Abandoned Time Capsule Paper Mill

Robert Fletcher company logo

I recently discovered a video on you You tube about an abandoned paper mill which is absolutely fascinating.

The paper mill, based on the outskirts of Manchester was called Robert Fletcher. The mill was established in the 19th century and you can read more about the history and the mill site here. We used to buy from this paper mill in the 1990's and they specialised in the production of thin printing papers for books and directories.

The mill closed literally overnight in June 2001. The workers were called to a meeting saying the mill was closing and told to go home. It is in exactly the same conditions as when the workers walked out eighteen years ago.

Below shows the dust covered boardroom table...

Forklifts in a row look like they were parked there yesterday.

This is a fascinating insights into the site of a paper mill and shows just how huge a paper mill (with three paper machines) is. The team at Urbandoned, who specialise in taking videos of abandoned buildings and sites have done an excellent job and this twenty minute video is fascinating. You can watch the video here...

Images used taken from Urbandonedteam, with grateful thanks.

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/robert-fletchers-paper-mill-oldham-feb-mar-19.117258/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.08.2019

The Dark Self

Shown at York St Mary's in the city of York, Susan Aldworth’s exhibition The Dark Self was inspired by her research into sleep during her three year residency at the University of York working with neuroscientist Professor Miles Whittington and art historian Professor Michael White.

This is the supporting literature, which is a single piece of paper but which folds down in a most interesting way, forming a diagonal fold.

The finished size is 210x120mm and is folded so it forms this 8pp format as you can see from the birds eye view below...

...and below shows the way the text concertina's into the folded spine.

Below shows it folded out flat.

Images showing the way that the diagonal fold works

The publication folds out to a finished size of 420x600mm (see below) which as I mentioned previously folds down to a size of 210x120mm - which actually makes a 20pp, however as the front and back cover has the fold, it's probably more accurately described as a 16pp - it's a very clever fold indeed!

Monoprint by Susan Aldworth 2017

It is printed offset litho in just two metallic colours - silver and gold, the gold only featuring on the Monoprint image above. One of our black paper ranges, Notturno 110gsm was chosen as it is a bit smoother than other black ranges and is lightweight enough (but not too light!) to perform the tricky fold. Below shows the detail of the front cover and the type in the silver which works superbly.

The literature concept and design is by Valle Walkley. Print and finishing is by Calverts.

https://susanaldworth.com/
https://www.yorkstmarys.org.uk/exhibition/the-dark-self/
http://www.vallewalkley.com/
https://www.calverts.coop/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.08.2019

From _______ To ________

People's History Museum (PHM) in Manchester is the national museum of democracy, telling the story of its development in Britain: past, present, and future. The museum holds the largest collection of political material in Britain.

From 1819 to 2019, from Peterloo to… where?  Marking the 200 year anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, this exhibition features a wide selection of artworks inspired by that event. While Peterloo undoubtedly remains a horrific chapter in British history, the displayed work is also an exploration of correspondence; looking further than one single time and place.

These crowdsourced works (both from invitees and via an open call) all utilise the humble envelope to creatively explore the idea of ‘From _______ To ________’ highlighting a range of examples where force has been used to control citizens and suppress dissent.

The exhibition includes a fantastic selection of submissions from established designers and artists, alongside emerging student work. Displays include artwork by Craig Oldham, James Cauty, Extinction Rebellion, film director Mike Leigh, and many more.

...and just to reiterate - all the works are either printed on an envelope or are inserts or a montage on an envelope - an inspired idea!

You can see all the exhibited pieces on Instagram on the following link: https://www.instagram.com/frompeterloo/

 

Below is a small selection...

Submission from Thea Koutas / @theakoutas

letterpress submission from Alan Kitching / @thetypographyworkshop

Submission from Craig Oldham / @officeofcraig 

 

Submission from Tony Pritchard / @tonypritchard_

 Darren Leader & Jason Hyde / @studiogram& @jasonleehyde 



Rob Scargill and Alex Finney / @robertscargill and @xelafinney

...and our involvement was in supplying the humble envelopes! A box of our lovely Colorset, Light Grey 120gsm (100% Recycled) 155mm square envelopes...as you can see in the picture below. The exhibition is coordinated by Dr Daniel Cookney who is a lecturer at the University of Salford.

The full list of contributors is as follows: Adelina Court, Alan Kitching, Amrit Randhawa, Anthony Sims, Bill Hards, Callum Dawes, Cleon Peterson, Craig Oldham, Daniel Cookney, Darren Leader and Jason Hyde, David Mauger, Dr.ME, Elaine Loader, Emily Schofield, Erik Brandt, Extinction Rebellion, Goodness, Guy Field, Harry O’Brien, himHallows, Ian Morris, Jimmy Cauty, Jody Barton, Joel Sleet, John Rooney, Jonny Pell, Laura D’Eath, Laura Jones, M-Four, Malcolm Garrett, Mark James Works, Mark Kaufman, Mark Murphy, Mark Stewart, Matthew Challenger, Michelle Murray, Mick Marston/du.st, Mike Leigh, Miroslaw Ogorzalek, Nick Bax, North or Nowt, Optigram/Manuel Sepulveda, Rick Myers, Rob Ryan, Rob Scargill and Alex Finney, Simon Harrison, Simon Palmer/ Show\Trial, Supermundane, Tara Collette, Tea Uglow, Thea Koutas, The Print Project, Tim Isherwood, Tony Pritchard, Vicky Carr, Will Bindley.

