My Africa

This book called 'My Africa' is published by The Mo Ibrahim Foundation in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the charity. The book is a result of a competition run by the foundation where entries were submitted from all over the African continent from professional photographers, amateurs and students.

The charity was founded in 2006 with a focus on the critical importance of leadership and governance in Africa and was founded by Dr. Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese philanthropist and businessman. As Mr Ibrahim says in the introduction "We were determined not to produce yet another impressive coffee table book, with beautiful pictures of Africa - there are already so many of these. Instead we wanted to see our continent and our future, through the eyes of our fellow citizens"

The end result is a superbly produced piece of print designed by

Maria Tsirodimitri and overseen by Pentagram in London.

The book is 275x230mm, portrait with a 27mm spine. It is casebound with a mid grey book-cloth over the cover. There is a two thirds height matt laminated 'dustjacket' around the cover.

Introduction pages....

The 192pp text of the book is printed on our Shiro Echo, White 160gsm. This paper is made from 100% recycled fibres and also has FSC Mix certification, made by Favini in Italy.

Click on images to enlarge
 

The paper is a neutral white shade which is perfect both because books really should not be bright white (high whites are great for advertising but not relaxing to look at and read) and the paper works very sympathetically with the images. 

It is not possible to truly demonstrate the quality of the images (which, don't forget, are from professionals, amateurs and students - and all Africans) but I also can't do justice to the quality of the printing, which is absolutely superb. I hope the image above and the detail image below demonstrates a little of what I mean.

Image by Marco Silva (Cabo Verde)

I would like to suggest that you follow this link where you can see all the images, which will look a lot better than what I can show here: http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/my-africa/

 

There are four sections in the book, each separated with a solid colour spread of which this is one. Superb printing of a solid made out of CMYK.

This also happen to be the middle of the sewn section, so you can see the thread running neatly down the spine...

Image showing the 27mm spine with the sections and the ribbon marker.

This book has really succeeded in being a 'coffee table book' however it's been achieved with content supplied by ordinary people, thoughtful design and exemplary print and binding - not just another glossy book about Africa, so I think Dr Ibrahim's aims has been achieved.

Design is by Maria Tsirodimitri. Pentagram in London oversaw the project (Domenic Lippa's team). The superb printing is by Leycol in London with Richard Davey handling the print.

http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/my-africa/
http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/
https://www.behance.net/mariatsirodimitri
http://www.pentagram.com/
http://www.leycol.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.07.2017

Jobs from the past - Number 93

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...

 

Just another seasonal trend...  July 2006

This was a self-initiated project by Leeds based agency, Vast. They produced this superb piece of work to demonstrate their skills in art direction, location and print production for the fashion industry.

The size of the publication is a very large 405x335mm - truly a piece of literature produced on a grand scale! Working with clothing from Gibson Menswear, the photography was shot on location in Whitby by photographer Kevin Peschke.  

Click on images to enlarge

The publication is a 12pp loose bound (no binding) production and is printed on our Omnia 150gsm ...and it looks and feels just beautiful. It perfectly shows the images of the clothing - lots of detail and excellent reproduction.

As you can see from the above images above and below, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the dark shadowy images, retaining detail in the dark areas - all with an uncoated tactile feel (...in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?)

The images above and below show how it is unbound and how well it works - it holds together beautifully ...and that is because it is the correct choice of weight of material - Omnia is very bulky and 150gsm works perfectly. As a 12pp it holds itself together as a single piece of literature.

As you can see below with my hand in the image below, which gives some sense of the scale, it shows how nicely it flows and flops.

Below image shows the detail, just how good fleshtones are on the Omnia plus the detail of the button hole.

Click on images to enlarge

The below image shows the spines - with no stitches - nice crisp folds, perfectly executed, no cracking on the spines.

Design and art direction is by Vast, the creative director is Matt Austin. Print production is by Sheffield based printer, ProCo and the print result is absolutely superb.

 

I have pristine copies of this project, which ten years after it was produced looks as good if not better than many jobs I see produced today! 

http://wearevast.com/
http://proco.com/
http://www.gibsonlondon.com/
http://www.kevinpeschke.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.07.2017

Thesis InForm 2017

Thesis InForm is an exhibition showing work produced by a selection of students from across the Design School at the LCC in response to the ideas explored in their final year Thesis. The students were invited to transform and re-interpret these concepts in any visual or physical form imaginable.

This is the literature produced for the exhibition and symposium.

The finished size is 240mm square folding out to 720x480mm and is printed offset litho in one colour black on both sides on our Colorset 100% Recycled 120gsm in Bright Red.

The identity and publication is designed by GMD student Keenen Sutherland. The editor is Tracey Taylor and the organisation is by Andrew Slatter (Senior Lecturer linked to the Graphic Communication Programme).

