V&A Invitation - Christian Dior

Spanning 1947 to the present day, this exhibition traced the history and impact of one of the 20th century's most influential couturiers, exploring the enduring influence of the fashion house, and Dior's relationship with Britain. The exhibition presented over 200 rare Haute Couture garments drawn from the V&A's couture collection and the extensive Dior Archives alongside accessories, fashion photography, film, vintage perfume, original make-up, illustrations, magazines, and Christian Dior’s personal possessions. The exhibition ran from February to 1 September this year and was a total sell out.

This is the private view invitation for the launch party on 30th January this year...

Click on images to enlarge

The format is an 4½pp concertina folded invite. The size is 183 x 375mm folding to a finished size of 183x150mm with a 75mm flap, which I hope you can see from the birsdeye view above. Having the half page flap means that on the front, you have coated and uncoated meeting together which is a wonderful juxtaposition. The below image shows both sides of the invitation...

Hopefully you'll be able to see from the image above that one side is very colourful and glossy and the other side is uncoated with mono images and hot foil blocked in silver. It is printed on Astralux [1 sided] 300gsm and is finished with gloss film lamination - this might sound unnecessary,but it is what gives the super high gloss lustre, which only lamination on top of a cast coated paper can give you. The below detail image shows the gloss...

...and of course, it is also beautifully creased with a matrix crease:

The invitation is designed by the in-house design team. Print and hot foiling is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood with Paul Martin handling the project.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/dior-designer-of-dreams
http://www.identityprint.co.uk/
http://www.favini.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.12.2019

Jobs from the past - Number 20

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...

V&A  1998-2001 Report

This is the triennial report of the board of trustees published in 2001 under the title: Inspiration and Knowledge, this report is very much aimed at answering the question "what is the V&A for?" 

It is a conventional A4 landscape size. The perfect bound document is made up of a 4pp cover, 34pp text and a seperate 4pp dustjacket. The highlight of the piece is the use of the V&A logo which is die cut out of the dustjacket behind which is the image of a tapestry (Neptune and Cupid plead for the lovers -Mortlake). The bold use of the now iconic V&A logo (Designed by Pentagram - Alan Fletcher 1989) is striking and purposeful.

The spreads use a different colour for each of the subjects covered in the report - all of which are deliberately kept to one right hand page, each working with an appropriately striking image on the left hand page. 

The review is printed on our Concorde Pure Silk which is a triple coated silk. Cover is on 350gsm, text on 170gsm and the dustjacket on 200gsm. At 200gsm, it's heavier than one would normally use for a dustjacket but it needs to be that heavy to work with the large die-cut logo.

Design was by London based studio HGV and creative director on the project was Pierre Vermeir. Editor was Jeremy Myerson. Sadly, after 21 years  HGV closed it's doors in 2009, when Pierre Vermeir took a position as creative director at an agency in Bangkok. Pierre passed the HGV legacy and his clients to senior designer, Tommy Taylor who formed Alphabetical and who still works with many of the former HGV clients.

Print was by Gavin Martin, who as regular blog readers will know are still producing excellent work and also working on V&A projects - see previous post: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2011/01/v-and-me.html

www.vam.ac.uk
www.alphabeticalstudio.com
www.gavinmartin.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.06.2011