Open for Business

These are unprecedented times and like most businesses, Fenner Paper is being proactive to ensure both the continuity of our operations while safeguarding the health and safety of our community including staff, customers and suppliers

We are following the current UK government recommendations, designed to limit transmission of Covid-19. We are operating with reduced staffing levels on-site, where possible with people working remotely. Our sample and dummy making facility is open and we'll do everything we can to provide our normal service, with me or Mark making most of the dummies! If you want to place an order or request samples, you can email as normal or just give us a call (01732 771100).

...other than that, it's business as usual! Shipments are still arriving and being despatched in the normal way (allowing for 2 metre social distancing). I took the below picture when I arrived at our warehouse, after deliveries from two of our supplying mills, this morning.

On a personal note, when you do brave going out for essential reasons, such as shopping, please SMILE ...you can't catch the virus by looking your fellow citizens in the eye and smiling. It would make us all feel better!

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.03.2020

Chernobyl - Truth in our Times

Historian Serhii Plokhy's masterful book, 'Chernobyl: History of a tragedy' was the winner of the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. This is a publication based on the Baillie Gifford prize lecture delivered by the author at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August 2019. 

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 letterpress on Crush, Almond 350gsm, one of our ranges made by FAVINI in Italy and is made using 15% residues from the industrial processing of agricultural foodstuffs. As a result, the paper does have inclusions and a "rustic" feel, which you might just be able to see from the image detail below:

The 24pp text is digitally printed on our StarFine Natural White 115gsm, which is a lovely neutral white and gives the publication the correct look and feel of a book.

Above is the centre spread, which shows the 'singer sewn' binding and a detail image below...

Below shows the spine, with the singer sewing. The cover has two parallel creases, which has "squared off" the spine. Clever and really effective.

Below shows the detail of the outside back cover. The cover is beautifully printed letterpress in two browns.

Published by the Edinburgh International Book Festival with support from the Baillie Gifford prize. Design, print and production is by Evgenia Kochkina at Stoneberry Press in Edinburgh.

http://stoneberrypress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.03.2020

It's a wrap!

The Barrowland Ballroom is an iconic music venue in Glasgow. Built as a ballroom and now a music venue, this limited edition book, titled Barrowland Ballads, features stories, photographs and graphic art from a 2 year-long project by the award winning artists of Recollective (Alison Irvine, Chris Leslie, Mitch Miller). They worked in close collaboration with the venue, the east end community that surrounds it, and a much wider community of gig-goers, dancers and musicians whose life stories are woven into the building.

The 256pp case-bound book is a 240x170mm size with a 24mm spine and it has what some people call a belly-band or a book-jacket or a wrap. The wrap is printed our wonderfully light Offenbach Bible 60gsm and features a fold-out Dialectogram. The word Dialectogram does not appear in the dictionary but is an illustration of places, showing them in detail with contextual illustrations. This Dialectogram is an amazing piece of work and is illustrated by Mitch Miller. Below shows the book with the wrap off...

The wrap is folded down to form a 12pp wrap - both ends of which fold in first to make an 8pp which then folds into the inside back and inside back covers.

Below shows the wrap folded out to it's full extent...

It has three horizontal folds. 

Click on images to enlarge

The below image shows the full Dialectogram in all it's glory...

If you click on the images, they come up to a more reasonable size. The open size of the wrap is 698x995mm, which is absolutely remarkable given that the stock size of the paper is 720x1020mm, so the printer has really scrimped on the amount of trim, which is a real feat. Printed offset Litho in CMYK.

Below shows a detail of the Dialectogram:

The book is a superb production, the design, writing, photography, illustration and printing is all of the highest standard. The Barrowlands project is supported by Creative Scotland, Merchant City Festival and Glasgow City Heritage Trust. The book is designed and published by Graphical House in a limited edition of only 400 copies. The excellent printing is by Pressision based in Leeds.

http://www.barrowlandballads.co.uk/
https://www.graphicalhouse.com/
https://pressision.co.uk/
http://barrowland-ballroom.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.03.2020

The great toilet paper shortage...

Given the terrible and worrying recent spread of the Covid 19 virus, there have been the rather humorous stories of people hoarding toilet roll, leaving empty shelves in the shops and supermarkets. I just wanted to share a couple of points with you that you might find interesting and even useful...

The first thing to point out is that whereas our paper manufacturing industry is now virtually non existent (back in the 19th and 20th centuries, Great Britain was one of the largest paper making nations) in the world of 'tissue and hygenic papers' we actually still have a decent amount of manufacturing capability in the UK. In fact about two thirds of domestic consumption in the UK is manufactured in the UK (according to the CPI) ...which is excellent news and means that we really, really won't run out.

