American Trilogy by Ernesto Cánovas at Halcyon Gallery

This has to be one of the best printed items that I've seen this year. This is not just because it's printed on one of our papers (!) but because I went to see the exhibition and having seen the works for myself, I can appreciate just how good the catalogue that represents the work is.

The Halcyon Gallery was founded in 1982 and specialises in modern and contemporary art, concentrating on emerging and established international artists. They represent  Dale Chihuly, Lorenzo Quinn, David Wightman, Eve Arnold and Bob Dylan amongst others. Halcyon now have three art galleries in London and one in Shanghai. They are also involved in public art and currently have an amazing Dale Chihuly glass sculpture exhibited for public view in Berkeley Square.

This catalogue is for an exhibition by Spanish born artist, Ernesto Cánovas. The exhibition is titled 'An American Trilogy' and depicts a vision of America from the perspective of an outsider. The artist now works from a studio in London, where these artworks were produced employing a multi-layered practice of painting, drawing, printmaking and photography.

The size of the book is 290x240mm, portrait. It is case-bound with a 'paper over board' cover with an image 'tipped on' to the cover. The 108pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm and the paper just looks and feels totally right with the images.

This beautifully art directed catalogue is designed and produced at the Halcyon Gallery. Designer on this project is Alfie Hunter and in his note to me about the project he says "In this case, I used Omnia hoping the uncoated feel would sympathise with the worn and reworked effect on the paintings without saturating the colour or compromising the clarity in detail of the artworks" ...well it certainly does that!



One or two spreads showing the artist at work:

The cover is traditionally bound to emulate the nostalgia of the 1950's America that the exhibition portrays. This is finished off with a rounded spine and to contrast, a bright head/tail bands to pick up the artist's injection of vivid colour which features throughout his work.

Print production is by Pureprint and is exceptional. The repro and printing is superb and the quality of the binding equally impressive.

 

The exhibition finished on 26th May, so unfortunately you will have to make do with the following link: www.halcyongallery.com/exhibitions/ernesto-canovas-an-american-trilogy

www.halcyongallery.com
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.06.2014

University of Portsmouth Graduate Show 2014

Last week, I had a lovely surprise when I opened my post to find not one but four posters for the University of Portsmouth graduate show!

The invitations and posters for the show are designed by Michael Harkins who is not only senior Lecturer but is also the course leader of the MA Graphic Design course.

He kindly wrote a few words about the project for me: The posters represent part of a wider identity for the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries 2014 Graduate Show. This celebrates the opening of a new building allowing all four schools of the Faculty to be housed in single creative campus. The brief was to create a single identity that would unify, whilst retaining individual identity for each of the schools. The theme was based on ‘bringing together’. Initially a bespoke typeface was created consisting of four elemental parts. Each of the schools are represented by one of the geometric shapes. When combined form the identity SHOW 2014.

The posters are all A1 size (841x594mm) and are printed offset litho in CMYK on one side only. The paper used is our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm, which has a neutral white shade and recycled tone. Here they are on display in the Eldon building.

There are also four A5 invitations, mirroring the design on the posters, which are printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm

Printing is by L&S Printing who are based in Worthing. Thanks to Mike for sending file copies and his kind note

The show is open all this week at the Eldon Building at University of Portsmouth, ending on Friday 6th June, so you'd better get done there quickly!

www.port.ac.uk

www.ls-printing.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.06.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 56

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...

Morgan Stanley ideas|03 - April 2003
This is the combined brochure and invitation for the third Morgan Stanley Investment Management conference held in Barcelona in the spring of 2003. The theme for the invitation and conference is Van der Rohe's Barcelona chair, chosen not only because it is synonymous with the venue but because it also epitomises fresh thinking and innovation.

The size of the brochure is 160x180mm, landscape. It has a 24pp text plus a 4pp cover and is printed on our Neptune Unique 350gsm and 250gsm text. Superb flat, tint layed solids, combine with the superb CMYK representations of the chair.

The brochure is bound with two nickel plated binding screws which is the perfect compliment to the chair...

This piece of literature is superbly printed by a printer called Ventura. Unfortunately the printer went bankrupt in July 2003, only a few months after this job was completed. Ventura was one of the 'quality' printers in London, established originally in Charlton in 1986 and moving to Crayford in the late 1990's. The directors of the company were Malcolm Parr, Alan Bruce and Tony Hall. Ventura was an extremely high quality litho printers who paid particular attention to their reprographics at a time when digital imaging was moving in leaps and bounds. This particular job was printed using Stochastic/ FM screening and the printed result is simply superb.

