Sad demise of The Colourhouse

On Friday, Printweek reported that The Colourhouse, a London based printing company, has gone into liquidation (in laymans terms that means they've gone bankrupt).

http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1140263/runs-colourhouse

It's very sad news as they have been an excellent quality print company in the design and corporate sector. Over the years, they won many printing awards and accolades, including many PrintWeek and Printing World awards as well as a fair share of the various paper company awards that used to take place in the 90's

The Colourhouse was started in 1993 and it's beginnings, certainly were colourful! In the  1980/1990's there was a printer called Litho-Tech based in Bermondsey Street and they were among the printing elite, along with such names as CTD, Oakley Press, Balding & Mansell, Summerhall Press, Westerham Press etc. that were producing really excellent print for the corporate print market, notably design lead, Annual Report & Accounts.

In 1993 a vacant unit opposite Litho-Tech came up for lease and there was much speculation as to who would be moving in. The power was connected, there were rumours that a printers was moving in, but little did Paul Watson (MD of Litho-Tech) realise that it was some of his staff that would walk across the yard and set up The Colourhouse from a standing start!

Scotty (Malcolm Cooper), the owner of repro company Scott Colour (which produced Litho-Tech's repro, film and plates) production director Terry Rudd and salesman David May formed the backbone of the new company which started printing virtually immediately. The Colourhouse quickly gained a reputation for high quality print and produced many annual reports. Litho-Tech who were not happy with their new neighbours, moved to Kennington Park and The Colourhouse ruled Bermondsey for the remainder of the 90's.

David May was ousted in 1997 with Mike Roberts and David Arkell taking over responsibility for sales. Having outgrown the factory in Bermondsey they moved to Deptford in 2002 and expanded with more presses, finishing equipment and a bigger sales force.

In the late 2000's, they commissioned a new identity by Sea with photography by Simon Phipps. Further investments in press technology culminated at the end of last year with a brand new  Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106 being installed. In line with many commercial printers, they have seen tough times in recent years and also had the misfortune of having taken a sizeable bad debt last year with the collapse of a charity marketing agency, CSDM.

Nearly one hundred jobs have been lost which is terrible for all those involved and there will be a long list of creditors who will never be paid. It marks the sad demise of one of the last, large, London based printers.

http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1140263/runs-colourhouse

 

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.11.2013

Jobs from the past - Number 49



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 2003.

Ossie Clark at the V&A 2003

 

This is a beautifully simple piece of print produced to accompany the Ossie Clark exhibition that ran at the V&A from 2003-2004.  From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s Ossie Clark dressed the famous and fashionable. The exhibition shows work from his most productive period which coincided with London's optimistic, rule-breaking decade in which fashion, photography, music and the cult of personality converged.

Ossie Clark was first recognised as a design talent at the age of 23 when British Vogue singled him out in their August 1965 issue. Throughout the next decade his designs represented the best of London fashion.

This publication is a facsimile of pages from the sketchbooks of Ossie Clarke to inspire creativity by being coloured in or used to appreciate the free flowing style of the original line drawings.

The finished size is of the 123mmx175mm, the format being a 5 panel (10pp) long concertina. Printed offset litho in just 2 colours, magenta and black. The material chosen is our Neptune Unique SoftWhite 250gsm and as I recall it was chosen because white would have made the line-work of the illustrations look far too harsh.

Design was in house at the V&A. Print was by Graham Fisher at Ashford based printer Gros Monti, who sadly have since gone bust.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1250_ossieclark/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.11.2013

Making Faces

STERN PRO www.canadatype.net

Calling all typophiles - if you want to see this, you'll have to be quick!

Next Tuesday (5th November) at St Brides in London, there is a screening of a really interesting documentary with an introduction by the project instigator, Richard Kegler.

US based type foundry P22, commissioned Canadian type designer, Jim Rimmer to create a new type design (Stern) that became the first ever simultaneous release of a digital font and, hand-set metal font in 2008. The skills needed to create a metal font are known by very few people and Jim Rimmer was possibly the only individual who designed and cast typefaces in metal as well as in digital format. The opportunity to document the processes of the historic with the contemporary was grasped and this film was made. Sadly Jim Rimmer died in 2010. Here's a trailer for the film:

You can read more about it here:
http://makingfacesfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

Details for the screening are as follows:
Tuesday 5 November 2013 from 6.30 to 8.30pm, film screening at 7.15pm in the Bridewell Hall, St Bride Foundation. Tickets £10, Students (bring NUS card) £6

As well as the screening, there will also be live demonstrations from Ruth Rowland in calligraphy, Oli Frape in hand-lettering, Helen Ingham and Richard Lawrence in letterpress and lino printing and Peter S. Smith in wood engraving in the workshop where you'll be able to have a go and find out more about their practices ...and I'll be there too!

There are still tickets available ...but it's on TUESDAY, so don't put it off, come along: www.stbride.org/events

www.p22.com
www.canadatype.net
www.stbride.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.10.2013

Big Book Parade 2013

This is the invitation to the showcase of new books from Harper Collins. Billed as 'The Big Book Parade', the function was held at the Crimson Bar at The Soho Hotel in May.

