St Bride Foundation 125th Anniversary

As many readers of this blog will know, this month the St Bride Foundation celebrates their 125th anniversary. To coincide with this, they are running a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the Foundation to fund a year of special events (throughout 2021) and most importantly the beginning of a project to digitise the extensive Library enabling the collections to be shared with the global audience they deserve.

It brought to mind a fantastic project for the St Bride Foundation which I was involved with last year which I never wrote about but now having plagiarised (with permission!) the excellent blog article by Alistair Hall of We Made This, here it is...

Fourteen artists, designers, writers, illustrators and musicians were asked if they would collaborate in pairs to each create a poster designed to celebrate and highlight the rich and varied collections held within the St Bride Library and the building itself. The Collections and Collaborations project culminated in an evening to celebrate their work and the items from the collections that inspired them. The private view, held last May, included a series of short lectures from some of the collaborators about the process behind their work.

The collaborators are: 

Catherine Dixon & Mick Clayton 

Pam Smy & Ness Woo

Bob Richardson & Alistair Hall

Tom Gauld & John L. Walters

David Pearson & Paul Barnes

Anil Aykan & Jonathan Barnbrook (Fragile Self)

Tom Etherington & Keith Houston

There are 7 posters in total, each printed in an edition of 60, all printed on papers supplied by Fenner Paper and all printed Offset Litho by Boss Print ...and what a set it is!

Designer, writer and teacher Catherine Dixon worked with freelance type compositor Mick Clayton, who manages the St Bride Print Workshop. They went the extra mile – well, several extra miles to be honest – and letterpress printed their creation in the print workshops at the library, onto Shiro Echo, White 160gsm. It features a collection of ‘lost words’ from the printing trade.

Click on images to enlarge

Book designer Tom Etherington, from Penguin Press, working with author Keith Houston, who wrote the fantastic books Shady Characters and The Book, created this fantastic print...

Click on images to enlarge

The image above doesn’t really capture the brilliant way it’s been printed though. All the grey text is actually printed in black on the reverse side of the poster, showing through the semi translucent 60gsm Sixties stock, as you can see here:

The type on the above poster is set in Commercial Type’s Thorowgood Grotesque and Caslon Doric Wide.

Anil Aykan & Jonathan Barnbrook from Barnbrook Studio are also musicians and have just released their first self titled Album ‘Fragile Self’. They took a set of song lyrics from a broadside they found in the library, and created this contemporary version, featuring a bespoke typeface...

Click on images to enlarge

I discussed the poster with Jonathan and the concerns about the dark image and how it was important that the reproduction retained it's detail, which is why we decided on using Omnia 150gsm, which would reproduce the image without losing clarity.

Illustrator and teacher Pam Smy teamed up with book designer and lecturer Ness Wood (together with Maisie Paradise Shearring they make up Orange Beak Studio), and created this print based on the work of Beatrice Warde, printed onto Pergraphica Smooth, Natural 120gsm.

Illustrator Tom Gauld was paired with John L. Walters, author, musician, and editor of Eye magazine. John wrote a piece about the experience of visiting St Bride Library, and Tom created this stunning print around it. It’s printed onto Gardapat 13, Klassica 115gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

Here’s a detail...

Book designer David Pearson, worked with type designer Paul Barnes from Commercial Type, showcasing some more types from Commercial Classics. The posters were printed onto different shades from our Colorset range in 120gsm, the below image printed on Colorset Solar...

...and last but by no means least, here is the poster by Alistair Hall and Bob Richardson. After research in the Library, Alistair was inspired by the incredible elongated sans serif typefaces fom the R D DeLittle “Eboracum” Letter Factory. The finished result uses the Colophon Foundry’s recently released Coign type family and was printed on our Creative Print Champagne 170gsm

Click on images to enlarge

The below image shows the set of posters for sale during the launch evening. Some of these posters are still available and you can buy them HERE. Each poster has been produced in a limited edition with all profits going to the St Bride Foundation.

