Jobs from the past - Number 108

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...

Association Gallery Leaflets June/Sept 1999

The Association of Fashion & Advertising Photographers (AFAP, although it later became AFAEP when editorial photographers were embraced) was originally founded in 1968, changing its name to The Association of Photographers in 1993.

 

During the late 1990's the AOP had their gallery and exhibition space at 81 Leonard Street, EC2 and the gallery manager was Alex Steele-Mortimer. Being a self funded 'trade body', resources were extremely limited, although the subject, brief and raw material was fantastically creative.  Alex commissioned Frost Design for the promotional leaflets for quite a long period. They stick in my mind as being incredibly simple, yet because of their powerful use of cropped, interesting images, single colour print and quality paper they had a consistency and quality that stands high today.

The finished size is 210x95mm (roughly a DL format) and is 12pp, folding out to a flat size of 210x570mm.

The format of this leaflet works particularly well as the text concertinas into the folded spine. This works particularly well for this type of leaflet as because it effectively creates a spine and the foredge of text - some leaflets fall open in all directions! This is neat and tight and as a result feels less like a leaflet and more like a piece of less throwaway literature.  Picture below shows the way the text folds into the spine....

Click on images to enlarge

Text on the inside reads at 90degrees to the outer. Some people may disagree but I find this a very easy to read and inviting publication.

The paper used is Matrisse 140gsm and is printed just one colour Offset Litho. The crop of the images used on the covers was alwsy good with this series of publications and this is no exception. Photography by Craig Samuel.

Creative director was Vince Frost who now runs Frost in Australia.

Print was offset litho by The House Of Naylor, one of the last printers based in Clerkenwell, they are no longer in existence.

http://www.the-aop.org/
http://www.frostdesign.com.au/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.10.2018

The Print Show 2018

Last week I visited the Print Show at the NEC in Birmingham. It was an interesting show and there were dozens of companies from ink manufacturers to software, finishing equipment, digital and press suppliers ...and even one or two paper companies too!

One particularly interesting section was "Traditional Print Masterclass" are, where I caught up with my friends from the St Bride Foundation - Mick Clayton below operating a handpress.

...and Nick Hand from the Letterpress Collective in Bristol together with his Printing Bike, which I've written about on this blog before. I'd never actually seen the bike and it really is a beast.

https://www.theprintshow.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2018

Margaret Howell AW2018

Margaret Howell is a contemporary British clothing designer who has worked successfully in men’s and women’s clothing for over four decades. After graduating from a fine art degree at Goldsmiths’ College, London in 1969, Howell started making accessories. Her hand -made beads and knitted accessories came to the attention of Vogue and other fashion magazines, encouraging her to go onto designing clothes.

This is the promotional literature for the new Autumn Winter collection. It is a broadsheet format. Size is 140x198mm, folding out to 594x840mm and is printed on our new paper called SIXTIES.

It is concertina folded horizontally and vertically.

Above is the front view and below is the wonderfully 'ghost-like' reverse.

Click on images to enlarge

Birds eye view showing the folding...

The whole publication is all printed offset litho on our new Sixties, 60gsm ...and it looks and feels absolutely gorgeous - it flops and folds in a delightful way when handling the publication as I hope these images demonstrate. SIXTIES is a new paper which has the same translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels like a normal paper! … you can see the translucency in the image below:

...and here too:

Click on images to enlarge

The publication is printed offset litho in CMYK and the colour reproduction on Sixties is excellent, as you can see in the detail image below. Printing is by Push in London.

Creative direction and design is by Studio Small. Photography is by Chris Moor.

https://www.margarethowell.co.uk/

http://www.studiosmall.com/

http://www.push-print.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.09.2018

L'Amateur de Thés

L'Amateur de Thés is a Japanese restaurant and Tea specialists based in Pau, Southern France. The menus and stationery paper is produced on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

Here is the description about the project by the design studio Work in Process....

