Out of the Ordinary

Out of the Ordinary is a one-off sale at Christie’s South Kensington that was held on the 5th September. Each lot has been selected as either visually striking or with an intriguing story to tell. Unusually for an auction of this type there was an extended viewing period from 5th August such was the diversity of the lots.£1,000 to £200,000

Spanning all eras from the prehistoric natural world to the surreal realm of science fiction, the intriguing items are a juxtaposition of such diverse lots as a Triceratops skull with a Rolls Royce turbine fan to  Cygan, a giant robot made in 1957, a set of eight of Francis Bacon’s paint brushes and an enormous caviar dish, reputed to be the largest in the world.

 

This is the beautifully produced private view invitation which features a collection of mid Victorian, scientific equipment (condensing lenses). The size of the invite is A5 portrait, printed CMYK, offset litho on the front of the invitation plus a double hit Gloss UV varnish positioned over the round lenses - very effective. The richness of the gold has been achieved out of CMYK without metallic integration. 



The reverse of invite (below) is also printed CMYK with the addition of hot foil blocking in vibrant green foil for the words "Out of".

In order to make this invitation feel somewhat "Out of the Ordinary", the invitation is triplexed - three layers of board making a "sandwich". Colorset White 350gsm has been used for the outer board and the "jam" in the sandwich is Colorset Lime 350gsm, which compliments the green foil on the reverse. A total of 1050gsm (plus a bit of glue)

Design is by the in house team at Christie's. The superb print, varnishing and triplex finishing is by Identity, based in Paddock Wood, Kent. A truly excellent example of a beautifully finished piece of print. Nobody receiving this invitation would be disappointed!

www.christies.com

http://www.christies.com/about/press-center/releases/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=6579



http://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2013 

CRUSH - new paper launch

We are launching a new paper range from FAVINI in Italy. This new range is called CRUSH, the name reflecting the fact that it's made partly using the residue from the industrial processing of crushed citrus fruit, coffee, nuts, olives, kiwi and corn. These agro-industrial "end of life" products replace up to 15% of conventional tree pulp.

CRUSH was launched in Italy last year and was awarded the green award at the Luxe Pack exhibition in Monaco: http://sustainablereview.net/favini-crush-paper-wins-luxe-pack-award/

This video produced by Favini, will give you an insight as to how the residue from the citrus fruit processing industry is utilised:



http://www.favini.com/graphic_specialities/en/crush-prd-26.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lm08bvpDUs

The new paper range comes in weights from 100gsm up to 350gsm and the shades are natural, earthy tones and the feel of the paper is natural and tactile.

To launch this new range, we are jointly hosting with FAVINI, a launch evening at the St Brides Foundation in London. During the evening Michele Posocco, product manager from the mill in Italy, will explain the concept behind the range and demonstrate how CRUSH is produced.

The letterpress workshop will be open and printers Richard Lawrence www.richardlawrenceprinter.co.uk and Helen Ingham www.hi-artz.co.uk will be on hand, demonstrating and giving people the opportunity to print themselves. There will also be guided tours of the foundation and the world famous printing library - if you haven't been around this historic building, it is well worth a visit.

The launch is on Thursday 26th September 2013. Doors open from 6pm,the presentation is at 6.45pm and the letterpress workshop is open until 9.00pm. If you would like a ticket to the launch evening, you can book one on Eventbrite by following the following link:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8242955903

www.sbf.org.uk

www.favini.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.09.2013

164 Bishopsgate EC2



Designed by dn&co in London, this is a beautifully produced brochure for an exquisite building. Originally built as Bishopsgate fire station in the 19th century, the Victorian Façade is Grade II listed and has been completely refurbished to provide quality office space.  dn&co were commissioned to create the branding for the building, the result of which is this simple Roman numeral device. The brochure shows the property in an understated way which conveys the quality of the architecture and materials used.

