THxJ

Further to our open evening at the St Bride Foundation last week, I received a really lovely thank you note(s) from David Coates and Paul Dennis at Clerkenwell design agency 400.

It was great that you had a good time and I'm touched with the thought, originality, type and ink that went into the note ...and printed on three colours of our new CRUSH range!

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/crush-launch-at-st-brides-foundation.html

www.400.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.10.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 48

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.

Beat IV
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Beat is the regular publication produced by illustration agency Heart. This edition is a fully illustrated edition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic seafaring poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.


Cover illustration by Jimmy Turrell

I've taken the following text from the Heart agency website: "Coleridge is thought to have been inspired to write his metaphysical masterpiece by the tales of the first maritime explorers. The underlying moral of the story is about the power and invisible laws of nature that man disregards at his peril. Whilst today the poem is considered a classic, an archetypal example of early English Romantic literature, when it was first published in 1798 the poem received less than complimentary reviews. Initial sales were put down to sailors, mistakenly thinking it was a book of sea shanties. The visual power of this poem has, however, proved an enduring inspiration for many artists such as Mervyn Peake, Alexander Calder and David Jones amongst others, with perhaps one of the most well known illustrated versions being Gustav Dore’s engravings of 1870. In Heart’s approach to the poem a contemporary rendition of a classic has been created, utilising a design inspired by the graphic language of old books". 



Illustrator: Barry Falls

Throughout the publication, each illustrator has produced a double-page spread to accompany sections of the poem. The whole publication is printed on our Omnia in the Natural shade. The material was chosen because of it's tactile nature and because the natural shade gave it an "aged" feel. The publication was printed CMYK but predominantly the colour used is blue and the Omnia will reproduce a beautifully solid blue.

Illustrator: Luke Best

Illustrator:Tom Gauld

The size of the publication is 330x235mm, portrait and is section sewn. It has a 4pp cover on Omnia Natural 320gsm, around which there is an 8pp "dust jacket" with 155mm flaps on Omnia Natural 150gsm. The 88pp text is printed on Omnia Natural 200gsm, which is very bulky and gives the book a 13mm spine.  

Illustrator: Lucinda Rogers

Illustrator: Adam Simpson

 

Illustrator: Aude Van Ryn

Beat IV is designed by Pentagram. Partner, Angus Hyland, is design director and designers on the project were Kyle Wheeler and Masumi Briozzo. Print and repro was handled by David Holyday.

Beat 4 was selected for the D&AD Annual, Creative Review’s ‘The Annual’ and won the DesignWeek award for Editorial Design. It is an inspired idea and amazingly well executed piece of literature.

www.heartagency.com

www.pentagram.com

d.holyday@googlemail.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.10.2013

CRUSH Launch at the St Brides Foundation

Yesterday, we held an open evening with Favini at the St Bride Foundation to launch our new paper range called CRUSH.

Over a hundred guests joined us at St Brides for Italian beer and olives! After a brief introduction by Chris Brown of Favini, there was a presentation by Michele Posocco, product manager from Favini who demonstrated how waste residues from food processing is used in paper making.

In the splendid surroundings of the Bridewell Hall, Michele squeezed oranges and liquidised pulp and the dried micronized fruit residue to show how the patented process works.

The reasoning behind holding this event at St Brides was to make this a very "hands on" experience. The letterpress workshop was open all evening with printers Helen Ingham www.hi-artz.co.uk, Richard Lawrence www.richardlawrenceprinter.co.uk and wood engraver Peter Smith www.peterssmith.weebly.com in attendance.

Wood engraving by Peter Smith printed on an Adana press.

As well as printing, guests were treated to a demonstration of lino-cutting and were "press ganged" into having a go themselves ...just look at the concentration on those faces!

Under the tuition of Richard Lawrence, each person was given a small section of a 16th century engraving The Manufacture of Oil, by Jost Amman. The picture was divided into 20 equal squares, individually cut over the course of the evening and then re-assembled.


Jost Amman 16th century

The final lino-cut, ready for printing

...and here is the fruit of everyone's hard work! a 21st re-interpretation using 19th century equipment! Printed on Crush 250gsm.

Throughout the evening, the chief executive of the St Bride Foundation, Glyn Farrow and his team conducted short tours of the foundation and famous library, showing just a few of the many treasures that the foundation has in it's possession.

I should like to extend warm thanks to our partners at Favini, to all the staff and friends at the St Bride Foundation. Special thanks to Peter Smith, Richard Lawrence and Helen Ingham in the workshop who made the evening such a special occasion.

...and I mustn't forget to say thank you to Andrea at a Taste of Sicily for the amazing Castelvetrano olives. www.tasteofsicily.co.uk

www.sbf.org.uk

www.favini.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2013

Modern Poetry in Translation 2013

Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) is a magazine, originally founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort. The first issue, published in 1965 was a 12pp broadsheet printed on a Bible paper and cost 2s 6d! MPT presented poems by a wide range of authors, particularly from Eastern Europe introducing them into a wider circulation in English in the West. The original designer of the publication was Richard Hollis, continuing until 2004.

