Renaissance of Flock!

These are some lovely invitations for the sponors reception at the British Museum for their current exhibition of Italian Renaissance Drawings.

The cropped image on the front of the invitations have been printed on Flockage Litho. For those of you which are not familiar with this product, it is a flocked paper and board which feels like a velvety material to the touch but which remarkably you can actually litho print onto!

and below are the reverse of the invites...

To give these invitations extra weight (and gravitas), they have been duplexed with another board so they actually feel around 600gsm. There are three sizes: 95x210mm, 148x148mm and 148x210mm.

Design is by Constanza Gaggero. Original drawing by Andrea del Verrocchio. Print is by Push.

...and time to hurry along to see the exhibition, it finishes on 25th July. It was well reviewed by The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/apr/04/italian-renaissance-drawings-british-museum

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.06.2010

The Concise Dictionary of Dress

This is a great piece of promotional literature for arts organisation Artangel. The Concise Dictionary of Dress is a project produced by Artangel in collaboration with the V&A, hosted at Blythe House. If you  hurry you can still catch it - it finishes on 27th June.

This job is 488mmx340mm folding to 122x170mm using a concertina map fold. It is printed on our Clervaux [1sided] 110gsm which is and uncoated paper with a smooth side and a rough side. On this project the smooth sided is printed with just black type and the "rougher" more tactile side is printed in CMYK with some really interesting images both contemporary and from the archive.

Design is by Frith Kerr at Studio Frith. Print is by Xtraprint in London.

What more can I say ...it's just really lovely! 

and thanks to Frith for the beautifully written note:

http://www.artangel.org.uk/

http://www.studiofrith.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.06.2010

Wrangler F/W10

This is the Fall/Winter 2010 look book for Wrangler - Kustom Kulture 

This is the latest collection from "the original American outdoor denim brand" - Wrangler and as I'm sure you can see from the images, it is a beautiful piece of literature. Art direction, photography and reproduction is superb.

It's a 24pp self cover, saddle stitched (plus a loose inserted A2 poster). Size is A3 portrait and it's printed on Marazion Ultra 150gsm which gives it that dead matt/flat look but with great reproduction. 

Art Direction, design and production is by Studio Thomson. It just has a fantastic feel - it is difficult for me to say too much more about it - look at the images below, they speak for the job...

The art direction is by Mark and Chris Thomson and the quality of the direction and photography (by Scott Trindle) is matched by the exceptional printing (four colour black and whites are v.good) by Push.

http://www.wrangler-europe.com/
http://www.studiothomson.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.06.2010

Invitation to Shop...

Here's a job that's hot off the press. It's the invitation to the launch of SHOP magazine's spring/summer shopping guides. The size is 600x396mm folding to 132x150mm and it's printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The fantastic illustrations are by Emily Forgot (http://www.emilyforgot.co.uk/)

Design is by Studio8. Steve Fenn is the designer, Creative Director is Zoë Bather.

Print production is by Granite Colour.

www.global-blue.com/en/london
http://www.emilyforgot.co.uk/
http://www.studio8design.co.uk/
http://www.granitecolour.com/

Posted by Justin 22.06.2010

Central St Martins - MA Communication Design

Last week I went to the Central St Martins show for MA Communication Design at the Rochelle School in London E2 for the private view.

It was a beautiful evening and the bar was outside in the sunshine!

The show was well attended and well layed out both on the ground and first floors.

There was a lot of great work on show but there are two students in particular who produced great pieces of work (...on paper, obviously!) which I will try and show here:

Firstly, Hila Ben-Navat (hilulimb@gmail.com) who has produced "The Genocide Project" which comprise  several pieces of exceptionally well produced literature plus a series of posters. The disturbing work covers the subject of genocide from the Holocaust up to "ethnic cleansing" of the present day and is a very powerful piece of work. What this project in particular shows is the way she has considered the relationship between the subject, design, imagery and the physical material substrate, printing and binding.

The second student is Kristina Kostadinova (kristina.kostadinova@gmail.com) who produced a fantastic project showing the most amazing photography (she did all the photography) of dozens and dozens of Soviet built edifices in her native Bulgaria.  The project not only documents the current state of their decay, but illustrates their history and makes a social commentary about the current lack of any kind of national pride in these once great monoliths.  

It goes without saying that my pics here do very little justice to either of these projects and there was also a lot of other really great work on display as well, it's just that these are two projects which particularly stood out, specially with my papery angle on things!

Thank you to the course tutors who invited me, Roz Streeten and Maria Da Gandra.

www.csm.arts.ac.uk/2010-degree-shows

Hila Ben-Navat: hilulimb@gmail.com

Kristina Kostadinova: kristina.kostadinova@gmail.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.06.2010

Aquascutum invitation

Here's an invitation that really makes a statement when it arrives! It is A5 in size and very simply hot foil blocked in a single metallic deep blue foil on our Construction Blackstone 1500microns ...so it's 1.5mm thick and weighty! The contrast of the fine gloss foil with the roughness of the board works really well.

The outside of the envelope (which is produced on Neptune Unique SoftWhite 250gsm) is also foiled to match - see pic below:

Design and art direction is by Luciana Newell. Print and production is by Orchid Print. Pictures of the accompanying catalogue, coming soon... 

http://www.aquascutum.com/

http://www.lbndesign.com/

http://www.orchidprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.06.2010

World Cup poster at the World Cup!

Now here's a man that takes his type and his football seriously!

David Coates was so taken with his Em-project designed, World Cup wall chart that he's actually taken it to South Africa AND to the actual stadium as well!

David and his friends went to the brand new Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban to see the Germany vs Australia match. He says "The stadium is very impressive and the atmosphere and support from fans around the world was incredible"

Here are some pics from inside the stadium.

David Coates is a designer at London design consultancy To The Point and is also the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) co-deputy chair. The ISTD run an excellent education program which is truly international and one of David's friends from college coordinates the program in South Africa.

...and let's not forget that it is printed on the new Shiro TREE FREE 120gsm which is made from 100% non-tree fibres - it's made from annual plants such as bamboo, cotton or bagasse.

Thanks to David for taking the time and trouble to send it over and I hope it brings the England team that little bit of extra luck!
http://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.em-project.com/
http://www.wineonehundred.co.uk/
http://www.thesecretcellar.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.06.2010