The Marrakech Collection

Olivia von Halle is a British luxury nightwear brand that launched at London Fashion Week in September 2011. The brand can be found in nearly 100 stores in 20 countries including Harrods, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and online with Net-a-Porter.com.

Focusing on beautifully cut silk pyjamas in stunning exclusive prints, Olivia von Halle has quickly made a name for itself in the world of high-end nightwear. In 2013 the company was awarded the ‘Blue Butterfly Trust Mark’, which is given to brands and companies that have a positive impact on people and the planet.

This is the look-book for the Marrakech Collection. The publication is sub A4 - 290x205mm, portrait. It is a 16pp self cover format printed on Omnia 150gsm

Unlike many of the fashion look-books 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 whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!

Click on images to enlarge

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 fleshtone reproduction.

 The self cover format means that it flows well with the pages turning nicely.

 A nice touch is the use of the white wire for the saddle stitches, in fact so white, you can't see them!

Graphic design is by Michael Knight, who runs his studio in East London called A New Mark. Print and finishing is by Gavin Martin.

https://oliviavonhalle.com/
https://anewmark.com/
https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.03.2025

VIP Preview

This is the beautifully produced invitation for the VIP preview of  thePaddington Square development in west London held at the Chiltern Firehouse.

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/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.12.2024

Fenner Paper Diary 2025

If you are a user of the Fenner Paper ranges and therefore one of our wonderful customers, you may well have already received one of our wonderful new 2025 diaries... 

The cover has been designed by Carol Kemp using drawn lettering and brush calligraphy. In a career of over 30 years, Carol has produced lettering for over 800 books and logos for numerous brands worldwide

The 4pp cover is printed on our Creative Print, Diamond 270gsm using an HP Indigo digital press. The 40pp text is printed in one colour, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

The diary has been put together by long term collaborator and friend David Coates using typefaces from Buy Fonts Save Lives that raises money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support.

As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

Buy Fonts Save Lives sells typefaces to raise money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. 100% of the proceeds go to the charities and to date, over £150,000 has been raised!

Founded by Paul Harpin in memory of his niece Laura who sadly died from cancer, aged just 26. We’re delighted to support and help promote the initiative with our diaries. Any purchases of the fonts help to raise vital funds that literally save lives.

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post. If you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk. For people who aren't customers, they are available to buy through the St Bride Foundation here:

https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/product/fenner-paper-diary-2025

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.12.2024

Garden Scenes from James Ellis

 Here are two beautiful new notecards published by James Ellis in a handy wallet pack containing eight cards.

Garden Bird House by Matt Johnson

The notecard designs are titled 'Garden Fork' and 'Garden Bird House' illustrated by Matt Johnson who lives and works in Cornwall. 

Garden Fork by Matt Johnson

Full images of the notecards are also displayed when the wallet is opened, along with information about the artist. The wallet measures 134 x 134 x 16mm. The cards are 120mm square, and the envelopes are 130mm square. 

The two designs are printed on the front and back of the wallet and each wallet contains four of each notecard together with envelopes.

The cards and the wallets are both printed on our Starfine, Natural 300gsm, which is an natural white, uncoated board with a lovely feel and great surface for printing. It is FSC accredited and also free from OBA's (optical brightening agents). The cards and wallets are printed offset litho by Alpha Colour in Gloucester.

The whole package is plastic free and 100% recyclable, which you can see from the handy information illustration on their website.

https://www.jamesellis.com/collections/notecard-wallets/products/garden-scenes-wallet-of-eight-notecards-by-james-ellis

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 

https://mattillustration.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.12.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 181

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 2017.

Wildwood Deli - Pannettone Wrap Christmas 2017

This is a lovely project which was produced for Christmas 2017. I received a call from Richard Davey (who is now at London printer Empress Litho) who asked if we could supply a 60gsm in a red and black paper. We discussed the project further and it turned out that paper was to be printed with a metallic gold text and sent to Italy to wrap the traditional Panettone cake for sale in the Wildwood Deli.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a readily available red/black 60gsm stock paper available from one of our supplying mills and the quantity wasn't enough for a 'mill making',  so I suggested that he could successfully print a solid colour onto our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and the metallic gold text with excellent results. I sent Richard a printed sample of a McQ project to show how well a solid could work.  

The sheets were printed on a B1 Heidelberg offset litho press, in a solid pantone (not panettone colours!) colour plus a metallic gold and as you can see, the paper has printed beautifully. The size of the finished sheets are 550x750mm.

Not only does Offenbach Bible print beautifully, it also is very strong and "scrunches" beatifully! making it ideal for this type of wrapping, where a tissue paper (which you wouldn't be able to Litho Print) would actiually not be strong enough ...and here is the finished packaged article

Couldn't resist trying a slice!

Thanks to Richard Davey for giving us the opportunity to be involved with this very tasty project!

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.12.2024

Monocle at Christmas

Monocle is a premium media brand with print, audio and online elements, not to mention their ever expanding retail network and on-line business. The Monocle Shop is at street level in six cities - London, Zurich, Merano, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Toronto. The shop keeps everything from luggage and clothes to stationery and furniture.

The finished size is 216x102mm, portrait and is a 16pp folded format folding out to a flat size of 405x432mm.

The above folds out to reveal the first spread below...

Click on images to enlarge

...and then folding out again, left and right.

and then folding up to reveal the full spread below.

The below image shows both sides.

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 folds.

Click on images to enlarge

Print quality is superb as I hope the image below demonstrates, fleshtone reproduction is excellent.

Design is by the team at Monocle. The publication is printed offset litho, CMYK throughout. The excellent print is by Park Communications, who are based in East London.

https://monocle.com/shop/ 

https://www.parkcom.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.11.2024 

ROH Christmas card

This is the Christmas card produced for the Royal Opera House. The 4pp card is A5 size (210x148mm) portrait. The brief was to create a Christmas card that showed a variety of work done by the ROH over the year...

Graphic Designer at the ROH, Ana Peres, collated three pictures showing The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The captions for the original pictures are: 

1. Artists of The Royal Ballet in Untouchable in The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage. 

2. Jonathan McGovern in Apollo and Daphne in 4/4, The Royal Opera.

3. Artists of The Royal Ballet in Within the Golden Hour in The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage.

All images ©ROH. All photographs by Tristram Kenton.

Above is a detail image showing the composite mono image. The card is printed in 1 colour (black) on a toner based digital press. The festive look of the final picture is completed with the sparkles of the paper as it is printed on our Stardream, Crystal 285gsm...

Below is an image showing the plain unprinted Stardream,Crystal:

Printing was handled by Indicia.

It is a really well designed, simple and cost effective solution with great impact. Thanks to Ana for the images and information about the project.

https://www.roh.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.11.2024