Mucho

Today, new Mucho has been launched, together with their website. This new creative agency is the result of Mucho combining with Dowling Duncan.

The partners are Marc Català, John Dowling, Pablo Juncadella, Rob Duncan, Tilman Solé with their respective studios in New York, Barcelona, Berlin, San Francisco and London. It's a tight network of smaller, more boutique, studios with a global outlook.

I've been fortunate to have worked on projects with Rob and Pablo back in their Pentagram days and more recently with John Dowling who's work for Robert Welch and the University of Lincoln has also appeared on this blog.

 

Congratulations and best wishes to all the partners for the future.

http://www.wearemucho.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.04.2013

Batch by Faye Toogood

New York Times Blog July 2012
Photo: Marius W. Hansen

Faye Toogood is a British designer and one that will not be pigeonholed. Her work covers interiors, installation, furniture, fine art and influences fashion and trends in a way that is unusual in a world which appears to require individual specialisms. Her furniture and objects are made using carefully condsidered materials and are handmade by small-scale fabricators with traditional methods.

BATCH is a furniture collection based on the concept of Batch production rather than one off editions, making them more accessible. Batch is made in Britain using solid Ash.

The BATCH catalogue is 280x210mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. It is a 40pp 'self cover' all printed on our Marazion Ultra 135gsm which has a matt look and feel which works superbly with the style of photography and especially the pale ash and subtle grain of the wood.

Outside front cover

Design is by Studio Toogood. This is a beautifully simple piece of literature which perfectly shows the items and conveys exactly the right look and feel which engages the reader with the products themselves. Print is by Pureprint and it is a beautifully produced, clean and tidy piece of printing and finishing.



...and thanks to Rosalind for kindy sending me file copies and a lovely note.

www.fayetoogood.com.

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.04.2013

 

Jobs from the past - Number 42

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 here's one from 2008.

The Ghost in the Fog

This project is the ghost of a book. It documents corrections made by the editors, translators and contributors to How to Address the Fog: XXV Finnish poems 1978-2002. Published in 2005, the original went through five sets of amendments. This book documents those changes. Only the corrected text, the marginal notes and the proof-readers' marks remain, forming a different kind of poetry - one of an accidental, concrete kind. It is a book of absences. (all I've done is repeat the original text taken from the jacket - I really can't improve on it! J)

The size is 195x128mm, portrait and is section sewn. It has a 4pp cover with an 8pp 'dust-jacket' wrapped around it and 128pp text. The text and jacket are all printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The text is mainly printed in two colours (black and red) with specials used on the 'endpapers' - yellow and on the jacket. The materials have a beautifully light and ethereal quality and with just the faintest hint of showthrough, it works with the ghostly subject, perfectly.

In 2009, this project won an ISTD premier award an this is what the judges said about it ( ...and in particular note what is said about the delicate stock): The idea of a book that only includes the corrections and observations of the authors and proofreaders is unexpected and unusual. Using typography that suggests concrete poetry, the rythmical pattern through the pagesgives the sense of a musical score. The tactile quality of the delicate stock reveals and documents the changes through layers of amendments, allowing the reader to only sense the actual text. Fittingly titled, The Ghost in the Fog is a ghost of a book. It really is, as the designer describes it, 'a book of absences'. An intriguing book that is a delight to handle  ___Freda Sack

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/istd-awards.html

Art direction is by Barrie Tullett & Philippa Wood at The Caseroom Press. Design and production is by Barrie Tullett. Print is by The Short Run Press based in Exeter.

The foreward is by Ken Cockburn and the corrections, observations and alterations of the original publication are all made by Ken Cockburn, Anni Sumari, Robin Fulton, David McDuff, Donald Adamson and Robyn Marsack.

www.the-case.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2013

Chocolate Farm

Here's a chocolatey post for this eggy time of year!

It's only rarely that we get involved in packaging, as the vast majority of board used for packaging is very ordinary with lots of print and processes. Occasionally a lovely brief comes along, where a material is required to convey quality, yet have an understated look and feel and this is just one such project.

These lovely small boxes contain a 45gram block of handmade Chocolate from the Chocolate Farm which is made using only the finest natural ingredients.

