Pre-Christmas Hello

I received this pre-christmas illustration from Rich Fairhead.

Have a look....

http://www.richfairhead.co.uk/

Preen Spring/Summer 2010 Invitation

I've received copies of this lovely invitation for the launch of the PREEN Spring/Summer 2010 collection in New York.

Unfortunately it's a really hard job to photograph satisfactorily. The reasons being that it's printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 50gsm and therefore has a light feel and "rattle" to it and there is a degree of show through which works really well, but is really hard to demonstrate in a photograph! It starts off as an A5 finished size...

Which folds out to reveal this A3 size invitation...
and below is the reverse side [the bottom right panel is the front of the invitation, as picture 1 at top]
Design by Studio Thomson. Printing is a simple (but very well executed) one colour litho and is by Xtraprint based in London EC2.

...and thank you for the note, Mark.

http://www.preen.eu/
http://www.studiothomson.com/

http://www.xtraprint.co.uk/

Jobs From The Past - Number 3

Regular followers will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" (see posts on 01.10.2009 & 01.11.2009), so that I can show some of the memorable jobs from times past, and here's one from back in 2002...

Towerscan "the realisation of the electrical energy that passes through an architectural space"It isn't often that I see pieces of work printed on paper which are genuinely three dimensional but this is certainly one of them.

This is a promotional piece for an "intervention project" by the artist Charles Quick. The exhibition in 2002, comprised of a photograph taken out of every window in the Art and Design block of the Leeds Metropolitan University building and this superb piece of literature certainly gets this idea across brilliantly.
Design is by Thompson Brand Partners based in Leeds. Creative directors Ian Thompson and Phil Dean worked on the project.
The job was recently written about in an article about 3D paper projects in Grafik magazine, from which I've lifted this quote from Ian Thompson "The budget was rubbish, of course, so we set ourselves the challenge of making this happen with one sheet of paper only. The solution was a single, folded piece of paper which had a pop-up building inside which could be viewed from inside and out - no gluing, just folds and a couple of cuts"
The finished size is 155x295mm (landscape). The Job was printed on Neptune Unique 250gsm. It was printed in four colour process plus a special grey and three of the large letters were foiled in a gloss black. Unfortunately I can't remember/find out who the printer was that did the job (unless anyone out there knows differently...) It is a great job and has always been popular to show, so as you can probably see from the pictures, my last file copy is on it's last legs!
At this time, I had a colleague called Gary Nightingale based in Leeds, working with me at Fenner Paper and he was actually the person that dealt with this project. He now works for himself under the name Packaging Formats (gary@packagingformats.co.uk).

It's also worth pointing out that Thompson Brand Partners still work with the artist Charles Quick which shows that relationships as well as excellent print jobs can stand the test of time!

http://www.thompsonbrandpartners.com/
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ahss/creative_performing_arts/charles_quick.php
http://www.grafikmagazine.co.uk/

Our visit to Favini.

This week we visited a paper mill in Italy called Favini. It was quite a "whistlestop" tour but Chris (Fenner) and I hadn't been there for many years and it was time to become re-acquainted.

Favini is a group of two mills, one in Rossano (not far from Venice) and one at Crusinallo (pictured). They make a wide and varied range of products including uncoated text and cover papers, feltmarked papers, label papers and Cast Coated papers - many people will be familiar with the ASTRALUX brand of Cast coated papers ...well these are guys that make it!

As you can see from the pictures above, they were making red paper on the day we visited!

Favini have been developing some new products which will hopefully be introduced into the UK market next year. Chris Brown is the Sales and Marketing Director (pictured here) who was showing us around and I must also thank Antonella Agostini, Michele Posco and Caroline Wagner who looked after us very well and who made it a really interesting and enjoyable visit - thank you.

www.favini.com

SWARA & CO

I've just picked up some copies of this lovely brochure for a new design agency set up by art director Kuchar Swara.

Drawing on a spectrum of talent including stylists, writers, strategists, Swara & Co is working with some of the best names around Europe.

The brochure is written in both English and Italian and is clearly aimed at customers who will identify with quality and art direction at the highest level.

The brochure is 16pp self cover, the size is 340x230mm portrait. It is printed on our Starfine, Natural White 150gsm (which, for those of you that are not familiar with this paper has a smooth feel and a neutral whiteness). A particularly nice touch is the use of black staples.

Here are some of the spreads....

The job was (very nicely) printed by Principal Colour.

www.swaraandco.com
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Rob Ryan Screenprint

Last week I picked up my file copy of the Rob Ryan limited edition print produced for advanced subcribers of "It's Nice That 2" and it's lovely! Silkscreened in just one colour, this is a great example of the way Rob combines words and illustration which makes his work really special.

Silkscreened in one colour on our Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm.

Don't forget you would only have received one of these if you pre-ordered your copy of It's Nice That 2 ...so if you don't want to miss out next time, don't forget to pre-order!

www.itsnicethat.com
www.misterrob.co.uk

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