The power of the paper poster

Today, one of only three surviving 'BRITONS - Lord Kitchener Wants You' First World War recruitment posters has been sold. A London collector paid a record £27,540 in an online sale by Dorset-based auction house Onslows. The incredibly rare poster has become one of the most iconic images of the First World War, although apparently only 10,000 were actually produced which is far less than many other WW1 recruitment posters. Only three original posters are known to survive; one in the Imperial War Museum in London, one in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and this one.

The powerful image started off life as the front cover of a September 1914 edition of magazine 'London Opinion' (a popular weekly magazine with a circulation of 300,000 copies) which had commissioned graphic artist, Alfred Leete, to design and illustrate the cover. In response to requests for reproductions, the magazine offered postcard-sized copies for sale. The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee obtained permission to use the design in poster form and the rest, as they say, is history....

Interestingly, author and historian James Taylor published his book only last year called 'Your Country Needs You' disputing that these posters were ever even used ( in a similar vein to the eponymous 'Keep Calm and Carry on' posters from WW2)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Country-Needs-You-Propaganda/dp/1887354972

I had a quick look on the auctioneers website (Onslows) and was rather more impressed by the design of this striking poster below.

This is a poster promoting an exhibition of war pictures by CRW Nevinson, the official artist on the Western Front. It's an original lithograph poster 1918 760x 510mm, although I don't believe the designer is credited. Unfortunately it's not for sale.

http://www.onslows.co.uk/home.htm

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.07.2014

R4 Invitation

R4 is the Plastic and Visual Arts Portal on the exciting new arts and media development in the heart of Paris. Île Seguin is a unique place, located in a loop of the Seine in the western part of Paris, forming part of an urban project that is being developed on the site of the former Renault factory.

For this festival, R4 is entered into partnerships with the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies of Harvard University, the Haute Ecole d’Art et de Design (Geneva), the Beaux-Arts (Paris) and Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing), as well as with the Galerie Jousse (Paris), the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, the Centre d’art contemporain Genève (Geneva) and the Swiss Embassy.

The R4 Video Art Festival took place on 26 June at La Pagode experimental art cinema in Paris and these are the invitations for the event.

 

The invitations which are printed on our Omnia 280gsm. They are printed in 2 special colours, offset litho blue and red, with the image produced as a halftone. The red type on the front cover is hot foil blocked in a striking matt red, opaque foil. This invitation is a 4pp, portrait, A5 (210x148mm) format and the result is an invitation with a matt tactile look and feel.

Design and art direction for the this R4 project is by Zak Group, who are a London based studio which works internationally. Creative Directors are Zak Kyes and Grégory Ambos. Printing is by Push.

http://www.r4-ileseguin.com/en/2150/current-events/06-2014-r4-video-art-festival/
www.zakgroup.co.uk
http://www.r4-ileseguin.com/en/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.07.2014

ISTD Student Awards 2014

Last Friday, I was invited to  the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their studio in Notting Hill with Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going and in fact on Friday, there were two awards made to students from Sri Lanka.

ISTD organisers and board members, David Coates, Freda Sack and John Paul Dowling (new education director) talked through the judging process and gave their thanks to the tutors, without whom the scheme would surely flounder.

Before the presentation, Angus gave a short inspiring talk about his experiences in graphic design. Each certificate was awarded by Angus Hyland, of which there were over 100 and the students were each given 'goody bags' kindly provided by Cass Art. Fenner Paper also supplied some bags for the tutors (made from our Colorset Lemon 270gsm) which you can see hiding under the table...

Above is Eric Downer being presented with his certificate. Eric is the graduate from University of Portsmouth who won the top award at 'New Designers 2014' that I wrote about on this blog last week - he's had a busy week! (www.eric-downer.co.uk)

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2014

Preen Line S/S 2014

This is the Spring/Summer 2014 look-book for Preen Line, which is the "contemporary line" range with the more economical price tag from London fashion house PREEN.

It's a lovely oversize 333x240mm, portrait, saddle stitched format. It is a 28pp "self cover". This means that it is printed on the same material throughout, so the cover is on the same weight as the text. It works well on this job as it feels really substantial. A big part of that is the format and the fact that it is printed on our Omnia 150gsm, which has a high bulk and therefore you really don't notice that the cover is no heavier ...and, most importantly, the text flows nicely in the hand and lies nice and flat.

As you can see from the images, there is lots of rich colour and blue is prevalent - and it just looks beautiful on the Omnia - just gorgeously even and crisp reproduction. In particular the images with CMYK dark areas - with lots of ink going down, looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the darker images as well, whilst retaining all the detail.

Design is by Mark and Chris Thomson at Studio Thomson. Photography is by Nick Dorey and the superb print by Push.

http://www.preen.eu/
http://www.studiothomson.com/

http://www.nickdorey.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.07.2014

New Designers 2014

Yesterday evening, I went to the New Designers exhibition and awards at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

New Designers is an exhibition for emerging design, full of innovation and fresh thinking, covering all aspects from textiles and fashion to product design, visual comms etc. It takes place over two weeks, with each Part focusing on a different set of design disciplines and featuring its own Awards Programme. The show sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK's leading universities come together to exhibit.