The boxes are 80mm square with a 9mm capacity. They are made using our Flora Betulla 350gsm which is a part recycled FSC board which is off white with deliberate inclusions and specks. Each box is simply printed in one colour, offset litho and is hot foil blocked with metallic foil - each type of chocolate with a different colour foil:

By printing all the boxes up together on one sheet, the job is made more cost effective and the foiling only involves one die, just a change of foil colour, again making this cost effective. The boxes are then "die-cut" (same die for all three) and assembled by hand with the flaps affixed with a gold coloured self adhesive label.

Packaging and graphic design is by Isobel Bushell at Aardvark Illustration & Design, who also created the identity for Chocolate Farm.  Print is by Graphics and Print in Telford and the foiling is by Impact in Leicester.

...and thanks to Isobel for taking the time to send me samples of the bars and a lovely note:

www.chocolatefarm.co.uk

www.aardvarkid.com

http://www.graphicsandprint.com/

http://www.impactfoiling.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.03.2012

Landor: Little book of tweets

 Landor produced their liitle book of tweets containing some of their favourite highlights from 2012. 

Size is 120mm square and it's 24pp self cover, saddle stitched. Printed on our Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm throughout. This is an "Indigo ready" sheet for digital printing, manufactured by Favini so this was printed digitally on an HP Indigo press and as you can see, it looks excellent.



Needless to say, design is by Landor. Printing, on their HP Indigo press, is by West London based BOSS

 

www.landor.com

www.bossprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.03.2013

Space NK apothecary - Xmas

 

Just the cover makes the difference...

Here's a job that's definitely worth a look at because it uses paper (in this case the board used for the cover) to increase the quality and feel of the whole project.

These publications are the Christmas mailing catalogues for Space NK apothecary, the British cosmetics retailer founded by Nicky Kinnaird in 1993. There are two publications; the main catalogue is 170x230mm, Landscape, perfect bound with a 72pp text and the smaller mailing piece which is 148x210mm, Landscape, saddle stitched with a 32pp text.

A series or watercolour illustrations were commissioned for use throughout the catalogue, but Sam (art director) wanted a cover board that was tactile and engaging and that would work well with the artworks being used on the cover and throughout the text. Omnia 280gsm was chosen because it had the right feel and the reproduction is almost as good as a coated paper. The material for the main catalogue was a 130gsm printers "house silk" - a choice largely dictated by cost but also because the photography of the individual cosmetics would reproduce well. 

 

Image showing the two versions - Saddle stitched and perfect bound: 

Omnia on inside front cover working with the 'Silk coated' on page 1:

This is an excellent example of using a material for a part of a project which can just lift the whole look and feel and make a piece of literature special. The Omnia has given this job a quality feel and keeps it miles away from the look and feel of a naff "glossy" type catalogue which can often be used for this type of publication in the cosmetics industry.

Creative director is Sam Walton. Printing was handled by Carl Vosper at Pearl Print Management.

www.spacenk.com
www.slwcreative.com
www.pearlpm.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.03.2013

The Spirit of Arsenal



This is a lovely piece of print produced for Arsenal Football Club. It's the Commemorative Stadium Tour Guidebook, so if you are lucky enough to go for a tour around the Emirates stadium, this may well be the book that you decide to buy as a memento.

The roots of the club go back as far as 1886 and the 60,000 seat stadium is the latest development in the club history. What is refreshing about this piece of literature is that it is so completely different to the normally glossy, colour saturated A4 brochures which are the normal staple of visitor attractions. This has a beautiful quality and confidence about it. 



 The size is 210mm square and is perfect bound. The 4pp cover is on our Colorset Ash 270gsm (100% recycled) and is simply printed in two colours offset litho, embellished with hot foil blocking in an opaque matt red foil just giving it an understated quality.

The 64pp text is printed offset litho in CMYK throughout on our StarFine, White 130gsm which is an uncoated with a good bulk but you wouldn't describe it either as toothy or smooth! - a very good quality uncoated paper, which as you can see, has reproduced the images extremely well and the solid black looks excellent.

 

Design is by YCN Studio and the Art Director on the project was Alex Hunting - and you can have a look at their spanky new studio website which was only launched this week: www.ycnstudio.com

 

Printing, including the excellent foiling, is by Sussex based Pureprint.

www.arsenal.com

www.ycnstudio.com

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.03.2013