40 years of posters, circulars & talks...

Yesterday evening I was privileged to have been invited to the Typographic Circle 40th Anniversary exhibition, celebration and party!

TypoCircle, as it is usually referred to, was formed in 1976 to bring together anyone with an interest in type and typography. They stage a variety of type and typography related events including a series of diverse monthly lectures by well-known industry speakers, and the annual New York Type Directors Club exhibition. The list of previous speakers have included Alan Kitching, Stefan Sagmeister, Mike Dempsey, Ken Garland, Studio8, Erik Spiekermann, MadeThought, Michael Johnson, Anthony Burrill, Michael Wolff, Sir John Hegarty… to name just a few.  This event also launched the new logo (above) designed by NB: Studio and Studio Sutherl& and made by Bruno Maag.

Besides being serious about type, they are a very sociable organisation with a reputation for staging enjoyable events and this was certainly one of them!

The exhibition was curated in a large part by NB:Studio, working with Studio Sutherl&, Jon Bateson and everyone on the small but dedicated committee. The exhibition features 40 years of TypoCircle posters and Circulars, as well as some incredible ephemera, diligently squirrelled away by past committee members for such an occasion as this.

The exhibition includes a selection of nineteen issues of Circular, the Typocircle publication which in recent times has been designed by Domenic Lippa, printed by Richard Davey on paper sponsored by GF Smith.

This gives you an idea of some of the posters that were on display - printed by Gavin Martin Colournet on paper sponsored by GF Smith.

A publication comprising of three parts has been produced to support the exhibition. Designed in collaboration by NB:Studio, Studio Sutherl& and Jon Bateson. The first section is written by Lynda Relph-Knight and Sallyanne Theodosiou. The second is dedicated to spreads from all of the Circulars produced by Domenic Lippa and his team at Pentagram. And the final section contains 40 individual posters from the TypoCircle archive.

Above is a picture of the book, together with with the poster (designed by Studio Sutherl&) also printed by Gavin Martin Colournet on Colorplan 175gsm sponsored by GF Smith. The superb orange tote bag is sponsored by Streamline. Copies of the book are available from Typocircle.

My thanks to the TypoCircle committee for inviting me. This small band of people need some serious recognition for their time, drive and dedication. They are... Chairman: Alan Dye | President: John Bateson | Honorary Secretary: Val Kildea | Vice Chairman: Louise Sloper |Treasurer: Sallyanne Theodosiou | Membership: Antony Long | Committee Members: Jon Checkley, Dominic Lippa, Jim Sutherland, Olly St John. All these people freely give their time for the benefit of others and must be admired.

I must also mention the Typocircle sponsors, without whom none of this would have been possible: JWT, GF Smith, Pentagram, Baseline Magazine, Magma, NB Studio, Gavin Martin Colournet, Wynkyn De Worde Society, Laurence King, Creative Review, Streamline, Studio Sutherl&.

...and lastly, courtesy of Alan Dye at NB:Studio, here's a great picture of me with Kath Tudball from The Partners, in front of the TypoCircle logo inspired blackboard.


Membership of TypoCircle is open to anyone with an interest in type and typography, and there are no entry tests or examinations. As I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the TypoCircle and events such as this - why not get involved! ...individual membership is just £30.00!

The exhibition at the Protein Gallery, Shoreditch, runs until Sunday 23rd October, 10-5pm and entry is free.
https://www.typocircle.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.10.2016

The Cloud Eaters

This is a recently produced silkscreen print of an artwork called The Cloud Eaters. It is by artist Joe Webb, who works mainly in the medium of collage.

The print has been created using 6 colours and had an iridescent varnish layer put down first. The print is an A1 size and is printed onto our StarFine White 300gsm.

The print has been produced by Gary Parselle at The Private Press. Gary is a collaborative silkscreen printer who works with artists to try and achieve the best possible representation of the artists work in sympathy with the original ...and he must be doing a good job as artists are queuing up to work with him! 

