Whatever happened to ....Marnix Zetteler?

It is with some regularity that I am asked "whatever happened to Marnix Zetteler"? ..so I thought I'd find out!

For those who don't remember or didn't know Marnix, he is the Dutch born paper-man who was a big noise in the 80's, 90's and beyond in the world of UK creative papers.

Originally he had a company called ISTD Fine Paper, a paper agency based in Reigate in Surrey. I first met Marnix in the mid 1980's and at that time he was agent for a coated paper mill in France called JOB, who made the paper range called Parilux.

Marnix was an unconventional paper agent as rather than selling to printers he took the paper range direct to designers, which while not totally unique, he promoted the paper using well designed collateral produced by highly rated designers of the day, such as Pocknell, Derek Birdsall, Trickett & Webb and Alan Fletcher to name a few.

Click on images to enlarge

Above shows the 'Print on Parilux' swatch. Creative direction by David Pocknell at Pocknell Studio, designer on the project was Jonathan Russell. A truly ground-breaking piece of paper promotion.

By the 1990's ISTD had a new identity (also Pocknell Studio I think?) and Marnix had added many other products to his portfolio, including from the USA Cranes Crest, Fox River and Monadnock. The image below shows a bound in insert from DesignWeek (back in the days when it was a printed publication) promoting Monadnock, which at the time was being stocked by a company called Modo Merchants (long since gone now!)

As the dawn of the millennium approached, ISTD morphed into a new company called VIP - The Very Interesting Paper Company Limited. This coincided with JOB Parilux mill being taken over by a German papermaker, Scheufelen and the Parilux papers were then handled by a mill owned agency.

Undaunted, Marnix began marketing his own products. the first of these was called Dutchman, a smooth uncoated paper range to compete with the American Text & Cover papers, such as Mohawk and our own Neptune Unique. Dutchman became quite a firm favourite with many designers.

He also created a range called Shoebox which many people still ask me about today. With characteristic flair, he took a low value board produced for the shoemaking industry and marketed it superbly.

This A6, wiro-bound production was designed by Trickett & Webb. Designer on the project was Heidi Lightfoot (who is now a partner at Together). Illustrations by Christopher Brown and all the illustrations are just reproduced in hot foil blocking - brilliant!

He produced a few promotional pieces with the late Alan Fletcher. Examples below produced to promote Monadnock, Confetti (Fox River), Shoebox and Dutchman. Printed by Gary Bird at Gavin Martin.

Click on images to enlarge

 ...and lastly he introduced a cheaper grade, uncoated offset paper called Hollander.

 ...by this time he had gone further afield for his graphic design using Andre Toet in Holland and also incorporating the now familiar 'Z' for Zetteler.

By the mid 2000's the paper market was changing, dominated by some large loss making conglomerates (PaperlinX, Antalis etc) and in 2004 Marnix 'retired' from the UK paper industry. He sold VIP to Jill Mannix (part of the GF Smith family) but it fizzled out in around 2007/8.

...and Marnix and his wife Sue sailed off into the sunset in Hawaii (Maui)! While there he grew 3,000+ palm trees from seeds on a derelict piece of land on West Maui which is now a palm forest. In his words "I had a dream to leave a positive footprint on the world and I managed to do it"

Whilst in Maui, rather than sitting and watching trees grow, Marnix acquired a new skill! He learned to restore old posters from Monsieur Alain Roger of Paris, who runs the conservation department of the French National Library and is highly regarded in the paper conservation business. After Hawaii, they moved to Okatie, South Carolina where Marnix established his own studio called 'La Feuilleraie' which restores and linen backs vintage posters.

...and here he is in the studio:

Image kindly supplied by Dude Magazine www.dudesc.com

Image kindly supplied by Dude Magazine www.dudesc.com

Marnix works a few hours in the studio every day. His challenges include removing folds in the paper and repairing any rips or tears it may have. To remove folds in the paper the poster is laid on a sheet of clear plastic and water is sprayed on it. The water helps the fibres in the poster to expand, removing the folds. This also cleans the poster, removing dirt and acids from the paper.

