Workshop Fun

Last week, I organised for a small group from The Partners to spend the evening in the print workshop at the St Bride Foundation. There were about twenty of us in all and after an introduction and briefing by Michael Clayton the group were encouraged to have a go at setting type, inking up and printing.

For those not familiar with the St Bride Foundation, it was established in 1891 to fulfil social needs in the Fleet Street printing area. Facilities included a library, baths and a swimming pool (as hygiene was poor) and a printing school which was the forerunner of the LCP. Nowadays, this historic building houses a world renowned printing library with a large letterpress collection, a community theatre space, a bar, print workshop, meeting and conference rooms. It is still located in the original building, just off Fleet Street.

As well as printing, Andrew Long demonstrated lino-cutting and most people had a go. As the name suggests, this technique is actually engraving into a piece of floor linoleum, which is then inked and used to print from. The results can be amazing! ...you can see the concentration at the lino cutting bench below:

Andrew, selected one of Stanley Donwood’s London Flood prints. The engraving which was divided into 15 pieces which were then individually cut by different people over the course of the evening. I even had a go and this was my section (as you can see, I initialled it with a cheeky J!)

At the end of the evening the pieces were assembled and below, you can see Marc Spicer printing the result: 

...and here he is holding up the finished result:

Below is the comparison with the original on the right hand side

You might have spotted there is a head floating in the river which looks like me! Thanks to Nick Eagleton's lino cutting skills, he used his piece of lino to produce a likeness of me, which he also used to print me a card below

You can read a far more erudite version of the evening on The Partners blog written by Marc: http://www.the-partners.com/blog/2017/8/11/letter-heads

It was a really fun evening, where everyone got a chance to have a go and join in. We had some food and a few drinks laid on at St Bride's and a few of us even made it to The Old Bell on Fleet Street afterwards!

My thanks to all the staff and friends at the St Bride Foundation with special thanks to Mick Clayton, Andrew Long and Bob Richardson who made the evening really good fun.

I just wanted to note that Peter Smith who is resident wood engraver at St Bride was unable to join us as he is recovering after an operation but I want to wish him well and a speedy recovery.

www.sbf.org.uk

http://www.the-partners.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.08.2017

Jobs from the past - Number 68

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...

Pigs are Great - 2001

This self promtional piece of literature was designed by The Partners for Gavin Martin, the printing company back in 2001. The mailing is designed to be one piece, inserted into a neat 'Oink' envelope. The photography is by Geoff Smith.

The finished size is 120x77mm, portrait and is a long concertina. This gives the mailing 5 spreads in total.

The concertina which is 987mm long, folds up as below:

One of the things to note is the 2mm, free standing spine, into which the concertina folds. This is where the choice of material is important, so that the weight/bulk is light enough that it will take a machine made crease, yet be light enough for the pages to turn over nicely.

It is printed on our Matrisse 140gsm, which is a white very bulky uncoated with a toothy feel. Images, showing the fully extended mailer, printed CMYK plus pantone special, with the inside printed with the special only...

Art direction and design is by The Partners. Print is by Gavin Martin. Photography is by Geoff Smith.

A clever and well thought out piece of literature, which maximises the format of a B1 press and sheet of paper...

http://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/old_site/
http://www.the-partners.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.06.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 66

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...

Meyouheshehimherthings - 2000

This is a project produced as a student promotion for the Salvation Army Trading Company.

The 'Meyouheshehimherthings' promotion travelled nationwide to student fairs to draw attention to Salvation Army charity shops, tempting students in to buy second-hand clothing for prices much lower than high-street retailers. Peter & Paul (at DA) created this perforated postcard book as a giveaway, to highlight the clothes and to give students something to write to friends and family on (in this pre-digital age!)

The finished size of the postcard book is A5 portrait (210x148mm)

It is formed of 6 panels, making a 12pp concertina folded booklet, with images one side and space for writing on the reverse.

Click on image to enlarge

Below are the spreads as they appear in the book:

Front Cover

The cards are perforated horizontally and vertically to produce A6 size cards. It is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 250gsm, which has a neutral whiteness and just suits this piece of literature perfectly.

A clever feature of these cards is to include a discount card. This is a perforated credit card size card which punches out  and when presented with a valid NUS card, gives the holder a discount. Of course, these days, there'd be an app for that!

A particular feature that is worth pointing out, is the perforations. As you can see from the below picture, perforations can look great, even beautiful. As I have pointed out on this blog previously, these perfs only look this good because the designer took the time to explain what they wanted to the printer it's worth asking the printer to show you different types of perforations that are available - it doesn't cost a penny more!

 

This project was designed at a now defunct agency called DA in Leeds, but the creative directors on the project and the two people who drove the project are Peter Donohoe and Paul Reardon and the project is attributed to Peter and Paul who went to found their agency under that same name: http://www.peterandpaul.co.uk/. Unfortunately I can't find it in my records who printed the project.

 

Interestingly, this project was the overall winner in the 2001 DesignWeek awards in the Print Design category. Interestingly this piece won the award over a commended entry by The Partners and other shortlisted entries from Pentagram, GBH, Addison, Salter Baxter and Lippa Pearce ...and I still have the awards supplement!

The fact that it won the overall winner is testament to this piece of print design. As it says in the DesignWeek awards supplement 'Bright colours and bold typography gives the design direct impact, appropriate for the student market  - who said charity work had to look worthy?'

 

http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/

http://www.satradingco.org/

http://www.peterandpaul.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.04.2014