LCM Examinations Brochure

The London College of Music was founded by G Augustus Holmes in 1887. The College actually began as an examining body, but a teaching element was then created early in it's history. The LCM awarding body is the University of West London and this is the literature which explains the history, syllabus and accreditations.

Click on images to enlarge

The size of the brochure is 210x210mm, square, saddle stitched and features a 4pp cover printed on Omnia 280gsm with an 8pp text printed on Omnia 150gsm.

Omnia was chosen because it would work with the rich detail that is present in the images but that would still give a natural look and tactile feel. As you can see from images, some of the photography is quite dark, but there is no loss of detail, which is what can often happen printing on an ordinary uncoated paper.

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Printed offset Litho throughout plus a dark grey special.

Printing is by Dayfold, who are based in Dorset, with David Crompton handling the project. Dayfold have made a superb job of it - colour reproduction and solids are excellent.

http://lcme.uwl.ac.uk/
https://www.dayfold.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2018

St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

The Annual St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose takes place next month on Sunday - 20th May

Wayzgoose is a term (unfamiliar to many people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an away-day to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.

 

However, in this instance the St Bride's Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale. There are companies selling type, letterpress accessories, ink and lots of letterpress printed books and cards and the proceeds from the event go towards the St Bride Foundation.

Why not come along... ?

 

For interest, this is what it was like last year:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-3rd-st-bride-foundation-wayzgoose.html

 

http://www.sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.04.2018

Roksanda Accessories #2

In the decade since it launched at London Fashion Week in 2005, the ROKSANDA fashion house has evolved an unmistakable woman-centered design aesthetic. The brand is favoured by Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama and is described as "Sophisticated and feminine yet playful and effortless, its iconic ready-to-wear and accessories are instantly recognisable...."

This is a piece of supporting promotional literature produced for their accessories collection. The format is a very simple 16pp broadsheet. Size is 594mm x 420mm folding to 148mm x 210mm.

Above image shows the front, folding out to the spread below...

...and then out again:

...and then out into the full A2 size broadsheet below:

The paper chosen is our Omnia 120gsm - because it would work with the dark image and still maintain the detail that is present, especially in the shadow areas but still giving a natural look and tactile feel. It is printed offset litho in four colour process (CMYK) and there is no loss of detail, which is what can often happen printing on an uncoated paper, just superb reproduction. Printed one side only, the reverse is left plain white and unprinted.

Creative direction and design is handled by the in house team at Roksanda. Print is by Avenue Litho who are based in Hackney in East London

http://roksanda.com/
http://www.avenuelitho.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.04.2018

Outside - David Magee

Outside is a limited run hardcover book which is a twenty-five year retrospective by landscape fine-art photographer David Magee. The book accompanies an exhibition shown at the Herrick Gallery in Mayfair in February.

The 116pp book, contains words and 48 images from the exhibition, which is a selection of Magee’s work, taking in landscape photography of scenery in Ireland, Greece, India and the US.

The book is 310mm square and is published by Concentric Editions. Printing is by Boss and uses their Vivid Colour process and the result is truly spectacular!

The book is printed on a variety of text and cover papers from our friends at that other well known "Hull based" paper merchant including the cover material on Iwahada Rockskin from Takeo in Japan, but the book also includes a number of French-folded chapter sections, as well as short page tip-ins on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

The great news is that it's just been announced that the book has been awarded a Silver Award at the 2017 Tokyo International Foto Awards

The Tokyo International Foto Awards (TIFA) receives thousands of international entries, which are judged by an equally international Jury. During May, there is an exhibition of TIFA award winners at the CA Gallery, just in case you happen to be in Japan....

Congratulations to David Magee, who I have known for many years. Speaking about this retropsective book, he says “In my photographs, there is no real sense of time or specific place. The location is totally secondary to the feeling.The feeling is everything. I aim to portray not just what exists, but what is not obvious; that imperceptible element that stirs emotion and a sense of contemplation…”

https://davidmageephotography.com/home

https://www.concentriceditions.com/shop.php?1

https://www.concentriceditions.com/

https://www.bossprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.04.2018

Jobs from the past - Number 102

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 1997.

4th Estate
New Titles Jan-Aug 97

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.

This was a one of these very distinctive catalogues. The major difference between this edition and the other catalogues is that this one is A4, portrait, whereas normally they were a more unusual format.

This catalogue is quite simply made up from an artwork of badly made photocopies, which have then been photographed on backgrounds or with appropriate objects.

Click on images to enlarge

The whole publication is printed in just one colour as greyscale - it's worth remembering that this is back in the days when one colour print was significantly cheaper than four color printing. The result is amazingly effective, as I hope you can see from these spreads....

