Maggie's Christmas Card

I received this lovely, simple, Christmas card for cancer care charity Maggie's.

Maggie’s provides free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends, following the ideas about cancer care originally laid out by Maggie Keswick Jencks. The first Maggie’s Centre opened in Edinburgh in 1996 and since then Maggie’s has continued to grow, with 17 centres at major cancer hospitals.

The image used on the card is of an apple installation by Rebecca Louise Law at Maggie's Culture Crawl held in 2014. 

Image copyright: Written Light Photography

The cards are printed on our Colorset Crimson 270gsm, our 100% recycled text and cover range. They are printed in halftone, offset litho in one colour, silver and hot foil blocked in matt white foil.


Reverse of card

The below image shows the detail of the white foil:

Design is by Malcom Clarke. Print and foiling is by Aldgate Press, based in London E1.

www.maggiescentres.org
http://www.writtenlight.co.uk/
http://www.aldgatepress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.12.2014

Alexander Lewis - Resort 2014

This is a beautifully simply lookbook for London based fashion designer Alexander Lewis. Half American, half Brazilian, his education took him around the world, before working for Vogue and then began working on Savile Row, at Norton & Sons and later E. Tautz. It was in London he learned about pattern-cutting, fit and how to turn a design into a beautifully crafted piece of clothing. After establishing his own design consultancy, he launched his own womenswear line in 2012.

This is the lookbook for his Resort 2014 collection. and as I said in my introduction, it is beautifully simple. Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and has a 4pp cover on our Colorset Nero 270gsm, which is simply hot foil blocked with matt white foil.

Image reproduction is paramount but it was also important that the publication also projected the tactility of the actual clothes, so a gloss or silk coated paper wasn't an option. The material chosen was our Omnia, which would beautifully reproduce the photography with the delicate weave, intricate patterns and subtle pastel colouring superbly - not forgetting the fleshtones ...and it looks brilliant!  The 52pp text is on Omnia White 150gsm, printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

Below is a close up of Look19, the dress appears to be made from a material with a shimmery look, almost pearlescent - Omnia has reproduced the image superbly.

Omnia is a very bulky paper, so even though it is only 52pp, the Omnia 150gsm gives it a 5mm spine thickness. As with all quality publications, it is 'section sewn' and here is a close up showing the spine and end of the book with the sewn sections:

Art direction and design is by Alexander Lewis. Photography is by Thomas Lohr.

Detail of matt white foil

Printing, foiling and finishing is by Jigsaw Colour, who are based in South London and is excellent.


http://www.alexanderlewis.eu/
http://thomaslohr.com/site/

www.jigsawcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.12.2014

Seasonal packaging on Stardream

This is not only a lovely, yummy, Christmas gift - it is also a wonderful printed example of packaging produced on our papers! Vincent design produced their very own limited edition selection box. Firstly, they sourced locally handmade chocolates from Sylvia and Terry based in Romney Marsh. Next, they had to design the custom packaging, which required a festive, seasonal look and feel.

However, because this was a limited run, litho printing was out of the question. As a result, the material chosen was our Stardream Quartz 285gsm which is HP Indigo ready. The beauty of this product is that it has a pearlescent, metallic shimmer but can be printed digitally to great effect and for short run lengths.

The lid was printed on the Stardream Quartz 285gsm. The box made up very cleverly, with the printed insert covering the joins and flaps on the inside of the lid. The unprinted base with the custom cut outs to hold the scrumptious confectionery is made from Stardream Sapphire, with Orion embossing in 285gsm.

The size of the box is 270 x 150x 45mm and is a nice sturdy little package. Print production is by Principal Colour based in Paddock Wood on their HPIndigo digital press.

With thanks to all at Vincent design for the yummy box ...and the chocolates as well!

www.vincentdesign.co.uk
www.sylviaandterry.com/
http://www.principalcolour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.12.2014

What is ...B1 size?

Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic

What is ...B1 size?
The metric system of sizes which are common in most countries around the world, with the exception of USA and Canada, has been commonplace in the UK since the 1970's. The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) was founded in 1947 and for paper sizes they adopted German DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) -  meaning "German institute for standardisation" who established the DIN paper sizes in 1922 .

The whole system of standardisation was so that machinery manufacturers of both printing presses and finishing equipment and suppliers of paper could harmonise production for the benefit of the industry and I think it is fair to say, in comparison with many other industries, it has been a success which, even now, is translating into the new digital/home printing arena.

The premise of the system is to fix the size of finished jobs - being A6, A5, A4, A3 etc. Therefore the system works like this:
===========================================
'A' sizes are intended to be the finished job sizes
'RA' sizes are to allow grip on the printing press, which is then trimmed to give a finished 'A' size
'SRA' sizes allow for both grip and bleed on the printing area, which is then trimmed to give a finished 'A' size
'B' sizes allow for oversize formats (...whatever that means!)
===========================================

Here is a list of ISO 'B' sizes - but remember they are 'theoretical' sizes:
B0 1000 x 1414mm
B1 707 x 1000mm
B2 500 x 707mm
B3 353 x 500mm
B4 250 x 353mm
B5 176 x 250mm
B6 125 x 176mm
B7 88 x 125mm

So why this whole post about what size is B1? Well basically it is because it causes much confusion ...and the reason is that  the B1 size held in stock by paper mills and merchants differ from the 'theoretical' B1 size listed above. I have never come across a mill or merchant in the world who holds a B1 sheet size of 707x1000mm in stock - it simply does not exist!

B1 stock sizes can be 720 x 1020mm,720 x 1010mm, 710x1020mm or 700 x 1000mm — all are regarded as B1 size. This can be confusing and is worth considering if you a specifying a particular paper for a project - especially when considering the finished size.

For example, this Modern House brochure which I wrote about on this blog some time ago, is a finished size of 340x240mm. The Omnia used for the text and cover comes in a sheet size of 720x1020mm but the Colorset, Light Grey 120gsm, which also forms part of the text pages, comes in a size of 700x1000mm. Therefore the finished size of the brochure was dictated by the size of the smaller sheet size. If both sheet sizes had been 720x1020mm, it would have been possible to increase the finished size of the job to 345x245mm.

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/modern-house.html

To avoid confusion, either check the B1 stock size of the chosen paper or check with the printer what is the largest size possible out of the sheet size available.

...and one more piece of advice: it's not a good idea to refer to B4 or B5 as "finished job sizes" - T he reason being that you are asking someone to produce a finished size from sheets of paper without allowing any room for trim or bleed, so it is impossible to produce a job to that size - not without doing it either at a ridiculous cost or subsequently reducing the size. If you want to maximise the sheet size (which is an excellent idea) then you are best to give the actual dimensions rather than trying to describe it as a B size job. The Modern House job above (340x240mm) could be described as a B4 size job but I wouldn't advise that because someone may look up the theoretical size (250x353mm, as listed above) and use that size and then you wouldn't then be able to produce the job. Hope that makes sense!

With thanks to Justin at Push for clarifying some of the points in this post.

http://www.papersizes.org/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.12.2014

THOMASTAIT SS15

This is the invitation to the Thomas Tait preview show for his Spring|Summer 2015 collection held in London this September. This is his first show since last year, when he won the inaugural LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. Thomas Tait is originally from Montreal but now lives and works in London and graduated from the Central Saint Martins Womenswear MA course four years ago.

For his new show, he has collaborated with Paris based visual artist Georges Rousse, who uses derelict buildings as his medium and paints on walls. Working with the artist, Thomas Tait has transformed his show into a living art space and this is reflected in this beautifully produced invitation.

