Dark Objects

This is the private view invitation produced for the Huxley-Parlour Gallery. The occasion is the opening of a retrospective exhibition of works by acclaimed American painter Donald Sultan. Spread over two floors of the London gallery, the exhibition includes 17 works produced from 1977 through to 2019. His series ‘Black Lemons’ was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1988, and preceded an in-depth investigation into the reduction of form. 

Size of the invitation is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and is itself an example of reduction of form, being very simply, but beautifully, hot foil blocked on both sides with gloss black foil using our Sumo, Black 1.5mm board.

The below image should give you some idea as to the 'heft' of the board!

Design is by Dan Cottrell Studio based in London and Amsterdam. Superb hot-foil blocking is by the Geoff Neal Group based in Feltham.

https://huxleyparlour.com/

http://www.dcottrell.com/

https://geoffneal.london/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.03.2021

A Life Less Ordinary

Mulberry Mongoose is a jewellery workshop, located on a well-trodden elephant path in the remote Zambian bush. Local craftswomen make all the jewellery by hand using natural materials from the South Luangwa valley and this is their story...

This lovely little book, tells the story of how the enterprise began, the jewellery, the characters and the materials used to make the pieces. 

Click on images to enlarge

The size of the book is a cute 130x95mm, portrait. The 40pp text is printed on Flora Anice, which as you can see from the image below has visible flecks of natural wood shives which gives the paper a visible, natural look.

The chapter divider spreads are printed using a gorgeous solid magenta...

Flora is produced with 30% post consumer de-inked waste, together with 60% of virgin FSC pulp 10% cotton fibres, which gives the paper a wonderful tactile feel. 

There are these superb illustrations used to illustrate the stories, absolutely gorgeous!

Click on images to enlarge

...and similarly, the beautifully illustrated map:

The book is perfect bound, which as you can see from the image below is nice and neat with a 5mm spine. The excellent print and finishing is by Identity Print, printed offset litho throughout.

The Mulberry Mongoose brand identity and design is by Matt Morgan.

https://mulberrymongoose.com/

https://mattmorgan.io/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.03.2021

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