destination by Caroline Penn

Book artist Caroline Penn was asked to collaborate with thirteen other artists on a project, published by WhnicPRESS and launched at the Bristol Artist Book Event (BABE). Project C is about inter-semiotic translation: the translation from images to words, and words to images and the paths that form between them. Each artist was given an anonymised book cover and asked to respond to it with another book form.  All of the resulting fourteen books are held within a slip case in an edition of 25 copies.

Caroline wanted the form of her book to reference dictionaries and an unfolding train journey, hence the choice of Offenbach Bible, a double-sided, single sheet of Offenbach Bible folded into a concertina, and sewn into a cover.

Click on images to enlarge

The finished size is 173x124mm with the 8pp concertina text folding out to a 494mm length. You can see from the below image how the text folds into the 4pp cover...

Concertina text fully extended...

Given the lightweight nature of the Offenbach Bible, you probably won't be able to believe that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood. It was printed on their Xerox digital press and the result is excellent. For a limited run, such as this (25 copies) printing digitally makes a project such as this viable.

Click on images to enlarge

The above image shows the '5 hole sewn' binding, which is hand finished, as is the hole punching. Five hole sewing is just an evolution of three hole sewing, which I wrote about on this blog before HERE. The below picture shows the text fully extended:

The Offenbach Bible is enclosed within a Pergamenata paper cover which was all put into a loose cover, with the photo of the train in snow, supplied by WhnicPRESS. The other 13 artists also had their books enclosed within similar printed covers. All 14 books were then put into a slip case, see below...

Image courtesy of whnicPRESS

This was a lovely project to be involved with and many thanks to Caroline for taking the time to send me a copy of the finished publication and a handwritten note.

https://carolinepenn.com/
https://whnicpress.tumblr.com/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.11.2023

The Rough Stuff Fellowship 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 £32 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 15.11.2023

Restore Home and Organics - Product Packaging

The creative studio of Sina Luck has received international recognition, won design prizes by ADC Switzerland, and has been featured in magazines such as Grand Designs, Enki Magazine, Ideal Home, Homes and Gardens, Living etc. Sina Luck helps clients across the UK and internationally with multi-sensory interior and graphic design projects.

Sina Luck designed the branding and beautiful packaging design for this new candle and home fragrance brand Restore Home and Organics which includes the packaging for their range of candles. The size of the carton is 90mm x 92mm x 102mm.

The cartons are produced on our PaperWise Natural 295gsm, which is manufactured from 100% agricultural waste - this is the stems and leaves left over the harvest and which is usually left in the field and burnt. PaperWise is produced in factories in India and South America that make a big difference to local communities with investments made in education, infrastructure, and healthcare. You can read all about PaperWise HERE. As you can see from the images PaperWise is a natural shade and is completely unbleached and home compostable too... 

The carton is very simply printed offset litho in one colour and blind embossed on the lid. The labels are hand applied to indicate the various different blends.

The cartons are produced by specialist carton and boxmaker Custom Cartons who are based in Romford, Essex and they have made a beautiful job of it.

Grateful thanks to Sina Luck for providing me with the images. Photography by Kathryn Taylor.

https://sinaluck.com/

https://restorehome.com/

https://www.customcartons.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.11.2023

Jobs from the past - Number 168

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 - this project is from 2016.

Paul Smith - Spring/Summer 2016

The Paul Smith brand (and person) has become synonymous with classic British tailoring and style. Renowned for well-made, good quality, simple cut clothing with interesting fabrics which is easy to wear. There is often a splash of vibrant colour, a floral print or the signature multi-coloured stripes. Paul Smith now has 19 shops and concessions in the UK and 200 shops worldwide with the business still based where it was founded, in Nottingham.

This is the lookbook for the Spring Summer 2016 collection. The finished size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and it is a 16pp 'closed double gatefold' making the flat size 210x880mm.

..opening out to this spread:

...and then this one:

The below image showing both sides of the publication, fully open:

Click on images to enlarge

It is printed in CMYK offset litho on our Omnia, White FSC 280gsm and is printed and finished beautifully. Birds eye view below:

The material chosen is our Omnia 280gsm which gives it that dead matt, tactile feel but with great reproduction.

