Charleston Press No. 3

Nestled in the South Downs, Charleston was the country meeting place for the writers, painters and thinkers known as the Bloomsbury group. Now run by the Charleston Trust, the house is an excellent museum and visitor attraction, presented to look as it did when the family lived there in the 1950's. The walled garden was created by the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant to designs by Roger Fry and features Mediterranean influences with plants chosen for their intense colour and silver foliage. These became the subject of many works over their long residence at Charleston. 

Published by the Charleston Trust, the Charleston Press includes includes newly commissioned essays exploring the themes, artists and stories of the exhibitions and programmes at Charleston, as well as articles marking important Bloomsbury anniversaries and events. This is the third edition.

Size is 220x170mm, portrait and is perfect bound. The publication has an 8pp 'dustjacket' around the cover as you can see from the birdseye image below...

The below image shows the book (with the Colorset Mango cover) out of the dustjacket (100mm flaps) plus the wrap-around belly-band.

The 4pp cover, which is secreted under the dustjacket, is produced on our Colorset Mango (100% Recycled) 270gsm and is unprinted, being simply, but beautifully, debossed.

The 96pp text is printed offset litho on our Omnia 120gsm. Omnia was chosen because it would beautifully reproduce the wide variety of different media, the artworks, solid colours and dark photography and most importantly feel special - with the reproduction that you would expect on a silk or gloss but with a natural tactile uncoated feel

The majority of this issue is dedicated to articles about the Omega Workshops, based in Fitzroy Square, London in the early 20th Century. An exhibition about the Omega workshops was hosted in the galleries at Charleston.

A chapter titled 'Shy radishes' shows some of the Charleston ceramics in use with superbly photographed still life images

Click on images to enlarge

The wrap around bellyband (70mm high) which tucks into the book, is printed on our Sixties 60gsm and because of the translucency, the background image shows through beautifully.

Below image shows the 8mm spine, the perfect binding. The jacket is printed on Omnia 150gsm.

The reproduction on the Omnia is just something else, the level of detail and reproduction is superb as you can see the image below.

The publication is designed by Playne Design who have studios in London and Hastings. Creative Director is Clare Playne. Print production is by Pureprint. Like the first edition, this is an excellent example of a beautifully designed and well executed piece of print, entirely right for the subject. The publication is available for sale (at a very reasonable £5) HERE 

https://www.charleston.org.uk/

http://www.playnedesign.co.uk/

https://www.pureprint.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.04.2021

Surfers against Sewage - The Million Mile Clean

Today, Surfers Against Sewage launched their Million Mile Clean. Created in response to the pandemic, the Million Mile Clean connects your beach, street, river and mountain cleaning action. Running throughout the year, we aim to inspire, empower and support 100,000 volunteers walking 10 miles whilst cleaning the places they love. It will be the biggest and most impactful clean up event ever! 

100,000 volunteers x 10 miles each = 1 million miles. 

According to new research...

• Over half of Brits (54%) think COVID-19 has led to an increase in plastic pollution 
• Almost two-thirds (59%) have seen more waste in their area over the last 12 months. 
• 51% say they see more plastic on UK beaches than wildlife 
• 41% Brits feel their mental health has deteriorated as a result of lockdown 

"This campaign reflects and celebrates a national mood of hope and optimism as the country emerges from a dark winter spent in lockdown. Now more than ever, it is crucial for us all to reconnect with the outdoors and the Million Mile Clean provides an opportunity for you to prioritise your health whilst also creating a positive impact on your environment."

The campaign was featured on all the national news channels this morning and you can read more about the campaign here: https://www.sas.org.uk/news/100000-volunteers-x-10-miles-for-the-million-mile-clean/

In 2017, I wrote about a publication for a Community project for Surfers Against Sewage...

Established in 1990 by people (originally surfers) who were sick of seeing sewage in the sea and on beaches.  It was their direct contact with the ocean and sadly the chronic sewage pollution of the time that was the visceral driving force behind the emerging organisation, something that remains strong to this day. However marine plastic pollution and climate change are now the new issues of concern.

The project used our Favini SHIRO Alga Carta, Bianco, chosen because it was in keeping with the sustainable nature of the project, because it is manufactured partly using algae harvested from the Venice lagoon, combined with recycled and FSC certified fibres.

Design is by Leap based in Cornwall and you can read about the project HERE

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.04.2021

Billy Tannery Business Cards

Billy Tannery started with a discovery. Founders Jack and Rory found out that due to decades of decline in the British leather industry, many thousands of goatskins leftover from the food industry were being thrown away each year. So in 2016, building on centuries of local leather knowledge, they transformed a farm building in the Midlands into a small-batch tannery - the first to be built in the UK for well over 50 years! ...and these are their cracking business cards.

What better paper to print the publication on than a paper made using 25% upcycled leather! Remake is the range produced by Favini and is leather ‘upcycling’ on an industrial scale and represents the latest frontier in upcycling in the paper sector. This unique and innovative paper replaces 25% of wood tree pulp with leather residues. You can read more about Remake here.

