A sad end for FS Moore

This is the report that appeared in Printweek, yesterday, about the demise of London printer FS Moore, which I reproduce below...

FS Moore owed almost £2m when administrators appointed
By Adam Hooker Tuesday, 06 September 2011

East London printer FS Moore went into administration owing almost £2m to creditors, according to the administrator's report.

The Bank of Ireland was the largest creditor, owed £517,000, but a number of paper companies, print finishers and trade printers were also included.

One paper company was hit for £137,000, while another two were each owed just under £50,000. One finisher included in the creditors' list was hit for as much as £70,000, although most were owed £10,000 to £20,000.

The company also left £250,000 owed to HMRC, around £50,000 of which was for VAT. Redundancy claims accounted for £182,000. Insolvency practitioner BDO was appointed as administrator on 28 July, before selling the business and assets to DG3 Europe in a pre-pack deal the same day.

The report reveals that the business was bought for £140,000, comprising £135,000 for plant and machinery and £5,000 for stock. DG3 also agreed to pay 1% of annual turnover from FS Moore up to £1m and 2% over £1m annually for a period that has yet to be agreed.

According to the report, FS Moore saw turnover drop by around £800,000 in the two years leading up to its administration, from £4.2m in 2008 to £3.4m in 2010.

Initially the directors planned to sell the company in November 2010, however the deal fell through when HMRC refused to defer the repayment of its debt.

It's a real shame when companies which have a good reputation, such as Moores (who's work has appeared before on this blog) hit the buffers. However, it is indicative of the current state of the print and paper market.

You can read the article in full on the following link:
http://www.printweek.com/news/1089465/FS-Moore-owed-almost-2m-when-administrators-appointed/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.09.2011

Robert Welch Catalogues

Here's a lovely suite of literature produced for tableware designers and producers Robert Welch Designs.

For those that are unfamiliar with Robert Welch, here's a quick CV. He trained as a silversmith at the Royal College of Art and in 1955 set up his studio in Chipping Campden. The company blossomed and has become a household name for quality cutlery and tableware, all produced with strong design principles. Robert was made and MBE and a Royal Designer for Industry. He passed away in 2000 but since 1993, the company has been run and managed by Robert's son Rupert and daughter Alice.

John Dowling has been designing their catalogues and promotional material for the past seven years which has given the brand a consistency and uniformity across it's promotional activity which many companies struggle to achieve.

Robert Welch normally produce one catalogue but this time they produced three, to emphasise the different areas in which RW products fall – Kitchen, Dining and Living and the production of an all encompassing folder.

The folder is produced using our Plexus 350gsm which is a 100% recycled board in a mid brown shade (reflecting the traditional cotswold colour) – and contrasts with the coated material of the catalogues and high gloss UV varnish of the three front covers. The "generic" folder picks up on the history of Robert Welch and illustrates the working of the studio and showcases the newly refurbished shop in Chipping Campden, designed by architect Lorenzo Apicella at Pentagram.

The three brochures are a variety of paginations in a concertina format, folded 297x155mm, printed on our Millennium Real Silk 200gsm. The cover page on each is varnished with a gloss UV varnish.

Design is by Dowling Duncan. Art direction and design was by John Dowling working closely in association with Alice and Rupert Welch - and as you can see, it is based around the beautifully commissioned and art directed photography combined with the simplicity of the folder. Print is by Gavin Martin.

http://www.robertwelch.com/

http://dowlingduncan.com/

www.gavinmartin.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.09.2011

UCADF

UK China Art and Design Festival is an annual art and design festival which aims to create an international pageant of art and design through celebrating creativity under two different cultural contexts from the UK and China. It is an official partner of the London Design Festival.

The festival is organized by the UK China Art and Design Association (UCADA), with the official support from the Embassy of People’s Republic of China in the UK and the British Council.

It is structured around four principal events:

Main Exhibition: Cheers2011 – The Catalyst – Collective Exhibition of Chinese Artists and Designers in the UK.

Forums Series: Seminars and conferences for Chinese artists and designers.

Talents of the Year: Annual Awards for Chinese artists and designers

Exhibition tours around China: ...sounds good to me!

Starting in London this Thursday, the festival will celebrate Chinese artists and designers in the UK as an official partner of the London Design Festival. Following this the best examples will be invited to participate in the Beijing International Design Week as part of its London Guest City programme.

Admission to the exhibition is free, places for the talk are limited so please email office@greatwesternstudios to book or call 020 7221 0100

...nothing to do with our paper but I thought it was interesting!

http://www.ucadf.com
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/events/uk-china-art-and-design-festival
http://www.greatwesternstudios.com/events/391-05-08-11-cheers

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.09.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 23

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...

