Wrangler - Heavy Soul

Every season, Blue Bell links up with an American artist. This Spring/Summer, the association is with sculptor and motorcycle collector, Jeff Decker. The landscape of Springville in Utah and his work provide the backdrop for the images in the collection.

The cover is printed in a solid gold metallic and has this most superbly detailed debossing.



The images show everything from the landscape to the casting of his sculptures (above) and of course the denim workwear (all made in the USA). Size is A5 portrait. It's "singer sewn" with an 8pp cover on Omnia 280gsm and 44pp text on Omnia 120gsm. Needless to say, as you can see from the images, they look great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colour together with the darker monochromatic images as well, keeping all the detail in the dark areas (it's just my opinion- but I would say that!)

The art direction is by Mark and Chris Thomson - yet another superb piece of art direction. Photography is by Boo George. The exceptional printing (debossing and finishing) is by Push.

www.bluebelljeans.com

www.jeffdeckerstudio.com

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.03.2012

...a very expensive piece of paper!

This week, a rare "wanted" poster for Charles II has been sold for just over £33,000 at an auction in Shropshire. The poster offers a reward of £1,000 for the capture of the king, who had escaped after the battle of Worcester in 1651.

Issued by Oliver Cromwell's parliament, the poster calls for "the discovery and apprehending of Charles Stuart and other traitors, his adherents and abettors".

Apparently for a piece of paper that is over 350 years old, it is in surprisingly good condition.

Rather sadly I have been unable to find out anything further about where the (handmade) paper was made. Anyway, I think it's still quite interesting and is a reminder that paper does have a permanence that many people forget!

I could suggest that the poster had been printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible, but that wouldn't be true - although it is worth pointing out that Offenbach Bible has archival qualities  - it's acid free, rosin free and alum free.

£33K might seem like a lot of money for this poster but it's cheap in comparison with the book that sold for over £7million! (see previous post below)
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2010/12/worlds-most-expensive-book-sells-for.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.03.2012

...not just a business card.

Now, it's said that a lot can be told from someone's business card and here's an identity project which makes the business card tell a story by being beautifully and cleverly interactive.

Privacy International is a human rights 'watchdog' organisation focused on privacy intrusions by government and businesses. The London based organisation has a network in 46 countries and are frequently called upon to give expert testimony to parliamentary and government committees in countries around the world including the United Nations.

The "redacted" business card is all about protecting personal information:

I certainly can't add anything to what the pictures already show - a truly brilliant piece. 

The identity (including the cards) is by London based design agency, This is Real Art. Creative Director is Paul Belford and Head of Design is Martin Brown.

I should of course mention that they are printed on our lovely Avebury Recycled Wove 250gsm (50% recycled and FSC certified). Print (and perforations of course) is by Chapter Press.

www.privacyinternational.org
www.thisisrealart.com

www.chapterpress.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.03.2012

RCA Alumni 2012

This year the RCA is celebrating 175 years. Originally founded as the Government School of Design, it went through another guise as the National Art Training School before it's elevation to the Royal College of Art.

Current membership of the organisation that represents the Alumni of the Royal College of Art, called AlumniRCA is 5,906. Each year they produce a publication to communicate with and about the Alumni and the current activities/developments at the college.

It is a simple, economical format, easy to use for both mailing and display purposes. The format is a 16pp, closed gatefold. Size is A5 folding out to A2 (420x597mm).

Front Cover:

Opening out to:

Opening out again to:

...and folding out to:

Inside, poster image is made up of two images, titled "End of Term Frolic" Students at the National Art Training School 1894: 

Design is by Europa and the designer on the project is Paul Tisdell. The publication is printed on Omnia 120gsm which was chosen because of the tactile feel and the way it would reproduce the images and most importantly the vivid fluorescent orange - which is superb - almost looks like a silkscreen result. The job was printed and finished by Pureprint.

...and thank you to Patricia for kindly sending me some file copies.

175 brand designed by Research studios (http://www.researchstudios.com/)

www.rca.ac.uk/alumni
www.europaeuropa.co.uk
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.03.2011

It doesn't all just happen in London!

Tickets for the inaugural Cheltenham Design Festival taking place over three days in April have just gone on sale and it has to be said, they have organised an excellent line up.