Image kindly supplied by Dude Magazine www.dudesc.com

Some posters need to be set in a special water bath to remove any extra acidic pollution in the paper before the rest of the process can continue. Others need to have pencil or pen marks removed. The reverse of the poster is coated with special glue which won’t harm the paper or replace the chemicals he just removed. The poster is laid on a linen frame and is then rollered to ensure it is flat and sticks to the linen backing. None of this is a particularly speedy process!

He has customers sending him restoration work from all over the world including London. He says in his email to me that he has many years work ahead already booked!

Image kindly supplied by Dude Magazine www.dudesc.com

I was fortunate to find an article on Poster Conservation and Preparation written about Marnix Zetteler in a locally published magazine called DUDE which is published by Brad McDonald. I emailed Brad and he kindly put me in touch with Marnix and gave me permission to use the photographs taken at 'La Feuilleraie'. Thanks Brad - DUDE is now truly global!


You can find DUDE magazine here: http://www.dudesc.com/

Click on this page to enlarge

and if you would like to read the magazine editorial, it is on page 40 of this PDF link.
http://www.dudesc.com/uploads/spring2012web_1_.pdf

I hope this article has been of interest, especially for those of you who may remember Marnix personally and this period in the industry.

Like many, I miss Marnix, occasionally bumping into him at events in London but to be honest, I don't miss him as a competitor! Enjoy life Marnix...

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.10.2015

Kids With Puns #5

Kids With Puns is a printed publication which celebrates the humble pun. The magazine is a collaboration between illustrators, artists and designers and showcases a variety of wordplay related work. So if you love puns and visual puns in particular, you'll love this publication.

Click on images to enlarge

The size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and is saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on our Colorset Pink Ice 120gsm and 20pp text on StarFine White 115gsm. It is printed in just one colour on a Riso machine. If you don't know about Riso, or Risography, you can read about it on an earlier post I wrote here:http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/what-is-riso-printing.html

Kids with Puns is the brainchild of designer Tom Dunn, who compiles and publishes the publication. It is published at irregular intervals - once he gets enough submissions!

Print is by Hato Press, who are based in East London and they have made a very tidy job of it.

...Thanks to Tom for the file copies and for the card.

Contributors (all links) are here:
Punny Pixels, Leeann Walker, Kieron C, Tiana Tucker, Henry Brown, Masum Khan, Alyssa Duhe, Keegan Steele, Pâté,
Adam Avery You can buy your copy here: http://www.kidswithpuns.com/
http://hatopress.net/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.10.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 72

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...

COS S|S 2007
Swedish label COS was launched with a catwalk show at the Royal Academy in 2007 and has since become a real presence on our high streets and shopping centres. COS (it stands for Collection of Style) is part of the H&M group which is one of the world's largest retail clothing groups. COS has become a go to shop for simple and anonymous clothing, minimal pieces and stylish basics. High on style and quality fabrics. Not for party clothes but a great range of  casually complex clothing at mid-market prices.

This is one of their very first look books produced in the UK and like their clothing, it is simple, very stylish and has great attention to detail lavished on it.

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the publication is A3 (420x297mm) portrait and is a 16pp 'self cover' which is saddle stitched. It has a deliciously floppy and tabloid newspaper feel. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

This is one of those projects that is virtually impossible to do justice to on this blog. The print image quality alone has left anyone that I have ever shown this job to, seriously impressed. Given that Redeem 100% recycled is at best, off white and 100% recycled and 80gsm, the reproduction on this paper is superb. The fleshtones are incredibly realistic and rarely have I ever seen such excellent black solids.  It is printed CMYK, offset litho by London based Push.

Lovely touch on the simple cover is the black coloured wire used for the saddle stitching:

As mentioned earlier it flops and folds in the hand beautifully.

Design and Art Direction is by the creative agency Saturday and the creative director on the project was Peter Hughes. Saturday merged with sister agency Wednesday in 2013. Peter Hughes has established his own agency called Assembly, based in Somerset House.

