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.
Tuna - Published in 2000
Why is this tin of Tuna appearing on this blog, which is usually about printing? - I hear you ask. Well it might look like an ordinary tin of Tuna, but it's anything but.
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| Click on images to enlarge |
Image showing the bottom of the tin:
This project might look like a humble tin of Tuna, but it is in fact a book published by photographer Marcus Lyon. Photographed in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo in 1999, it tracks a day in the life of the single largest covered market in the world. Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the home of the world famous Tuna auction where much of the world’s blue fin Tuna is sold.
The book has tin plates fixed front and back and is silver edged, which makes for the perfect tin facsimile - it really does look and feel like a tin. To get the rounded shape, the bound book blocks were 'ram-punched' to achieve the rounded corners.
You can see from the images above and below just how good the silver edging looks. The print production was handled by Phil Le Monde at Gavin Martin and I recall Phil telling me at the time that they had tried traditional gilding with silver gilt but it wasn't robust, especially on the spine, so they ended up clamping each book and spraying the edges using silver spray paint for cars!
The below image shows close up detail of the edge, showing the individual pages, but unless you get close and personal, you really can't tell it's a book.
The size of this tin of Tuna is 100x140mm portrait with a depth of 22mm. Including the cover (which have the tin plates affixed) the whole publication is 42pp. The 'pages are made up by 'back to back' laminating sheets together, which then form a 'hinge' which forms the spine - which, as a result, is no thicker than the top, bottom or foredge of the rest of the book. Below image shows the 'spine' which also demonstrates just how well the silver paint has survived.
The below image shows the way the sheets are back to back laminated to form the pages.
...and now for the paper bit! It was printed on a coated paper range of ours called Aerographic Twin 380gsm, which was a two sided coated board range we used to stock made by Tullis Russsell, who sadly went bust in 2015. The bulky board laminated together makes each page 900micron thick.
The publication is printed CMYK throughout, the images having all been printed in mono. The result is an amazingly evocative set of images of the market throughout the day...
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| Click on images to enlarge |
I had no idea that Tuna fish were so large
The timeline and credits for the publication are listed on the inside back cover, as is the limited edition number - this was an edition of 100. Now it turns out that my 'file copy' is un-numbered which either makes it worthless or worth more!
This project was recently shown as part of an
exhibition in San Francisco in 2015 at
RayKo Photo Centre. As part of the exhibition, they made this video which shows the project page by page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9O5KulyVmE
The project was designed by
The Partners and the lead creative designer on the project was Greg Quinton. The team credited in the book is as follows: Kaz Naito, Julia Pae, Matthew Stuart, Dana Robertson, Greg Quinton, Tony de Ste Croix, Christina Boyes, Kumiko Yamamura, Louise Irving, Kevin Leighton, Hannah Davies and Kirsten Young.
Print and most importantly the amazing production is by
Gavin Martin Colournet with Phil Le Monde handling the project.
The project was the subject of much coverage in the design press and appeared in many awards. It was highly commended in the Design Week Awards 2002, New York Art Directors Club Gold, 2002
and it was published in the D&AD book 2001.
A truly amazing project - I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.
http://www.marcuslyon.com/
http://www.the-partners.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/
Published by Justin Hobson 05.06.2017
Why is this tin of Tuna appearing on this blog, which is usually about printing? - I hear you ask. Well it might look like an ordinary tin of Tuna, but it's anything but.
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