St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

Here's a date for your diary...

This year, the Annual St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose takes place on Sunday 17th May  

The above flyer is printed letterpress by Andrew Long ( ...on our Colorset Lemon 270gsm!)

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:
https://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-5th-wayzgoose-at-st-bride-foundation.html

http://www.sbf.org.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.03.2019

Le Ster

Aishleen Lester established her London based jewellery brand, Le Ster, in 2018. As a child with an active imagination and a magpie of colour and stories, Aishleen has always been drawn to the power of objects and the stories they can tell and her jewellery designs are testament to that. In 2018 Aishleen won Designer to Watch at International Jewellery London and her work has been featured in a number of publications including International Wall Street Journal and Departures Magazine.

This is a series of five 2pp, A5 size cards produced under the title of 'Light the Grey' which shows each individual jewellery piece.

Click on images to enlarge

The cards are printed on Omnia 320gsm. Unlike many of the printed items 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 cards have a tactile look and feel. Being a digital print process it also means that small quantities can be printed economically and updated frequently, without the pressure of having to do a large print run. Below image shows the reverse of the cards...

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 reproduction of the fleshtones and in the dark areas.

Brand strategy and marketing agency is Studio Luxmore. Photographer and lighting specialist is Rhys Gray. Design is by Laura Purdy and digital printing is by Screaming Colour.

https://www.le-ster.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.03.2020

Jobs from the past - Number 125

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 this publication is from 2002.

sweet

In 2002, two very well known art directors collaborated to market themselves as Sweet. Vince Frost and Balwant Ahira have different backgrounds but paired up to deliver a united package to clients and this broadsheet 'newspaper' style offering was their superbly produced promotional piece...

Sweet is an A1 (594x420mm) size publication folding out to a massive 594x840mm, which is what was needed to make give these amazing spreads room to breathe - spreads from The Independent, The Guardian, Nova etc...  

Click on images to enlarge

The centre spread is their 'pitch' (copy by Michael Watts) printed solid red and looks amazing.

It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm which is has a neutral white shade which gives the publication a 'newspaper' feel which really suits the editorial work that is being shown and which prints amazingly, as I hope these images show...

It is a 16pp publication and is unbound.

Above and below you can see the 4x4pp sections spread out with the outside back cover cover:

It is printed offset litho in two colours (yes, just 2 colours!) offset litho by Principal Colour - which means that these mono images are just produced as halftones - and don't they look fab?

Click on images to enlarge

...just to give you a sense of scale, the below image shows the publication open next to a 1 metre rule - the scale is big!

Design and art direction is by Vince Frost and Balwant Ahira.

So, where is everybody now?....

Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia around seventeen years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney. Balwant Ahira is an independent creative director. Principal Colour are in Paddock Wood in Kent and Fenner Paper? ...yep, we're still here!

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

http://www.studioahira.com/

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.03,2020

Begg & Co Interiors

Begg & Co have been making beautiful scarves, wraps and stoles in Scotland since 1866. The small coastal town of Ayr has been at the heart of the brand for well over a century, when founder Alex Begg opened his first mill and began working with skilled local weavers. Begg’s original ethos is maintained thanks to the modern-day team of dedicated craftspeople, who continue to source the best quality yarns in order to create timeless, versatile products that are heavenly to touch and a delight to own.

This is the Look Book for the 2019 Interiors collection showing the range of throws, stoles and travel blankets. The finished size of the publication is 266x145mm and forms a 24pp broadsheet, folding out to 798x580mm.

The above image shows the front and back covers. The format is a "parallel gatefold" as you can see from the birdseye image below...

Click on images to enlarge

 Front cover...

 First spread...

 folding out to the next spread....

Click on images to enlarge

The whole publication is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm ...and it looks and feels absolutely gorgeous - it flops and folds in a delightful way when handling the publication as I hope these images demonstrate. The below image shows the way it concertina's from top to bottom (vertical folds) before folding horizontally.

 Image showing the full sheet (front)

 ...and the reverse side:

Creative direction and design is by Studio Small.
Printing is by Push and the reproduction on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm is superb.

https://www.beggandcompany.com/

http://www.studiosmall.com/

http://www.push-print.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.02.2020

The SPAB Approach

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris in 1877. The organisation was established in response to the work of Victorian architects whose enthusiasm for harmful restoration caused irreparable damage. Today the SPAB encourages excellence in new design to enrich and complement the built historic environment. They train new generations of architectural professionals and building craftspeople to shape this landscape with sensitivity and skill, and play a statutory role as adviser to local planning authorities.

This beautifully designed publication serves as the introduction to the society and gives insight into the historical background, conservation philosophy and is the first major manifesto publication.

Size is 240x190mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. The 4pp cover is on Colorset Natural 170gsm with a 24pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

Redeem 100% Recycled is a neutral white shade and really works with the subject matter, both with the images and most importantly, the pages which are purely type...

Click on images to enlarge

Spine is neatly creased and saddle stitched. The booklet is printed offset litho by Herald Graphics who are based in Reading.

The cover printed on Colorset Natural 170gsm has a wonderful image of a wood engraving printed on the outside and this really works with the tactility of the 100% Recycled paper...

A really lovely feature is the debossed 'plate sunk' panel in the cover, which I hope you can make out in the image below.