...and here's the plug for the paper!  - As you can see from these images, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours, whilst retaining detail in the dark areas (in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?) See the detail in the bag image below

Although this is a simply produced publication, it's often the simple jobs which don't get the attention to detail. This is well creased and folded square which is just perfect

Creative direction and design is by the in-house design team at Paul Smith. Printing is by Leicester based Greenshires with Richard Dalby handling the project. Beautifully printed and finished - a really well produced piece. 

https://www.paulsmith.com/uk
https://www.greenshires.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.11.2023

Book of I

The Book of I is a notebook style publication produced for Accenture. It is an internal publication for employees to note their personal development. Size is 210x137mm portrait with a 4pp cover and 128pp text and is section sewn, the spine is 10mm thick. On the outside cover it is simply printed and blind embossed on an embossed cover from that well known "Hull-based" paper merchant!

Being an internal publication, it isn't appropriate to show you the inside text pages, suffice it to say the job is printed offset litho in just one colour with the majority of pages are just printed as lines...

...or squares

...or dots

 [Please excuse my fingers appearing]

The below image shows the very neatly sewn sections.

The 128pp text is printed on Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm, which is our 100% recycled paper with FSC accreditation.

Print and hot foiling is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood with Paul Martin handling the project.

https://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2023

Yateley Papers

Yateley Papers was born out of passion for both traditional block printing techniques and a love of utterly gorgeous home, desk and stationery accessories. For 10 years Trudi Savin ran the studio at Tobias and The Angel in Lingfield (Surrey) before establishing Yateley.

Yateley Papers produce stylish handmade desk stationery and home accessories all covered in their own bespoke designs inspired by their extensive experience of block printing on textiles. All products are made and hand prepared exclusively in Great Britain.

This is their set of five luxurious A6 notecards plus envelopes

The Yateley collections are all from patterns made using hand block printing, a careful balance of traditional techniques and modern technologies. These cards feature a blind embossed border (about 3mm wide). The printing is done using an HP Indigo press.

Click on images to enlarge

Accompanying the cards are these wonderful quality, diamond flap envelopes made using Zeta Hammer, Natural 120gsm (see below pic) which are lined envelopes  ...so the pattern you see printed in the image below is not printed on the inside of the envelopes but on a separate liner (printed on our StarFine) which is stuck inside the envelope. They are gorgeous.

Click on images to enlarge

The cards are all printed on our Zeta Hammer, Natural 350gsm, which has a wonderful texture and is totally sympathetic to the block prints.

It is hard to photograph the texture of the cards, but I have done my best....

Click on images to enlarge

Reverse of the cards

https://www.yateleypapers.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.10.2023

Rare £5 for auction

An exceptionally rare £5 banknote, printed in 1900, is expected to fetch up to £16,000 when auctioned at Noonans’ auction house in Mayfair on 12 October. Unusually, the note was issued in Leeds, and signed by Horace G. Bowen the Bank of England’s chief cashier from 1893 to 1902. “This is a great note,” said Andrew Pattison, Noonans’ head of banknotes.

“Very few Bowen notes are in private hands, especially from this exceptionally rare Leeds branch. "The York hand stamp shows part of the journey of the note, issued in Leeds and paid into a bank at some point in York.” Before coming to its present owner, the note was sold by British businessman and collector, David Kirch, who at one point had assembled the UK’s largest collection of provincial banknotes. Pattison added: “This is not the first Leeds note that Noonans has sold. An extremely rare £500 note dated 1936 was sold for a hammer price of £24,000 in March of this year.” The £5 Leeds note will go up for sale alongside several other rare notes, including an 1862 £5 note, valued at £10,000–£15,000 and a £50 note from 1845, valued at £15,000–£20,000. A very early example of a £2 note will also be up for sale, dated to 1798, and is expected to fetch up to £16,000. All four notes were printed at the Bank of England’s central london Threadneedle Street printworks, where all paper notes were printed from 1791 to 1917, when printing moved to the former Lunatic Hospital of St Luke’s in Old Street. 

Image credit: Noonans

 By 1920, the former hospital had been fully converted into a recognisably modern printworks, with concrete floors, three large machinery halls and amenities for staff. The Bank now prints notes at its purpose-built site in Debden, Essex, where print operations have been handled since the 1950s. Its partner De La Rue operates the site under contract.

Read the whole story on Printweek here...

https://www.printweek.com/content/news/rare-123-year-old-5-note-goes-up-for-auction/

https://www.noonans.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.10.22