Progress? On the evolution of Arabic type

Next week, the Justin Howes Memorial Lecture is being delivered by Titus Nemeth at the St Bride Foundation.

The history of typography is also a history of technologies. As the means of multiplying texts evolved through time, different tools left distinct marks on letterforms. This dynamic accelerated from the late nineteenth century, as technological developments began to radically change the making and setting of type. At increasingly shorter intervals new machines and techniques shaped how text was represented and multiplied. Arabic typography is no exception to this, but its history is shorter.

Only when in the West, print was industrialised began Muslim printers to use letterpress printing on a large scale. In consequence, the mechanisation of Arabic typography occurred at an earlier evolutionary stage, lending machinery a key role in its development.

In this talk Titus, discusses this history from the perspective of progress: He will present key moments and contributions, consider drivers and motivations, and query if and how new technologies really did result in advances for Arabic typography.

Titus Nemeth is a type-designer and typographer with a special interest in the Arabic script. An alumnus of the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at Reading, Titus has pursued an independent career for over ten years. He has taught in France (ESAD Amiens), Morocco (ESAV Marrakesh), Qatar (VCUQ), and the UK (Reading). His doctoral research formed the foundation for Arabic Type-Making in the Machine Age, recently published with Brill Publishers.

The talk is next Thursday, 14 March 2019 from 7–9pm at the St Bride Foundation. Tickets are a bargain at £8–12.50 - this is a fascinating subject, why not go and stimulate the grey matter!
You can book tickets HERE

https://www.sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/the-justin-howes-memorial-lecture-progress-on-the-evolution-of-arabic-type/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.03.2019

Jobs from the past - Number 113

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. This project is from the year 2000.

RIBA - The Value of Architecture
This book published under the 'RIBA Future Studies' banner. They published a series of papers and this one 'Context and current thinking' is written by Eric Loe. It examines how economic models have developed over time to define the boundaries of cost and value in building.

The book is A5 (210x148mm) size, portrait. It is section sewn giving it a 7mm spine. The book has a 4pp cover printed on our Matrisse 280gsm and a 62pp text on our Matrisse 160gsm.

The book is printed offset litho in just two colours throughout.

There are few images, which are just reproduced as halftones and the design of the publication is one of typographic clarity.

Image showing the section sewn binding (7mm spine)

Cover photography is by Richard Learoyd. Design is by Cartlidge Levene ...and as I think you can appreciate from the images, this is a very beautiful piece of typographic design.

You can read the document here:
https://docplayer.net/28035983-The-value-of-architecture-context-and-current-thinking-eric-loe-ribafuture-studies.html

The book was printed by Principal Colour, who are still based in Paddock Wood in Kent.

http://cartlidgelevene.co.uk/
www.principalcolour.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.03.2018

Beyond East West Street

East West Street is a book by the author Philippe Sands QC which was the winner of the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction.

Beyond East West Street is a publication based on the Baillie Gifford prize lecture delivered by the author at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

This small booklet is published by Edinburgh International Book Festival and printed in Edinburgh by Stoneberry Press.

 

The size is 198x128mm, portrait. The cover is printed on Remake Smoke 380gsm and the 24pp text is digitally printed. Remake is a range from Favini made using 25% residues from leather processing.

The cover is letterpress printed in grey and looks just wonderful. The 'Singer Sewn' binding is just perfect.

Below image shows the detail on the back cover...

Published by the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Design, print and production is by Evgenia Kochkina at Stoneberry Press in Edinburgh.

http://stoneberrypress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.02.2019

Begg & Co - Home

Begg & Co have been making beautiful scarves, wraps and stoles in Scotland since 1866. The small coastal town of Ayr has been at the heart of the brand for well over a century, when founder Alex Begg opened his first mill and began working with skilled local weavers. Begg’s original ethos is maintained thanks to the modern-day team of dedicated craftspeople, who continue to source the best quality yarns in order to create timeless, versatile products that are heavenly to touch and a delight to own.

This is the lookbook for last year's Home collection showing the range of throws, stoles and travel blankets. The finished size of the publication is 266x145mm and forms a 24pp broadsheet, folding out to 798x580mm.

The above image shows the front and back covers. The format is a "parallel gatefold" as you can see from the image below...

Front cover...

First spread...

folding out to the next spread....

