Jobs from the past - Number 62

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
Diary - 2001

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.

The project included exhibition space in the basement and SHED54, where pieces of original equipment are still in place and a restaurant on the ground floor, called WAPPING FOOD, under head Chef Justin Aubrey.

A folded down broadsheet called 'Wapping Diary' was regularly produced to give the information about events and exhibitions. The size of the broadsheet is 420x712mm, folding down to a 32pp 210x89mm.

It was printed in CMYK plus a special - a metallic silvery blue on one side and one colour (special) reverse. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm, which is a neutral white recycled paper with enough industrial feel that really worked well for this project with it's mix of heritage and electricity/neon imagery. A beautifully simple piece of literature which just used all the elements correctly and sets this piece miles away from just a 4 colour leaflet on a bit of silk coated paper!

Below is a close up of the way the metallic has worked on the paper:

This project was designed 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/
www.atelierdyakova.com
http://www.frostdesign.com.au/
http://www.mooreprint.co.uk/
http://www.leycol.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.12.2014

What is ...Loop Stitching?

What is ...Number 8

Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.

What is ...Loop Stitching?

Loop stitching is a variation of wire stitching or 'saddle stitching' (or a staple, as some would call it). In the way that it holds paper together, it performs exactly the same function as a normal staple finish but it is formed from a continuous length of wire (as is most commercial stitching) rather than a pre-formed staple and the wire forms a loop on the spine of the job.

 

The below picture shows a wire stitching machine, fed by a continuous roll of wire. 

The wire loop protrudes about 6mm from the spine and it's function is to allow documents to be held together and then files in a ring binder in one piece, rather than many loose, punched sheets. The picture below, shows the way the loops are held in a ring binder mechanism:

The ARB (Architects Registration Board) project (see below) was produced in 1999, designed by Cartlidge Levene - part of the functionality of these guidelines dictated that they could be kept in a ring binder and easily updated in the future.

Click on picture to enlarge

 ...and this picture show a ring binder with the contents, which are all loop stitched. An important point, not to be overlooked is the spacing between the loops, as this must be specified to the printer or finisher at the time of production. This is also often referred to as the 'pitch'.

Many binders have four rings and paper must be 'four hole punched' however it's worth remembering that you don't need to have four loops as two loops works perfectly in a four ring mechanism, as demonstrated below - that's certainly worth remembering!

 ...alternatively, you can just use the loops as an interesting finishing feature for purely aesthetic effect, even if it isn't being put into a ring binder, as this job for photographer, Andrew Douglas by Vince Frost.

From a cost point of view, it is more expensive than normal saddle stitching because the 'stitching heads' on the stitching line have to be changed and it just requires a bit more time to set up ...also, not all finishers have stitching lines that can loop stitch.

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.08.2014

Donovan returns to Frost*

Just heard the news that Anthony Donovan has returned to Frost* as Creative Director at the Sydney studio. He's spent the past two and a half years as creative director at Moon who are also based in Sydney's burgeoning creative district in Surry Hills.

Anthony Donovan and Vince Frost

Ant was previously at Frost and also spent some time in London working for Frost, together with Nicole Bradfield, back in 2009. During this time, we worked together on a couple of projects including this lovely book for architects Sheppard Robson.

This book was produced using our Construction Blackstone 1500microns on the cover with the text on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm. Sheppard Robson are committed to sustainability, and as such all materials used had to be 100% Recycled and it was printed by Pureprint. This may be the subject for one of my "jobs from the past" in the future!

I also saw Ant when I popped in to visit Frost* in Sydney at the end of 2009.
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/roving-report-frost-design-in-sydney.html

Ant ...welcome back to Frost* and best wishes for the future.

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.02.2013

Typographic 69 - Australasian issue

This is the latest edition of Typographic, published by ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) issue 69.

This is a good read and always something in it to inspire and as the "Australasian Issue", the content is entirely devoted to those practising typographic design, both past and present, in the Southern Hemisphere.

The contents are eight articles by/about: Cal Swann, Gail Devine, Simon Pemberton, James de Vries, Annette O'Sullivan, Stephen Banham, Jack Yan and Vince Frost. The Editor is Nick Kapica.

Design is by Frost based in Sydney, Australia. Art direction and design is by Vince Frost, Ray Parslow and Graziela Machado.

It is A4 Portrait, with a 4pp cover and 48pp text, perfect bound ...and in true Oz fashion, all the folio numbers are printed upside down.

And now for the paper plug! ...now if the truth be known, because Vince is is on the other side of the planet, he'd originally spec'd Mohawk Superfine but it's bonkers expensive! So after getting real and looking at the budget and considering the page count and postal weight, I suggested our StarFine 115gsm text and 240gsm cover. It came in on budget and the Fluoro pink looks brilliant on it. It is beautifully printed by Gavin Martin in London.

If you aren't already a member, you should really think about joining - there are many benefits, this is just one! www.istd.org.uk

...and if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - it costs less than £10 per month - still excellent value!

www.istd.org.uk
www.frostdesign.com.au
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.02.2012

News from down under...

Yesterday I received some news from down under from my old friend Vince Frost - and he's cooking! Vince is joining hundreds of other Australian CEOs and many celebrity chefs to raise money and awareness related to homelessness. 

The CEO CookOff is a joint initiative of OzHarvest and Qantas. The event will bring together 30 celebrity chefs and 200 CEOs to raise awareness around food security and one of Australia's major social issues, homelessness.

You can help support Vince by clicking here http://www.ceocookoff.com.au/profile/776

to check out the site and then click on the 'donate now' button to help fund this worthy cause.

