No Time to Die

Unless you are a hermit, you could not have missed the fact that the new James Bond film, No Time to Die was released in the UK yesterday. The release has been delayed for 15 months due to the global pandemic.

What better time to review these superb invitations produced for Skyfall, which as you will read below, was also a movie put on hold, although that was due to the financial recession...

SKYFALL 2012

The James Bond franchise is a global phenomenon and one which over the years has made those involved in the production and marketing a lot of money. However many people may not remember that due to the recession, Bond film number 23 (as Skyfall was then known) was put on hold in 2010 due to lack of cash. Having originally meant to be released in 2011, it was eventually released in October 2012.

Film Premieres of this scale demand lavish and expensive invitations and collateral. In quality terms they must live up to and possibly exceed, the expectations of the forthcoming film.

Below is a small 4pp wallet (with pocket) which is 180mmx107mm, printed offset litho in CMYK plus a gold special colour on Omnia 280gsm with the ticket printed CMYK and hot foil blocked in metallic gold foil on Omnia 280gsm duplexed to 560gsm.  

Click on images to enlarge

The ticket is also hot foil blocked on the reverse.

The launch of this type of film requires several events and these represent tickets for the screenings at The Royal Albert Hall, the Odeon Leicester Square and the after show party at the Tate. As you will notice from the reverse of the wallet (below) the litho printed gold actually looks gold! ..this is a feature of Omnia and where is scores over ordinary uncoated papers.

Below is the ticket for the Odeon Leicester Square which is 99x210mm, Landscape.

The ticket is printed in CMYK plus gloss black foil, which you can hopefully see in the picture below.

This ticket which is also printed on Omnia 280gsm is mounted on our Sumo 2000microns which makes the invitation 2.5mm thick!

Printing is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood, Kent and they made a superb job of it - colour reproduction and solids are superb - the hot foil blocking is perfectly executed (Identity are one of the few printers to have hot foil blocking facilities 'in-house')

http://www.identityprint.co.uk/
http://www.007.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.10.2021

LCBA at 83% of its goal - 7 days to go!

The London Centre for Book Arts is an artist-run open-access studio and education centre dedicated to all thing books. Simon and Ira founded LCBA in 2012 with the goal of creating a space where artists, designers and the wider community could share resources and expertise to create and edition books and publications – becoming the first and only centre of its kind in the UK. A space open to everyone, regardless of background, education, or experience.

It is a wonderful resource and over the last eight years, it has gone from strength to strength. At Fenner Paper, we collaborated with the LCBA For our 2018 diary. 

However, like many arts organisations and venues, the majority of their funding stream was wiped out overnight due to the pandemic. All workshops were cancelled and the open-access studio remained closed for most of 2020. Luckily, through a combination of support from the community, SPACE Studios, and London Borough of Tower Hamlets, they were able to keep the studio running - to re-open in the future!

They have launched a Kickstarter campaign to reopen LCBA to the public and to create a new exhibition space dedicated to book arts and publishing ...and it's 83% there with just 7 days to go!

They are asking for your help to repair, rebuild and reopen the studio to the public after Covid-19.

Why don't you get a real "feel good" factor and help get the LCBA Over the line with whatever you can afford...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/londonbookarts/london-centre-for-book-arts-is-reopening?ref=project_link

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.10.2021

Cabin Fever (3rd Wave)

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...'CABIN FEVER' is created during the 3rd U.K. C19-wave/lockdown (Jan - March 2021) and is printed July 2021, and (despite our noble endless patience) reflects the lockdown-fatigue that struck me during this period. It's a short and vibrant visual scream in response to the challenging times we live(d) in. A real, and perhaps also slightly ironic, cry. After which we focusedly continue our paths again...

The size is 500x271mm and is hand silkscreen in 2 colours printed on our Matrisse 250gsm. An edition of 35 prints only, signed and numbered but produced in three colourways.

Paul goes on to say... Its typeface is 'Shatter' designed by Vic Carless in 1973. A expressive iconic letter that I not used in my work before, simply because there was no reason yet to work with it. But during this l3rd lockdown there was no doubt about it: Shatter HAD TO BE THE typeface to express this fatigue feeling with. Dutch people may know the typeface very well because of an famous album sleeve saying 'SKUNK', from a very popular mid 80s reggae band in the Netherlands named 'Doe Maar'. The print itself is claustophobically tight printed on its paper size. When framed it deliberately boxes the print just about. Sync to its expression 'CABIN FEVER'.

