Finchtail - Tablet Stand

It's rare that I get to write an article that covers both product design, identity and packaging design. The Finchtail Tablet Stand is the brainchild of Martin Woodhouse. Having come up with the concept, Martin developed the stand, which is manufactured out of corrugated cardboard - the idea being cheap to buy and sustainably made - which is in stark contrast to the sleek glass and metal technology that it’s designed to support.

Here is the actual product:

...and this is how it supports a tablet:

Martin approached Exeter based design studio Believe in to consult on the identity, branding and packaging and below is the end result:

The size of the pack is 83x138x7mm. The outer carton is produced using our Colorset, Deep Orange 270gsm, a 100% recycled board in keeping with the sustainable aims of the product. The mill that makes Colorset has the 'Blue Angel' certification for this product, which is one of the most recognised and highly regarded environmental labels recognised throughout Europe.The box is UV Litho printed in two colours, black and white, as you can see from the images the UV litho white has worked very well indeed.

Believe in, created a hieroglyph identity for Finchtail, which can be applied to this and future products. Below is an image showing the product and the supporting collateral:

The carton has been superbly designed and beautifully produced. It has been well scored, creased and perforated. Perfectly square and just right - zip perf is perfection!

Product design and innovation is is by Martin Woodhouse at Finchtail. Brand creation and packaging design is by Believe in. Creative director is Blair Thomson.

 

The Tablet Stand is available for retail distribution and if you want to pick one up, you can find it for sale at the Design Museum shop.

 

http://finchtail.com/

http://www.believein.net/

http://www.believein.net/#work/showcase/finchtail-brand-packaging/

 Posted by Justin Hobson 07.07.2015

Ravensbourne BA (Hons) 2015 Show

Yesterday evening I was invited to the Ravensbourne show, which was held in the grand exhibition space at Mother in the Biscuit Building, London E2.

It was a really well laid out show with a good spread of work covering editorial design, exhibition, information design etc, etc.

 

It should go without saying that the work appeared of a high standard and the graduates were exceptionally personable and eager to show and talk about their work.

...and as well as the beer, they even had personalised baked biscuits which were on the bar!

Thanks to course leader, Maaike van Neck for inviting me.

www.youhavefound.us
www.ravensbournegraphicdesign.com
www.ravensbourne.ac.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.07.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 69

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...

Darren Regnier - Photographer - 1999

Click on images to enlarge

This is self promotional piece for London based photographer Darren Regnier. It's a well designed, simple, beautifully produced piece of print with high impact. The finished size is A6 (148x105mm) folding out to a 594x420mm poster.

The images used are simply stunning and another factor which is almost impossible to convey is that it's been printed on our Offenbach Bible 40gsm. It is superbly light an has a great "rattle" which it's just not possible to convey in pictures.

 Folding out to...

One of the things that is of interest, is that this piece was printed offset litho in just one colour - yes that's a halftone or monotone reproduction. Most people would expect this to have been produced out of four colour process.

 ...and rather than being printed as a special, the press was set up to print black and a "dollop" of process blue ink was added into the ink ducts, while the designer passed the job (I know, because I remember him telling me!)

Above shows the very restrained design element. Just says, what needs to be said. One of the things I particularly remember about this project was when I opened my small box of file copies - on opening, I was confronted by a "Warholesque" image, which I have recreated below: 

Design is by Andrew Collier who is a freelance designer based in London. I believe Darren Regnier is now a teacher. This promotional piece just looks and feels fantastic. - over the years, no one I've shown it to has failed to be impressed!

Print was offset litho by The House Of Naylor, one of the last printers based in Clerkenwell. They became Forme print but they are no longer in existence.

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.07.2015

Baines & Fricker

Established in 2011, Baines&Fricker design and make furniture and accessories for the modern home and contract sector. Products are designed and made from their Brighton workshop using British materials wherever possible.

The swing tags for the furniture and accessories have been designed and produced by Emily Macaulay at Stanley James Press, a "Brighton based design company, specialising in the design and production of printed goods"


Photograph by Curtis James http://www.thisisbeyondwork.com/

The swing tags have been produced in just one colour on our Flora Betulla 350gsm and then punched and strung with a coloured skein.

Detail showing the stringing:

Click on image to enlarge

For those not familiar with Flora, it is a 50% recycled paper (and FSC accredited) with natural, deliberately visible, inclusions and fibres. It comes in nine different shades and has a character all of it's own! Below is detail showing the surface an inclusions:

Click on image to enlarge

This project is a superb example of choosing the correct stock for the job, adding minimal print processes and a lovely touch, such as the skein. A wonderful, simple, quality result. 

Design, Print and production by Stanley James Press

http://www.bainesandfricker.net/index.html
http://www.stanleyjamespress.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.06.2015

Johnson Banks 21 years #4

To mark their 21st birthday, Johnson Banks has produced a series of four brochures. Johnson Banks was established in 1992 and is now a studio which has an international reputation.  Previously I have written about 'Blue Chip and Commercial projects' 'Charity and Not for Profit' and 'Education and Government', so this is the last of the series.

I'm writing about each of the four brochures individually. This post is about 'the Cultural side'.  As you can see from the projects below, there is a fantastic body of work for museums and galleries, including the Science Museum, the V&A, BFI  and the promotional work for Parc de La Villette, a cultural park in North East Paris with whom JB worked with over a nine year period.