Size of the cards is 53x85mm and are printed on Remake, Sand 380gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

In the detail image below you can see the visible leather fibres in the sheet and the proud statement about the paper's provenance.

The cards are printed and finished by Typecast Colour, based in Paddock Wood, Kent and was printed on their Xerox digital press. 

https://billytannery.co.uk/

http://www.typecast.co.uk/ 

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.04.2021

Jobs from the past - Number 137

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 projects from years gone by and here's one from 2012.

The Wallpaper*Architects Directory 2012

Truly international, consistently intelligent and hugely influential, Wallpaper* is the world's most important design and style magazine. This piece of literature was produced to accompany an exhibition showing 20 architects from around the world. The exhibition was sponsored by Land Securities.

The finished size is 99x210mm which folds in half and then concertina folds out to an A2 size (420x594mm). Printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

Front...

Click on images to enlarge

Reverse...

The designer on the project was Claudine Cockburn and as it happens, I still have her original brief, which is as follows: "I am working on a little catalogue project for an up and coming exhibition we are hosting in a few weeks time. The exhibition features architecture works from our directory which have been stitched by Peter Crawley onto thick slightly off white textured paper. The catalogue is actually going to be an A2 poster which will fold out and be given out at the exhibition. We will need around 700 posters. I wondered firstly, with our design we would like a little show through on the paper but ideally a little texture too" You can see the excellence of the commissioned artwork (both sides) in the below image...

My suggestion was possibly a rather unusual one, it was our Modigliani Candido 95gsm, from Gruppo Cordenons. It's really rather hard to demonstrate on a job like this, just how perfectly the material works with the artwork, it is simply superb. The underlying texture from the original artwork, which is scanned and printed has reproduced perfectly and you get the texture in the feel, through your fingers. 

Just to demonstrate, I have taken an image of the texture of the Modigliani, which is a feltmarked paper here...

Anyway, this is one small project that I'm particularly pleased about my involvement with - looks (and feels) as good today as it did nine years ago.

So where is everyone now...? Designer on the project was Claudine Cockburn, who is now a Senior Designer at D8 in Glasgow. Art Director was Sarah Douglas. Since 2012, she was appointed creative director and in 2017 she became Editor in Chief of Wallpaper*. Printing was by FE Burman, with Paul Regan looking after the project. Burman's is one of the last printers based in central London and has recently invested in the latest HP Indigo B2 press and Paul is the Sales Director.

https://www.wallpaper.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.04.2021

New A4 sample service launches today!

Very exciting news today!

Some readers of this blog may not even remember the humble Fax machine, but for many years they sat in the corner of the offices and studios of the land, humming away and allowing us to receive communications across the miles, before the internet...

So why am I telling you about these outdated office machines? Well, with the recent updating of the  UK broadband network, increased bandwidth and faster speeds, technology company Looflir PA has developed a program which enables paper samples to be delivered directly via the fax machine to your studio. Not only does this mean you can get your samples straight away, it also saves the environment as we will no longer have to send A4 samples by post or courier...

So now is the time to look out for those old fax machines in store cupboards and under desks and get them plugged in! And the good news is that even though Fenner Paper is the one that partnered with Looflir PA to pioneer this new concept, the new technology will be rolled out to the rest of the industry including other paper merchants and paper mills, which will make receiving samples from other parts of the world much easier.

Above is a sheet of our Colorset 100% Recycled, Bright Red 270gsm arriving on a Samsung machine during testing. Please note that there is a limit to the weights that can be sent and currently we are unable to send anything 1mm or over, so sadly we cannot send our SUMO range.

To sign up for the new service, please email samples@fennerpaper.co.uk and we will send you the relevant information and the download procedure. 

https/looflir.pa

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2021

12.00 - time to reveal that this post is in fact an April Fools joke! hope you enjoyed it

Cheers

Justin

Vive Le Vodka Martini!

To create GREY GOOSE vodka, François Thibault maintains an unrivalled level of craftsmanship, using only the very finest ingredients. Its signature smoothness and distinct character are the result of an extraordinary passion for spirit making and an unparalleled commitment to the highest possible quality. 

Grey Goose have produced this little booklet of Vodka Martini cocktails that can be made using their Vodka including a look at the history of the Martini and contemporary reinventions.

Size of the booklet is A6 (148x105mm) portrait and has a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and 12pp text on 150gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

Omnia was chosen because it would work with the rich detail that is present on the cover image but that would still give a natural look and tactile feel to work with the beautiful illustrations used to accompany the recipes. Printed offset litho throughout.

As you can see from the image below, it sits open on it's own, so if being used in a bar, it will stand up perfectly.

...and as you will also be able to tell, it has been properly matrix creased and the saddle stitches are perfectly central. It's details like this that get noticed on smaller printed pieces like this.

Creative direction and design is by London based branding agency Ragged Edge and litho printing is by Identity, based in Paddock Wood, Kent.

https://www.greygoose.com/en-gb/

http://www.raggededge.com/ 

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.03.2021

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