Toast - The Making of a Pioneer

TOAST began with loungewear and nightwear, designed in a farmhouse in Wales. Founded by James and Jessica Seaton in 1997, the collections reflected a sense of ease and a slower, more thoughtful way of life.

Today, led by Suzie de Rohan Willner, TOAST creates and curates simple, functional, beautiful clothing and homeware. TOAST has shops throughout the UK and can be found in concept stores across the US and Europe. With studios in both London and Swansea, TOAST continues to design and develop all collections in-house and is proud to be one of the few fashion brands with its own full pattern room – lined with calico toiles and full of pins, papers, chalks and spools of thread, it is a true place of making.

This publication is their wonderful look-book for the AW19 collection titled The Making of a Pioneer and begins with this preface:

Click on images to enlarge

The look-book is A4 size (297x210mm) portrait, saddle stitched with a 90pp text and is printed offset litho in CMYK throughout. 

The superb photography of Jo Metson Scott appears throughout the publication...

The reproduction is excellent as you can see from the image below, you can even see the detail in the dark areas of CMYK

The 90pp text is printed on Shiro Echo, White 90gsm which is 100% recycled and FSC accredited and as you can see, it works just beautifully...

Throughout the publication there are essays, including this one about Eva Hesse written by Corinne Julius

Click on images to enlarge

...and an article titled Inside the Kew Herbarium written by Matt Collins, with photography by Kendal Noctor.

House and Home photography is by Noemie Reijnen.

It's hard to know where to stop, these spreads are just so good, the mono image (reproduced in CMYK) is superb.

The look-book flops and folds in the hand beautifully...

Creative Director is Luciana Newell, who's work has appeared on this blog before. Graphic designer is Mia Shurey. The excellent print and finishing is by Westdale Press, based in Cardiff.

A superbly produced publication; art direction, photography, design, writing and printing is all truly excellent.

https://www.toa.st/uk/

http://www.westdale.co.uk/
http://www.jometsonscott.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.04.2020

Easter Egg Day!

Today is Easter Monday and the day that many of you will be chomping through your Easter Eggs in glorious self-isolation...

 

It has reminded me of this project in 2013 that Baxter & Bailey asked for my help with the material to make a rosette to place on a 75cm tall egg!

This is their entry to the Lindt Big Egg Hunt which comprised 101 giant Easter eggs (designed by a variety of artists and designers) which were hidden around Covent Garden in London as part of a charity egg hunt in support of Action for Children. The BB entry seeks to address the chicken and the egg quandary and is philosophically titled Eggsistentialism. Above is Dom Bailey pictured with their creation.

After the opening in London, the 101 eggs went on a month long UK tour around various cities and above you can see them at the railway station! You can read my original article from 2013 here.

Happy egg hunting...

https://baxterandbailey.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.04.2020

Springtime greetings!

Love Poppet is a card publisher based in the Kent countryside, just outside Canterbury. Established by Claire Vincent, Love Poppet specialises in bespoke papercut cards and this springtime delight is a wonderful card. What better way for me to wish you all a happy Easter...

It's hard to give the exact size as it is such an irregular shape, however it fits inside a C6 envelope. The card pops up to reveal this amazing butterfly

The card is made using our Colorset Solar 270gsm, which is a 100% recycled board and is a vibrant yellow shade. Below shows the reverse side which reveals the simple but incredibly effective construction.

You can see more of Claire's creations here and you can buy them on Not On The High Street and Etsy. With best wishes for a wonderful Easter, especially in these strange times of self isolation.

https://lovepoppet.co.uk/
https://www.notonthehighstreet.com/lovepoppet
https://www.etsy.com/shop/lovepoppet

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.04.2020

Selling Your Home the Modern Way

Established by Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd, The Modern House is the UK’s foremost estate agency, only selling modernist and contemporary architecture for over a decade. This is a piece of

promotional literature titled "Selling Your Home the Modern Way" giving the facts about how The Modern House operates, supported with research and statistics.

The format is an 8pp concertina fold, finished size is 200x262mm folding out to 800x262mm. Below you can see a birds-eye view of the format. 

Below shows it unfolded...

Click on images to enlarge

The material chosen for the publication is our Omnia. This material has a high bulk, required as this is only an 8pp but a board weight would be too heavy, so this is produced on 150gsm which has a bulk of 200microns, which feels just right. The photography has reproduced brilliantly on the Omnia, with the combination of exterior and interior photography and fleshtones..

