New Designers 2016

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

New Designers is the 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.

I saw many of the tutors and part time lecturers that I know from the various universities and colleges who have stands at the exhibition. Particular mention shall go to University of Portsmouth (UOP) who kindly invited me along.

I found the UOP stand and was invited to do a bit of ad hoc silk-screen printing, which as you can see, I was happy to do.... 

...only to realise that I was on the UOP Illustration course stand and not the graphic design course! - but I got a nice print out of it.

...eventually I found the BA Hons graphic design for UOP on a nearby stand:

...together with their superbly produced yearbook, printed on StarFine  - but I'll write about that another time....

In particular. thanks to Dan McCabe and all the staff and students at UOP.

www.portsmouthgraphicdesign.co.uk
www.newdesigners.com
http://www.port.ac.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.07.2015

Collection 004

Collection 004 from Toogood reinterprets some of the ingenuity of the resourceful women of wartime Britain. The transformation of fallen parachutes into silk lingerie and the reusing of ripcords and the shades of airforce blue and olive drab are the inspiration and source for this collection. The pieces have names such as The Milkman Jacket, The Umpire Coat and the Printer Tunic.

This is the promotional literature, a small folded up piece measuring 70x100mm, folding out to 280x600mm. It is printed Offset Litho in four colour process, one side only, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, giving it a lightweight feel but with a beautiful quality.

The large format concertina folds this way...



...and then this way:

The advantage on concertina folding is that you are reducing the stress on the paper and not trapping air in the folds, whereas if you fold paper on itself, on itself and on itself etc - you will get what is called a "Crow's foot" - if you don't know about this or haven't heard this expression, I wrote about it, at length, here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/what-is-number-4.html. This is a perfect example of a folded piece without a crow's foot!

Click on images to enlarge

The Image above is one of the unfolded examples I was given, so definitely no crow's foot there!

 

Creative Director is Faye Toogood and the designer on the project is Catherine Acornley. Printing is by Chadbon Printing based in London.

 

http://t-o-o-g-o-o-d.com/

chris.chadbon@btinternet.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.07.2016

Jobs from the past - Number 81

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 2005. 

Levi's Vintage Clothing

Spring & Summer 2005 

 

Over 125 years after the birth of the Blue Jean in 1873, Levi Strauss & Co established the Levi's Vintage Clothing sub-brand; resurrecting the past by creating exact reproductions of original jeanswear from the 130 year old design archives. Based around authentic pieces, denim garments are made in the US from historic quality XX selvage denim from original narrow looms.

This is the skilfully crafted lookbook for the range. It is a 'pocket book' size of 180x125mm, portrait and is an 'unfussy' self cover. There are 28pp and it's saddle stitched.

Click on images to enlarge

The lookbook is printed offset litho in CMYK on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm which is a neutral white shade giving the publication a genuinely vintage look and feel, However, as you'll see if you click on the images, the reproduction of the images stands up superbly.

Click on images to enlarge

To give you a sense of scale, the book is pictured below with a couple of everyday items. As I mentioned, it's a handy 'pocket size' but looking at the pictures it's easy to imagine this was an A4 or over size project.

Art direction and design is by a studio called the Kitchen, who were based in Margaret St, London W1. According to my notes, the creative directors and designers who were there at the time were Phil Evans, Phil Sims, Ramon Marin and Mat Jones. Sadly the studio disappeared in the mid 2000's. Photography is by Jason Tozer.

The outstanding printing is by Push Print based in Rotherhithe, London - and as I often say about these 'jobs from the past', it looks a good and fresh today as it did 11 years ago.

...and as if to prove that it stands the test of time, even though this is a job from 2005 which itself is about vintage clothing, the Levi's Vintage Clothing range is still available!
http://www.levi.com/GB/en_GB/features/levis-vintage-clothing
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.07.2016

Big Book Bonanza 2016

The Big Book Bonanza is the showcase of new books from Harper Collins and this is the bewitching invitation for the launch that was held this April at the Ham Yard Hotel.

The invitation is quite literally a gatefold! The delightfully lasercut gates are hinged over the inner invitation which is tipped onto the back panel of the main invite. 

Finished size of the invitation is 150x265mm with the inner card being 128x245mm. It is printed on Colorset Natural 350gsm (100% Recycled) throughout.

Click on images to enlarge

Below shows the corner cuts where the inner card sits, holding it in place.

Below image shows outside back cover with the corner slits.