CABIN FEVER prémièred at Houghton Hall in Norfolk in the 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' show, which ended last week.

You can read more about the project and see the other colourways and buy the prints here...

http://portfolio.paulwolterink.com/filter/design/CABIN-FEVER-3rd-Wave

Posted by Justin Hobson 29.09.2021

Paper shortages?

...not quite, but there are some supply issues in the market!

At this time of year, there is usually a seasonal spike in demand, however this year millions of tonnes of commercial and publication papermaking capacity is being taken out of the market. Pulp prices have also increased sharply this year. Earlier this year I wrote about the closure of two StoraEnso mills in Kvarnsveden and Veitsiluoto mills which will actually cease production in the next couple of months, which takes more than a million tonnes of paper production out of the market.

The result is that papers which would normally be available from a mill in 4 weeks may now take 8 or 10 weeks, so planning ahead is a very smart idea!

You can read the Printweek article here...

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/paper-supply-crunch-buyers-urged-to-plan-well-ahead

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.09.2021

New Flora Recycled Swatch

If you aren't familiar with Flora, it is a part recycled text and cover paper with a deliberately recycled look and feel with specks and inclusions, so it looks deliberately flecky and specky. Flora is produced by Cordenons in Italy with 30% post consumer de-inked waste, together with 60% of virgin FSC pulp and with the "secret" ingredient of 10% of cotton fibres, which gives the paper a wonderful tactile feel.

All the shades have the specks and inclusions with the exception of the Gardenia shade which is a "clean" neutral white shade.

The range consists of nine shades in total including Anice, Giglio, Avorio, Tabacco, Noce, Gardenia and three new deeper shades Crusca, Canella and Ginepro.

Below shows the detail of the natural, deliberately visible, inclusions and fibres - this paper has a character all of it's own!

To demonstrate the printability, there is a printed sample produced on the Flora Gardenia 130gsm - which is the shade without the inclusions.

It really is a lovely range. Muted natural colours and excellent printability. Here are some previous projects which have used Flora to great effect: 

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/lower-mill-estate.html

https://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.com/2018/02/honest-burgers.html

If you would like one of our swatches, just email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.09.2021

Graphic Design History Resources

We Made This is the design practice of Alistair Hall who's work has appeared on this blog many times before. He is also an author and an Associate Lecturer on the Graphic Design BA course at the School of Art at London Metropolitan University.

...and this is what he wrote on his blog:

"One of the things I’ve noticed each year though is that students often struggle when it comes to finding useful places to look for inspiration when they search online.* If you’re new to design, it can be hard to filter, to work out what you should really be looking at. The problem seems to be the massive gravity of Google Image Search and Pinterest, which exerts a pull that students find hard to escape."

The result is Alistair has created a list of some really great graphic design archives and resources, which you can find here:

https://www.wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2021/09/graphic-design-history-resources/

Alistair is not claiming this is an entirely comprehensive list, just a useful resource ..and indeed it is. 

As he goes on to say:

We’re at an exciting time in our industry’s history, when the established canon of graphic design is being questioned, examined, and reformed, so that it’s no longer the preserve of middle-aged straight white men. That said, the following list still leans heavily in that direction, partly because the industry leant heavily in that direction for many, many years. But great strides are being made, and as we look forwards, the industry is beginning to reflect the true diversity of society.

Thanks Alistair!

https://www.wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2021/09/graphic-design-history-resources/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.09.2021

Thank you...

IST Printing are Hot Foil Blocking and Embossing specialists. Based in Glasgow, IST is run by Ian Stopford and he has a real passion for foiling and the finest print finishes. His work for clients based all over the country has appeared many times on this blog before.

Ian has just printed these 'Thank You' cards to send out with completed orders...

The cards are A6, Landscape (105x148mm) and are printed on our Shiro Echo 100% Recycled in Raw Grey and Raw Sand 350gsm.

Click on images to enlarge

The front of the card is hot foil blocked and embossed. On the reverse of the card, the details of the reorder number and the stock and foil type used...

You can see the detail of the superb embossing here...

Click on images to enlarge

Below you can see the wonderful hot foil blocking, which is using Foilco Black 7067NAB, which is a smudge resist foil. 

Dies are made by Metallic Elephant.

My thanks to Ian for sending me file copies and I know he is working on other items which he says he will send me...

https://www.istprinting.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.09.2021