The invitation itself is actually a 12pp loose bound (no binding) production. Size is 270 x 180mm and is printed on our Omnia 200gsm ...and it looks and feels just beautiful. It perfectly shows the images of the derelict spaces - lots of detail and excellent reproduction and great solids - no patchiness or mottle. It is totally in sympathy with the rough concrete interiors - tactile and engaging.

Centre spread.

The images above and below show how it is unbound and how well it works - it holds together beautifully ...and that is because it is the correct choice of weight of material - Omnia is very bulky and 200gsm works perfectly. If it were on the 280 or 320gsm it would be far too 'clunky' and would not hold itself together as a single piece of literature.

Below image showing the outside back cover where the event details are printed on the solid yellow.

You can read more about the event and collection here:

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/21729/1/thomas-tait-ss15

Field Projects, a London based studio, is responsible for the superb art direction and design. Creative Director on the project is Tom Watt. Unfortunately I don't know who the photographer is because they also deserve a credit!

Print production is by FE Burman, who are based is south London and they have made an excellent job printing on the Omnia.

http://www.thomastait.com/

http://www.georgesrousse.com/

http://field-projects.com/

www.feburman.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.12.2014

Snowfall Forest

This is the season when many of us our writing our Christmas cards, so what better time than to show you some beautiful cards printed on our paper!

Five Dollar Shake is a passionately British greeting card publisher. Based in Hastings and established in 1998, they design and manufacture all their cards in the UK, including the hand application of the crystals, sequins, bows and trinkets that many of their ranges are renowned for.

This new range of cards is produced on our Stardream Dolomite 285gsm. Stardream is a market leading pearlescent/metallic range which shimmers beautifully and is made by Cordenons in Italy. The size of the cards is 160mm square.

This particular range of cards is printed and flittered. Flitter is a process where glitter is put onto a glued area creating a really sparkly effect.

This range of cards is also an award winning range, having won the 'Best Christmas Counter range' at the recent Henries awards in October. The "Henries" are the awards for the greeting card industry (named after the inventor of the greeting card - Sir Henry Cole) - the greeting card industry equivalent of the D&AD Awards (www.thehenriesawards.co.uk). Five Dollar Shake have won over twenty awards in the last fifteen years.

Here is joint founder Matt Genower collecting the award from comedian Alun Cochrane.

These cards are exquisitely printed an flittered by Abbot who are one of the few specialist printers in the UK who also have flittering equipment. The cards are then hand finished at Five Dollar Shake.

http://www.fivedollarshake.com/

http://www.abbotprint.co.uk/

http://www.cordenons.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.12.2014

Brown's Hotel

Brown's Hotel in Albermarle Street in London is a familiar landmark, having opened in 1837. The hotel is steeped in history and has had many famous guests over the years. The building consists of eleven townhouses which are now combined into one elegant structure.

 

This piece of promotional literature is a brochure which strikes the balance between showing the history, while still showing the very contemporary features and facilities at this luxurious hotel.

'metallic on Omnia'

'Plate sunk'

The brochure is 180mm square. It has a 4pp cover and a 28pp text. The cover is printed offset litho in four colour process plus a metallic special in a champagne colour. The board used for the cover is our Omnia 280gsm which has an uncoated look and feel and yet prints superbly but which also prints metallics which actually look metallic! The printed image on the outside front cover (right) is also 'plate sunk' (that's a square de-boss) and this also works well on Omnia as it has a good bulk and compressibility, so embosses/debosses very well.


The text is printed on our Marazion Ultra 150gsm. The Marazion Ultra was chosen mainly because of it's matt flatness which would reproduce the interior images well without a glossiness which would detract from the classic look and feel of the hotel. A simple but effective choice of materials. The spine is about 3mm wide.

Design and art direction is by Saffron in London and the designer on the project is Wendy Roberts. Print production is by Harness Publicity based in Basildon.

https://www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/browns-hotel/
www.roccofortehotels.com
http://saffron-consultants.com/
http://www.harnesspublicity.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.12.2014