The below image shows the framed print on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

You can see more of Joe Webb's work here:

http://www.joewebbart.com/wh5x0dego9bka8mo5hmxutdpxcsz0l

 

http://www.theprivatepress.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.10.2016 

TOAST AW 2016 Invitation

Established in West Wales in 1997, TOAST has grown from loungewear and nightwear products to become a unique lifestyle brand renowned for its thoughtful contemporary design and ability to re-energise traditional textiles. TOAST now has a large large online following plus 11 shops and concessions in 14 John Lewis stores.

This is the invitation to the launch of the Autumn Winter 2016 collection, held at the Vinyl Factory, Marshall Street in London.

Invitation with envelope

The flat size is 630x444mm, folding to a finished size of A5 portrait. 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. Image reproduction is superb.

It is folded in a concertina format so as to avoid a crow's foot. It unfolds beautifully, nice and flat.

Click on images to enlarge

Concertina folding...

Creative direction and design is by TOAST. Head of graphics is Jo Waller and the designer on the project is Mia Shurey. Printing is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood in Kent.

https://www.toa.st/uk/
http://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.10.2016

Ten Trinity Square

Ten Trinity Square is one of London’s landmark buildings overlooking the Thames at Tower Hill. Built over a century ago to house the Port of London Authority, it has now been re-developed by the Reignwood Group as an exclusive arrangement of residences, a luxury hotel and private club, all in association with Four Seasons. This book tells the story of the historic building and has specifically been produced to be on display in the atrium of the building on a specially made plinth designed by Daniel Weil of Pentagram.

 

This is certainly the largest book to have ever appeared on this blog and is probably the most impressive I have ever had the pleasure of handling! The size of the book is 615mm square, yep that's right, well over half a metre! As a result, it's more than a bit tricky to photograph, so my apologies - click on the images to bring them up to a better size.

Unsurprisingly, this outsize book is casebound and is covered with Saffiano, which is first grade calf leather with a classical grain.  The cover is embossed and hot foil blocked in metallic gold foil.

As you would expect, there are endpapers. Because of the size of the books, the endpapers have to be over 1.2 metres long!

This is the Chinese language version, which is covered in red, there is a matching English language version which I'll write about another time.  In total there are two editions and twelve copies were produced. Six in English and six in Chinese - an extremely rare and limited run!

The book has 92pages, all printed on Omnia White 200gsm. Omnia is a very bulky paper and that's what a project like this needed, with the size of each page being over half a square metre!

The image reproduction throughout the publication is simply wonderful with both the four colour images, the cool grey pantone special and solid blacks looking great.


Click on images to enlarge

Click on images to enlarge

The bookblock (just the pages) itself is 13mm thick. Below is a detail showing the ribbon.

To give a sense of scale, below are two images with a pencil and a 12inch ruler by the book, which gives you some idea...

Superbly detailed hot foil blocking on the leather is beautiful.

Below is a detail showing the spine. The book is 'quarter bound' with cloth around the spine. Don't forget, the spine you are looking at is 35mm! Rather than using a bookbinding grade greyboard, the internal structure of the case is supported with a material called Promolyte. This is a lightweight alloy which was used to increase the strength, stability and integrity of this huge leather cover. 

Brand identity for the whole project, including this book, is by Pentagram. Design is by John Rushworth and Joe Stephenson. You can see more about the whole project here: http://www.pentagram.com/#/projects/121368

 

Original photography is by Richard Bryant. CGI's by Hayes Davidson and AB Concept.

 

Printing is by Gavin Martin Colournet. It is a stupendous book with stunning production values and it has been produced impeccably. If I was saying anything other than that, then the whole reason for producing this staggering publication to appear on display in the building, would be null and void. It is simply the most stunning book ever!

