INK

This brochure is the result of a collaboration between photographer Emilie Bailey, London based design studio & SMITH and digital printers Spring Image.

The title is "INK"  but the subject is nothing to do with printing, it's entirely about tattoos! It is 175x250mm, portrait format and saddle stitched. It looks and feels great and yet the run was only 500 copies!  The job was printed on an Indigo digital press by Spring Image and the print result is fantastic. It is printed on our new Shiro Echo, Bright White (FSC) 4pp cover on 250gsm and 32pp text on 120gsm.

Although Shiro was not developed originally for digital, it has been "sapphire treated" by the printer. This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface - watch out for the new pre-treated Shiro digital range which is on the way!

Look and enjoy...

It really is a superb piece and goes to show that an Indigo, printing on uncoated materials really is as good as, and sometimes better than printing offset litho! I have a few copies, so if you want one, send me an e-mail and I can oblige

www.emiliebailey.com

www.andsmithdesign.com

www.spimso.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.08.2011

Gap 1969

This is a lovely promo piece to support the 1969 jeans campaign launch by Gap earlier in the year.

Size is A5, portrait. It has a 4pp cover and a 12pp text, printed CMYK throughout. The text material is printed on Marazion Ultra 115gsm. Cover is from the popular Hull based company on Colourplan 135gsm with a Buckram emboss. The cover also has a gloss UV varnish on the large 1969. It has a deliberately floppy feel which works really well for the denimy subject!

...and here's the clever bit - see below image. The cover means the book works both ways round - one way men/womens, the other kids/baby. Not the first time it's been done but very effectively executed.

Printing is by Absolute Ink who are based in Clapton in London and who work directly with many of the large brands such as GAP. Art director and designer on the project was Jonathan Baron working in conjunction with the in-house production team at Gap.

...and thanks to Jonathan for sending me some copies.

http://www.gap.com/
http://www.studio-baron.com/
http://www.theabsolute.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.08.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 22

Regular followers of this blog 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...

First Exposure - July 2007

This is a set of complimentary information literature and invitations for an event bringing together inspiring new fashion and lifestyle brands, mainly from New York.

Each of the items is an A3 size and folded to A5 size but the top fold is in falf, so the effect is staggered and as a consequence, it doesn't feel like a standard A5 finished piece. Hopefully you can see from the pics below:

This is a rather unusual job because the material used is our Offenbach Bible 60gsm printed 1 colour line or full coverage solid. This isn't unusual in itself as it is very popular for folded invitations/inserts etc. however you may have noticed from the pics, a metallic gold and that is because there is a massive 250mm diameter hot foil block. The combination of the lightweight material and the foiling is fantastic - a really beautiful piece.

The design was by Studio Exposure which is part of the Exposure group of companies who hosted the event. The designer on the project was Matt Jenkins.
The printer that printed the job and handled the superb foiling was St Ives Westerham Press.

Matt Jenkins is now working freelance in London and has regular engagements at all the best studios!

http://www.exposure.net/
http://www.mattjenkinsdesign.co.uk/
http://www.westerhampress.co.uk/westerham

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.08.2011

Book of the Dead Invitations

These are the private view invitations for the British Museum Ancient Egyptian Exhibition, Book of The Dead. This was a blockbusting exhibition which ran from last November up until March. The 4pp invitations are A5 size and are printed on Omnia 280gsm which was chosen specifically because the gold metallic type reproduces as metallic (- often on uncoated materials metallics can just look a yellow colour) and of course because the solid black is also very solid.

Inside the outer cover is an 8pp insert which is "singer sewn" in a gold colour thread. The 8pp insert is printed on a translucent parchment type paper (pergamenata 90gsm) which gives it an ancient papyrus like feel.

Design is by Constanza Gaggero. Print is by Fulmar Colour and I know (because of all the samples we were doing!) that Martin Stacey at Fulmar Colour worked hard on getting it all working right - singer sewing along the spine especially!

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

www.fulmarcolour.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.07.2011

Unpaid-for advertising!

Just when you think you've seen and heard it all before, something comes along that shakes it all up!