Click on images to enlarge

The reproduction on the Colorset Natural is bright and vivid, the colours really lifting off the page.

The lasercut gates are wonderfully crisp and really set this invitation off.

Art direction and design is by London based studio, Design by St. Creative Partners are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard. The excellent print and production is by Hampshire based Senator Press.

www.harpercollins.co.uk
http://www.designbyst.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.06.2016

Thesis InForm

Following on from my visit to CSM last week, a publication arrived in the post today which accompanies a student led symposium and exhibition titled 'Thesis InForm’ at the LCC. The exhibition provides an opportunity for students to develop their research and writing into an exhibition outcome and runs concurrently to the year end main show at LCC. Works selected are from a panel of Contextual & Theoretical Studies and course tutors based on mentored proposals.  

The finished size is A4 (297x210mm) portrait folding out to an A2 size 594x420mm and is printed offset litho in one pantone colour (solid green) on the outside and two colours, fluorescent green and silver on the inside.

Click on images to enlarge

The paper chosen is our lightweight Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which feels beautifully light but retaining a quality feel, flopping and rolling in the hand. The printing of the solid colour is superb.

Below image shows fully folded out broadsheet/poster with the image below being the inside printed in two colours

Design is by Giorgio Marani and Tom Greenhill. Editing and production is by Andrew Slatter (Senior Lecturer Contextual & Theoretical Studies). The publication is expertly printed 'in house' at the LCC at the Elephant and Castle by Litho technician Tony Yard - the print result is truly exquisite, especially given the limitations of the equipment at the LCC. My thanks to Andrew for sending me copies.

www.thesisinform.wordpress.com
www.arts.ac.uk/lcc

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.06.2016

Central St Martins - Degree Show 2016

Yesterday evening I was invited to the private view of the Central St Martins Degree Shows at King's Cross. It was a very humid London evening but the show was well attended, laid out on the ground, first and second floors.

I spent most of the time at the BA Graphic Design course where I was shown around by Helen Ingham, from the letterpress workshop.

It was a very busy show with lots of thought-provoking work on display. Interesting (for me) to see just how many final projects still involve paper and printing. There was a superb project by Michal Kuzmierkiewicz, beautifully illustrated, exploring the roots of his family's exodus from Poland to Britain after WW2 (unfortunately I didn't get a pic of that project.) 

Below is the work of Odira Morewabone on Matatuism, a subcultural exploration of the urban youth culture in Nairobi in creating these artworks used on local taxis.

And below is the work of Anna Finch on the Jewellery Design course who has incorporated paper into her work. Through extensive experimentation, including pulping, carving, cutting, laminating, heating and sanding, Anna has been able to create some extraordinary pieces.

This piece is made using paper that she has processed, inlaid with pearl and silver.

Thanks to all staff and people I know at CSM for the kind invitation and a chance to see the work of the new graduates.
http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/#

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.06.2016

Coast Lookbook

Coast is one of the leading occasionwear brands for women. Established in 1996, Coast now boasts 52 stand-alone stores with 184 concessions and 46 international stores. This is the lookbook for last Christmas and is a really sublime piece of print

The cover is printed on our Astralux board - this is a one sided 'Cast Coated' board which means it has a high gloss surface and an uncoated reverse. So in this instance, it's been used inside out! The uncoated reverse has been printed offset litho in a silver special solid colour and hot foil blocked in silver metallic foil and used as the outer cover - the high gloss has been printed in a champagne metallic shade which appears on the inside front and back cover.

The cover is printed on Astralux [1 sided] 350gsm. Size of the publication is 240x165mm (which is an economical size to be printed on a B2/B1 size press)

The text material chosen was our Omnia, which would beautifully reproduce the photography with the delicate patterns and dark colours superbly - without forgetting the fleshtones ...and it looks wonderful! The 44pp text is on Omnia White 150gsm, printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

Click on images to enlarge

Image reproduction is paramount but it was also important that the publication also projected the tactility of the clothes and in the image above and below the detail of jewellery. An ordinary feeling silk or gloss coated paper wasn't an option, so Omnia fitted the bill perfectly.

Click on image to enlarge

Omnia is a very bulky paper, so even though it is only 44pp, 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:

Another impressive detail is the spine which is also hot foil blocked in silver metallic foil but which as you can see from the image below centred perfectly within the 5mm spine - great attention to detail

Art direction and design is by Coast. Printing, neat foiling and careful finishing is by Identity Print based in Paddock Wood.

http://www.coast-stores.com/

http://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.06.2016