Minecraft meets real life

For those not in the know Minecraft is a computer game (and phenomenon) which allows you to build and create your own places and spaces. Having only been released in 2011, it has been amazingly successful with over 33 million copies in circulation. Minecraft is a creative platform allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Activities in the game include exploration, gathering resources, crafting, and combat.


However, as great as virtual worlds are, we live in the real world!

In a bid to get kids off their screens for a couple of hours, Pigeon Pop Ups hosted a children's workshop called Minecrafting  as part of a series of community workshops in June. Kids were given the opportunity to build their own character heads based on the key characters in the game - and they used some of the very best materials available - our Colorset 100% recycled 120gsm.

The final pixelated creations, in a real world environment - I can spot Colorset Solar, Tuscan Brown, Sandstone, Mango...

Pigeon Pop Ups are run by Kirsty Thomas from Lovely Pigeon and the pop up shop and work-shopping space is based in the seaside town of Anstruther on the East coast of Scotland. It looks like it was great fun and quite messy! Thanks to Kirsty for sending the pictures of our paper in action.

http://lovelypigeon.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.10.2013

Victoria Beckham Denim 2013/14

Here's a project that's worth a look at because it uses paper to increase the quality and feel of the whole project. This is the lookbook for the Victoria Beckham denim collection. The size of the job is 240x170mm portrait. What makes this job particularly special is the cover which is produced using our Plexus 350gsm. This brown "kraft" type board has a durable, utilitarian, feel - perfect for the denim range. The 8pp cover is simply hot foil blocked in gloss black foil - beautiful type beautifully foiled.

The cover and hot foil blocking, gives the publication a quality feel and keeps it miles away from the overly "glossy" brochure which is often produced for this type of publication. Having said that, the text paper is on a gloss art which works well with the images but the cover has already set the tone and feel.

60pp text on 150gsm "house" gloss coated paper:

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.

Art direction and design is by London based art director, Jonny Lu. Print production, including the beautifully crisp foiling, was handled by Push Print in London.

 

www.victoriabeckham.com

www.jonny-lu.com

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.10.2013

Tangerine goes blue!



We are Tangerine are a design and communications consultancy based in Maidstone who have a wide range of clients from property and leisure to the Church of England ( ...having the Almighty as a client, must be hard!)

 

As part of their recent re-brand, they have produced some swanky new business cards, which incorporates our Colorset 100% recycled papers!

The cards are produced using our Colorset Nero 350gsm, which has been duplexed by the printer to make 700gsm. The logo and web address have been hot foil blocked in gloss black foil. The address and contact details have been die-stamped (engraved) in a special pantone blue. The cards have been edge painted in a matching blue.

 

Design is by Claire Hobbs, Design Director at We are Tangerine.

These items were duplexed, die-stamped and hot foiled and edge painted by Downey. All beautifully done - and all done in house at Downey's factory in Great Yarmouth.

It's worth making the point that although we (at Fenner Paper) don't offer a duplexing service (as another well known paper merchant based in Hull does) ...there are some printers and many trade finishers that offer this service.

www.wearetangerine.co.uk

www.downey.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.10.2013

G4S International Logistics

This is a brochure produced for security firm G4S, to promote and explain their International Logistics business. Many areas of  the company's business are concerned with very high value items and the secure delivery/logistic arrangements, in particular, serving the mining industry including gold.

The cover of the brochure is produced using our new Stardream Fine Gold (a new shade, introduced this time last year).

The cover is hot foil blocked in metallic gold foil. Size of the brochure is 255x210mm, portrait. The text is printed in pantone metallic gold, a special red and black with the photographic images reproduced as halftones in the metallic gold. There is also a band of high gloss varnish running over the double page spreads.

The text is printed on our Concorde Pure Silk 135gsm and is made up using 7 x French folded sections (14pp). The inside of the French folded sections is printed in the metallic gold. The cover is an 8pp, with full size flaps, which works perfectly with a "french folded" text - I would generally always suggest that, so you get all folded sheets on the foredge. Hopefully the photograph below explains the way it all works:

Design and art direction is by Crescent Lodge. Creative Director on the project is Lynda Brockbank and the designer is Malcolm Metcalfe. This is a lovely piece of literature. The cover has amazing impact and ties in with the halftone images printed in the gold, beautifully.

 

Print and finishing is by Principal Colour in Paddock Wood.

 

www.g4si.com

www.crescentlodge.co.uk

http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.10.2013

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