The Small Creature - British Heart Foundation (2008)

Hat-Trick Design created a sensitive and honest identity programme aimed at children who have suffered a bereavement due to heart disease - surely one of the most difficult subjects to address. Hat-Trick and the BHF worked closely with Katrice Horsley, a professional storyteller who developed a children's story with multi sensory dimensions, to reflect what happens when a child loses someone close to them.

The story features a character called 'The Small Creature', who encounters a number of friends who go through a range of emotions including sadness, anger, loneliness and bewilderment. The character is produced as a felt toy in a range of colours to represent these emotions.

The finished piece (which includes the toy and the printed literature) is packed in a cloth bag containing a kit of parts which were the inspiration for the design - the toy, the story, a CD version and exercises to help overcome grief.

The picture below shows the items of literature plus the felt toy:

The picture below shows the cloth bag, the felt toy and the story book. The cover of the story book  is printed on our Flockage Litho 250gsm (our litho printable furry paper!) which as you might imagine, perfectly complements the toy and the illustration.

...and to complete the branding, the small creature even made an appearance on the mailing carton.

The superb illustrations are by Becky Sutherland - and to be honest the pics and description on her site are a lot better than I've achieved! so have a look at this link:
http://rebeccasutherland.co.uk/#575956/The-Small-Creature

The project won a DesignWeek Benchmark Award in 2009 - and deservedly so.
http://awards.designweek.co.uk/benchmarks/2009/category/best-of-show/the-small-creature/the-small-creature.php

The campaign was designed by Hat-Trick. Creative director on the project was Jim Sutherland, Senior Designer was Mark Wheatcroft. The design manager at BHF who worked on this campaign is Louise Kyme. When I spoke to Mark Wheatcroft about this project, he remarked that this particular job could genuinely be described as a real team effort - everyone all pulled together in the most extraordinary way - a reflection on the gravity of the subject, I shouldn't wonder.

www.bhf.org.uk
www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk

http://www.wheatcroftand.co.uk

http://rebeccasutherland.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.09.2011

Project D A/W 2011

Project D is the exciting new clothing label designed by founders Danni Minogue and her friend Tabitha Somerset-Webb whom is already an established designer. The first collection launched last year to great acclaim and the range contains pretty day dresses, cocktail chic and glamorous red-carpet-ready dresses (...you can probably tell I didn't write that last bit!) For the forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2011 collection they have produced this superb new lookbook.

The size is 170x240mm, portrait. It is made up using 32pp of our Omnia 150gsm which is just simply stunning with the images used. The cover and translucent dividers printed (and hot foil blocked on the cover) on 100gsm tracing paper (not ours - I'm waiting to find out and will hopefully add this detail in) is printed in a rich, deep red. The finishing is "singer sewn" along the spine - absolutely beautiful.

Design is by Anthony Hodgson at Face based in Pool in Wharfedale near Leeds. Printing, including the lovely hot foil blocking on the cover, is by Chapter Press. It is a beautiful piece of literature.

www.projectdonline.co.uk

www.weareface.com

www.chapterpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.08.2011

Wedding Day 2011

Now some of you may remember with some disappointment that I wasn't actually invited to the Royal Wedding in the summer - even though I had all the gear!

However, here's one wedding that I did make it to. Anyone who's called when I'm out of the office will probably have spoken to my colleague Mark Bassett who was married on Saturday to his lovely fiancé Claire.

They were married at Tonbridge Castle (yes, we have a real Norman castle in Tonbridge!) with a reception afterwards. It was a lovely day and I wish them a long and happy married life.  

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.08.2011

WORK

This is an unusual but very effective use of our Omnia text and cover paper - all the branding material for a new London based Gallery called WORK.

WORK is a new gallery set up by Black Dog Publishing to exhibit work, host exhibitions and talks in the areas of art, design and achitecture. It is based in Kings Cross area of London.

The extremely simple but effective identity is Litho printed in black and hot foil blocked in a gloss black foil. Letterheads are on Omnia 120gsm, cards on 320gsm.

...and here was the other attraction of using Omnia for their literature. Because the work feature in the gallery could be of a diverse nature, they wanted an uncoated but that would reproduce well over a wide range of imagery - and in this case, an image which was also gloss UV varnished. The A5, 2pp invitation (printed on Omnia 320gsm) was also duplexed, making it a sturdy 640gsm.

Art Direction and design is by Matt Bucknall at Black Dog Publishing. The print, foiling and duplexing was by SP Litho in Rainham, Essex - an excellent job, really well produced.

...and thanks to Matt for the lovely note and for sending me some files:

www.workgallery.co.uk

www.blackdogonline.com

www.splitho.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.08.2011