The festival runs on Friday 20th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd April -the Parabola Arts Centre in Cheltenham hosting 26 events – a series of debates, discussions and interviews – featuring leading figures in the design world, including:

Stephen Bayley, Nick Bell, Mark Champkins, Oli Christie, Peter Clegg
Gary Collins, Bruce Duckworth, Kenneth Grange, Steve Haggarty, Sir John Hegarty, David Hillman, Stephen Hodder, Lucy Holmes, Steve Holmes, Matthew Humphries, Nick Jankel, Simon Kavanagh, Charles Landry, Steve Lloyd, Ptolemy Mann, Stephen Marshall, Stephen Marston, Roger Mavity, Ed Douglas Miller, Dan Pearson, Paul Priestman, Torsten Reil, John Roberts, Stefan Sagmeister, Brita von Schoenaich, Adrian Shaughnessy, Sir John Sorrell, Frank Stephenson, Gav Strange, Professor Daniella Tilbury, Mills ‘Chief WONKA’, Matthew Wells, Craig White, Jonathan Worth

A really impressive line up with some big names together with interesting people who don't necessarily do too many of these kinds of talks/debates/presentations.

A particular coup is the appearance of Stefan Sagmeister who is doing a talk on the Saturday (£20). Making a rare UK showing, Sagmeister will explore the possibilities of achieving happiness as a designer and explains how he ensures his work remains a calling without deteriorating into a job. He will also be designing pieces that induce happiness in the audience and showing work from the past couple of years.

Tickets are now available:
http://cheltenhamdesignfestival.com

What better way to spend a weekend in April than going to Cheltenham? Over 26 events! ...book now or risk being disappointed!

Thanks to Leanne Thomas at ArthurSteenHorneAdamson (ASHA) in Cheltenham for giving me all the details about the festival.

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.03.2012

Jobs from the past - Number 29

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 - and in honour of it being St David's day, here's a beautiful bright, daffodil coloured job...

The Green Book - Chiswick Park 

Enjoy Work 2009

Photography: www.huftonandcrow.com

Chiswick Park is a business park developed by Stanhope PLC with architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

 

Located on a brownfield industrial site (formerly a bus works), it is largely dependent on public transport. The spectacular green parkland forming the heart of the site is public space, open to all and includes an open-air performance area, a lake and nature reserve.

 

Now I would suggest that most companies producing a sustainability brochure for a particularly green development such as this would use lots of stunning four colour imagery, such as the picture above. ...but not this developer!

 

Stanhope comissioned Bath based design agency Northbank to produce the brochure to outline the wide variety of sustainable initiatives currently underway at Chiswick Park [Enjoy-Work] from the on-site wormeries to rainwater collection. They designed a piece of literature where each fact is communicated using a simple witty illustration alongside to-the-point copy. To further re-inforce the message, it is printed in only one colour using vegetable (soya) based ink on our Colorset 100% recycled paper.

The size is 165x230mm, portrait  and is section sewn. It has an 8pp cover and a 64pp text (it's worth pointing out here that the page count and size made this an economical job out of a B1 sheet - 2 sheets of 32pp on B1 made the whole text). The material used is our Colorset 100% Recycled in Solar, 270gsm and 120gsm and printed in just one colour. Print is by Emtone in Bath

Design is by Simon Cryer and Robert Shaw at Northbank. They also designed the website (below) with it but sadly they couldn't use Colorset for that!

It's so refreshing to see a piece of literature like this. Truly creative, hard hitting and thought provoking - I think credit is due both to Northbank for the creative design but to the client for seeing the value in producing a great piece like this and not just another four colour brochure.

www.rsh-p.com

www.stanhopeplc.com
www.northbankdesign.co.uk
www.emtone.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.03.2012

Print does have value!

Now, I've not come across many promotional pieces from printing companies in the past that are coveted, let alone put up for sale!  However, a copy of the recently produced photographic book from London print company Push has been put up for auction on e-bay!

This beautifully produced, limited edition book, with photography by Peter Guenzel records the journey of Push's new Heidelberg press from Germany to their factory in London.

Book design is by Studio Thomson. Photography by Peter Guenzel ...and unsurprisingly it's printed by Push on their spanky new press!

You can read more about it on the ebay post:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230752823107?ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:GB:1120

I was fortunate enough to receive my own copy, so I won't be joining in the bidding but it'll be interesting to see how much it goes for!

www.studiothomson.com
www.peterguenzel.com
www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.02.2012