The project would never have been possible if it were not for the support of Boss Print who donated the printing, which was no small thing. Also, I must mention Becky Chilcott, the organiser, without whom this event would never have happened and my thanks again to Alistair Hall for allowing me to use the images and copy from his blog.

During this crowdfunding campaign, what better way to remember why the St Bride Foundation is such a valuable resource? - right in the heart of London and worth YOUR support. At the time of writing, the crowdfunding campaign stands at £36,000 of a £50,000 total with 15 days to go ...so please pledge your support right now! ...and tell your friends - remember many £10 or £20 donations will all help get to the target.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/st-bride-library-125th-anniversary https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/category/posters-prints-cards
https://www.sbf.org.uk/
https://www.bossprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.11.2020

Gold at the Heist Awards

The Heist Awards celebrate the best of excellence and innovation in education marketing. Established in 1990 by Havas Education, this year they celebrate the 30th year of the awards. Normally it is a live gala event held at a London hotel but this year the event held last week was a virtual ceremony.

It was great to hear that Boyle & Perks won the Gold Award for the best specialist institution prospectus for their Guide to Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design.

The Judges comments are: “This entry pushed the boundaries of the genre effortlessly. The outstanding use of visuals conveys excitement and remains true to its brand throughout. An outstanding submission, well -written with a clear plan, well -executed and with strong ROI outcomes. Top work – others can learn much from it, the team should be very proud" 

I wrote about the previous year's prospectus, which featured Astralux on the cover HERE:

Design is by Boyle & Perks and congratulations on getting well deserved recognition for creating another excellent CSM prospectus. You can see all the winners HERE.

https://www.heistawards.com/

https://boyleperks.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.11.2020

New Sarah Boris artworks

Some news, hot off the press today...

Harvey Lloyd Screenprint is a silkscreen print studio based in the South East of England and their work has appeared on this blog many times over the years. Established 40 years ago, they produce work for some of the best names in the industry, Harvey Lloyd have gained a reputation for having artists at their studio and working together to produce their artworks.

There are two new prints which are the result of their collaboration with artist and graphic designer Sarah Boris, One Step and Clover and here they are being printed...

Clover is printed in 4 colours and One step is printed in 3 colours. The size of both prints is 400mm square and here are the finished prints...

Click on images to enlarge

Each of the prints is numbered and signed by Sarah.

...and of course I must mention that they are printed on our wonderful Matrisse 250gsm, which is an uncoated, white board range with a high bulk (330microns) is FSC certified and Acid Free. These beautiful prints are available directly from their online shop HERE 

https://harvey-lloyd-screens.myshopify.com/products/clover-sarah-boris

https://www.instagram.com/sarahboris_ldn/?hl=en

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.112020

PEEL Limited Edition Book

‘PEEL’ is an exploration of self-identity. As a reaction to the scrutiny young people undergo through social media, Marksteen Adamson created the PEEL programme which works with groups of young people and uses photography and poetry to help them explore their identity and who they are rather than just focussing on what they look like. Social media, self-expression and self-identity present growing problems for young people, and there is growing evidence that this pressure is contributing more and more to mental health issues.

Launched in 2017, the project is the culmination of a three-year study, that has acted as the foundation and prototype for the training programme. The PEEL project has been developed into curriculum based resources to enable educators and service providers to run the programme.

This limited edition book comprises 30 studies, each with their own unique poem and photographic portrait and containing the latest statistics. Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait has 114pp of text (plus the throw outs) in a 'casebound' cover and section sewn binding.

Click on images to enlarge

The amazing thing about this book is that each of the 30 case studies is printed across a right handed 'throw out' in the book.

The book is printed Offset Litho on GardaPat 13, Klassica 115gsm. 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).

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...

Click on images to enlarge

Gardapat Klassica is a pale ivory shade and is perfect for colour reproduction as well as the solid colour and metallic gold used for the statistic section...

The reproduction and printing is excellent and does the superb photography justice, however the feature that is most amazing about this book is the attention to detail in the binding - it is simply incredible.

