Taking Time - Craft and the Slow Revolution

Here is a lovely collection of literature for a touring exhibition from Craftspace curated with Helen Carnac. The printed literature includes a catalogue, a poster, invitations and flyer cards.

The design of the exhibition and literature is by Hyperkit.

The catalogue is 165x240mm portrait with a 4pp cover and a 48pp text. The poster is A3 and the invitations A5. The literature and exhibition work using a two colour palette (which is also more cost effective) with four colour text in the brochure.

The paper used throughout is Redeem 100% Recycled with 240gsm and 130gsm for the catalogue and 315gsn for the invitations and cards. The "natural" shade of the paper works really well with the two colour palette.

Below are the poster and the invitations:

There are a couple of things that are worth pointing out. Firstly they customised an existing typeface to create a face with a calligraphic feel which lends itself to the theme of the exhibition. This typeface is employed across all printed material and also used in the exhibition signage. The other thing is the really nice little business card sized "Comments" card, so that people can leave comments at the exhibition - a really simple but effective idea.

...and thank you for the lovely note:

http://www.takingtime.org/

http://www.craftspace.co.uk/

http://www.hyperkit.co.uk/

The Brunswick Review

This is a very interesting and a very different publication. The Brunswick Review is self published by the global Public Relations and Communications company Brunswick. They have a network of fifteen offices throughout the world. One way that they keep in touch with their clients is by producing this publication which is certainly anything but a "customer magazine". It is very well written and researched and has counts Mark Thompson and Sir Andrew Motion amongst it's guest contributors.

The design of the publication relies heavily (although not exclusively) on illustration which appears to have the effect of making it very readable, I know this because I have even found myself reading it!

The size of the publication is 280x216mm. It is has a 4pp cover and 102pp text. It is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 240gsm and 100gsm.

In each issue, there is an "Arts" section [see spread below] highlighting the work of Brunswick Arts which is a seperate division of the Group based in London...

I think this is an excellent piece of literature which is hard to classify. It definitely isn't a newsletter, certainly not a magazine or a brochure. It is however, an extremely clever piece of communication.

It is edited by Tim Dickson.

The painstaking and excellent illustration choices, design and production is all by Johnston Works. (http://www.johnstonworks.com/) and printing is by St Ives Westerham Press.

http://www.brunswickgroup.com/
http://www.st-ives.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson

Lincolnshire links with San Francisco!

Just had some very exciting news… Dowling Design and Art Direction (based in Newark) and Rob Duncan Design (based in San Francisco) have joined forces to become Dowling Duncan.

John and Rob, who both previously worked at Pentagram amongst other design companies, before setting up their own consultancies. Now they have joined forces which is an exciting move for both individuals.

I have written about John before (see other post on this blog) who also lectures part-time at Lincoln Uni. Good luck and best wishes to the all new Dowling Duncan.

http://www.dowlingduncan.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson

It's Nice That #3 out now!

It's Nice That  - Issue 3 is out now!

Yes the eponymous It's Nice That, publication has hit the streets. Packed with the usual superbly selected content including interviews with Ken Garland and Tom Dixon amongst others, these guys are pulling in some amazingly big names.

The pre-order copies come with a fantastic silkscreen print (pictured below) designed by Dutch artist, Parra. Size is  (552x980mm) printed on Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

As normal there is too much good stuff to list here but it's great to see that Jasmine Raznahan (http://www.jasmineraznahan.com/) who I have worked with over the years and who has now finished her MA at the RCA has a piece about her work on Page 81.

Production details are as previous issues with the text being on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm and Colorset 100% Recycled cover 270gsm in Indigo. Cover is Silkscreened one colour and die cut. Size is 210x275mm Portrait and this issue has 128pp text. Print is by Push (http://www.push-print.com/) - and below you can see a picture of the job being printed.

Design is by Alex Bec and Will Hudson in collaboration with Joseph Burrin.

And thanks to Alex and Will for the lovely note.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson

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