Bentply is a London based shop established by Bruna Naufal in 1989 specialising in 20th century, modernist furniture. This post is about a unique business card produced for Bentply, which also works as a promotional piece - it simply makes up into a cut-out miniature of the iconic 1934 bent plywood chair designed by Gerald Summers.
Now this is a project which began well over a year ago for me, when I was contacted by the designer Richard C. Evans, who explained what he was trying to achieve and was researching into materials and processes. I sent samples and we discussed various print finishing techniques that might make the idea work.
Now this project has already been featured on some design blogs, but as is common with other blogs, not much detail is written about the actual project (...they just show pretty pictures!)
After testing, Richard decided on our Flora Tabacco 240gsm which had the correct "woody" look and feel. As this wasn't a big budget project, Richard struggled to find a printer in the UK who could produce the project within the budget. Eventually he came across a letterpress printer called Elegante Press based in Lithuania. Now unlike some other paper companies, we're not afraid to pack paper up in a strong box and send it overseas! ...so that's exactly what we did. Elegante Press then triplexed the 240gsm board (echoing the properties of plywood) making 720gsm. The card is then letterpress printed in 2 colours and kiss-cut - just beautiful! Size of the card is
57mm x 136mm.
...and here's a close up pic:
I don't know what more I can add. A brilliant idea, perfectly excecuted and on the right material for the job!
www.bentply.com
www.elegantepress.com/
http://richardcevans.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2012
This is an exceptional exhibition catalogue for the artist Hans Hartung which features an essay by Odile Burluraux alongside the work. Published by the Timothy Taylor Gallery.
On this piece of literature - just the cover makes the difference!
On Friday, I went to the Monotype - Pencil to Pixel exhibition at Metropolitan Wharf. It featured material from Monotype’s historic archive of original artwork, type drawings, equipment and publications. 
Today, I was lucky enough to attend the BN International annual event, which this year was a luncheon cruise on the river Thames. It was hosted by BNI, FJ Ratchford and Société d Enduction et de Flockage (SEF).
Now for those of you not familiar with the names of these compan-ies, they are mainly involved with materials for bookbinding, covering and all things mounted. Product names that you may have heard of but which may not realise are from these suppliers are Balacron, Reflections Bookcloth, Windsor and Colorado rayon cloths and of course, our own Flockage!
Most of the invited throng were customers involved in the covering industry, bookbinders, boxmakers, printers etc. Here I am talking to Roy Eve, organiser of the event and BNI head honcho in the UK.
I've only just found out about this amazing exhibition which is on this week. Titled ‘Pencil to Pixel’ the exhibition is only on this week (19th-23rd November) and features Monotype’s historic archive of original artwork, type drawings, equipment and publications - in fact, nearly everything to do with type design through the 20th century.
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