Print is by London based printers Push and is truly superlative.

http://www.cosstores.com/

http://wednesdayagency.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.10.2015

Where is LCBA?

The London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA) is an artist-run, open-access studio based in East London. The studio provides education programmes for the community and access to resources for artists, designers and makers. I visited and wrote about LCBA in 2013: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/london-centre-for-book-arts-lcba.html

LCBA have produced this superbly simple A6 wayfinding card. Simply produced in one colour both sides and just with a punched hole in the centre, it is amazingly effective.

The simply illustrated reverse, clearly shows their location and the bus routes and closest stations.
Printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm.

Design and production is by Simon Goode and Ira Yonemura

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.01.2015

Live in Denim - Wrangler S|S 2015

This is the season's promotional literature for Wrangler’s new S|S 2015 collection for women. Live in Denim is Wrangler’s new collection for women which incorporates Shape Keeper jeans using Lycra® and dualFX® to create stretch denim and silk soft jeans which achieves it's delicate touch through Cotton-Tencel® denim blends.

This 10pp concertina brochure is 190x135mm, expanding to 190x675mm. It is printed in CMYK offset litho on our Omnia, White FSC 320gsm and is printed and finished beautifully.

Front cover, below:

Birds eye view...

Click on images to enlarge

Although this is a simple publication, it's often the simple jobs which don't get the attention to detail. This is well creased and folded square which is just perfect.

Omnia was chosen because it would work with the rich detail that is present in the images but that would still give a natural look and tactile feel. As you can see from images, some of the photography is quite dark, but there is no loss of detail, which is what can often happen printing on an uncoated paper - fleshtones look superb!

Art direction and design is by JJ Marshall Associates. Creative Director is Jethro Marshall and thanks to Jethro for sending file copies and a note...

Excellent print and finishing is by Principal Colour based in Paddock Wood, Kent.

https://www.wrangler.co.uk/landing/live-in-denim

http://www.wrangler.co.uk/

http://jjmarshallassociates.com/

www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson .29.09.2015

ESPA life at Gleneagles

The Gleneagles Hotel is set in 850 acres in the heart of Scotland. Aside from the international reputation as one of the foremost golf resorts, there is a luxurious Spa.  This beautifully produced piece of literature is available for guests to see the treatments offered. The brochure conveys the luxury and subtlety of both the space and the experience.

Click on images to enlarge

Below shows inside front cover spread with hot foil blocked emblem in metallic gold foil on inside front cover

Detail showing hot foil blocked logo:

Size is 210x148mm, portrait and is section sewn. The paper used is our StarFine Natural White 300gsm for the cover and 150gsm for the 40pp text. The uncoated paper is a subtle, neutral, white which perfectly suits the imagery and typography in the publication. The images have reproduced superbly, even with some of the dark interior shots.

The publication is superbly printed offset litho in four colour process plus hot foil blocking on four areas. The spine width is 5mm.

Art direction and design is by London based Burgess Studio. Creative director is Alexis Burgess. Senior designer on the project is Tom Green. Printing is by Glasgow based 21 Colour.

http://www.gleneagles.com/
www.espa.com
http://burgess-studio.co.uk/
http://www.21colour.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.09.2015

D&AD President's Lecture - Philippe Starck

Yesterday evening I went to the D&AD presidents lecture to hear eccentric designer, Philippe Starck at Shoreditch Town Hall.

It was billed as follows: "Notes from Elsewhere" will open new windows into the inner workings of this prolific and profound creative ‘supermonkey’, as he challenges us to explore the space between dreams and reality via carefully chosen topics to entertain, inspire and provoke the audience"

Yep, well I reckon he did that OK! He certainly did jump around the many subjects he spoke about and as promised to his wife, hardly swore or mentioned sex at all!

In my opinion, attending events like this is very important. It helps to get other people's perspective and hear what else is going on. At £15 per ticket, it's good value too....

 

http://www.dandad.org/en/creative-advertising-design-events/?j=48

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2015