Happy 5th Birthday to Studio Thomson

Last Thursday evening I was invited to a party at the b-store in Saville Row to celebrate Studio Thomson's 5th Birthday. It's quite indredible to think that it's been five years since brothers Mark and Chris Thomson set up, and looking back over the work they have done, they have been quite prolific!
The first job that I recall being involved with was an invitation for PREEN by Thornton Bregazzi in 2005, printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.

Then in November 2005 , an invitation for Aquascutum on Offenbach Bible 60gsm printed by Generation Press.

In the summer of 2006, there was a fantastic book to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of PREEN.

This casebound book has a 72pp text and is 250x350mm. It is printed on a combination of Omnia and a coated silk paper (not sure which one!) and has a fantastic quality about it.

...and here's one of the most beautiful and innovative pieces produced on our Flockage Litho. An invitation for Liberty to their Christmas viewing. It is totally unprinted on the flock side, just heat de-bossed [this is a process where you make a block as if for hot foil blocking, and using the foiling machine you simply de-boss using the combination of heat and pressure but with no foil. On the Flocked surface this has the effect of flattenning the pile, so that it becomes smooth and the effect is subtle yet very noticeable]

Anyway it was a fab party, thank you Mark and Chris. Unfortunately I only took a few party pics to share.
[Left] Here is Mark Thomson with Megan Simpkins from Gold East Paper.

...and [Right] Roy Killen from printers PUSH, in deep contemplation with Carlsberg


Party venue, b-store with Studio Thomson "notebook installation"

Exhibition space at b-store with Studio Thomson exhibits:

...and a view through the window at b-store showing the books specially produced for the event.

www.studiothomson.com
http://www.bstorelondon.com

Ghost Forest in Trafalgar Square!

On Friday, I was in London and saw a pretty amazing sight ...massive tree trunks placed around Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square!

Ghost Forest is an ambitious project by Angela Palmer seeking to raise public awareness of the connections between deforestation and climate change. It involves taking a series of 10 rainforest tree stumps, most with their buttress roots still attached, from a regulated, commercially logged tropical rainforest in Ghana.
The tree stumps were presented as a “ghost forest” in Trafalgar Square in London from 16-22 November 2009 (so if you didn't see it, sadly you missed it!) and are moving to Copenhagen for 7-18 December 2009 to coincide with the UN's COP15 Climate Change Conference.


http://www.ghostforest.org/

Richard Sanderson - Illustrator

I just received a very nice self promo piece from illustrator Richard Sanderson printed by FS Moore but on paper supplied by Howard Smith! - come on Richard, wake up and smell the coffee, I'm meant to be writing about papers we do here at Fenner Paper! Anyway, I like the piece so much I thought I would share it with you, so have a look at www.rjsanderson.co.uk
www.mooreprint.co.uk

Seasonal paper!

This is a regular job produced by partners Charlie Hanson and Jessica Earle from Studio 10½ for Yorkshire farm retailer, The Farmers Cart - this is the Autumn/Winter edition.The publication uses a lovely selection of illustrations and combined with the typography and the choice of material gives the whole job a very "honest" feel. It is printed in just two special colours, Green and Brown.

The newsletter is simply A3 but because it's concertina folded down to 105x297mm, it certainly doesn't look or feel A3.

There is also an 4pp A5 Christmas leaflet (pictured below) which contains a guide to the seasonal foods available together with activities at the Farm, including Sleigh rides, which sound rather fun! And of course I should mention the material it is printed on ...our Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm - and as you can see from the lovely note below, Charlie and Jess are big fans!
http://www.thefarmerscart.co.uk/
http://www.tenandahalf.net/

Excellent re-use of our sample packaging

I was VERY pleased to find out that our packaging (large corrugated box) that we use to send our B1 samples out in has been successfully utilised as a fancy dress outfit.

Richard Rhodes from London design studio VERY, used it as the basis for his VERY "Special K" outfit for a party at the weekend.

The party was themed on two letters, either K or M and apparently someone else went as a box of Maltesers! JP at VERY went as Mozart, with wig and all.

Well done for keeping up the creative standards amongst London's partygoers! ...but a bit worried about the longjohns!

www.specialk.co.uk

www.kelloggs.com

www.verystudio.net

ISTD Awards 2009

I was lucky enough to go to the ISTD awards last Friday and it was a great evening. It was held at the Arts Club in London's Mayfair. As with all ISTD events, there is a real air of friendliness and fellowship, whether this is because there is always an international element, I don't know. I was seated at a table with people from Holland (http://www.studiovanson.com/) who were a great laugh.

The series of three posters below is the ISTD Awards 2009 Overall Winner by Paris based, Studio Apeloig (www.apeloig.com)

All award winners deserve congratulations, but in particular, there are some people who I must mention:

Cartlidge Levene for the wayfinding & environmental graphics for The Guardian building - (I know it's not on paper, but it's still fantastic work!) http://www.cartlidgelevene.co.uk/

Barrie Tullett and Philippa Wood who are lecturers at University of Lincoln and who run The Caseroom Press for The Ghost in the Fog (pictured left).

This is a book that only contains the corrections and alterations of the author.

Congratulations on their Premier award (by the way, it's printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm)

http://www.the-case.co.uk/

NB:Studio won a Certificate of Excellence for their series of House magazines for Soho House, the covers of which are below: http://www.nbstudio.co.uk/

...and the list goes on - The Chase for their marvellous woodblock letters made from chocolate, Studio 8 for FUTU magazine and Henrik and Scott from A2/SW/HK for a clutch of awards.
http://www.thechase.co.uk/

http://www.studio8design.co.uk/

http://www.a2swhk.co.uk/

Here's a very cheerful looking Paulus M. Dreibholz, happy with his well deserved Certificate of Excellence for the poster for the Institute of Architecture in Vienna.

http://www.gaffadesign.com/

Malcolm Garrett (http://www.appliedinformationgroup.com/) and David Coates (http://www.tothepoint.co.uk/), lurking behind the scenes!

...and a prize for anyone who can guess which dark horse from the NB:Studio table this is (answers on a nice postcard please!)
It was an excellent evening which showed a fantastic array of international typographic excellence. It is REALLY important for our industry that we retain societies such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability.

So if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - for less than £10 per month - this is good value!

A talented Illustrator - Ciara Phelan

I just received an e-mail from a talented new designer/illustrator, Ciara Phelan. She has recently gone freelance, based in London.

Although we've never met, I like her work! Have a look: www.iamciara.co.uk.