However there is one thing that I want to warn you about, just in case you run out of toilet tissue. DO NOT use tissues, hand towel or kitchen roll in the toilet and then flush down the toilet. Why not...? Read below to find out.

Hand towel, kitchen towel and tissues are specially made to have what is called "wet strength" which means that chemicals are added in the manufacturing process which hold the fibres together when they get wet. The reason for this is that you don't want shredded wet tissue over your nose after you have just blown it or for hand towel to fall apart as you are drying your hands. Normal papers disintegrate when they get wet and the fibres will break apart in water. Toilet paper is specifically designed to efficiently break up in water and flush away down the pipes and disintegrate into fibres, however tissue papers and hand towels are specifically designed NOT to break up and hold together intact. The result is that flush these products down the toilet and you will get a blockage - so it's really not worth doing, after all, nobody wants to unblock drains.

So now you can amaze your friends down the pub or at dinner parties and explain why you shouldn't block toilets with tissues!

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.03.2020

Boarders by Thames MMXX

Blondey is a British artist, skateboarder, clothing designer and model living in London. He is creative director of fashion brand Thames and represented by the Kate Moss Agency. His work engages with popular culture as a means of communicating self, society and an interpretation and representation of modern day religion. He has collaborated with brands such as Arena Homme+, Adidas, Palace, and Burberry, among others. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world.

Titled “Boarders,” the inaugural THAMES MMXX collection consists of graphic T-shirts, hoodies, button-downs, and knee-high socks, as well as a standout knit sweater with red trim inspired by Blondey McCoy's old school uniform.

The lookbook is a large format size, 380x300mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. It is a 20pp self cover and is printed on Omnia 150gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

As you can see from the above images above and below, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the dark shadowy images, retaining detail in the dark areas - all with an uncoated tactile feel (...in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?)

In this oversized format, it flows superbly with the large format pages working perfectly on the 150gsm weight...

Click on images to enlarge

The look and feel of the whole publication is very uncoated and tactile but there is absolutely no loss of detail in the images as you can see in the detail image below...

You are probably assuming that this quality piece of print is printed offset litho, but you would be wrong. This job is printed on a new type of digital printing press, it is a Fujifilm Jet Press 720S. This new B2 size digital press is a commercial inkjet printer, which has been built to produce high-quality short run to medium run digital print. Push Print in London installed the press two years ago and as you can see from the result on this job, it is producing the high quality print that Push is renowned for.

The book sits nice and flat and the finishing is well done, with no cracking on the spine.

Boarders is designed and published by HENI, who are an international arts services business headquartered in London. HENI work with leading artists and estates across publishing, print-making, photography, digital publishing, film and art research. Photographer is Alasdair McLellan, Stylist is Ellie Grace Cumming. The boarders are Sam Sitayeb and Blondey. Hair is by Matt Mulhall

Printing is by Push Print based in London with Anthony Dearlove handling the project.

https://thamesmmxx.com/
https://blondey.com/
https://www.henipublishing.com/
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.03.2020

St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose

Here's a date for your diary...

This year, the Annual St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose takes place on Sunday 17th May  

The above flyer is printed letterpress by Andrew Long ( ...on our Colorset Lemon 270gsm!)

Wayzgoose is a term (unfamiliar to many people) that used to refer to an annual holiday in a printworks and was often an away-day to the coast or some other sort of day out, more often than not, paid for by the firm.

 However, in this instance the St Bride's Wayzgoose is a kind of letterpress 'bring and buy' sale. There are companies selling type, letterpress accessories, ink and lots of letterpress printed books and cards and the proceeds from the event go towards the St Bride Foundation. Why not come along... ? For interest, this is what it was like last year:
https://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-5th-wayzgoose-at-st-bride-foundation.html

http://www.sbf.org.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.03.2019

Le Ster

Aishleen Lester established her London based jewellery brand, Le Ster, in 2018. As a child with an active imagination and a magpie of colour and stories, Aishleen has always been drawn to the power of objects and the stories they can tell and her jewellery designs are testament to that. In 2018 Aishleen won Designer to Watch at International Jewellery London and her work has been featured in a number of publications including International Wall Street Journal and Departures Magazine.

This is a series of five 2pp, A5 size cards produced under the title of 'Light the Grey' which shows each individual jewellery piece.

Click on images to enlarge

The cards are printed on Omnia 320gsm. Unlike many of the printed items featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the cards have a tactile look and feel. Being a digital print process it also means that small quantities can be printed economically and updated frequently, without the pressure of having to do a large print run. Below image shows the reverse of the cards...

Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent reproduction of the fleshtones and in the dark areas.

Brand strategy and marketing agency is Studio Luxmore. Photographer and lighting specialist is Rhys Gray. Design is by Laura Purdy and digital printing is by Screaming Colour.

https://www.le-ster.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.03.2020