The size of the invitation is 145x975mm which concertinas down to 145x195mm. It uses our Modigliani Candido 260gsm, which has a "feltmark" texture similar to that of a watercolour paper which gives it exactly the right feel working with the beautiful illustrations of Brett Ryder (Heart Agency) commissioned to reflect the wide and diverse range of titles 'on parade' at the event.

Design and art direction is by Zoë Bather.

The invitations are printed offset litho in four colour process, machine creased and hand folded. Print was handled by Alan Mountain at Forward Print (sales@forward-print.com)

www.harpercollins.co.uk
www.zoebather.co.uk
www.heartagency.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.10.2013

Write to your MP

Now you might or might not be interested in this but basically this article is about choice.

Businesses are increasingly restricting access to paper bills and switching customers to e-billing. This issue affects everyone, and particularly the vulnerable in our society.

My attention was drawn to this by the Two Sides campaign, which is an initiative by companies in the Graphic Communications Supply Chain including forestry, pulp, paper, inks, publishing and printing -the common goal is to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper. www.twosides.info

Two sides are supporting the Keep Me Posted Campaign which is trying to persuade government and large organisations to ensure they are giving customers the right to choose how they receive important information. Here's a video:

If you would like to support this campaign, please visit the site and use the letter template to send to your local MP. 

 

http://www.twosides.info/UK/Keep-Me-Posted-Campaign?n=&m=1042
www.twosides.info

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.10.2013

UEL Fashion 2013

This is the show catalogue produced this summer for the graduating students of the University of East London, fashion courses and is a really lovely piece of literature. The new head of fashion at UEL is Dorota Watson. This is her first year in the position and she had a high level of involvement in the production of this piece of work.

  

The desired effect was that it should be layered with slightly transparent "voile" effect, so our Offenbach Bible was chosen as the text paper.

 

Size is 275x200mm, portrait and the text is a 76pp self cover printed four colour throughout on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm. The outside has a tracing paper wrap, printed in one colour.

Particular care has been taken over the print reproduction of these images - subtle detail, weave and textures which need to be seen and appreciated, so the reproduction achieved on the Offenbach Bible is of prime importance.

Needless to say, just the type on the Offenbach Bible looks great ...but then it should, as it's designed for type, both sides  ...as in a Bible!

Design and production is by Vicki Fong, who is a senior lecturer at UEL. Print is by Lefa Print who are based in Sidcup, Kent.

 

Thanks to Joe Hunter, Senior lecturer in Fashion Futures at UEL, for asking me to go and discuss the project in the first place.

www.uel.ac.uk/adi
www.vickifong.co.uk
http://www.designagainstcrime.com/team/joe-hunter/
http://www.lefaprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2013

Cardpress Launch

Last Thursday I was invited to the launch of the new Cardpress project by Print Club and Urban Cottage Industries (UCI). Cardpress combines Print Club London's original silkscreen printed artworks with UCI's letterpress printing which starts with hot metal casting on their newly restored Linotype type casting machines.

The evening began with a screening of Linotype:The Film which was held at the atmospheric Rio cinema on Kingsland High Street, Dalston.

I have reviewed the film in a previous blog post and I can only add that it was even better the second time around! http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/linotype-film.html

Me in Millers Avenue

After the film, we simply crossed the road and into Millers Avenue to the party venue at MC Motors, which is next door to Print Club. But this was a lot more than a groovy party at a great location for over 800 people! Guests were plied with mojitos, beer and freshly cooked pizza together with a DJ and a great party atmosphere ...and most importantly there was a working Linotype hot metal casting machine working. Phil, Dave,Stan and other UCI technicians demonstrated the Linotype. Partygoers were transfixed watching these beatifully crafted machines clicking, whirring and creating lead type. The following pics should give you a flavour of the evening:

Beer

Linotype Machine



Stanley Wilson founder of UCI, showing the lead ingots used for casting



Guests were invited to get their fingers inky by having their own line of linotype text, produced in front of their eyes, and then printing that line themselves on an Adana hand press.

Cardpress is a personalised greetings card business with a difference - it combines Print Club's original silkscreen printed artworks with UCI's type-casting and letterpress printing to create a retro take on the modern concept of online personalised cards. The first designs are by Pure Evil, Alice Stallard, James Joyce, Margaux Carpentier, Anthony Peters and Rose Stallard.

Kate Newbold-Higginson, director of Print Club London, said: "UCI's manual ethos is close to the way we work. It’s really exciting to combine contemporary illustrators with traditional machines. Because we work with layered files too, the process we go through translates well to their machines. Though there’s still a bit of a learning curve - they are learning our way and we are learning theirs."Cardpress customers input their line of text on the website when ordering the card; the text is then cast on a linotype machine in Metro Medium 18pt and letterpress printed to the inside of their chosen card.

Thanks for the invitation to a great party and I wish Print Club and Urban Cottage Industries the best of luck with their new Cardpress venture.

www.urbancottageindustries.com

www.printclublondon.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.10.2013