Size of the brochure is 270x210mm, portrait, saddle stitched. It has a 6pp cover on Omnia 280gsm and a 12pp text on Omnia 150gsm. The 6pp cover is formed with a flap (190mm wide) folding forwards onto the front cover, as the picture below shows:

...open the flap on the front cover reveals an image of the front of the building:

The text pages, show local area, interior shots and floorplans:

Centre Spread

The spread on the inside back cover (above) shows a picture of the firestation as it was at the turn of the century.

...and here we go for a bit of a plug about the paper!  - As you can see from the above images, there is solid blue plus CMYK, heavy coverage - lots of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia - I'm not going to use this as a platform to slag off other products, but there are one or two other papers on the market which people regard as being similar to Omnia - but there is no way that they print solids or dark images as well as Omnia and retain detail in the dark areas (that's my opinion, but I would say that wouldn't I?)

Design is by London design agency dn&co who specialise in property branding. Creative Director is Ben Dale.

 

The excellent print production is by Push. Print and finishing is superb and I say this because sometimes 6pp or 8pp covers cause a problem, which means that they aren't quite square or the text/cover doesn't fit just so. This job is spot on.

http://www.164bishopsgate.com/

http://www.dnco.com/

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

Post by Justin Hobson 10.09.2013

ASOS BLACK x PUMA

This is the launch literature for the first collaborative ASOS BLACK x PUMA collection, last year. The collection is designed by John Mooney and the garments include t-shirts, technical jackets, tailored shirting together with backpacks and accessories.

Photographer, Jamie Morgan was commissioned to work on a series of portraits for use in both press, online and print literature. The models features are all young street artists pulled together from around the UK.

This project has an unusual format. Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and content is 24pp but it forms one long concertina (12 panels). On each end a piece of 1500micron Greyboard is mounted, forming the front and back covers. The front cover is silkscreened in black only. The long concertina, which is over 1.7 metres long, is formed by one join, hidden on the reverse of the concertina.

To engage with the street artist look and feel, a recycled, "urban" type paper was required although this is a little at odds with the Jamie Morgan's amazing images! The paper selected is our Redeem 100% Recycled in 240gsm which is a natural looking recycled product, but as you can see from these images, it prints amazingly! ...although that's in no small part due to the quality of original and the printer. The 240gsm weight, creased perfectly, allowing the pages to flow well without being too stiff and rigid.

Design and production is by Asos. Project manager is Ash Durrant, the Creative manager is Vassili Kouznetsov and the senior designer on the project is Jenna Murray.

Print and finishing is by Push, which as I think the images in this post demonstrate, is superb. 

www.asos.com
www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.09.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 47



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 1996.

4th Estate Catalogue
Aug 96-Feb 97
 

The Fourth Estate is a publishers that many people will be familiar with. Founded by Victoria Barnsley in 1984, Fourth Estate built a reputation as one of the most innovative and eclectic imprints in the industry, with a reputation for publishing a wide variety of critically-acclaimed and beautifully-produced titles including many prize winning authors (Booker, Orange etc).

One of the things that made the Fourth Estate stand out from the crowd was their catalogues - they were simply amazing pieces of design and print! I was lucky enough to work on a few different catalogues in the late 90's and early 2000's. Every single one was different and brilliant. Good designers were comissioned, Bogue & Hopgood, Instinct, Pentagram, Rose Design, Frost, Neville Brody, Tom Hingston to name a few. In line with their reputation for publishing unconventional yet innovative titles, the design of the catalogue was equally eclectic.

This is one of the most distinctive catalogues. Large format, printed in just one colour and printed letterpress!

The size is 310mm square, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover and a 44pp text and is printed on our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 250gsm and 120gsm (...which is still available from Fenner Paper seventeen years on!)

Design and art direction is by Vince Frost. The catalogue was set and letterpress printed by the House of Naylor on Saffron Hill in Clerkenwell. Body text set in the Gill family by Bill Naylor and Richard Rolfe on Monotype Keyboard. Cast on Monotype composition caster by Cyril Clements. Elements in wood and metal composed by Bill Naylor, Derek Reid, Richard Rolfe and Ian Barber. Printed on a Heidelberg SBB Cylinder press (1965) by George Hughes and Colin Ansell. Edited by Mark Reynolds.