It was a lovely evening and the queue for entry was a mile long!

I saw many of the tutors and part time lecturers that I know who were from the universities and colleges who had stands at the exhibition. Particular mention shall go to Portsmouth University, who not only sent me an invitation, but also used our Colorset and Redeem 100% Recycled for their show catalogue! ...but more about that another time when I have more space to write about it.

Above is the University of Portsmouth stand and you can see all the books stacked up.

...and because I love to associate myself with success (!),  I must congratulate Eric Downer from the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course at University of Portsmouth, who won the overall "New Designer of the Year". Fantastic news for him personally and for the course and very well deserved.

Photo of Eric Downer winning his award. Photo courtesy of Dan McCabe

Eric Downer has also won an ISTD award for his piece on Electricity Pylons. I've seen it and it is a lovely piece of work. Here are his words " I don't feel pylons are particularly aesthetically pleasing (a lot of people agreed) but there was always something that made me wonder there is more to them just just pure functionality. My curiosities were rewarded when I discovered the main men behind the pylons past and the role the pylons themselves went on to play in our history. Your have to read the book to find out what and who they were".
So any of you studios out there looking for some fresh young talent ...look no further!

In particular. thanks to Sarah Houghton, Dan McCabe and Michael Harkins at the University of Portsmouth

http://www.eric-downer.co.uk/new-page-1/
www.newdesigners.com
www.port.ac.uk/graphic

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.07.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 57

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...

Magee & Co - Annual Reports Brochure - 1995

This is a simple, yet beautifully produced promotional brochure for a design company that specialises in corporate reporting. Magee & Co was established exactly 25 years ago and this brochure, produced in 1995, was used as promotional literature to potential clients.

Size of the brochure is 297x225mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover with 150mm flaps on front and back cover which is simply hot foil blocked in matt black foil on the outside cover only.  The cover is printed on Dali, Rosso 200gsm ( a textured, felt texture) and the text is on Concorde Pure Silk 170gsm.

 

The straightforward text is just 4pp, but easily enough to convey the hard hitting message with five case examples. Printed offset litho in CMYK, plus a gloss machine varnish over the image areas.

Inside spread

According to my notes, it was printed by First Impressions (Howden Litho) based in Camberwell. Established and run by Murray Wolfe-Arbiter, First Impression was a highly regarded London based printer throughout the 1990's. Sadly like many others, they went bust in August 2004

It's an example of a really simple yet highly effective piece of promotion to the corporate market, bearing in mind that this was in the pre-internet age.

In the last 25 years, Magee & Co have produced over 300 Annual Reports for many FTSE 250 companies, plus Corporate and Social Responsibility Reports (CSR) and in more recent times, online reporting. During the 1990/2000's we supplied the papers for many of the reports that Magee & Co produced for the likes of Hammerson, Imperial Tobacco, Psion, Hay's PLC, CLS, Big Yellow PLC, ICL, Serco, to name but a few. Here's a picture of just a few from my archive:



Congratulations to David Magee and Daragh Lehane-Magee, who founded the company in 1989 for 25 successful years in corporate reporting. 

 

http://www.magee.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.07.2014

Istanbul Grand Airport Book

This is one of those amazing productions which is an excellent example of why, in this digital age, print still lives!

This is a book showcasing the first phase of Istanbul Grand Airport's 8,000 hectare masterplan and terminals. Located on the Black Sea coast, it is intended that when completed, it will be the world’s largest airport terminal. The design is a collaboration between  three architectural practices Nordic, Grimshaw and Haptic Architects.

Detail of etched nickel silver plate

The size of the book is A3 (420x297mm) portrait and the cover features etched nickel silver plates sunk into a duplexed cover (made from our Construction Blackstone 1500microns). The etched pattern echoes the ceiling structure running throughout the building.

The 160pp text is printed throughout on our Omnia 120gsm, with the printed endpapers on Omnia 150gsm. The result is superb and it should be noted, this publication is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press.

Art direction and design is by London based studio BOB Design and I popped into the studio to take the pictures (above) as being such a high specification job and with so few copies produced, it wasn't possible for them to let me have a file copy. Creative directors are Mireille Burkhardt and Kieran O'Connor. Designers on the project are Clara Goodger and Aaron Merrigan.
The book is laid out in both English and Turkish, which in part, accounts for the high pagination.

Now as you might expect from a prestigious publication, it is section sewn, but as I have mentioned above, it is A3 and digitally printed. So, the only way to produce this was on one of the new HP Indigo 10000 presses, which prints a B2 sheet. Below shows the section sewing and the cloth around the spine with the Construction Blackstone mounted on the endpapers and forming the cover.

Print production is by Pureprint and there's no question that this job is superb. Beautifully printed and bound and put together with the duplexed covers and mounted plates. Productions like this make the case for clients using print. All the information in the publication could be supplied digitally, but this piece of literature is an edifice as indeed will be the new airport.

www.bobdesign.co.uk
http://www.hapticarchitects.co.uk/
http://grimshaw-architects.com/
www.nordicarch.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_New_Airport
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.06.2014