The exhibition identity is by Jenny Hall, Nicole Candiotto and Harry Steele. The exhibition is coordinated by Dr Daniel Cookney who is a lecturer at the University of Salford.

You should go and visit NOW as the exhibition at the PHM (which is FREE) only runs to 8th September.

https://phm.org.uk/visit/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.08.2019

Brucker - Type Specimen Book

Since 1998 Jeremy Tankard Typography has been designing award-winning type and producing typographic solutions for clients across the world. His latest typeface is called Brucker and through it's robust presence, is designed to create an aggravated and expressive text image. The family has 4 weights in 2 styles all with a disjointed baseline and charged rhythm.

The size of the booklet is around A5, but what is hard to show here in the images is that the foredge is trimmed asymmetrically as I hope you can see in the detail image below...

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the book is 210x140mm, portrait going down to a minimum width of 125mm at it's narrowest point, the asymmetry of the foredge emphasising the disjointed baseline and charged rhythm of the typeface itself.

The publication is a 16pp 'self-cover' printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled. This paper has a warm off-white tone which softened the glare that high whites often have and worked perfectly with the ox-blood brown and minty turquoise palette used.

Printed in three colours, offset litho by Langham Press in Cambridge. They also worked out the best way to work out how to produce the asymmetrical edge. The booklet is saddle stitched.

This is a really superb piece of print. Simple, effective and using an interesting technique (asymetric foredge) to create a difference and relate to the actual subject of the publication ALSO...how lovely to see a project NOT in CMYK!

https://typography.net/
https://www.langhampress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.08.2019

Atelier Augé - Moon Daisy

This is one of collection of new range of greeting cards produced by Bath based artist Lucy Augé. Known for producing large bodies of life work, her collections are exhibited internationally and Lucy is attracting a loyal following. This new collection of cards is from her Botantical archive and is based on her own exhibition invites which proved extremely popular.

The 4pp cards are 148x105mm (A6) portrait and this card is printed on our Crush Grape 350gsm from Favini. Crush Grape contains 15% residues from the processing of grapes for wine and food combined with 30% post-consumer recycled waste and FSC certified virgin fibre. The paper is produced with 100% green energy.

Click on images to enlarge

The above image shows the credits printed on the reverse of each card.

The cards are beautifully and simply printed in just one colour and using Letterpress resulting in a slight indentation giving the cards a tactile and engaging feel. You can just see a little of what I mean in the detail image below...

The cards are printed Letterpress by Opal Print based just outside Bath and below you can see the letterpress printing plate together with the inking rollers on the press.

Image courtesy of Lucy Auge

...and you can buy the cards here!

https://www.atelierauge.co.uk/

http://www.opalprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.08.2019

Maghreb, Les Terrasses du Ciel

This is the exhibition catalogue of a show by photographer François-Xavier Haage. The exhibition titled "Maghreb, Les Terrasses du Ciel" (Maghreb, The Terraces of Heaven) was first shown on June 30, 1987 and shows photographs taken during trips to Algeria and Morocco between 1985 and 1987. The exhibition ran from April 30 to May 31, this year at Hang'Art in Paris.

The catalogue is a 28pp self cover publication printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The size is 230x190mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. As you can see from the image above, the pages just flop and roll over beautifully.

Offenbach Bible 60gsm has a very high opacity for it's light weight, but the show through can be used as part of the design...

Click on images to enlarge

The inside back spread (below) is the key as to where the images were taken

You probably won't be able to guess, or even believe, is that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. It was printed on their Xerox digital press and the result is superb. For a limited run, printing digitally makes a project such as this viable - and on a a material like this, which many litho printers are scared of!...just look at the print result in the detail image below...

Designers Martí Peréz Palau and Carole Haage collaborated on the design of the catalogue.

https://lehangart.eatbu.com/ 
https://www.facebook.com/events/le-hangart/maghreb-les-terrasses-du-ciel/2254560204807289/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.08..2019

Jobs from the past - Number 118

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.

Venture 3 - 2009

Venture Three is a branding agency based in London. This is a "newspaper style" piece of promotional literature, produced in 2009.

The problem looking at an image like this is that you miss the scale of it! The size is 575x400mm, which is HUGE! ...and which is why there is an image below with a 12 inch rule so you can get an idea of scale! 

 

So that makes each of the following spreads a whopping 575mm x 800mm, which is more than enough space to show spreads of their work.

Click on images to enlarge

This is one of those projects that is hard to do justice to on this blog. The print image quality alone has left anyone that I have ever shown this job to, seriously impressed. It is a 24pp 'self cover' which has a deliciously floppy and tabloid newspaper feel. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm. Just look at the solid print coverage in the image below....

Click on images to enlarge

Given that Redeem 100% recycled is at best, off white and 100% recycled and 80gsm, the reproduction on this paper is superb. Below shows the fleshtone detail from a Myspace ad (remember that?).  It is printed CMYK throughout. Printed offset litho by London based Push.

As well as being a self cover format it is also completely unbound, so it flows beautifully in the hand.

Needless to say art direction and design was done in-house at Venture Three. Print is by London based printers Push and is superlative.

https://www.venturethree.com/

http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.08.2019