The Visual identity created for the gastronomic restaurant l'Amateur de Thés in Pau, on the occasion of its move to the Halles district. Rectilinear graphics and typography, sequence and rhythm, to represent the chef Yuri Nagaya’s rigour and precision. Simplicity, to reflect her humility and calm. A poetic and modern tone of voice to translate her experimental cuisine between Japanese technique and products from the southwest of France. Our intervention focused on the logo design, a deconstruction of the letter ‘a’ to gradually result in a symbol imitating a Japanese object or architectural element. From there we have worked on a series of symbols, typographic arrangements (using Px Grotesk by Nicolas Eigenheer), menus, communication documents, packaging, website lamateurdethes.fr, signage and pictograms, as well as some interior details.

Click on images to enlarge

The literature is blind embossed whilst the logo and the little details are all foiled in black on Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

click on images to enlarge

Work in Process is the studio of Claire Colnot and Amish Shah, who work in between France and London.

The superb foiling and embossing has been produced by Pyrénées Dorure Découpe who are based in Morlaas in France.

https://lamateurdethes.jimdo.com/
http://pyrenees-dorure.com/
http://www.work-in-process.eu/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2018

London Centre for Book Arts is Five!

This week I received a lovely invitation to an Open Studio event celebrating 5 years of the LCBA which takes place this coming weekend on Sunday 23 September...

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 here.
 

The LCBA mission is to foster and promote book arts and artist-led publishing in the UK through collaboration, education, and by providing open-access to printing and binding facilities; a space for hands-on experience, knowledge sharing and skills exchange.  

It was lovely to receive a personal note, and it was great when I realised that the card was printed letterpress on our very own Colorset (100% Recycled) Lemon 270gsm.

It is free to attend but it is recommended that you register HERE.

With thanks to Simon Goode and Ira Yonemura.
www.londonbookarts.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.09.2018

Chromolux celebrates 60 years!

There are many paper companies which can claim to have been around for hundreds of years, but there are very few brands which have been in existence for sixty years.

First produced and sold in 1958, Chromolux is sixty years old this year.

Here I am with Karsen Kahmann, sales manager for Zanders on their stand at the Packaging Innovations exhibition at Olympia yesterday for an impromptu Chromolux 60th Birthday party!

Chromolux is a 'cast coated' paper which has a very high gloss and lustre and has an international reputation for quality and we are pleased to be their UK stockist.

https://zanders.de/en/home.php

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2018

Cath Kidston - 25 years

This year Cath Kidston celebrates their 25th anniversary. The brand was established in London’s Holland Park, with Cath selling car boot finds and vintage fabric. When the business became more established, she began to create her own Modern Vintage designs, her first being floral ironing boards and statement wallpaper.

Almost 25 years later, the brand now has over 200 stores worldwide and has become synonymous with classic British design, internationally famous for unique floral prints and bright, playful patterns.

Cath Kidston have produced this lovely little pocketbook sized booklet to celebrate in 25 chapters. The size is A6 (148x105mm) portrait and is saddle stitched. The 4pp cover is on our Omnia 150gsm and 52pp text is on Marazion Ultra 90gsm, which means that it sits nice and flat.

The job is printed offset litho throughout and the cover is printed CMYK plus a silver. On most traditional uncoated papers, metallic inks can look flat and silver can just look a bit grey, but as I hope the above image demonstrates, the metallic silver really does look metallic on Omnia.

Click on images to enlarge

The text is printed in colour, also digitally printed on our Marazion Ultra 90gsm. This is a lightweight paper with a matt coating but which has an amazing bulk, tactile feel and excellent opacity for 90gsm. It feels just right for this project, because it just flops over wonderfully and sits nice and flat.

Click on images to enlarge

The reproduction on the Marazion Ultra is exceptionally good, remembering this is a 90gsm paper, as you can see from the detail image below...

The 52pp sits nice and flat:

The saddle stitches are perfectly executed - spine in beautifully creased, no cracking.

Design is by Sarah Mulligan. The job was produced by the Inspired Thinking Group (ITG). Printing is by Pureprint.

https://www.cathkidston.com/
http://www.itg.co.uk/
https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.09.2018