Shock, horror ...it's finally happened!

 Well to most people it was always obvious and to some inevitable, but on Friday, the three companies which makes up the UK paper merchanting interests of the Australian, loss making conglomerate Paperlinx, started answering their phones using their new name.

Robert Horne, Howard Smith and Paperco will now be known as PaperlinX (surprise, surprise!)

...from this

to this....

You can read more about it here:

http://www.printweek.com/bulletin/printweekdailybulletin/article/1181216/paperlinx-rebrands-howard-smith-robert-horne-paperco/

 

This is actually a great shame for the paper industry and reflects the rather sad (and bad) state of the industry overall. I've written about it before on this blog:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2012/05/stardream-answering-your-questions.html

...including my legal "shot across the bows" from Paperlinx:

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2012/10/paperlinx-gets-stroppy.html

 



Posted by Justin Hobson 07.05.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 43

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 1999.

Communicators in Business

The magazine, Communicators in Business, was published by the British Association of Communicators in Business which has subsequently become the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC).

The magazine was designed by the then, newly formed design company, Browns. The original founders, Graham Taylor, Jonathan Ellery and Mike Turner set up Browns in 1998 after leaving Addison and this was one of their first pieces of editorial design work.


Cover image by David Stewart

Now you may be thinking, "that bloke on the cover looks very familiar" and you'd be right! This was one of my first professional engagements as a professional model (unpaid, of course!) I happened to be in the Browns studio one day and their muse struck! - the next week I was in David Stewart's Clerkenwell studio with my interesting attire. As it turned out my trousers weren't short or odd enough, so I'm actually wearing Jonathan Ellery's trousers!

Image by Paul Lowe

Image by David Stewart



Illustration by Andrzej Klimowski

The publication is 340x245mm and is a 32pp self cover, printed on our Millennium Real Silk 150gsm. It was printed by Principal Colour in Paddock Wood, Kent.

It must be said that this was a really interesting piece of literature which championed the use of good writing and great design and photography - it was definitely a groundbreaking job - and in 2000, it was a finalist in the DesignWeek awards for Editorial Design/Magazines.

So where are they all now? Jonathan Ellery remains at Browns. Mike Turner left Browns and set up his own practice called Em-Project. Graham Taylor crossed the atlantic to establish a Browns studio in New York in 2003 and he is now Creative Director at The Protean Corporation in the US. The photographer David Stewart is now represented internationally!

www.ioic.org.uk

www.brownsdesign.com

www.davidstewwwart.com

http://www.em-project.com/
http://www.theproteancorp.com/

www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.05.2013

Responsibility Matters

Shire plc is a leading specialty biopharmaceutical company. The company has grown globally, through acquisition, recently completing a series of major transactions that have brought growth and diversification in a company that employs over 5,000 people. Bostock and Pollitt have been working with Shire for ten years on brand communications. This piece of literature is mainly intended as an internal piece of communication and as such has a 'newsy' look and feel.
 

The format is 410mm x 285mm, portrait, has 8pp and is 'loose bound'. The paper used is Offenbach Bible 60gsm which is a lightweight material and lends itself to a newspapery feel. It has also been 'endorsement folded' (ie in half, as the above pic). The colour reproduction, in particular the illustrations by Giordano Poloni, are superb. Printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

Art direction and design is by Bostock and Pollitt. Print is managed by Urban Life Support.

www.shire.com
www.bostockandpollitt.com
www.urbanlifesupport.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2013

Nao Matsunaga

 

This is a catalogue for Japanese born artist Nao Matsunaga who studied at the University of Brighton (1999-2002) and the Royal College of Art (2005-07).

The publication has been very thoughtfully designed taking into account both language versions. The finished size of the catalogue is 210x140mm, portrait, saddle stiched. It has a 4pp cover and a 20pp text - and here's the clever bit -  the front cover, together with the first 6pp and last 6pp of text are cut short at 115mm wide, with the English text at the front and the Japanese text at the back.   

