One week to go until London Packaging Week...

London Packaging Week, is coming to Olympia in London next week. Easyfairs launched Packaging Innovations London and Luxury Packaging London, 10 years ago,creating a meeting place for packaging designers, technologists and suppliers in the capital. This year, it is bigger and better - London Packaging Week – a series of four events bringing a new, sharper focus on packaging development for the capital’s key luxury and FMCG markets.

Each of the four events targets a specific community – and they will combine to create an inspirational event that will drive packaging innovation, business and connections at the heart of the UK’s luxury and consumer products markets.

We will be showing our range of luxury packaging papers alongside the PaperWise range, manufactured from agricultural waste. We will be sharing our stand together with the team from PaperWise in Holland.

Come and see us on stand B102 and if you would like to register (for free!) you can do that HERE.

https://www.londonpackagingweek.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2022

Colorset range has 36 shades!

For those of you not familiar with Colorset, it is our range of coloured text and cover papers which is 100% recycled and more competitively priced than some other well known brands of coloured paper!

Click on images to enlarge

A few years ago we started to bring in our Colorset range in 350gsm, so we now have ALL colours in 120gsm, 270gsm and 350gsm - all in B1 size (700x1000mm). 

A few years ago we further developed the range with 8 new colours, making this a collection of 36 shades.

The new shades include five light shades and three deep shades. The new shades are Blush, Warm White*, Glacier, Storm, Hopsack*, Charcoal*, Spearmint* and Deep Blue (Note: four of the new shades with an asterisk* are virgin fibre)

...so there you have it, a range with 36 colours including SEVEN greys!

If you would like the updated swatch, please drop me an email and I'll pop one in the post justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.09.2022

The paper market and energy crisis

Regular readers will have heard about paper shortages and massively increasing prices, which I have written about on this blog before. However, given the extreme price increases for energy last week, the situation is even more critical... 

I suggest you read the full Printweek article HERE.

As well as the paper mills listed in the article, the Lessebo mill in Sweden announced they would only be producing on a daily basis, depending on the energy costs for that day. Read the article HERE.

It's a very distressing situation and one that sadly affects all of us that are involved in design, print and paper. Please remember to discuss projects well ahead of time and also when talking to clients, suggest you build in a contingency in case the price of the project increases due to energy prices.

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.09.2022

Jobs from the past - Number 154

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 one is from 2015...

Studio Nicholson S|S 2015

Studio Nicholson is a contemporary design studio based in London. Creative Director and founder Nick Wakeman is obsessive about beautiful cloth and draws influences from Japanese and Italian culture. The Studio Nicholson brand embodies a total design ethos using refined materials, which is conveyed in this beautifully produced lookbook for the Spring|Summer 2015 collection printed on our Offenbach Bible.

Click on images to enlarge

Size is 240 x 190mm, portrait. It is a 24pp 'self-cover' is printed offset litho in CMYK on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm, the lightweight paper works exquisitely with the images.   

There is a combination of images printed in full colour and images in 'monochrome' but which are also printed out of CMYK.

The above image is the centre spread. This publication is saddle stitched using a white coated wire which is a lovely touch and works well. A nice, well considered finish.

The image below shows a stack of spines with the white wire stitching (staples)

The whole publication is all printed 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:

Art direction and design is by JJ Marshall Associates. Creative Director is Jethro Marshall.

Excellent print and finishing is by Principal Colour based in Paddock Wood, Kent.

https://www.studionicholson.com/

http://jjmarshallassociates.com/

www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson .02.09.2022

Examination Paper for Paper!

There has been much in the news about examinations with the recent GCSE and A level results announced recently, so it was quite a surprise when I received an email from Simon at the London Centre for Book Arts asking how I would fare answering the below examination paper from 1978!

The exam paper from the London College of Printing came to light in the archive that the LCBA has inherited from the late Jane H. Reese who was a hand paper maker who ran the Nautilus Press and Paper Mill based in North Kensington in the 1970's 80's and 90's.

If I couldn't answer the questions on the paper, I can always look at my paper merchanting handbook to find the answers - 722 pages of paper merchanting information, given to me when I left the James McNaughton Paper Group 30 years ago!

Thanks to Simon for sending over the old exam paper, which is now very much a historical artifact!

https://londonbookarts.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.08.2022

Photo quality on Astralux

ASTRALUX is the market leading range of cast coated papers and boards produced in Italy by the Favini Crusinallo paper mill. 'Cast Coated' papers and boards have an extremely high gloss, reflective surface on one side with an uncoated reverse and is perfect for photographic reproductions.

The photographs are for the former Prime Minister, David Cameron and are printed on Astralux 1 sided 350gsm. The size is 250x198mm. They are digitally printed in CMYK on a Ricoh 9200pro digital press.

As you can see, it's a high gloss finish and a perfect result.
 

You can read more about Astralux HERE

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.08.2022

Notorie

Notorie is a new stationery company that began with one thought... "what if we made a notebook that not only looks good but made you feel good? We're on a mission to prove that recycled is beautiful and we've created 20 unique notebooks to prove it."

Made using 100% recycled paper and eco-friendly inks, the notebooks are environmentally conscious at their heart and as you can see, a real feast for the eyes!