Most people will know that although I write this blog, I'm hardly obsessed by social media, not particularly worried about what people think of me or the company (unless it's negative) and certainly not concerned about "driving traffic" to websites or our products etc. I'm flattered that well over a thousand people check out this blog every week but I write it out of a desire to show genuinely good work which is mainly (but not exclusively) using papers from Fenner Paper ...and I can share it with many more people than I can actually go and physically visit.

So I was more than a little surpised when I received an e-mail from the PR company (lexispr.com) that works for the global paper conglomerate, ArjoWiggins, asking if I might be interested in putting their new EBS tools (whatever the heck, they are!!!) and their new video on my blog!

So, I was now clearly faced with a dilema. Do I simply say that it's a conflict of interest and politely tell them to go away?
...or should I allow the company which turns over £1.5 billion (...yes, you read that right 1.5 BILLION pounds!) and over 6000 employees, the oxygen of publicity on my blog!

Just so you're sure you know who I'm banging on about, this is the company that makes brands such as Conqueror, Chromomat, Curious etc. which I'm sure you're all familiar with. Technically they are a competitor but in the shark infested waters of the papery ocean, they are the size of a whale and we are not much bigger than plankton!

So I thought long and hard about it and thought, why not! I feel quite chuffed that they're asking little old Fenner Paper who has 15 employees and a turnover of less than 1% of their £1.5 billion for our help! ...and the video is about the use of recycled paper, so I figured it might work just as well for us as our Colorset is the only 100% recycled coloured text and cover paper on the market.

So here are the EBS tools (!) and the video:
http://smr.lexispr.com/arjowiggins/ebs-video  [not many of you readers place comments on the blog, but do lets get some reader reaction]

After this major publicity coup, maybe they'll make me an offer - a corner office, an executive chair, a shiny suit and place on the board - problem is I don't speak French - oh salaud!

http://www.arjowiggins.com/

http://www.lexispr.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.07.2011

A Curious Project

Here's a particularly lovely finished piece by Joanna Hughes who just graduated from the BA (Hons) Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Hertfordshire. The brief was a redesign of the original novel 'Alice in Wonderland' written by Lewis Carroll.

The book size is 150mm x 195mm. It is casebound, covered in a grey buckram bookcloth and hot foil blocked in matt white (title) and silver (footnote) foils. It has 154pp (or 77x4pp french folded pieces) printed 1 colour on Offenbach Bible 60gsm, the text is printed inside the french fold to symbolize the fact that Alice has fallen within 'Wonderland'. 

...and it was showcased this month at the New Designers Exhibition at the Business Design Centre.
http://www.newdesigners.com/page.cfm/Action=Exhib/ExhibID=221

A really beautiful book, simple idea and well put together.  

In March I did a talk at the University of Hertfordshire for tutors Jess Harris and Martin Schooley ( I used to do some work with Jess when she was a designer at The Partners back in the 90's - she's now a tutor and she got in touch with me) Anyway, it was at that talk that Jo saw the Offenbach Bible, she remembered it, used it on an appropriate project and wrote me a lovely thank you note as well.
http://cargocollective.com/joannahughes#1666525/Book-Design

...so if anyone is impressed with the above and hiring, here are Joanna's contact details:

 JoannaHughes0@gmail.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.07.2011

Print Innovation

These days,they're often not very much good news to be had in the printing industry, but here's a good news story from West London based printers BOSS.

This printer has always been innovative  - they had one of the very first Indigo digital presses - ten years ago!  They specialise in producing high quality Litho & digital print across a wide range of sectors and markets and they have now launched a seperate online business producing online greetings cards on their new site:  www.bosscards.com

Using their Indigo press with a range of selected artists they produce all the cards individually. As you would expect,  you can personalise the designs to include your own messages and names but there is also a degree of typographic freedom which other online card suppliers don't offer. 

Each week they have a featured artist and the image below is from the current featured artist, Joseph Shepherd  http://www.becomingsustainable.net/josephshepherd/gallery.html

Now there are obviously the other card companies (...you know, the spacepigs which advertise on the telly!) but for those that are a bit more design savvy, I think it's well worth having a look at Boss cards...

www.bosscards.com

www.bossprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.07.2011