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The 4pp cover is printed on 250gsm and 48pp text on 120gsm. The paper used is our Neptune Unique SoftWhite, which is an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - just the right material for black type to look brilliant on.

As you can see from the image below, the 48pp text on the 120gsm sits nice and flat, without 'gaping' in the middle of the book.

The below image shows the spread on the inside back cover, with the credits. Design is by Vince Frost and Derek Samuel at Frost Design in London. Photography is by Glen Erler and printing is by House of Naylor.

So, where is everyone now....

Victoria Barnsley, founder of Fourth Estate, joined Harper Collins as CEO and Publisher in 2000 when it acquired her company. These distinctive publications continued to be commissioned and produced for a few years after becoming part of a larger group. Sadly (and I guess it was just a matter of time) the Fourth Estate became a section within the Harper Collins specialist catalogue.

The House of Naylor went into liquidation in the early 2000's. Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia in the early 2000's and runs Frost* in Sydney. Derek Samuel worked in London and New York and has returned to his native Australia.

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

Looking through my pristine copies, it still looks and feels fantastic.

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

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/about-harpercollins/Imprints/4th_Estate/Pages/4th_Estate.aspx

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

http://www.dereksamuel.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.04.2018

Preen Home

Preen By Thornton Bregazzi was founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, built on an aesthetic of darkly romantic and effortlessly modern, juxtaposing the masculine with feminine and mixing of hard and soft. Their debut collection at London Fashion Week for Spring Summer 2001 established the brand’s essence of punkish sensibilities with vintage elements and hand crafted details

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi has now expanded to include Preen Home – an opulent offering of soft furnishings

Size of the brochure is 330x240mm, portrait and is singer sewn. The text material chosen was our Omnia, which would beautifully reproduce the photography with the delicate patterns and dark colours superbly - without forgetting the fleshtones ...and it looks wonderful! There is a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and 16pp text on 120gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

Unlike many of the look-books featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!

Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent fleshtone reproduction.

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Below shows the detail of the red thread used on the singer sewing - just beautiful!

Omnia is a very bulky paper, and the 200gsm cover just works perfectly with the format and the singer sewing

The art direction is by Mark and Chris Thomson and the quality of the direction and photography (by Ash Reynolds) is matched by the exceptional digital print by Screaming Colour.

http://www.preen.eu/
http://www.studiothomson.com/
http://www.screamingcolour.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.03.2018

New papers and new processes

Kestrel Press are a family owned printing company based in Irvine in Scotland which was founded over 40 years ago. However, unlike many established printers, this is a company that continues to innovate and explore new materials. Their work has appeared on this blog before here.

We have recently introduced two new materials which Kestrel Press have embraced as they realised their potential with the design community. The first product is our BlackGold which is our new range of intense black from Gruppo Cordenons.

Kestrel have produced some A4 folders using BlackGold 290gsm and they are printed using their "seeing is believing" strapline which they are applying to their promotions to demonstrate their innovations in digital printing.

The size of the 4pp folder is 300x215mm, portrait and is printed using clear digital print, which looks like a cross between varnish and clear foil blocking and works brilliantly on the BlackGold.

Click on images to enlarge

The inside of the folder is printed in white, again printed digitally and the result is really crisp and sharp. Both of these processes have been printed on their Ricoh digital press with the special attachments which make white and clear printing possible. Because these are processes which are produced in the normal pass through the press and not an "after" process, it means they are much more cost effective than traditional processes such as foil blocking or UV varnish.

The 4pp folder has a glued flap with a 140mm pocket and slits for a business card. The business cards are also printed on BlackGold but are triplexed with our Colorset Magenta 270gsm as the middle layer. 

Click on images to enlarge

The business cards are also clear printed on the reverse.

The second material used for experimentation is our new SIXTIES paper, which is 60gsm. These sheets are 320x450mm and is also surprisingly printed in white....

The white is printed on the front, but as you can see from the image below, even though it is printed white, you can still see the show through

This new SIXTIES is 60gsm and is a fine quality, similar to our Offenbach Bible in many ways but with one major difference - unlike a genuine bible paper which has a high opacity, this new paper has the same translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels like a normal paper! ...as I hope you can see from the picture below:

...and this further sheet which is printed in black (and a small amount of red) on both sides of sixties making an image out of type.

The results are truly superb and it is great when a printer takes the time and trouble to examine and experiment with new materials that they then show to their customers.

My thanks to Graeme Ferguson at Kestrel for sending me these samples and for taking the time to experiment with their new processes on these new materials.

http://www.kestrelpress.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.03.2018