Wedding Invitation on Sixties

Over the many years I have been  paper merchant, the trickiest of all projects to be involved with is the graphic designer's own wedding invitation! Generally speaking there are many samples involved and lots of changes in direction in a desire to impress their design savvy friends! Not so, with this invitation, as I didn't know anything about it until I received a lovely email yesterday...

I met designer Sam Moffat this time last year, who had just set up his own practice in London called  Decade Studio. One of the products I showed Sam was our new SIXTIES. Sixties is a new paper (in 60gsm, hence the name!) which has the same type of translucency as a tracing paper, but feels like a normal paper. Unbeknown to me Sam identified this as the perfect stock for his upcoming wedding in November.

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the invitation is 420x297 (A3) folding down to 105x148mm (A6). It is digitally printed by Kestrel Press, white on the front and in black on the reverse.

… you can see the translucency in the images above and below. Photography is by Huy

Digital printing is by Kestrel Press based in Irvine. Kestrel had tested the Sixties on their digital press, including the use of digital white toner, which I wrote about in an article on this blog, which Sam spotted. The end result is absolutely superb. The invitations are sealed with an orange sticker, as you can see below...

Sam moved back to Australia in January and Decade Studio is now based in Hobart, Tasmania. My best wishes to Sam and Hannah on their new life together in Oz and thanks to Sam for taking the time to share this with me, so I could share it with you.

http://www.decade.studio/
http://www.kestrelpress.com/ 
https://www.instagram.com/huy____/

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.07.2020

Sustainable Print

Park Communications in London has an enviable reputation as being one of the Capital's foremost corporate printers and one with the highest environmental credentials, having won Printweek Environmental Printer of the year in 2017 followed by a highly commended in 2018.

Park has produced this guide aimed at providing tips about sustainable printing for brands and includes articles on sustainable materials, sustainable large format, and the creative opportunities of sustainable printing.

Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait. The 4pp cover is printed on Crush, Corn 250gsm with the 8pp text on Shiro Echo, White 120gsm.

The above image shows a project for Spitfire Audio, printed by Park on a combination of Shiro Echo and Flora Giglio, which I wrote about on this blog here.

Our Crush range from Favini in Italy, is manufactured using 15% agro-industrial residues from the processing of corn and hopefully, in the below image, you can see the small specs and inclusions in the paper.

The guide is written, designed and printed by Park Communications and is digitally printed using their HP Indigo press. It is also available as a pdf download here.

https://www.parkcom.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.07.2020

Pills, Potions & Points: Letterpress Art in Science

Have you ever wondered how a 1950’s metal type fleuron can explain cutting edge Parkinson’s research? Who the naked reverse wifi guy is and what he’s got to do with enzymes? Or how flight and neurons can be connected? Glint lover Elizabeth Fraser has. In this lecture at the St Bride Foundation, she will explain her love of pattern, science and her journey bringing letterpress and the laboratory together.

This online lecture (via Zoom, next Tuesday 21st July) is by Elizabeth Fraser a.k.a Frauhaus who is an artist and printmaker working mostly with letterpress and linoprint. As well as puzzling over make-ready and inspiration in her garden studio Elizabeth teaches as an Associate Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. Her prints and artist books have been loaned, donated and acquired by Kent University special collections archive, Oxford University Bodleian Library, RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection and The British Library. Most recently an essay about her sci-art work has been included in the book Ways of Thinking published by Ruskin Arts.

Why not take some time out and book for next Tuesday, 21st July 6.00–7.30pm Tickets: £3.00 – 5.00

You can book online HERE

www.frauhaus.co.uk
https://www.sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.07.2020

dzek

Marmoreal is an engineered marble for architectural surfaces developed by Dzek in collaboration with the British designer Max Lamb. The graphic and immersive visual qualities of this engineered marble have also been harnessed in pieces of furniture, developed to illustrate the material’s capabilities beyond the typical two-dimensional expressions common to architectural surfaces.

This piece of literature works as both product information guide and promotional poster. Size is 838 x 590mm folding down to 148mm square. It folds into a 40pp broadsheet with an additional 8pp of 100mm high flaps.