It's a lovely touch that perfectly finishes this superbly crafted publication. Graphic design and typography is by Sara Chapman at the letter g.

https://www.spab.org.uk/

https://www.letterg.co.uk/

http://www.heraldgraphics.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.02.2020

The State of the Industry....

At the beginning of every year, the US President delivers a "state of the union" address, so I thought it might be of interest to readers of this blog to read about the current state of the paper industry.

An article which appears in this month's Print Business magazine has an excellent summary of the industry, which with their kind permission, I have reproduced here...

Paper producers strive for balance
While it is less necessary than in the past, paper remains the key substrate for all manner of printers and UK consumption is falling and has been falling for a number of years. This does not automatically equate to a similar decline in print jobs: shorter print runs and so on will have a greater impact on consumption of paper. Take newspapers for example. Newspaper volumes are dropping, but this is not matched by the disappearance of titles.
Across Europe, Euro-graph, and association of paper producing mills, reckons that demand for newsprint had after ten months fallen 6.4% in 2019. The British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) referring to to figures from the Confederation of Paper Industries, reckons newsprint demand in the UK is down 6.3%. However there is divergence with other types of paper, reflecting the relative popularity of certain paper types in different countries.
According to Euro-graph demand for all types of printing grades of paper is 7.9% down. This excludes boards and packaging grades and specialist papers used for all manner of purposes, filters, wadding, insulation, batteries and more.
The BPIF puts the total decline for graphic papers at 3.5%, 2.4% if newsprint is excluded. The UK figures may also have been distorted by stockpiling ahead of the planned brexit deadlines, in the spring and at the end of October.

Across Europe demand for coated woodfree papers was down 9.7% and demand for uncoated woodfree papers was 3.9% lower. This is a significant difference to the UK equivalents where coated woodfree (CWF) exhibited a growth in the second quarter of 2019 compared to 2018.
This, however, is not likely to prevent the closure of paper production capacity. In coated woodfree, the looming closure of StoraEnso's Oulu mill to CWF production in September this year will remove 1.3 million tonnes from the European market, roughly equivalent to the current excess of supply over demand.
This also explains the difficulties that some mills have had in emerging from liquidation under new financial backers. Demand has continued to slide: Sappi reckons that overall demand is down 13% a year and is looking for a way to match capacity to demand. Others are doing the same and if they succeed will allow paper suppliers to strengthen prices later in the year.

The above article is an extract from the full article, which you can read here:
https://printbusiness.co.uk/news/The-shape-of-the-UK-printing-industry-is-still-changing/123220

Reproduced with kind permission from Print Business magazine. With thanks to Gareth Ward, Editor.
https://printbusiness.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.02.2020

The Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive book

The Rough-Stuff Fellowship was established in a pub near the Welsh/English border in 1955, making it the oldest off-road cycling club in the world. Recently, the club appointed an archivist, and the photos, hand-drawn maps and memories poured in – an unexpected treasure trove of incredible value and beauty. The photos are full of the joy of riding your bike and evocative of a bygone style – of a time when you might set off on a club ride wearing a shirt and tie, a deerstalker or a bobble hat, and no ride was complete without a stop to brew up some tea and smoke a pipe.

In their own quiet, very British way, these men and women were pioneers, pedalling and carrying their bikes and pitching their tents where angels feared to tread. Mountain bikes, gravel bikes, bikepacking – they all followed in the tyre tracks of the RSF. This book celebrates their style and their spirit. It is a document not only of the history of cycling off the beaten track, but of British outdoor culture...

This book is published by Isola Press. Size is 270x210mm, portrait and is section sewn, limp bound in a soft cover. The 208pp text is printed on Gardapat 13, Kiara 135gsm.

For readers not familiar with GardaPat 13, it's a fully coated paper but it really does have a dead flat MATT surface. There are many papers on the market which profess to be matt - some which incorporate the word matt in the name, but aren't! Apart from the high quality matt surface, this paper has an extraordinarily high bulk (thickness).

There is a 20pp illustrated text section printed on Popset Fawn (below)

It is hard to describe the 'dead flat' mattness that is a characteristic of this coated paper but the print result is totally flat as you might see in the below images...

Gardapat Kiara is a neutral white shade and is perfect for colour reproduction as well as the mono images.

I mentioned about the bulk of this paper and I thought it might be helpful if you could actually see what this means! The 208pp book using Gardapat 13 gives a spine that is 20mm thick, as you can see in the below picture...

The text is printed on Gardapat13, 135gsm which has a bulk (thickness) of 175microns which gives a spine thickness of 20mm (see above pic); but to give you a true comparison, if it were printed on another 135gsm matt paper (example Creator Matt, also made by the same mill group -Lecta) where the bulk is 115microns, it would mean the spine of this book would (only) be around 13mm thick. If you would like to know more about the relationship between gsm and mics, you can read a post I wrote HERE.

Design is by Myfanwy Vernon-Hunt at This Side. Published by Isola Press. Printed by Graphius in Belgium.

You can purchase this beautiful book for only £28 HERE

https://www.isolapress.com/shop/rsf-archives-2

http://this-side.co.uk/the-rough-stuff-fellowship-archive/
https://www.graphius.com/
https://www.lecta.com/en/cartiere-del-garda

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.02.2020