It's Nice That...

The It’s Nice That’s one-day conference has just been announced and the "earlybird" tickets have already sold out! However, there are still regular tickets available so why not have a look?

In Progress promises a deliberately curated programme of talks and insights from some of the most exciting and forward-thinking people in the creative industries.  The aim is to explore future trends, insights and potential highlights for 2012, opening up discourse about the direction of practice, process and innovation across a broad range of disciplines for the coming year.

There is a panel of influential creatives, commentators and industry specialists, including the following:
Tom Uglow creative director of Google and YouTube, Matt Jones of Berg, Lindsey Hilsum Channel 4’s award-winning international editor, Mills co-founder of UsTwo, publisher and writer James Bridle, Saatchi and Saatchi creative partner Kate Stanners, Emer Coleman director of digital projects at the GLA, Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth from W+K London, Dazed's Francesca Gavin and David McCall director of Hyper Island UK plus there will be additional names to be announced over the coming weeks.

...if you're sitting there reading this thinking "what's the point?" then ponder on this:
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
W. Edwards Deming  (US business advisor & author 1900 - 1993)

www.itsnicethat.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.11.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 25

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...

British Council

Design, Architecture & Cultural Relations - 2008

This is a modest and cost effective publication produced for the British Council in Spring 2008. The publication covered recent projects, showcasing the best of UK creativity and the way in which the work of the council engaged in international cutural relations.

Although the pictures make them look like a series, they are simply the same publication but with a change of coloured cover board. Extremely simple, very effective and bringing the project a lot more value than if the covers were all the same.

They are A5 portrait, wire stitched (with black stitches - nice touch!) The covers are all 4pp printed on 5 different shades of Colorset 100% Recycled 270gsm (Spring Green, Mango, Deep Orange, Magenta and White)

Fronts:

 Backs:

Covers are printed in two colours (special blue and black) common, on all colours. The 16pp text for reasons of cost was printed on a cheaper uncoated offset (which is called Evolve, I think) is printed in CMYK.

The job was printed by Beacon Press (now Pureprint).

Design is by Wood McGrath and even though it was three years ago, I've still got the lovely note they sent me with the file copies (which also happens to be printed on Colorset Solar 270gsm!) Thank you Martin and Suzy:

www.britishcouncil.org

www.woodmcgrath.com

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.11.2011

Celia Sings

Some of you may remember the post that I wrote last December about the sad passing away of Celia Stothard. http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/12/celia-stothard-1949-2010.html. Well, I can now happily report that a fantastic book celebrating her life has now been published, a book of which I am sure she would have been proud.

Celia was Alan Kitching's partner both in life and work. They happily collaborated on so many projects and this book is Alan's testament to Celia's creative life from working at the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1970's up to recent projects, at the same time as covering her life as a singer and performer.

It's a beautifully produced book. Look at the pictures and then I'll describe it!

End papers (Colorset 120gsm) with a pocket including a CD:

Unfolded wrap, that forms a dustjacket around the book, printed letterpress by Alan Kitching:

OK, now for the details....

The book is 280x205mm, portrait. It is section sewn, with blue cloth tape around the spine and has 3000 micron greyboard mounted to form the front and back "hard" covers. The outer front cover is hot foil blocked in two colours (red and blue) and there is a "plate sunk" panel with a picture of Celia mounted in the panel. The endpapers are blue in the front and red in in the back, both produced using Colorset 120gsm. There is 80pp of text which is all printed on our StarFine White 150gsm (an uncoated text and cover paper) which looks amazingly printed aaaaaand, (here's the slightly incredible bit) it's is all printed digitally on an Indigo press, printed by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

The book is art directed by Simon Esterson. Designer on the project (and researcher and archivist) is Jon Kielty with Alan Kitching overseeing and orchestrating the whole project.

Richard Owers at Pureprint handled the print. Aaron Archer, Technical Director at Pureprint dealt particularly with the Indigo printing aspects of the production.

Alan Kitching presented last week at the AGI Congress 2011 in Barcelona, his work and the work that they had made together, as well as this lovely book:
http://www.a-g-i.org/5184/current-articles/barcelona-2011-agiopen-and-the-agi-congress.html

The book can be bought in all good bookshops (such as Magma) and on line, with all profits from the publication going to the Stothard/Kitching Trust. (PS only a limited edition have the signed poster/dustjackets)

www.thetypographyworkshop.com

www.pureprint.com

www.estersonassociates.co.uk

www.jmgstudio.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.10.2011

Other blogs...

It's always nice when you see projects that you've been involved with on someone else's blog - and here's one of those instances!

Paddock Wood based printer, Principal Colour have recently started their blog (they also twitter and facebook which is way more advanced than me!)

 Illustration by Kellie Black

(Above is the lovely illustration by Kellie Black (http://www.misspearlgrey.com/) of Martin and Alan, the two founders of Principal Colour. The illustration was commissioned to celebrate the launch of the last book for amelia's magazine)
Anyway, one of their very first posts is about paper and the coated/uncoated debate. It shows Amelia's Magazine (with a scratch and sniff cover! - on our Omnia) ....I shan't say anymore, otherwise you won't want to read their post:

http://principalcolour.tumblr.com/post/11948257268/coated-or-uncoated-paper

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.10.2011

Simply beautiful

What does a business card do?