The whole publication is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 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. The below image shows the way it concertina's from top to bottom (vertical folds) before folding horizontally

 Image showing the full sheet

 ...and the other side:

Creative direction and design is by Studio Small. Photography is by Josh Hight.

Printing is by Push and the reproduction on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm is truly excellent.

https://www.beggandcompany.com/

http://www.studiosmall.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.02.2019

Freda Sack

Last week it was announced that British type designer Freda Sack died. Freda had a long career starting at Letraset in the 1970's followed by a host of other groundbreaking type design companies. Eventually Freda went freelance and then collaborated with David Quay setting up The Foundry together. Over her long career, Freda is credited with a large number of typeface designs which I shall not attempt to list here.

Freda was deeply involved in education, both as a governor and external examiner. From the mid 1990's she was heavily involved with the smooth running of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) in a variety of roles, culminating with being President from 2006-2010.

Last Summer, Freda was made an Honorary Fellow of the ISTD in recognition of her significant contribution to the Society and the typographic industry. The award was made at the ISTD 90th anniversary, which I wrote about here and where I took the rather over-exposed picture above.

It was a pleasure to know Freda and she was a tireless worker for the causes she was involved with. She was always giving and yet so appreciative to others for their efforts. Freda was a fellow member of the Wynkyn de Worde Society and I was honoured to have her as my guest at last year's Summer party, where she kindly gave me a wonderful 'sign of the sun' brooch, which I treasure.

You can read more about Freda's life here:

https://www.istd.org.uk/blog/freda-sack

Freda touched many lives and will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

https://www.istd.org.uk/
http://www.foundrytypes.co.uk/about-the-foundry/the-foundry-partners/freda-sack

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.02.2019

WEDF - Give it a Whirli

On Wednesday evening, I went to one of the best talks on design and branding I've ever been to. The West of England Design Forum (WEDF) was founded in 2006 to champion design in the West of England. It's a volunteer run organisation which has created a place for local design industry people to meet, share ideas, be inspired and make connections. Every month or so, they have an industry insider or company to talk about their work.

The talk on Wednesday was by Ragged Edge, a branding agency in London. What made this talk different (and so brilliant) is that they focused on one project, called Whirli, taking the audience through the process step by step, with individual talks by the co-founder (Max Ottignon), the strategist, the writer and the creative director - each presentation punctuated by the reaction by the actual client!

Yes, Nigel Phan, founder of Whirli and the actual client, spoke after each of the presentations and gave his reasoning and insight into which routes he decided on and why - and Max even took the opportunity of asking Nigel how much budget played a part in the decision making!

This talk, broke the usual mould of a design company talking about where they went to uni, their first job, how they set up, what projects they did etc etc. The result was a fascinating and really insightful talk - and very well presented.

It was an excellent evening and the WEDF should be applauded for their program of events and the quality of speakers that they have managed to get - well done to all those volunteers at the WEDF involved in organising these events.

https://raggededge.com/
https://wedesignforum.co.uk/
https://whirli.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.02.2019 

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! What could be better than showing you a superb card, produced on our Flockage Colours...  

In fairness, this card was produced a couple of years ago by Blue Eyed Sun, so it's not now currently available, however it really is a beautifully luxurious card.

For those of you which are not familiar with this product, it is a flocked board which feels like a velvety cloth/material to the touch. It also takes hot foil blocking exceptionally well as the heat, softens the fibres allowing the foil to bed down nicely in the flock.

Flockage is a one sided material - in the case of the Bright Red, it has a coloured flock face and a red coloured board reverse.

As you will be able to see from the image above, the material has been properly creased with a 'matrix' crease, forming a perfect fold. Reverse of the card, also foiled, is below.

The cards are designed and published by Blue Eyed Sun. Design is by Jo Corner. Blue Eyed Sun is an award winning greeting card company based in Brighton established nearly twenty years ago. They specialise in handmade and high end design-led cards, which are now sold around the world by some of the best know retailers including Harrods, John Lewis etc.

Joint founder and managing director Jeremy Corner is a leading figure in the greeting card world. He is instrumental within the 'Ladder Club' which helps aspiring greeting card publishers and is on the council of the Greeting Card Association (GCA). He is a real advocate for the industry ...and he still finds time to be a regular blogger!

www.blueeyedsun.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.02.2019