If you look at the above image showing the foredge of the book, it looks perfectly even, in fact it's flawless - but then consider that 30pages of this book are throwouts! It is points of a millimetre perfect!

The inside sewing is perfect as you can see in the image below...

...and the spine is equally as perfect.

Marksteen Adamson is co-founder of Cheltenham marketing and brand agency ASHA. Design of the book is by the team at ASHA with designers Scott McGuffie, Simon Dryland, Emily Kane and Hannah Mapleston.

The superb print and even more exceptional binding is by Fenton at PrintSmith. A truly amazing piece of print and binding.

https://projectpeel.org/

https://ashaandco.uk/

https://www.printsmith.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.11.2020

Christmas comes early...

Well, that's not quite true as these lovely cards are actually from last year, but I didn't receive copies until later, so it never seemed the right time to write about Christmas!

These gatefold cards are A5 (210x148mm) and are printed offset litho in CMYK plus a metallic gold special on our Omnia 320gsm. Below is a birdseye view...

The below image is the inside of the card, laid out flat... 

Click on images to enlarge

The above picture shows the outside, laid out flat, showing the die cut which represents the "doors" to the Gin Shop. The card is embossed and printed with a tinted gloss UV varnish. Unlike most uncoated products, you can successfully gloss UV varnish on Omnia (with a single hit) and it works really well - as you can see in the below pic...

Click on images to enlarge

In the same way, Omnia also really works with metallic inks, this really does look gold  and not a dirty brown (which can happen on other uncoated papers!) as you can see below...

Omnia is a really bulky board and this has been beautifully creased.

Design is by Studio Minerva and production management is by Andrew Smith at AAA&P Consulting. Printing is by Banbury Litho

http://studiominerva.co.uk/home/

https://www.banburylitho.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.11.2020

2021 Koehler Calendar

I have just received some copies of the Koehler Paper Group's 2021 calendar. Koehler make a wide variety of papers and supply us with Creative Print amongst others. Koehler pride themselves on producing an individual calendar every year, which is always produced locally and this 2021 calendar is no exception.

The calendar is produced by Selina Haas Design. Whilst a student in 2014, Selina produced a successful advertising campaign promoting the Black Forest area. After graduating from university in Freiburg, she set up her own studio, next door to her parent's cuckoo clock factory in Schonach. 

The calendars are 500mm square in size and are printed on a variety of the different plain and embossed uncoated boards produced by Koehler.

The images are all compositions showing features of the Black Forest area, the trees, the animals and lots of cuckoo clocks! Printing is by Druckerei Herbstritt.

I have been given 10 of these individual calendars for the readers of this blog. They are available on a first come first serve basis, so if you would like a copy, please email me justin@fennerpaper.co.uk ...but hurry!

https://www.koehlerpaper.com/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.11.2020

VIP Preview invitation

Paddington Square is the highly anticipated development in west London which will revitalise the area and also feature a new icon for the London skyline by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

This is the beautifully produced invitation for the VIP preview held at the Chiltern Firehouse last November.

Size of the invitation is 215mm square and looks stunning.

The square on the front of the invitation is hot foil blocked in Rainbow SHLR from Foilco and the type printed in "Just Black 700" which is one of Foilco’s most popular pigment foils and has a Gloss finish.

The invitation is printed on SUMO, which is our a heavyweight, thick board manufactured by FAVINI in Italy. It is available in black and white and the consists of 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm up to a whopping 3mm thick ...seriously chunky! Last year, the range was extended to include a small range of colours - five new shades all available in 1mm thick.

This invitation is produced on Sumo, White 2mm thick, which is really substantial and the result is absolutely dead FLAT - unlike the risky business with duplexing boards together which can result in a warped finish...

The hot foil stamping looks superb, sinking into the thick board and giving a wonderful, tactile, quality. 

Design is by property marketing specialists Wordsearch. Designer on the project is Ana Iugulescu and the artworker is Alex Shannon. Printing is by Trident Printing in London.

https://paddingtonsquare.co.uk/

https://www.wordsearch.co.uk/

https://tridentprinting.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.11.2020