Posters for Parc de La Villette, a cultural park in North East Paris. showing work over a nine year period

Size of the publication is 148mm square with a 4pp cover with a 32pp text and is perfect bound. It is printed on our StarFine White 300gsm and 150gsm. The spine is 3-4mm thick. As you can hopefully see from these images, the printed result on this StarFine uncoated text & cover paper is superb. The whole project is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

Outside back cover

StarFine is not a 'digital' paper but it has been "sapphire treated". This treatment is a pre-coat and is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (different to litho inks) adhere to the paper surface. If you would like to know more, you can read about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-is-sapphire-treatment.html
This project doesn't have a 'digital' look and feel like many digitally printed projects in part, due to the materials chosen.

Creative director is Michael Johnson, designers on the project being Kath Tudball and Julia Woollams.

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.06.2015

Drygate Brewing Company - Limited Edition Packaging

Click on images to enlarge

This is one of the most innovative and beautiful projects to have appeared on the blog so far this year ...in my opinion!

Drygate Brewing Company is a new craft brewery based in the east end of Glasgow and they celebrated their first birthday on May 29th, marking the occasion with a small-batch birthday brew. Working with D8, who had also created the brand identity and packaging for Drygate's core range of beers, they partnered up with graduates of The Glasgow School of Art to create beautiful hand-wrapped, individually designed and signed packaging.

The six Glasgow School of Art alumni are: Fran Caballero; Rae-Yen Song, Isabella Widger, Paul Flynn Brady, Alice Hoskins and Matthew Bainbridge.

D8 worked to create unique packaging that would also reflect Drygate’s philosophy and values. The brewery believes in open, fearless brewing to achieve the exceptional, and the spirit of collaboration has always been one of their main characteristics.

There are 350 editions of six hand-signed artworks. Each is printed offset litho onto our Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The sheets are then hand wrapped around the 750ml bottles, sealed with a branded roundel and a tag held with string is tied to the neck of the bottle to secure the wrap.

As the review on the packaging design website the Dieline reports...
"The idea is perfect for a birthday beer, allowing beer enthusiasts to open the gift of an amazing brew! The illustrations used on the “wrapping paper” are incredibly special and unique, coming from artists in the community, and they offer variety and individuality among the limited amount of this exclusive libation. The concept can also expand and be used for future brews, utilizing the same bottle style and different artworks, designs, and ideas for the outer wrapping"
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2015/6/1/drygate-limited-edition-packaging

Offenbach Bible is the perfect paper for this project, as it is light enough to be easily wrapped around a bottle, has an almost 'tissuey' feel and yet prints amazingly.

Creative direction and design is by D8 and the project was handled by Stephen Cappello. The bottle wraps are printed by J Thomson Colour printers, based in Glasgow.

All in all this is a most engaging piece of branding and packaging. A superb creative solution, beautifully executed and printed.

http://drygate.com/
http://d8.uk/
http://www.gsa.ac.uk/
http://www.jtcp.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.06.2015

Today is Waterloo Day!

Today is the the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, a vital turning point in world history. The battle started at 11.30am and ended at 8.30pm, a bloody battle with 44,000 casualties and over 10,000 horse dead. This was the last major battle before the invention of photography and so what we are left with is the media of the age: eyewitness accounts, hand drawn maps, sketches, paintings and of course, artefacts.  This was a battle which for good or ill, set the course of European history until the First World War and still shapes the world we live in today. The names Wellington and Napoleon and to a lesser extent Blücher are still well known, popular history, mainly because of this major land battle in a small corner of Belgium exactly 200 years ago today.

 

I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in an amazing limited edition publishing project by independent publisher Extraordinary Editions. This major publication is an amazingly detailed account of the battle with much new and previously unpublished information about the battle. It has over 500pp and has a huge number of special production features, including leather casebinding, gilt edging, coloured end ribbons to name but a few.... 

It is printed on our lovely Modigliani Neve 145gsm, which has a subtle feltmarked texture in a neutral white shade. Printing is by Pureprint.

I will write about this truly historic publication in a longer article when I have all the information together, however in the meantime, you can read more about it here:
http://extraordinaryeditions.com/our-books/waterloo-1815-3/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.06.2015

What is ...PUR Binding?

What is ...Number 18

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 ...PUR Binding?
Brochures, paperback books, hardcover books and magazines with a sqaureback and a thickness greater than around 5mm will be bound using either glue (perfect bound) or thread and glue (section sewn). In the early 1990's a new development in adhesive technology changed the strength and therefore the reputation of perfect binding forever.

Section sewn binding has been around since books were first produced - using different types of glue as times changed. Section sewn binding is still regarded as the best and strongest as it relies on both thread and glue. Perfect Binding (glue only) has always been regarded as weaker and less durable (...remember all those magazines and paperbacks where pages have fallen out?)

In the early 1990's, a new type of adhesive was developed. This adhesive is called Polyurethane Reactive Hotmelt and is known as PUR. As the name hotmelt suggests, the glue is heated and applied hot. This new adhesive involves a chemical reaction between the glue and moisture in the atmosphere and paper to give a much greater strength and flexibility than using normal glue. The finished bound books reach their optimum strength 24 hours after binding.

There was a bindery close to us called Tonbridge Trade Binders (TTB) which was the first bindery in the UK to install the tanks to handle PUR glue on their binding line, this was around 1995. Unfortunately TTB closed down about ten years ago but many trade binders now have PUR systems.

PUR binding is very strong but one of the limitations in the early days was that it was only suitable for longer runs, which I believe was to do with the time it took to set up the machinery, these days that isn't the case and there are PUR machines that can do small runs.

...for example, below is an image of the BB3002 PUR binding line by CP Bourg, a machinery manufacturer based in Belgium. It's representative of the relatively small machines now available, many of which are being installed by printers in house.

Today PUR binding is highly regarded and is many customer's preferred binding method.

http://www.igm-group.co.uk/integra/cb-bourg/perfect-binders/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.06.2015