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.06.2014

World Cup Fever!

As everyone in the world knows, in only a couple of weeks time, the World Cup begins in Brazil. In celebration, east London studio Crispin Finn have produced a beautiful wall planner. Simply produced in their trademark red, white and blue (all of their personal work appears in just these three colours) it has been hand silkscreen printed. A truly stunning, visually stimulating planner.

The size of the planner is 500x700mm and is silkscreen printed in 2 colours. It is printed on our Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm which is a 100% recycled paper (which also has FSC accreditation) produced by Favini in Italy.

2 colour screenprint on 120gsm 100% recycled white paper.
Measures 50cm x 70cm.
Each planner comes hand folded and sealed in a screenprinted brown… Read More

Each planner comes hand folded and packaged in a screenprinted brown kraft bag, closed with a football seal

Close up detail of the poster.

You can buy one of these lovely planners for just £10 plus shipping - it's a bargain! https://crispinfinn.com/shop/world-cup-2014-planner/

 

http://www.crispinfinn.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.05.2014

Robbins Photographic

These are some beautifully thick business cards produced for wedding photographer Lee Robbins. Silkscreened in just one colour (white), they are produced on our Construction Blackstone 1500mics.

Picture below, show the thickness of the card at 1.5mm!



Art direction and design is by London based agency Bold & Bold. They were commissioned to design the identity and develop the website, so this card forms only part of this project. As well as the literature, there is the website and other collateral such as Cd wallets etc.

You can read more about the project here: http://boldandbold.com/project/robbins-photographic/

Creative directors are Emily Bold and Phil Bold.

 

www.robbinsphotographic.com
www.boldandbold.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.05.2014

£500 of paper won by Timbergram!

Last week, I wrote about the exhibition stand that we had at PG Live, at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The exhibition is aimed firmly at the greeting card publishers and retail buyers and it was amazing to see over 200 exhibitors showing a diverse range of card designs.

On our stand we had a whole pallet of paper (Colorset, Spring Green) and we ran a competition to guess the number of sheets on the pallet with the closest guess winning £500 worth of paper! We simply asked people who came onto the stand to guess a figure, which they then wrote on the back of a business card and placed in our goldfish bowl. Well this week, we've been busy checking the number of sheets on the pallet - it was a mixture of 350gsm, 270gsm and some 120gsm, some of which was cut to SRA3. I can now reveal, the total number of sheets is 2,242.

Jack from Timbergram guessed the closest number at 2,253, with the next closest guess being 2,225.

Timbergram is a really interesting greetings concept as they are postcards actually printed on wood (cutting out the papermaking process completely!) Manufactured from 3mm birch, the wood cards are screen-printed or engraved and are available in over 500 shops nationwide, including Selfridges, Oliver Bonas, The Conran Shop, together with many small boutique shops and museums and art galleries. They can also be ordered online and be produced with custom messages. http://timbergram.com/

The Timbergram was inspired by the original wooden postcards of the early 1900′s and is as much of a gift as a greetings card. They use sustainably sourced wood from forests in Eastern Europe and the timber is FSC certified. The range covers all occasions, and is designed and produced in the UK.

Maybe with his recent win, Jack will have to move things on a little further and start using some paper! Congratulations to Jack.

http://timbergram.com/
www.progressivegreetingslive.com

www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.05.2014

Widening Participation Yearbook

 

Kings' College in London is one of the country's leading universities. Widening participation is one of the eight strategic priorities for the college. There is a programme of targeted activities across the London area with the aim of improving progression and success of students under-represented at King's and other universities. 

 

Anne-Marie Canning is the Head of Widening Participation and commissioned this yearbook to report on the department's work throughout the year.  

Size is 263x200mm, portrait and is perfect bound. It has a 4pp cover and a 44pp text which is printed on Omnia 280gsm and 150gsm. The whole job is printed CMYK, offset litho. The cover is hot foil blocked in a high gloss white foil and is striking.

The images look superb on the Omnia; the subtle mono colours used for divider spreads and the reproduction of the four colour images with their darker areas and heavy ink coverage is superb. The Omnia has kept all the detail in those heavy areas of CMYK together with the tactility of an uncoated paper feel- detail which would be lost on other paper.

The publication has a 5mm spine and even though it is perfect bound, as opposed to section sewn, it feels strong and opens well. The relationship between the text and cover weights with the size of book and binding, all works superbly.

Design is by Ephemeral Forever, the creative director is Andy Welland. You can read more about the project and see more images here: http://www.ephemeralforever.com/kcl-wp-yearbook/

Print has been managed by Niel Owen at Webmart.

