Westerham Press set to close

St Ives has announced the closure of the award-winning report and accounts and fine art printer St Ives Westerham Press (together with its Blackburn print site). Although it has been phrased as an "intention to close" (because of employment legislation) it is certain that it will close, thus marking an end to a sixty year history.

Westerham Press has been one of the most important offset litho sheet-fed printers in the UK, both from an innovation and quality point of view, since I have been involved in the industry. This move signals the further diversification of the St Ives group away from the core activity of printing.

The full article on Printweek is here:
http://www.printweek.com/Business/article/1103549/St-Ives-Direct-announces-Westerham-Press-Blackburn-closures/

Earlier in the year I wrote about the passing away of the founder of Westerham Press:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/03/rowley-atterbury-printer.html

Sadly, there is little positive news in the print (or paper) industry at the moment.
http://www.westerhampress.co.uk/westerham
http://www.st-ives.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.11.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 22

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...

First Exposure - July 2007

This is a set of complimentary information literature and invitations for an event bringing together inspiring new fashion and lifestyle brands, mainly from New York.

Each of the items is an A3 size and folded to A5 size but the top fold is in falf, so the effect is staggered and as a consequence, it doesn't feel like a standard A5 finished piece. Hopefully you can see from the pics below:

This is a rather unusual job because the material used is our Offenbach Bible 60gsm printed 1 colour line or full coverage solid. This isn't unusual in itself as it is very popular for folded invitations/inserts etc. however you may have noticed from the pics, a metallic gold and that is because there is a massive 250mm diameter hot foil block. The combination of the lightweight material and the foiling is fantastic - a really beautiful piece.

The design was by Studio Exposure which is part of the Exposure group of companies who hosted the event. The designer on the project was Matt Jenkins.
The printer that printed the job and handled the superb foiling was St Ives Westerham Press.

Matt Jenkins is now working freelance in London and has regular engagements at all the best studios!

http://www.exposure.net/
http://www.mattjenkinsdesign.co.uk/
http://www.westerhampress.co.uk/westerham

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.08.2011

Deutsche Bank Guidelines

This is a fantastic project - not only does it look great and work well but because it's succesful in an area (brand identity) in which these days, often guidelines are only produced digitally. In this case,  Deutsche Bank agreed that it’s new brand and visual identity guidelines should exist physically as well as digitally. The book is intended to set the bar and act as constant inspiration for Deutsche’s creative agencies around the world - and it certainly achieves this goal.

It took Studio 2br over 12 months to complete the research and design to develop the new identity system, design the new Deutsche Bank Brand Portal and produce the 80-page A3 guidelines book. All in all, a very large project.

Below are the scatter proof/print test sheets:

Design is by Studio 2br. Creative Director on the project was David Shalam.

The job is an 80pp, saddle stitched, self cover A3 portrait format and the paper used is our Marazion Ultra 90gsm - yes that's right 90gsm ...the paper was chosen for it's tactile matt quality, excellent opacity and the way this large format saddle stitched book opens, the pages turn nicely and the flow is just right.

It is printed in 8-colours, with a silkscreened plastic wallet to protect it. Print management was placed in the extremely experienced hands of Paul Harding (a freelance production man who comes highly recommended by many clients). The printer on this excellent piece of literature was St Ives Westerham Press.

http://www.2br.com/
http://www.paulharding.com/
http://www.st-ives.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.12.2010