 

Strange Tracks is the first issue under the new editorship of Sasha Dugdale -  MPT has had very few changes in editorship: this is only the third in fifty years! With the new issue and editorship has come a radical change of image. The editor began working with Katy Mawhood at Reading University’s Department of Typography to produce a magazine that both referred back to the iconic designs by Richard Hollis in the 1960s and 1970s, and is contemporary and fresh in look and feel. The cover of each issue is illustrated by an international artist, with the cover of this edition by Perienne Christian.

Strange Tracks features new poems from Argentina, Venezuela, China and Italy, poems about the casualties of the Mexican drug wars by Luis Felipe Fabre and Valérie Rouzeau’s Apollinaire Prize-winning poems in Susan Wicks’ translations.  

The magazine is 215x140mm, portrait. The 122pp text is all printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and printed in 2 colour, red and black throughout. Images are reproduced as halftones. The publication is section sewn.

Design is by Katy Mawhood, you may like to read her thoughts on the design of MPT. in which she explains her rationale behind the design and production.

Print is by Wakefield based Charlesworth Press.

This is a really lovely piece of literature which feels good in the hand and is definitely one of those publications which invites the reader in.

www.mptmagazine.com
www.charlesworth.com
http://www.squarepeg.co/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.09.2013

Britain in a bowl

This is a piece about an interesting project that we were involved with last week and that was also part of London Design Festival.

Here's some background information about the project:

This year, The New Craftsmen commissioned potter Billy Lloyd to design an exclusive range of tableware, to be manufactured in Stoke, the heart and home of British ceramics. The Billy collection begins with a deep, flat-bottomed earthenware bowl in white with ridged exterior; multifunctional in purpose, and characteristically considered in design. To mark the launch of the bowl this September, The New Craftsmen and Billy Lloyd have teamed up with 5 leading food creatives in order to bring to life the bowl’s function and purpose, and illustrate the vibrant synergy between cookery and pottery; one that relies on a human touch with craftsmanship at the core. Foodies  Jeremy Lee of Quo Vadis, Abdul Yaseen of Cinnamon Kitchen, Skye Gyngell of Heckfield Place, Kerstin Rodgers aka MissMarmiteLover, and James Ramsden of The Secret Larder have each devised a mouth-watering recipe which will be sold together with our first edition of 50 batch production bowls, designed by Billy Lloyd and made in Stoke. “The provenance of food has become incredibly important to people over the last few years, and careful and sustainable sourcing is a well understood concept”, says Natalie Melton, of The New Craftsmen. “Collaborating with chefs who care deeply about good sourcing seemed a natural fit for the launch of this bowl. What we love about Billy’s work is its honesty and integrity; and he has carried that into this industry collaboration, bringing a keen attention to detail and a careful approach to collaborating with the best in Stoke. Good ingredients, skill, attention to detail, and an appetite for pleasure are at the root of everything we do. Britain in a Bowl epitomizes this and we are delighted with the outcome.”

Last Tuesday, at The New Craftsmen Garage in Adams Row (which is actually a garage in Mayfair!) the launch of the week long  ’Britain In A Bowl’ campaign started.

You may be wondering what this has to do with paper! ...so here it is: Five recipe cards were printed with the ingredients, which were designed to look like and work as placemats. These mats and the introduction sheets were all produced on our new CRUSH range of papers.

The size of all the pieces is 180mm square. The recipe cards are printed on Crush, corn 350gsm and the title pages are printed on Crush Olive 120gsm. 

 

These beautifully produced items are silkscreen printed - 2colours for the recipe cards and on colour for the title pages. They are printed by London silkscreen printers Bob Eight Pop ...and a fine job they have made of them. Silkscreen often has a reputation of being a rough and ready type of printing but the coverage is beautifully even and the small type is crisp and sharp.

Design is by Julian Roberts at Irving & Co. The lovely illustrations are by John Broadley.

www.billylloyd.co.uk
www.thenewcraftsmen.com
www.irvingandco.com
http://johnbroadley.blogspot.co.uk/
www.bobeightpop.com
http://www.favini.com/graphic_specialities/en/crush-prd-26.php

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2013

St Brides - Crush Launch Event

If you see the post below from last week, our new paper called CRUSH by Favini is being launched at an event at the St Brides foundation next week.

You, yes you - the reader of this blog are WELCOME to come along. It should be and interesting and educative evening. It is ticketed (because we are limited on numbers) but it's for people who are interested in printing and paper and is in no way meant to be a "cliquey" event!

The letterpress workshop will be open and printers Richard Lawrence and Helen Ingham will be on hand, demonstrating and giving people the opportunity to print themselves. There will also be guided tours of the foundation and printing library.

The event is next week on Thursday 26th September 2013. Doors open from 6pm,the presentation is at 6.45pm and the letterpress workshop is open until 9.00pm.

Tickets are still available on Eventbrite by:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/8242955903

You can read more about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/crush-new-paper-launch.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.09.2013

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