Are movie posters artwork?

On 14th April you can join art director and movie poster designer, Art Sims for an exciting Zoom lecture. Discover how he captures the essence of a 90 minute feature film in one frame image to get a person excited to see it in the 10 second window that they are likely to see the printed image. This is a fantastic opportunity to hear insights and the process behind the designs from the man responsible for creating iconic posters for The Black Panther, Tarzan, Do the Right Thing, Malcom X, Clockers, Dream Girls and more.

Art Sims is the founder and CEO of 11:24 Design Advertising who “tell stories that spark consumer movement” and are based in Los Angeles. Sims is dedicated to promoting African-American art and culture as part of a larger mandate he dubs “urbanization,” which refers to the recognition and melding of disparate cultural and creative histories. “I love doing work for and about African Americans. I feel I am reshaping history to show our beauty.”

Sims attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit before earning a scholarship to Michigan State University. Once graduated, he landed his first job in New York before heading to LA where he set up his own company gaining attention from directors including Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg.

Sims also teaches graphic design at Otis School of Design, and launched a project called the Artists in Residence Foundation, designed to unite artists with students who don't have art classes at their schools. Book Online HERE  for an incredibly reasonable £5!

(Biography taken from an Aiga interview in 2008 written by Holly Willis – to read more, please visit https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-art-sims). 

This talk is part of the ‘Celebrating 125 Years of St Bride Library’ lecture series and has kindly been sponsored by: Adobe Commercial Type,  Eye Magazine, Eric de Bellaigue, Google, Jerry Wright, Just Another Foundry, Klim Type Foundry, Lexon GB, Creative & Innovative Print,  Mayor of London,  Medioto - Graphics & Animation,  Peter Longland, R-Typography, Type By, Usborne Publishing and The Wynkyn de Worde Charitable Trust who have sponsored students and recent graduates across the UK to attend this lecture.

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.03.2021

Cradle to Cradle award for Lessebo

Cradle to Cradle is an approach for a continuous and consistent circular economy. You could also say that it is a vision with the goal of reducing the impact on nature, both with raw materials but also in terms of water stewardship and social responsibility.

The Cradle to Cradle should make a radical way of thinking in cycles starting with product design, manufacture, and use. The principle, which can also be perceived as a philosophy, was designed in the late 1990’s by the German chemist Michael Braungart and the American architect William McDonough. Cradle to Cradle products are therefore those that can either be returned to biological cycles as biological nutrients or that can be kept continuously in technical cycles as technical nutrients.

The Lessebo Mill is the only paper producer to be awarded GOLD certification, which was awarded this month.  Lessebo is a town in a remote area of southern Sweden called Småland. and is surrounded by a rugged terrain full of boulders and dense forests between large shallow lakes. Bruk is the Swedish word for mill, hence the name of the mill, Lessebo Bruk.
Founded in the middle of the 17th century as an iron mill, it was granted permission by the local government to produce paper in 1693. It should go without saying that all paper was made by hand at this point in time and it wasn't until the 19th century that paper machines were invented. It is also worth noting that the mill still Handmade Paper studio ...where I have actually made paper!

Lessebo Bruk is a mill with complete focus on forest based products with a modern product mix of graphical papers, dissolving cellulose and energy - in fact their power plant heats the town swimming pool as well as a great many of the houses in the town!

We have been working with Lessebo for nearly thirty years and I have written about their paper on this blog before. So it certainly wasn't a surprise to me that this Swedish mill should be awarded Gold certification and the fact that their close competitor, Arctic Paper has only achieved Bronze certification for their Munken papers has probably raised a wry smile at the mill!

If you would like a swatch of the Lessebo Design range, just drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.c2ccertified.org/

https://lessebopaper.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.03.2021

The Old Sorting House

The origins of the Old Sorting House in Islington, London, are both rich and varied. An intriguing mix of businesses have graced this imposing building, but it is the original use as the Northern District Post Office, opened in 1858 which fires the imagination. The building was recently put up for sale and this is the excellent sales literature which was created by Everything In Between.

Click on images to enlarge

The size of the brochure is 250x190mm, portrait and as you can see from the above image, there is a superb blind embossing on the front cover

This is a relatively unusual design, which works superbly. As you will notice in the above image, it has a square spine, which houses a saddle stitched text, however there is also another text section housed in the inside front cover. The cover is a 6pp and this text is under the flap that forms the 6pp, so in the image below, showing the open brochure, you are faced with two separate contents, one on left and right. 

The image below, has the cover of the left hand content open...

Click on images to enlarge

The left hand book, which explains and shows the history of the building is a 12pp text and the main book on the right hand side is a 48pp. It is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm cover and the text is all printed on a 130gsm.

Redeem 100% Recycled is a very neutral white shade and has an 'aged' look and feel to it, which is one of the reasons that it was chosen for this publication and it really works, but not only with the historical images (above) but it works just as well with the CGI's (below)

In the centre of the main brochure is a double gatefold allowing for a superb, wide image.

Click on images to enlarge

It might surprise you to know that this project is digitally printed, however as you may have noticed, the centre throw-out measures 760mm wide, so, the only way to produce this is on the HP Indigo 10000 presses, which prints a B2 sheet. Although Redeem is not a 'digital' paper, it has been Sapphire Treated to make it compatible with HP Indigo printing. 