The publication is expertly printed 'in house' at the LCC at the Elephant and Castle by Tony Yard and Scott House. Really well printed and folded, you can see the job coming out of the folder in the image below

My thanks to Andrew for sending me copies.

www.thesisinform.wordpress.com
https://thesisinform.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/talking-about-identity/
www.arts.ac.uk/lcc

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.06.2017

Lino King

When I started writing this blog back in 2009, it was because I wanted to share printed projects (mainly on our papers) with a wider audience than I can ever hope to visit personally. As this blog has evolved over time, a rewarding aspect has been showing work which has then inspired designers working in other areas. For example I have had a designer working in fashion promotion tell me they have been inspired by an article about a property brochure ... that's a satisfying feeling!

This project I believe will be one of those that will be of interest to all readers as it combines superb design, digital technology, hand embossing and wonderful use of colour.

Ashley Hutchinson is the designer and printmaker behind Ash Leaf Printmaking Studio. He produces limited edition lino and wood cut prints with a twist, as he incorporates embossing into all of his designs. All of the prints are embossed by hand using his three etching presses including his 1920s proofing press 'GEM'. Ash has been designing and publishing contemporary greeting cards for over 10 years.

This range of eight cards is called the Stardust Floral range. They are all printed on our Stardream range of pearlescent and metallic papers in 285gsm. Colours used are Opal, Rose Quartz, Lagoon, Vista, Azalea, Citrine, Fine Gold and Flame. Stardream is made by Gruppo Cordenons in Italy.

The 4pp cards are 145mm square

Showing anything in relief with my limited photographic abilities is hard, so it's easier for me to show the card printed on Stardream Opal 285gsm above ...and the inside of the same card below:

The embossing of the designs is truly outstanding but you'll have to take my word for it. It's also the colour combination of this range which I find so inspiring...

Production at Linoking is all in house. Printing is on a Canon inkjet printer and they are hand embossed.

As I mentioned earlier, the colour combinations is something I find inspiring - this purply/blue shade printed on the Stardream Azalea (below) is stupendous.

Sarah Glennie is my colleague who deals with our products that we sell into this market. The greeting card "industry" is quite a separate area of the creative world. It's interesting to me that there is so little crossover between the "corporate" design for print market and greeting card publishers who are responsible for putting the cards on the shelves in our shops around the country.

...anyway, I hope this article will inspire all creatives out there!

https://www.ashleafprintmaking.co.uk/stardust-floral-range
http://www.cordenons.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.06.2017

Central St Martins - Degree Show 2017

On Tuesday evening I was invited to the private view of the Central St Martins Degree Shows at King's Cross. It was a very hot London evening and given the current security situation in the country, there was security and bag checking, so it took me half an hour in the queue to get in, but that's entirely understandable.

The show was exceptionally well attended, laid out on the ground, first and second floors and including the large atrium area.

I spent most of the time at the BA Graphic Design course on the second floor.

Even though there had been a log queue outside, there was an equally long queue for the Camden Town Brewery stand, who was one of the sponsors as well as that other "Hull based" paper company!

As always, the work is well displayed and laid out - but then they are lucky to have one of the best exhibition spaces in the country and their disposal!

Thanks to all staff and people I know at CSM for the kind invitation and a chance to see the work of the new graduates.

http://2017.csmgraphicdesign.com/
http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/whats-on-at-csm/degree-shows-2017/show-two/graphic-communication-design/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.06.2017

Annoushka Treasure...

This is a beautifully produced catalogue from a leading UK contemporary jewellery brand. Annoushka was founded in 2009 by Annoushka Ducas who was originally one of the founders of Links of London. There are now two London boutiques plus concessions in many luxury shops and hotels including Saks in NY and the Mandarin Oriental in HK.

The size of the catalogue is 165mm square. The cover is printed on Plike Black 330gsm, hot foil blocked in gold foil. The 76pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm, which is just simply stunning with the images used.

The pieces, which include many types of precious stones, are all produced from 18 carat gold, hence the way gold reproduces in the printed catalogue is incredibly important. Equally the solid colours, especially black which is used for many of the backgrounds needs to also print superbly ...and as you can see below, it does!

Reproduction of the metallic gold on the Omnia 150gsm is just superb. Excellent detail and a beautiful metallic sheen which is as close as you can get to the real thing.

The quality of the art direction, photography, repro, print and finishing is superb. The paper also happens to have performed brilliantly - fleshtones and jewellery details equally looking superb...

The below image really showing the sort of detail I'm talking about:

Even though it is a small size brochure it flows well and pages turn nicely in the hand.

The spine is 7mm thick and it is perfect bound with PUR glue. A very nice neat job as you can see from the image below.

Creative director is Annoushka Ducas. Graphic design is by the Annoushka in house design team. The excellent print is by CPI Connect with the project handled by James Howe.

/https://www.annoushka.com/uk/

http://www.cpiconnect.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.06.2017