Jobs from the past - Number 139

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 projects from years gone by and here's one from 2003.

D&AD Ampersand 19 - Aug/Sept 2003

It's unlikely that D&AD needs much introduction. - Founded in London in 1962 as British Design & Art Direction by a group of creatives and art directors, it has since become a world renowned body championing design and creativity. Back in 2003, Michael Johnson was president and then, as now, the President's Lectures were a popular draw for creatives. The awards were held at Earls Court (designed by Four IV) and it was a wonderful evening - I should know, I was there!

Ampersand was the newsletter for D&AD, which was mailed out to members. I wrote about the original newsletters HERE.

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the publication is 495x345mm portrait and is a 20pp 'self cover' and is unbound. It has a wonderfully floppy and tabloid newspaper feel. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm.

The paper is a neutral white shade gives the publication a 'newsy' feel which really works with the combination of images and type. Below image shows all loose text pages...

Click on images to enlarge

The publication is printed offset litho in one colour (halftone or monotone printing) and the look and feel is just perfect. A well designed and thoughtful piece of print to be delivered, spread information and disposed of - just like a newspaper!

Unfortunately I don't have a record of who printed it, but whoever it was, they made a nice job of it. (if you know, please let me know!) Apart from a bit of sun bleaching on the cover, it looks fresh and contemporary - could have been designed and printed yesterday...

Design is by Frost Design, London with Vince Frost and Matt Willey are both credited.

In fact, Ampersand 20 was even better (and a completely different format) and won a pencil in the 2004 awards!

https://www.dandad.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.06.2021

Jobs from the past - Number 136

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 and here's one from 2003.

The Fourth Estate Catalogue 

January-June 2003

The Fourth Estate is a publishers that many people will be familiar with. Founded by Victoria Barnsley in 1984, Fourth Estate built a reputation as one of the most innovative and eclectic imprints in the industry, with a reputation for publishing a wide variety of critically-acclaimed and beautifully-produced titles including many prize winning authors (Booker, Orange etc).

One of the things that made the Fourth Estate stand out from the crowd was their catalogues - they were simply amazing pieces of design and print! I was lucky enough to work on a few different catalogues in the late 90's and early 2000's. Every single one was different and brilliant. Good designers were commissioned, Bogue & Hopgood, Instinct, Pentagram, Rose Design, Frost, Neville Brody, Tom Hingston to name a few. In line with their reputation for publishing unconventional yet innovative titles, the design of the catalogue was equally eclectic.

The design and art direction is by Vince Frost with the superb illustrations by Marion Deuchars. This is a very special project where the creative direction, excellent execution of the images and high production values all come together.

The illustrations by Marion Deuchars were created using Carbon Paper. If you aren't familiar with carbon paper, it is the original way to make a copy on a typewriter, the impression from the top copy being made on an underneath sheet. So these wonderful illustrations are already second generation copies.

The size of the book is 225x160mm, portrait. It has an 4pp cover and a 88pp text and is printed on on our Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm cover and 130gsm text.

The book is printed one colour, halftone, throughout and it is printed with all the imperfections that the carbon paper produces as you can see from the detail image below...

Most of the images are just illustrated on the left hand side but some of the pages are illustrated across the spread.

Pages 61-80 include just listings:

...and pages 81-87 is the backlist:

Below shows the 8mm spine with the neat perfect binding.

The 88pp text flows well and the pages turn nicely in the hand.

The covers and inside cover spreads are made using scans of the carbon paper used by Marion, which are composite images and look great.

Design and art direction is by Vince Frost. Illustrations by Marion Deuchars. Printing is by Principal Colour in Kent.

So, where is everybody now?.... Victoria Barnsley, founder of Fourth Estate, joined Harper Collins as CEO and Publisher in 2000 when it acquired her company, leaving in 2013. Marion Deuchars is a very popular illustrator and has recently published some instructional art books. Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia around eighteen years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney. Principal Colour are in Paddock Wood in Kent and Fenner Paper? ...yep, we're still here! 

https://www.4thestate.co.uk/

https://www.frostcollective.com.au/

https://www.mariondeuchars.com/

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.03.2021

Jobs from the past - Number 125

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 and this publication is from 2002.

sweet

In 2002, two very well known art directors collaborated to market themselves as Sweet. Vince Frost and Balwant Ahira have different backgrounds but paired up to deliver a united package to clients and this broadsheet 'newspaper' style offering was their superbly produced promotional piece...

Sweet is an A1 (594x420mm) size publication folding out to a massive 594x840mm, which is what was needed to make give these amazing spreads room to breathe - spreads from The Independent, The Guardian, Nova etc...  

Click on images to enlarge

The centre spread is their 'pitch' (copy by Michael Watts) printed solid red and looks amazing.

It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm which is has a neutral white shade which gives the publication a 'newspaper' feel which really suits the editorial work that is being shown and which prints amazingly, as I hope these images show...

It is a 16pp publication and is unbound.

Above and below you can see the 4x4pp sections spread out with the outside back cover cover:

It is printed offset litho in two colours (yes, just 2 colours!) offset litho by Principal Colour - which means that these mono images are just produced as halftones - and don't they look fab?

Click on images to enlarge

...just to give you a sense of scale, the below image shows the publication open next to a 1 metre rule - the scale is big!

Design and art direction is by Vince Frost and Balwant Ahira.

