Easter only comes one a year ... (with apologies to The Chase)

This is a superb April Fool that was sent out by The Chase. It comprises a Christmas card with a slip of paper inserted (photocopied and badly trimmed - deliberately of course) with a message (see below).

And of course the father Christmases were spelling out April Fool in semaphore. 

It's really clever and great to see that the creative juices are still wildly overflowing in Manchester. Creative Director on the project is Ben Casey.

http://www.thechase.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson

Jobs from the Past - Number 7

Regular followers 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 here's one from twelve years ago.

Fairbridge Annual Review 1997/98 - Supporting inner city youth

This is one of my favourite pieces from the heady days of the 90's.

Designed by Lapot in 1998.

The material for this annual report was chosen to have a deliberately "inexpensive" feel but at the same time deliver a hard hitting message and have a real quality to it.

The size was A5 (reduced from A4 the previous year) portrait and is saddle stitched. 

The cover is a self cover material called EpisodeIV and is 115gsm. It is unusual to use a paper weight as a cover but it really works with this job. It is a cover but without a weighty, expensive feel.

It has a 44pp text which was printed on Optimale [Blanc Naturel] 120gsm which is a beautiful natural shade and works really well with the mono photography (sadly the mill that used to produce this paper, no longer exists)

The printing was by Beacon Press using their recently developed "Pureprint" environmental print technology. I recall that the images were reproduced as tritones and the detail, depth and reproduction is superb. http://www.beaconpress.co.uk/.

Photography was by Christine Donnier-Valentin

So what about the designers? Well sadly Lapot does not exist anymore. The founder Alexandra Lapot now works as a consultant http://www.alexlapot.com/. The creative Director on this project was Kate Hutchison who now works at Saffron http://www.saffron-consultants.com/ and Caroline Mee was the designer on the project and she is now at Irving http://www.irvingandco.com/

It is such a lovely piece of print.

http://www.fairbridge.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2010

Fenner Paper stars in the movies!

Well I guess it was inevitable that the qualities of Fenner Papers would one day be recognised by the film making industry and on Friday our paper was released onto the Big Screen.

Yes, sheets of our very own Redeem 100% Recycled star in Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang, written by and starring Emma Thompson. If you hadn't guessed, it's the big kids film for the Easter holidays!

We were contacted by the design and production person working on the film at Shepperton Studios about a paper that looked old and the sort of colour that paper might have looked like back in the 1940's. 

Now I'm not sure whether the paper is actually seen in the film or whether the scene was edited and has ended  up on the cutting room floor but here at Fenner Paper Towers, we are hoping it is in and hoping for a "Best inanimate object" Oscar nomination - Hollywood here we come!

http://www.nannymcpheeandthebigbang.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson

Gerald Laing Graphics

This is a lovely exhibition catalogue designed and produced by Jalloro for London art gallery, Morton Metropolis.

The catalogue shows the work of artist Gerald Laing, for the exhibition of his graphic work from the last forty years, including some amazing screenprints from the 1960's

The job has an 8pp cover on our 100% recycled Colorset Bright Red 270gsm with a 116pp text on Starfine Natural White 150gsm with many throw outs which are required to show the scale of the work. The size of the catalogue is 190x210mm (portrait) and the spine is around 10mm. The Starfine Natural White was chosen (because it prints well ...but that's a given!) mainly because of the neutral white shade which is not cream. Given the nature of the work, a stark bright white paper would not have worked with variety of prints, especially some of the more muted colours.

Design is by Jalloro, who are based in London and the Creative Director on this project was James Robinson.

You can download the pdf version of the catalogue, here:
http://www.mortonmetropolis.com/media/uploads/Gerald_Laing_Catalogue_8_-_lo-res.pdf

Print production is by Footprint Innovations based in Tunbridge Wells and the project was handled by Stuart Hillcock. It is a really beuatifully produced catalogue.
http://www.mortonmetropolis.com/
http://www.jalloro.com/
http://www.fpiltd.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson

Mikey Ayling at Portsmouth Uni

This is a project produced on our new weight (60gsm) in Redeem 100% Recycled by Mikey Ayling, a Communication Design student at Portsmouth University for an ISTD project highlighting the plight of the planet regarding global warming.

The brief he gave me was as follows "My project is a typographic project, and uses a large amount of white space in which to hold my text blocks, hence the amount of stock needed, each A3 is French/Chinese folded and contains a print within the fold which gives the opposite meaning or the reality if you will of the planet's CO2 crisis. Basically a dirty looking mess."

It is A4 in size and makes up as a 48pp concertina with waste pieces of 750micron greyboard being used as the front and back cover.

I do try and help students if and when I can and as you can see from the results, this one certainly made it worth the time (and he wrote to say thanks as well). He has submitted it to the ISTD together with his rationale which I have also read - so good luck Mikey.
mikee73@hotmail.co.uk
http://www.istd.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson

New Website for Applied Works

Now I know my blog is mostly about papery things (and usually Fenner Papers in particular!) but Applied Works (...who hardly ever use paper) have just launched their new website and its worth a look.

In particular, check out the National Trust Intranet, the TFL work and Giles Revell's new site

http://www.appliedworks.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson

Ink on paper for Eye magazine at Beacon Press

Eye magazine has taken a trip to their printers which is Beacon Press and there's an interesting post on the Eye blogsite with pictures of the job at the factory.  www.blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=495#more-495

Unfortunately the mag is not printed on our paper (I think it's on Arctic) but it's still a good magazine!

www.beaconpress.co.uk

www.eyemagazine.com

Posted by Justin Hobson