The Modern House have used Omnia many times, so they know just how good the combination of tactile feel and excellent reproduction is ...and the solid black is really solid and dead flat matt:

The superb art direction and design is by Tom Watt at Field Projects. Print production is by Push in London.

https://www.themodernhouse.com/

http://field-projects.com/

http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.04.2020

The book of i

The Book of I is a notebook style publication produced for Accenture. It is an internal publication for employees to note their personal development. Size is 210x137mm portrait with a 4pp cover and 128pp text and is section sewn, the spine is 10mm thick. On the outside cover it is simply printed and blind embossed on an embossed cover from that well known "Hull-based" paper merchant!

Being an internal publication, it isn't appropriate to show you the inside text pages, suffice it to say the job is printed offset litho in just one colour with the majority of pages are just printed as lines...

...or squares

...or dots

 [Please excuse my fingers appearing]

The below image shows the very neatly sewn sections.

The 128pp text is printed on Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm, which is our 100% recycled paper with FSC accreditation.

Print and hot foiling is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood with Paul Martin handling the project.

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.04.2020

ARKET Launch

ARKET is a modern-day market offering essential products for men, women, children and the home. ARKET’s mission is to democratise quality through widely accessible, well-made, durable products, designed to be used and loved for a long time. ARKET opened its first store on Regent Street, London in August 2017 and this is the launch invitation...

Size of the invitation is 148x105mm, which is concertina folded out to a finished size of 592x420mm. Below is a birds eye view...

Click on images to enlarge

The invitation is printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm ...and it looks and feels absolutely superb - it flops and folds in a delightful way when handling as I hope these images demonstrate. The above image shows the way it concertina's from top to bottom.
First fold, which concertina's out to 148x420mm

Fully unfolded to form a 32pp broadsheet...

The invitation is printed in just black, offset litho on one side only, although you might just be able to see ARKET as a shadow in the top quarter, which I hope you will be able to see better in the pictures below...

Click on images to enlarge

It is a very subtle effect, so how is it created? …the white letters are silkscreen printed by K2 Screen. Mathias Clottu worked with Mark Jenkins at K2 to create a bespoke white colour to match the tone of Offenbach Bible -  a pure white silkscreen would have been too visible. The below image shows the silkscreened reverse.

The below image shows how it looks with light behind it, although it was the subtlety of the matching white shade that was required and which works so beautifully on the finished piece...

Design is by Mathias Clottu Studio. Litho printing is by Xtraprint, silkscreen is by K2 Screen and it was concertina folded by ABS Finishers.

https://www.arket.com/
https://hmgroup.com/brands/arket.html
https://www.mathiasclottu.com/

http://www.xtraprint.co.uk/
http://www.k2screen.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.04.2020

April Fool from the past...

Given the current Corona shutdown situation, I don't think many people are in the mood for an April Fool joke. However, 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.

So I thought I'd let you see an April Fool that I posted back in 2011, which had many people fooled... 

Friday, 1 April 2011

Royal Wedding beckons!

This morning, I can reveal that I've been invited to the Royal Wedding on 29th April - how exciting is that!

...and as you can see below, I've already been for my morning suit and hat fitting (in the Fenner Paper van!

Sadly, it's not because I have "blue blood" running through my veins, it's strictly a work related reason....

Most readers of this blog know that many people call me for recommendations about what materials to use, so I'm used to speaking to a wide range of people but even I was surprised when I received a call from Buckingham Palace!  Flight Lieutenant "Loof" Lirpa, the Prince's secretary and assistant, introduced himself by saying that I'd come highly recommended and he'd even checked out this very blog!

Due to security protocols, I can't reveal too much (or in fact anything) about the materials or processes used, or even the printer who did the job, so this isn't going to be a particularly revealing post - although I can say it's printed on a very white board.

As part of William and Kate's outreach programme, they wanted to invite some "ordinary" people and where better to start than some of the "tradespeople" who have been involved in all apects of the wedding and I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen ones.

Needless to say, I shall be checking out the paper used for the order of service sheets on the actual day!

Lady in waiting, Rt Hon. A.P. Rilf-Ool, sending out the invitations

...all I have to do now is remember the date!

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2011