So, where is everybody now?....

Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia around seventeen years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney. Balwant Ahira is an independent creative director. Principal Colour are in Paddock Wood in Kent and Fenner Paper? ...yep, we're still here!

http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

http://www.studioahira.com/

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.03,2020

Design Your Life Podcasts

I'm sure many readers of this blog will be familiar with the work of Vince Frost. His work from London days has appeared on this blog many times. Vince Frost is now the CEO and Executive Creative Director of Frost*collective, a strategic creative group dedicated to designing a better world through human-centered design and they have studios in Sydney and Melbourne.

In 2014, Vince wrote and published a book titled Design Your Life, distributed by Penguin you can read more on this dedicated website here: http://designyourlife.com.au/

To support the thinking behind the content of the book and website, Vince has now launched a series of podcasts where he discusses how design principles can be applied to everyday life with a group of brilliant and diverse creative guests. He chats with designers, journalists, CEOs and founders about the key turning points in their lives and the role design has played in shaping the success of their brands and careers.

There are now seven podcasts available from a diverse range of guests including Paula Scher from Pentagram in New York.

They are well worth listening to. Here's the link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/frost-collective/id1391405612?mt=2&i=1000416545516

http://designyourlife.com.au/
https://www.frostcollective.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30th July 2018

Jobs from the past - Number 86



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 and here's one from 1995.  

D&AD Newsletter - December 1995

It's unlikely that D&AD needs much introduction. - Founded in London in 1962 as British Design & Art Direction by a group of creatives and art directors, it has since become a world renowned body championing design and creativity.

This piece of literature is an excellent example of the way communication worked in the pre-internet world! Back in 1995, Mary Lewis was president of D&AD and then, as now, the President's Lectures were a popular draw for creatives (back in these days, tickets were either ordered by post or telephone and sent out by post). Feedback from member indicated a desire for transcripts of the lectures to be printed, so that the content could be more widely circulated, so in this inaugural issue, the D&AD Newsletter was re-launched in December 1995, in the main, to disseminate the transcripts of the lectures.

The publication later became known as Ampersand and I will write about the later issues in the future.

Front Cover

Size of the publication is 445x315mm portrait and is a 16pp 'self cover' and is unbound. It has a wonderfully floppy and tabloid newspaper feel. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm.



This issue covered the transcripts of the lectures given by Oliviero Toscani....

Click on images to enlarge

...and Maurice Saatchi.

The paper is a neutral white shade gives the publication a 'newsy' feel which really works with the images and most importantly, the pages which are purely type, as below:

Click on images to enlarge

The publication is printed offset litho in one colour (halftone or monotone printing) and the look and feel is just perfect. A well designed and thoughtful piece of print to be delivered, spread information and disposed of - just like a newspaper!

For a sense of scale, below is the outside back cover pictured with a 300mm ruler and a ballpoint pen, remember the size of the publication is  445x315mm.

The newsletter was printed by a company called Penshurst Press based in Tunbridge Wells. Sadly the company no longer exists - they wound up at the end of the nineties.

The design of the cover and contents is by Vince Frost. Deyan Sudjic gave the advice to Mary Lewis to "keep it simple" which this publication does admirably. Content is edited by David Robson of The Independent.

Photography by Giles Revell, cover photograph: Matthew Donaldson, Saatchi Image: David Levenson/Colorific, Toscani Image: A Rau/Sygma.

Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia just over fifteen years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney.

...and Fenner Paper? ...yep, we're still here!

https://www.dandad.org/

http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.12.2016

Jobs from the past - Number 71

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...

The Wapping Project - 2000

The Wapping Project was, until recently, an arts project housed in the old Wapping Hydraulic Power Station (built 1890). The building originally housed steam operated boilers to generate electricity in the early days of electrification. The works was decommissioned and mothballed in 1977. The building was converted and reopened by the Womens Playhouse Trust (WPT) which is a charity and under the management of Jules Wright, it was opened as an arts centre in October 2000.

Click on images to enlarge

The project included exhibition space in the basement and SHED54, where pieces of original equipment were still in place. On 14th October the bar and restaurant WAPPING FOOD was opened, unusually with an all Australian wine list!

This is the promotional concertina folded leaflet, produced to give the information about events and exhibitions. Size is 225x696mm folding down to a finished size of 225x89mm.

Click on images to enlarge

Many readers of this blog may be unfamiliar with the contents of the panel on the left hand page - the 'reply card' or often 'reply paid card' which was the way that people used to get onto a mailing list before the days of the internet and email! (...and well before QR codes!)

It was printed in CMYK plus a special - a metallic antique gold on one side and one colour gold, reverse. It is printed on our Neptune Unique 160gsm, which has reproduced images superbly.

The superb photography is by John Spinks.from East Photographic. Amazing images.

Art direction and design by Frost in London. Creative director was Vince Frost who now runs Frost in Australia and the designer is Sonya Dyakova, who now runs her own studio in London.

It was printed offset litho by FS Moore in London. Richard Davey handled the project and he is now Sales Director at Leycol.

Sadly the building was sold to developers in 2013 and the project has subsequently closed - a great loss for London and the Wapping area.

http://www.thewappingproject.com/
http://www.frostdesign.com.au/
www.atelierdyakova.com
http://east.co/artists/johnspinks/
http://www.mooreprint.co.uk/
http://www.leycol.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.09.2015