Is it my imagination, or do they just seem to have a lot more fun down in Australia?!

www.frostdesign.com.au

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.02.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 13

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 one is my FIRST EVER piece of work at Fenner Paper that was in any way a "creative project"!

22 and Eye - LCPDT BA (Hons) Degree Show 1993

This job dates back to 1993. The design company was Pentagram and the designer on the project was Vince Frost. The project was the end of year show, poster and literature for the BA (Hons) Photography course at the London College of Printing and Distributive Trades (as it was then) and I still have a copy!

The poster is pictured above. Size is 580mm Square. It features a photograph by one of the graduating students. Clare Carnegie. The invitation was exactly as the poster but 180mm square. It was printed in two colours as a duotone with a black and a grey. I know this for a fact as I've still got an untrimmed press sheet! It was printed on a coated paper called Lightning Silk in 150gsm (although that particular sheet has now gone long ago). With the poster, goes an invitation, identical to the poster but 180mm square and printed on the same sheet as the poster.

The main pack to show each of the student's work is a 6pp folder containing 24 cards. The folder is very simply produced - more of a wrap around - as there are no flaps top/bottom with a tipped on label on the front. The 180mm square folder was produced on Chagall Nero 260gsm which has a slight texture. 

The 24 cards are one for each of the 23 graduates showing one image with their contact details plus an introduction by Jonathan Goddard, Director of Photographic Studies. The title "22 and Eye" comes from the use of the picture by Clare Carnegie, who's eye photograph is used as the lead image and 22 other graduates.

The cards were also printed on our Lightning Silk 250gsm. Print was by Penshurst Press (sadly no longer in existence).

This was a very "low budget" job which is why I was "cajoled" into sponsoring the piece with a good price on the paper - and that was back in 1993!

http://www.pentagram.co.uk/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.10.2010

Vince Frost on board with D&AD

I've only just caught the news that Vince Frost has been elected to the Executive Committee of D&AD, joining Neville Brody and Mark Bonner on the Design comittee.

Vince is the first Sydney-based member to be elected to the Executive Committee and over the coming three year term, Vince will help raise the profile of D&AD in Australia.

Now I go back quite a long way with Vince and worked on many D&AD projects, so with that in mind I thought I'd do a little retrospective of some of his D&AD work and our paper!

It was in 1995 that Vince designed the highly regarded D&AD Newsletter. The great thing about this series of publications is that they were produced very simply, not in an overblown way and had a disposability about them. Printed in just one colour, all these great images are just reproduced as halftones. Finished size is 315x445mm, portrait. They are unbound and are a 16pp self cover.

Above: Cover image by Matthew Donaldson

Below: Cover image - Cacharel by Jean-Paul Goude

Above: Back cover by Graham Fink

Below: L/H cover image of Malcolm McLaren by Glen Erler  (http://www.glenerler.com/)
 R/H image by Matthew Donaldson

Now everyone seemed to be a fan of this format and loved the use of images, however when it came to review and they asked opinions, apparently (so I heard) the advertising audience didn't think it was colourful enough. Also because it arrived with an endorsment fold (folded in half) some people said they couldn't collect them in pristine condition!

Therefore a new more colourful publication called Ampersand was born in May 1998 and launched for the awards. It contained more colour and industry related features and profiles celebrating the world’s most inspiring creatives. The format was a more conventional A3 portrait size with a 4pp cover and 20pp text and saddle stitched. Below are the covers of &0 (the launch issue) and &1:

Now it was at this stage that D&AD was trying to find sponsorship from printers and paper companies, so unfortunately we got pushed out of the frame by free paper supplied by a company which doesn't even exist now!

However what goes around comes around and in 2004 it was time for a refresh and again our materials were called upon. Vince, working with Matt Willey at Frost in London, produced this all time favourite of mine - &20. The format was reduced to 195x255mm, 24pp self cover, saddle stitched but (and this is the really clever thing...!) the material used was our Clervaux [1 sided] 110gsm which is an uncoated material which is smooth one side and rougher on the reverse. By working with the printer and playing around with imposition, you get a smooth spread, followed by a rough spread etc and then some spreads which are smooth and rough. It works really well.

...and then, yet again, we got pushed out of the frame by free paper supplied by another paper company sponsor - ho hum! Anyway, maybe what goes around will come around again!

Congratulations to Vince on his D&AD appointment - he'll be a valuable asset and an inspration carrying Australian (oops, I mean British) design around the world.

http://www.dandad.org/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.10.2010

Roving Report - Frost Design in Sydney.

I've officially made my furthest ever visit ...to Sydney in Australia. Today I popped in to see Frost.

The studio is in an area called Surry Hills and is an entire floor of a really great converted warehouse. It's currently undergoing some renovation work, hence the scaffolding in the pic.

It was good to catch up with Vince, who I used to do a lot of work with, when he was based in London ...sadly it's a bit too far to deliver our paper to Australia!

Some excellent news for Frost is that they have been appointed to reposition South Africa’s leading retail brand "Woolworths" (nothing to do with the old UK variety). They will be implementing and evolving the new identity across all areas including packaging design. As a result Vince is setting up a new studio in Cape Town and is really buzzing about the project and he's only just returned from South Africa last week.

While I was in the studio I had some cookies which were baked in the studio for the Christmas treat!

For those of you that don't know, I'm the tall one...

(thanks to Louis for taking the pic)
And congratulations to Anthony, who was working as Creative Director in London last year, as he has recently become a proud father of a baby boy.


Vince also showed me his new range of T shirts which he has produced in collaboration with photographer Giles Revell who's based in London.

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

http://www.gilesrevell.com/