The cover and text are both printed on our Shiro Echo, White which is 100% Recycled and manufactured by Favini. The notebooks are A5 (210x148mm) size, portrait format and are wiro-bound using an antique copper wire...

The covers are digitally printed on Shiro Echo Bright White 300gsm duplexed to 600gsm, which as you can see from the image above, makes an excellent thick cover.

Text is litho printed on Shiro Echo White 100gsm. There's not a lot for me to tell you about the text pages, except to say that there are 140pages, which are ruled - in fact the colour of the rules is wonderfully quirky... it's a sort of mustard/terracotta colour.

Notorie is based in Kent and all the printing, collation and biding is produced locally in the county. They are a lovely set of notebooks and will enhance any desk! 

Thank you to Donna at Notorie for sending some notebooks for us to see for ourselves.

https://www.notorie.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.08.2022

London Packaging Week at Olympia in one month

London Packaging Week, is coming to Olympia London. Ten years ago, Easyfairs launched Packaging Innovations London and Luxury Packaging London, creating a meeting place for packaging designers, technologists and suppliers in the capital. This year, it is bigger and better - London Packaging Week – a series of four events bringing a new, sharper focus on packaging development for the capital’s key luxury and FMCG markets.

Each of the four events targets a specific community – and they will combine to create an inspirational event that will drive packaging innovation, business and connections at the heart of the UK’s luxury and consumer products markets.

We will be showing our range of luxury packaging papers alongside the PaperWise range, manufactured from agricultural waste. We will be sharing our stand together with the team from PaperWise in Holland.

Come and see us on stand B102 and if you would like to register (for free!) you can do that HERE.

https://www.londonpackagingweek.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.08.2022

Maghreb

Les Terrasses du Ciel

This is the exhibition catalogue of a show by photographer François-Xavier Haage. The exhibition titled "Maghreb, Les Terrasses du Ciel" (Maghreb, The Terraces of Heaven) was first shown on June 30, 1987 and shows photographs taken during trips to Algeria and Morocco between 1985 and 1987. The exhibition was shown again in 2019 at Hang'Art in Paris.

The catalogue is a 28pp self cover publication printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The size is 230x190mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. As you can see from the image above, the pages just flop and roll over beautifully.

Offenbach Bible 60gsm has a very high opacity for it's light weight, but the show through can be used as part of the design...

Click on images to enlarge

The inside back spread (below) is the key as to where the images were taken

You probably won't be able to guess, or even believe, is that it's digitally printed! The job was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. It was printed on their Xerox digital press and the result is superb. For a limited run, printing digitally makes a project such as this viable - and on a a material like this, which many litho printers are scared of!...just look at the print result in the detail image below...

Designers Martí Peréz Palau and Carole Haage collaborated on the design of the catalogue.

https://le-hangart-restaurant-paris.eatbu.com/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.08.2022

The Blue Angel mark

I am often telling people about the Blue Angel mark as here in the UK, it is hardly known about or recognised, whereas in Germany (where it was established) and in mainland European countries, it is both highly visible on products and very highly regarded.

The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel) is a German certification for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects. The Blue Angel mark is the oldest ecolabel in the world, and it covers some 10,000 products in some 80 product categories!

It was originally conceived and put in place by the government of the former West Germany and has been awarded since 1978. The Environmental Label Jury (Jury Umweltzeichen) is an independent, decision-making body for the Blue Angel and includes representatives from environmental and consumer associations, trade unions, industry, the trade, crafts, local authorities, academia, the media, churches, young people and the German federal states. As a result, it isn't open to political interference, industry pressure groups or vested interests, either from industry or the fanatical green groups. This is the reason that I rate the scheme so highly and it frustrates me that the UK government has never had the guts to put such an independent system in place in the UK - equally it's a shame that there isn't a pan European system.

The award of the Blue Angel is preceded by a review of the entire life cycle of the products. Such review considers as many aspects of environmental and health protection as possible for the respective product. Subsequently, the criteria limit or rule out those environmental impacts which are considered to be the most important impacts for the respective product. The Basic Award Criteria for a product are specified for each product group and they are all published.

The Blue Angel covers a wide range of different products including paints, gardening products, construction, electronics and many more, including paper and board.

We carry products which have been awarded the Blue Angel mark. The Creative Print range of 100% recycled text & cover paper manufactured by Koehler Greiz mill carries the Blue Angel mark, as do some of the recycled colours in our Colorset range.

You can read more about the scheme here:
https://www.blauer-engel.de/en

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.08.2022

SUMO from Favini

SUMO 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! Originally just in Black and White, the range has now been extended to include a small range of colours - five shades all available in 1mm thick and below is the new lighter weight swatch...

 Size of the swatch is 240x152mm with 10mm spine

Thanks to the dyeing process, the colour distribution is consistent throughout to give excellent results especially when the edge is visible. The finest quality makes Sumo perform excellently for invitations, tags, covers, business cards, luxury POS material and high-end packaging.

The SUMO range is FSC certified. Below shows the five new shades, all available in 1mm thick.

If you would like samples, please drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

http://www.favini.com/gs/en/fine-papers/sumo/features-applications/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.08.2022