 

This picture, below,  hopefully gives you the best idea of what I've just described:

It is printed on our BrandX FSC 115gsm (this is part FSC virgin fibre and part recycled) which is matt coated. The material was chosen so that it would not be bright white reflecting the natural look and feel of the ceramics being shown but still be able to reproduce the images well. The cover is printed on Conqueror 300gsm and is hot foil blocked with opaque white gloss foil. Another really nice touch is the light red wire used on the saddle stitching.



Centre spread

Showing short pages in the back.

Design and art direction is by Luciana Newell of LBN Design based in Hackney. Photography is by Victoria Ling.

Print and production is by Will Pretty at Healeys Print Group who have done a beautiful job both in terms of the actual printing and repro (given the fact that some of the images are quite tricksy!) and the finishing, which is nice, clean and square.

www.naomatsunaga.com
http://www.marsdenwoo.com/matsunaga/nm1.htm

http://www.lbndesign.com/

www.healeys-printers.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.04.2013

UAL 2013

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.

This is the 2013 guide for the University of the Arts London which includes Camberwell Colege of Arts, Central St Martins, Chelsea College of Art and Design, the LCC, the London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Art. The size is 240x170mm, Portrait, perfect bound with a 96pp text

As you can see, the black is predominant in the design and it was important to have a deep black, which often would require a coated material. However the look and feel of the whole catalogue called for an uncoated stock that was tactile and engaging but still requiring a dense black to be printed. Omnia 200gsm was chosen because it had the right feel and would reproduce the black almost as good as a coated paper. The material for the main catalogue was a printers "house recycled uncoated offset" - which was a choice dictated by cost.

 

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 feel 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 cover which can often be used for a prospectus.
 

Art Direction is by Pentagram. Design is by Benedict Richards (a UAL alumni). It was produced in conjunction with Simon Goode at the Department of Communications and Development at the University of the Arts and thank you Simon for sending me copies.

It was printed by Tradewinds who are based in Peckam in South London.

 

http://www.arts.ac.uk/

www.pentagram.co.uk

http://www.benedictrichards.co.uk/

http://www.tradewindslondon.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.04.2013

Storm Thorgerson

It's rare day when you hear the term "graphic designer" on BBC Radio 4, and rarer still when it's on the main news, but this evening came the sad news that Storm Thorgerson, graphic designer, died today aged 69, having been ill with cancer.

His work was synonymous with the band Pink Floyd and he was a childhood friend of the band members. His most famous album cover artwork was almost certainly Dark Side of the Moon with the cover showing a prism spreading a spectrum of colour but he also worked  for Led Zeppelin, The Alan Parsons Project, Peter Gabriel, Muse and the Cranberries amongst many others.

Design: Hipgnosis   Year: 1973
Art directors: Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell
Artwork:George Hardie

He began his career with UK design group Hipgnosis, founded in the late 1960s and his distinctive style made him one of the music industry's most recognisable artists. He later ran his own design group, Storm Studios.

Our thoughts and best wishes go to his family and friends.

www.stormthorgerson.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.04.2013

Waddesdon Wine

Waddesdon Manor is the historical country seat of the Rothschild family in Buckinghamshire and home to Waddesdon Wine, the official distributor for the Rothschild collection of wines.

This branding project includes a bottle wrap, printed using reproduction maps of the vineyard areas.  The material used was our Offenbach Bible 40gsm, which is light enough to be used as a lightweight, tissue type wrapping material and yet can still be printed offset litho in four colour process.

The identity for Waddesdon Wine was done by Paul Belford Ltd and includes a wide range of printed collateral, including boxes and a brochure and features this W device.

Design and photography is by Paul Belford Ltd with creative direction and photography by Paul Belford and Martin Brown. The Offenbach Bible 40gsm was printed in CMYK by Robert Young at R.Young & Son.

www.waddesdonwine.co.uk
http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/
www.paulbelford.com
http://www.ryoungprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2013