Unfortunately I can't recall how many copies were produced - probably about 3,000 I would think. Each catalogue is "crash numbered" on the outside back cover. For those of you who aren't aware of this process, it is a letterpress process which uses a numbering box - it's an "impact" process which simply thumps the number on the sheet and then (in a clockwork style) clicks on one digit.

So, where is everybody now?....

Victoria Barnsley, founder of Fourth Estate, joined Harper Collins as CEO and Publisher in 2000 when it acquired her company. These distinctive publications continued to be commissioned and produced for a few years after becoming part of a larger group. Sadly (and I guess it was just a matter of time) the Fourth Estate became a section within the Harper Collins specialist catalogue.

The House of Naylor went into liquidation in the early 2000's re-emerging as The Letterpress House in Hemel Hempstead. Bill Naylor finally retired a couple of years ago and the machinery dispersed (all going to good homes).

Vince Frost left for the sunnier climate of Australia just over ten years ago and runs Frost* in Sydney.

...and Fenner Paper? Yep, we're still here!

Looking through my pristine copy, it still looks and feels fantastic.

http://www.4thestate.co.uk/

http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/about-harpercollins/Imprints/4th_Estate/Pages/4th_Estate.aspx

http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.09.2013

The Greenwich Regulator

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) is the charitable arm of the Royal Warrant Holders Association. QEST exists to advance education in modern and traditional crafts and trades in the UK. The Greenwich Regulator Clock is an example of fine craftsmanship and the brochure documents all the crafts concerned, from the furniture by Zone Creations, the movement by Comitti to the calligraphy by Sally Mangum.

Acrylic invitation

This is one of those absolutely exquisite pieces of design and print. The entire set comprises a paper over board, lined box, housing a bespoke acrylic invitation (which is the material the clock is made from) and the brochure.


Box and brochure - box using clear and bronze foiling.

Size of the brochure is 250x180mm, portrait. It has an 8pp cover on our Omnia 280gsm, hot foil blocked in bronze foil and the 32pp text is "French folded" (which is 16x4pp French folded sections) using our Omnia 150gsm and is printed with a solid pantone gold on the inside of the folds - gorgeous! It's PUR bound with a 6mm spine.





The 8pp cover, also printed using the pantone gold solid. Omnia was chosen because the cover would print, de-boss and foil beautifully and the Omnia would reproduce the photography with the metallic, solid blue, and the acrylic superbly ...and it looks brilliant!

Inside back page and inside back cover showing solid blue and image of the finished regulator clock.

Image showing the French folded text:

This lovely piece of print collateral and packaging has been created by Cheshire based design consultancy, The Gate. Designer on the project is Matthew Miles. It's just worth saying that this piece of literature is about celebrating the best of traditional and modern crafts in the UK and this very piece of print is itself an excellent example of that craft.

The superb print, foiling including the boxmaking is by Leeds based Pressision. Ian Cavanagh handled the project and very kindly sent me a file copy.

 

www.greenwichregulator.com

www.thegatedesigngroup.com

www.pressision.co.uk 

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.08.2013

Time 100 Gala Invitation

The TIME 100 Gala is an exclusive annual celebration which honours the world’s most influential people. On Tuesday, April 23rd, this year, the celebration unfolded at New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Centre. One hundred leading individuals and other exclusive guests, walked down the red carpet. They included artists, inventors, entertainers, politicians and business leaders.

The prestigious invitations produced for the event, were actually produced here in the UK.

Size of the invitation is 185mm square. As you can see from the above picture, it's very thick! It's printed on our Monoblack 2000microns ...that's 2mm thick!

It has been beautifully hot foil blocked in three colours of foil, matt white, gloss red and metallic silver foils.

The reverse of the invitation with the sponsors logos:

The job is produced by Gavin Martin Colournet and they have made a beautiful job of the hot foiling - it's just totally spot on!

http://time100.time.com/2013/04/23/behind-the-scenes-at-time-100/
www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.08.2013