Thanks to Anne-Marie and Hannah at WPD for sending me file copies.

www.kcl.ac.uk
www.ephemeralforever.com
www.webmartuk.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.05.2014

Clerkenwell Design Week

Yesterday was the start of Clerkenwell Design Week and I popped in to have a quick look. In it's 5th year, it's now firmly established as one of the London design community's favourite events and is growing bigger and better every year. 

It takes place all over Clerkenwell, combining exhibitions with lectures and sixty 'open-house' showrooms.



You better get down there - it's only on until Thursday...
http://www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.05.2014

Greetings on Rib-Tone

Last week, I wrote about the Fenner Paper stand at PG Live (Progressive Greetings Exhibition) which gave us an opportunity to show our range of boards to the greeting card industry.

During the exhibition, I had a wander round and visited the 'Springboard' section; this is where first time exhibitors and up and coming publishers show their designs. I was walking through and spotted some lovely cards on a brown ribbed material. I stopped and had a nice chat with Vanessa Bowerman who is the person behind the publishing imprint 'Your Lifetile'

Sure enough, I was delighted to discover that her Mantastic range is all printed on our Rib-Tone [2 sided] 340gsm! Vanessa runs her own design company in Cardiff and started creating framed gifts and handmade cards a few years ago in her spare time.

Vanessa now publishes a range of cards and this was her first 'trade' show and she was very happy with the response from the retail card buyers visiting the show.

The cards are digitally printed on an HP Indigo Press by specialist greeting card printers, The Imaging Centre.

...and with Father's Day coming up on June 15th, what better time is there than to look at a manly range such as this!

http://www.yourlifetile.com/shop?category=Mantastic
www.yourlifetile.com
www.theimagingcentre.co.uk
www.progressivegreetingslive.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.05.2014

What is ...Cast Coated Paper?

What is ...Number 5
Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.

 

What is ...Cast Coated Paper?

'Cast Coated' papers and boards have an extremely high gloss, reflective surface on one side with an uncoated reverse (see below about 2 sided boards).

The coating formulation is a mix of china clay, satin white (calcium sulphate and alumina) and precipitated calcium carbonate (chalk) held together with binding agents such as latex - so basically the same coating as for all coated papers (matt/gloss/silk).

The high gloss result is due to the use of a chromium plated roller, heat and elongated drying line. The wet coating which is applied in the traditional manner, via a series of applicator rollers, is pressed against a highly finished chromium plated metal cylinder which is heated on the inside. As the coating film dries, it takes on the even, level glossy surface of the casting surface (ie the chrome plated roller).

 

The process used today has remained largely unchanged since the early 1950's when an American company called S.D Warren developed and then patented the process. In order to stimulate the market in other areas of the world, they 'licensed' the technology to paper manufacturers, including two in the UK: Star Paper Mill (Blackburn) in 1954 and Tullis Russell (Scotland) in 1989, plus various other paper mills in Europe.

 

Cast coated papers and boards are mainly used in labelling and the "luxury packaging" market. In the 1960's and 1970's, when glossy was seen as modern and luxurious, cast coated products were really big. The products had names such as Astralux, Chromolux, Lustrulux - (you probably get the common "lux" theme!) and luxury packaging for such brands as Chanel relished in the clean, sleek, modern look.

 

A development was the addition of pigments (colours) on the coating and self coloured boards with a colour one side and a white uncoated reverse became a highly desirable board for business cards and membership cards - back in the 1960/70/80's when colour printing was expensive and much printing was still letterpress, using a coloured board (especially a glossy one!) was a way of introducing colour, cost effectively into a black and white world! 

Further developments have included the additions of metallic colours and pearlescent colours. Also, two sided products (in white) are now available by 'pasting' two one sided boards together back to back.

You maybe thinking from the way I am writing this that cast coated papers and boards are a thing of the past, they most certainly are not! It's just that with the advent of film lamination (more commonly known as gloss lamination) a large part of the market for cast coated boards disappeared. Although it should be remembered that gloss lamination is a plastic based process and makes recycling, much, much harder. If you want to see a beautiful job produced on Astralux, you don't have to look any further than the Alexander McQueen project here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/mcq-aw13.html

 

Fenner paper is the UK stockists for the market leading Astralux range manufactured by Favini in Italy (although, as they say on the BBC "other brands are also available")

The range comes in 27 different shades and also includes a black board, reverse, with a shiny black coated front - very nice... 

www.favini.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.05.2014