It is concertina folded both horizontally and vertically as you can see in birdseye image below... The whole publication is 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.

which folds out flat as below

The below image shows the way it concertina's from top to bottom (vertical folds) before folding horizontally.

The striking Marmoreal poster, which shows this amazing material...

Reverse, with details about the material together with images and the items of furniture made using Marmorial.

Photography is by Frank Hülsbömer. The publication is printed offset litho in CMYK and the colour reproduction on the Offenbach Bible is excellent, as you can see in the detail image below.

Field Projects, a London based studio, is responsible for the superb art direction and design. Creative Director on the project is Tom Watt.

...and many thanks for Tom for kindly sending me file copies and a lovely note.

https://dzekdzekdzek.com/marmoreal#marmoreal
http://maxlamb.org/157-marmoreal/
http://www.field-projects.com/
https://www.frankhuelsboemer.de/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.07.2020

PIE

PIE is a new breed of recruitment agency for automotive, consumer goods and B2B. Their mission is to cut out all the hassle that typically comes with job search and have a straightforward, direct approach. London based design and branding studio, Studio Mean have produced for them, a no-nonsense brand that doesn't mince it's words. You can see the strong branding working across the PIE website here.

An important part of the branding is the business cards. The 54 x 84mm cards, literally have a slice of pie cut out of them! They are digitally printed on our Colorset 100% Recycled 350gsm in Deep Orange, which has been duplexed to make 700gsm, which is 1mm thick.

The cards are digitally printed in black on the face and the name and contact details are all printed in digital white (HP Indigo printed) on the reverse, with the angle die-cut off...

Colorset is a range of 36 colours, available in 120, 270 and 350gsm. The below image gives you an idea of the thickness achieved with the duplexing.

Design is by Studio Mean. Print and finishing is by MTA Digital, based in South London.

https://pie-recruitment.com/
https://www.studiomean.co/
http://www.mtadigital.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.07.2020

Nothing is Permanent

Cross-disciplinary designer and printmaker, Paul Wolterink works across a range of media, believing "Anything can function as a carrier for information". From his roots as graphic designer, Wolterink's design vision is based on rapid instinctive 'design intuition' resulting in strong communication and simple visual language, that quickly burns on the retina - which is certainly true with this bright fluorescent print!

In Paul's own words: "Small edition re-print no. 2, in a new colour combination, of my ode to the classic marker pen series and, also, as a tribute to one of my favourite mottos 'Nothing is Permanent'. Useful in a headwind, but also in a tailwind. This Blue & Fluorescent orange version comes in an edition of 50 prints only".

Paul Wolterink finished screen printing this new colour way reprint a day before 14 days isolation. The size is 230x500mm and is hand silkscreen printed on our Matrisse 200gsm, signed and numbered
as you can see below...

Below image shows the screen...

You can read more about his work here: http://portfolio.paulwolterink.com/filter/design/ and you can buy one of these lovely prints here

http://portfolio.paulwolterink.com/filter/design/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2020

Hackney Winter Night Shelter Annual Report

Each winter, Hackney Winter Night Shelter (HWNS) provides food, shelter and a warm welcome to homeless people in Hackney. They help get their guests out of homelessness and into homes. A project of Hackney Doorways, HWNS is a grassroots project run by volunteers from Hackney churches and the local community providing a meal and a bed for homeless people at 7 different venues around Hackney.

This is their annual report for the latest financial year...

The size of the publication is 225x152mm, portrait and is a 28pp, self cover on our Omnia 120gsm. The design uses bold, solid colours made out of CMYK...

As you can see from the image 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 darker shadowy areas - all with an uncoated tactile feel and unlike many of the publications 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 whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!

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.

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

This 28pp self cover publication flows superbly in the hand.

An interesting feature is that it is saddle stitched but has a square back! ..as you can see below. It is produced on a Morgana PowerSquare machine which produces this SquareBack™ finish.

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

Creative Director is Louise Desborough at Loud Creative. The job was printed and finished by digital print company Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent.

https://www.hwns.org.uk/
https://www.loud-creative.com/
http://www.typecast.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.07..2020