 

http://www.tentrinitysquare.com/
http://www.reignwood.com/
http://www.pentagram.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.10.2016

The Lagom Collections 2016

Lagom Design produces beautiful greeting cards and stationery. Founded in 2007 by Kelly Hyatt, he named the company Lagom after the Swedish word that describes the feeling when something has ‘perfect balance’ or is ‘just right’ ...and in fact that word perfectly describes the literature for this years' collection.

 

The reason that this is 'just right' is that it is a whole catalogue, which in a small package, gets across the wide range in an elegant and stylish way. The range features work from a wide range of artists and designers, including the renowned Hanna Werning.

Click on images to enlarge

The finished size is 145x100mm, folding out to 600x290mm, making it a 24pp in total. You can see above the way it opens, below you can see the concertina folding out.

 The below images show both sides laid out flat:

Click on images to enlarge

It is printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and it looks and feels gorgeous. The format, combined with the paper, gives the publication a light, malleable, tactile feel with excellent reproduction.

...it flows and flops beautifully.

Design is by Kelly Hyatt and as you can see from his happy note (below) ...Offenbach Bible Rocks!

Print was handled by Printoff, based in Lancashire.

Have a look at their gorgeous range of cards (many of them printed on our papers) giftwrap, notebooks and stationery.

https://www.lagomdesign.co.uk/
http://www.printoff.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.10.2016

Justin becomes a Liveryman...

Regular, eagle eyed, readers of this blog may remember that last year I became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, which I wrote about here. Yesterday I was "cloathed" and became a Liveryman, which is basically a full member of the Company. The term livery originated in the specific form of dress worn to retainers of a nobleman and then by extension to special dress to denote status of belonging to a trade. So when I was "cloathed" yesterday I wore a livery gown as you can see in the picture below:

The Stationers' originally dates from 1403 and in 1557 it was awarded a Royal Charter becoming a Livery Company. You can read more about the Stationers' online here or you can speak to me!
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/justin-becomes-freeman.html

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.10.2016

Jobs from the past - Number 84

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 2007.

Barclays Silver Incentive 2007

This project was produced for Barclays Financial Planning in 2007, just one year before the financial crash in 2008. This is an internal promotion sent to financial advisors with an incentive that if they hit a certain target, they would get a luxurious weekend away in Venice. This rather lavish internal promotional item is designed to look like a medieval map....

The size of the map is A1 size (594x420mm) folding to A4. It folds in such a way that it creates a gatefold, so that an imitation wax seal is applied to seal the document.

Detail of the seal, which is a simplified version of the Barclays eagle.

The below image shows the map closed, half open and then fully open...

The map is printed on our Flora Avorio 130gsm. Flora is a  it is a part recycled paper (with FSC accreditation) with natural, deliberately visible, inclusions and fibres. It has a tactile, rough feel and has a character which was just perfect to reproduce this old map.

Click on images to enlarge

The below image shows the reverse of the map, complete with aged water stains and wear marks.

Below are details of the map, which gives you an idea of the inclusions in the paper.



An interesting little adjunct to this story is that Flora is manufactured by an Italian paper mill called Cordenons, which is based close to Venice. In the 15th Century a group of Gutenberg's pupils established themselves in Venice and from then on, the centre of the Venetian empire became one of the most important areas for printing and publishing in Europe. By the 18th century, the records of the Senate of the Doges of Venice show there is documentary evidence of the manufacturer 'Cartiere Di Cordenons' noting the high esteem in which the mill was held. It has been widely known as "the paper mill of the Doges" since then and the winged Lion of Venice is still proudly the company's motif.

It's an excellent use of the right paper for the right job. You could have printed all the specks and flecks along with the aged look onto a white sheet of paper but it would never have had the impact or dramatic feel as this piece has achieved.

 

Design was 'in house' at Barclays Bank. Printing is Offset Litho in CMYK and it was printed by The Midas Press, who went bust in 2011 and who I wrote about here.

 

The project was handled by David Crompton at Midas Press, who sent me some copies and I still have his kind note.

David Crompton is now at Dayfold Printers in Dorset.

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.10.2016