It is hard to argue that a good business card will guarantee lots of business and have potential clients queueing at the door! ...however, I remain convinced that a poor business card leaves little or no impression and worst of all may leave a bad impression.

This is a simple job about which I can't write very much because it is a business card, simply and beautifully produced.

The material is our Flora Tabacco in 350gsm (manufactured by Cordenons in Italy) which is a substantial board with a high bulk, an industrial look & feel and with deliberate "inclusions" or specks. This rough and ready looking material has been juxtaposed with some exceptionally fine hot foil blocking in a matt white foil - and it really is superbly done as you can see. The small lettering in a serif typeface has been well maintained and is a testament to the foilers ability to get the heat, pressure and dwell time on the foiling machine just right.

Design is by Emily Chicken. Foiling is by Birmingham based Tuckey Print.

www.guttfieldarchitecture.co.uk
http://www.emilychicken.co.uk/
http://www.tuckeyprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.10.2011

Studio Cookbook

Studio cookbook is a collection of recipes aimed to inspire social lunches at the workplace. The first edition is a collection from åbäke, Alex Bettler, Front yard company, Goodwin Hartshorn, Jerome Rigaud, Martino Gamper, Mind Design, Sara De Bondt studio and many more.

The book is 170x240mm, portrait with a 4pp cover and 32pp text. The cover and endpapers are cut 25mm short at the head. It uses "3 hole sewn" binding which is lovely.  It is printed on our range called Coriandoli which is our range which has multi-coloured "inclusions" (...in other words, bits!). The cover is on the lovely, bright, Coriandoli Solare, 250gsm and the text on Coriandoli Avorio, 130gsm.

The book has been printed and published by Hato Press, a specialist Riso printing and publishing house (if you want to know about Riso printing, have a look at:  http://hatopress.net/1/category/printing/ ).  It is designed by Ken Kirton Studio.

The book launch, or rather lunch, was held in July and gathered previous studios with new participants, to realise the form of the cookbook live at The Bökship!

...here are the pics of the event

Contributing chefs include:
Patrick Lacey (åbäke) in collaboration with Erika Wall
Jerome Rigaud (electronest)
Sarah Gottlieb (Household) and Dario Utreras
Holger Jacobs (Mind Design)
Sophie Demay (Department 21)
Holly Willats (Art Licks)
Patrick Coyle
PraxisPlay
Johanna and Elin (Studio Åh)
Matthieu Becker (Studio K)

www.hatopress.net/1/shop/studio-cookbook/
http://bokship.org/index.html
http://kenkirton.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2012

ISTD Awards 2011

I was lucky enough to go to the ISTD awards on Friday evening and it was an excellent event. It was held at the The Museum of Brands and Packaging in London's Notting Hill. Now, I've never come accross this museum but as guests we were allowed to have a look around and I would suggest you have a look, especially if you are doing a packaging/branding project (http://www.museumofbrands.com/). As with all ISTD events, there is a real warmth, maybe because there is always an international element? or because people interested in type are friendly? ...I don't know.

Steve Fenn, Tom Heaton, Toby Burkill, Tom Pollard, Zoë Bather

There was no 2011 Overall Winner but there were 50 Awards representing design from 19 countries and 12 nationalities – 36 Certificates of Excellence, 14 Premier Awards, awarded for outstanding typographic achievement.

All the award winners deserve congratulations, but in particular, there are some people who I must mention:

Cartlidge Levene for the V&A  Ceramic Galleries  (... not on paper, but still great work!) http://www.cartlidgelevene.co.uk/

Raw for their lovely 11 out of 10 poster (printed by Adams of Rye), Studio 8 for Elephant magazine and the Central School of Speech & Drama identity and Paulus M Dreibholz for numerous awards!
http://www.rawdesignstudio.co.uk/
http://www.studio8design.co.uk/
http://dreibholz.com/

A piece that particularly intrigued me was  a book called Another Reason designed bu Al Mohtaraf, a studio based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:

http://www.mohtaraf.com/

http://mohtarafbooks.com/m/al-mohtaraf-publishing,1.html

It was an excellent evening which showed a fantastic array of international typographic excellence. It is SO important for the design industry that we retain organisations such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability. Congratulations to the awards team: Belinda Magee, Clare Playne and Gilmar Wendt - a huge amount of time and work goes into these events and it is fair that they should be recognised and applauded.

The awards catalogue perfectly illustrates the awards, the diversity of media and approach and an inspiring overview of international typographic design. It is 130x185mm, portrait, perfect bound. Printed on our Neptune Unique 300 and 170gsm.

The book is designed by Playne Design. Print is by Gavin Martin. It's well worth getting - you can buy the awards book through the ISTD website (£15, I think)

...and if you aren't a member, have a look http://www.istd.org.uk/ - it costs less than £10 per month - still excellent value!

www.istd.org.uk
http://www.museumofbrands.com/
www.playnedesign.co.uk
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.10.2011