is the contemporary brand from Alexander McQueen which takes inspiration from street culture "evoking the varied and ever-evolving style tribes that spring up around Britain’s rich music and art scenes. Drawing on references from uniform and the military, core staples of the British wardrobe are re-imagined each season in new guises. Traditional techniques are used in contemporary ways, creating pieces that are both functional and beautiful"

Creative Director of Alexander McQueen and McQ is Sarah Burton. This is the season's lookbook for women.

The size of the publication is 450x320mm, portrait and is a 12pp self cover. It is printed on our lightweight Offenbach Bible 60gsm and is a beautifully designed piece of literature.

The lookbook is printed in four colour offset litho and is a superb example of printing on Offenbach Bible - superb solid coverage and deep monochrome images reproduced in CMYK.

Click on images to enlarge

Due to the lightweight nature of the paper it just flops beautifully, with a bewitching feel.

Design and art direction is by Rupert Smith who is a freelance art director based in London. This is an elegant and splendidly produced publication. To get these dark images to look this good on an uncoated paper is a real achievement. Print is by Rob Squires at Pureprint.

https://my.mcq.com

https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.07.2023

Collection 002 literature

Faye Toogood is a British designer who's work has appeared on this blog before. Her work covers interiors, installation, furniture, fine art fashion and more!

This is the literature produced for the launch of their unisex outerwear collection. Eighteen unisex garments, all manufactured in Britain. Materials used are tough cottons and hardwearing linens. With names like the 'Farmer Jacket' 'Oilrigger Coat' and 'Plumber Overall' these garments hanker back to our hardworking industrial past.

This promotional literature is a small folded up piece measuring 70x100mm, folding out to 280x600mm.  

Beautifully concertina folded.

Folding out to...

Click on image to enlarge

It is printed Offset Litho in four colour process, one side only, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, giving it a lightweight feel but with a beautiful quality.

Creative Director is Faye Toogood and the designer on the project is Catherine Acornley. Printing is by Chris Chadbon Printing.

https://t-o-o-g-o-o-d.com/

https://chrischadbonprinting.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.05.2023

Fenner Paper Diary 2023

If you are a user of the Fenner Paper ranges and therefore one of our wonderful customers, you may well have received one of our new 2023 diaries...

This year’s cover has been created by Matt Willey, Partner at Pentagram New York. The internal pages use Matt’s font Timmons NY (2.0) which is available through BuyFontsSaveLives.com

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 £100,000 has been raised! 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.

The text of the diary has been designed by David Coates, independent designer and board director of ISTD.  As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

The 4pp cover is printed on our Creative Print, Diamond 270gsm. The 40pp text is very simply digitally 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.

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post but if you would rather have it sent to your home than the office or if you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk 

https://buyfontssavelives.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.12.2022