Below shows the superb square spine, where you can just about see the saddle stitching, which is perfectly situated on the crease at the back of the spine.

Brochure and website design is by London consultancy, Everything in  Between. Arran Scott-Lidgett is creative director and the designer on the project was Katie Alger.

Print production is by Pureprint and there's no question that this job is superb. Beautifully printed and bound, productions like this make the case for clients using print. All the information in the publication could (and is) supplied digitally, but this piece of literature is and will be a piece of history.

https://e-i-b.com/ 

https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.03.2021

Modigliani

This is just a little reminder about one of our ranges called Modigliani. The range is manufactured by Cordenons in Italy. If you aren't familiar with Modigliani, it is a 'feltmarked' text and cover paper with a texture resembling that of a watercolour paper with a wonderful tactile feel. 

The inside of the swatch below:

Click on images to enlarge

Modigliani is available in three shades of white, Candido, Neve, Bianco plus Camoscio (cream) and Perla (grey). All shades are available in 95, 145, 200, 260 and 320gsm.

The above image shows detail of the watercolour texture.

The swatch also incorporates Dore Modigliani which is the same paper but with a pearlescent coating applied, which together with the feltmark gives the sheet an amazing shimmer, as you can see below...

If you would like a swatch, just email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

http://www.gruppocordenons.com/en/home.html
http://www.cordenons.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.03.2021

Passage

 The Wapping Project is the creation of the Women's Playhouse Trust which was set up in 1981.

Throughout the 80s and the early 90s WPT’s artistic policy was defined by the playwrights it commissioned, produced and published, predominantly at the Royal Court Theatre, London. In 1993 it began to mount work in one of London’s most beautiful, derelict buildings in the East End, the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station; it is at this point that it became known as The Wapping Project, and established a worldwide reputation. It was always described by its founder and director, Jules Wright, as an idea consistently in transition. I have written about projects from this period on this blog before.

This publication titled 'Passage' follows two previous works 'Passage 2013' and 'Passage 1996' It features three pieces of poetry responding to the theme passageby Agnieszka Studzinska, Alia Syed and Heather Phillipson.

Click on images to enlarge

Size is 210x148mm (A5) portrait and is saddle stitched. The 4pp cover is hot foil blocked with a large solid panel in red foil (and on back cover). The 48pp text is printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which works beautifully. The publication is mainly text but the striking design uses the 'show through' to create amazing overlaying patterns.

Click on images to enlarge

Printed offset litho in two colours, the 48pp text flops and flows beautifully in the hand...

Click on images to enlarge

There are some images to support the text, which are all printed as monotones...

...and there is one double page spread, which is a full out image, which looks fantastic.

Using the Offenbach Bible 60gsm means that the total thickness of the 48pp is only 2mm!

Superb detail is the black coloured wire stitching (staples) a small touch, which makes all the difference. Published in an edition of 600.

Design is by Atelier Dyakova and the creative director is Sonya Dyakova. Printing is by Push and the printing on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and the finishing is superb. 

https://thewappingproject.org/

https://www.atelierdyakova.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.03.2021 

International Women's Day

What better day to show you this amazing poster celebrating Beatrice Warde, produced as part of the Collections and Collaborations event at the St Bride Foundation.

Beatrice Warde (1900 – 1969) was a writer and scholar of typography. As editor and publicity manager for the Monotype Corporation, she became influential in the male dominated world of typography and printing and is recognized one of the few internationally renowned women typographers.

Warde wrote what is often described as a manifesto "This is a Printing Office" which is one of the most well known pieces of writing about printing and typography.

The poster was created by illustrator and teacher Pam Smy together with book designer and lecturer Ness Wood (together with Maisie Paradise Shearring they make up Orange Beak Studio), 

The A2 (494x420mm) poster is printed offset Litho in CMYK on Pergraphica Smooth, Natural 120gsm. It is printed by Boss Print (as were all the posters for the event) who are based in London.

The event was organised by another amazing woman in design Becky Chilcott, without whom the event would never have happened. The good news is that you can still buy one of these posters and support the St Bride Foundation HERE.

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

https://www.bossprint.com/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.03.2021

Onloan

Two friends, Tamsin and Natalie founded Onloan which is an innovative fashion rental membership. Their shared mission is to reduce waste, curate brilliant independent designers and reignite a love of clothes without the guilt! They offer flexible plans so that members can access premium clothes from cult contemporary designers to wear and enjoy on repeat.

This printed promotional mailer is 150mm square and is a 6pp gatefold, with one short flap (115mm) as you can see from the birds-eye image below.

The below image shows the mailer opened flat (415x150mm) showing both sides.

It is printed on our Omnia and as you can see from the images, especially below, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours as well and the darker shadowy areas - all with an uncoated tactile feel. Unlike many of the publications featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on toner based digital press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact nearly as good as litho. This is printed on our new Omnia 100% recycled, which is now in stock and we are in the process of launching.

Art direction and design is by Jenny Campbell-Colquhoun.

It is printed by Healeys, based in Ipswich. They are one of a handful of printers who are registered as a 'Carbon Balanced Printer' by the World Land Trust and can offer a totally carbon balanced printing service including the paper and all aspects of production and delivery.

https://onloan.co/

https://healeys-printers.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.03.2021