St Bride Foundation lecture

Expanding the design canon: fresh perspectives on women in type and publishing

An evening as part of the ‘Women in Type’ Leverhulme Trust & University of Reading research project in celebration of St Bride Library’s 125th year. The lecture is on Zoom and is next Wednesday 10th November 7.00-9.00pm.

This talk will celebrate recent contributions to the field of graphic design history, which seek to shake established narratives to expand the design canon. The panel of speakers will share their thoughts on the imperative to reconsider women’s depiction in received design histories, and will highlight some past and present contributions by women to the fields of type, graphic design and publishing. The evening will also feature the launch of an exciting new website comprising a visualisation of the findings of the 'Women in Type’ Leverhulme Trust funded project.

With speakers Briar Levit, Rathna Ramanathan, Fiona Ross, Alice Savoie, Martha Scotford, Mathieu Triay.

You can book HERE - it's only £5 (plus concessions) so is excellent value for money ...BOOK NOW!

https://www.sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/expanding-the-design-canon-fresh-perspectives-on-women-in-type-and-publishing/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.11.2021

Jobs from the past - Number 144

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 work from years gone by...

Heart of Glass - November 2002

This is the private view invitation for an exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery in London. The invitation is the the opening of an exhibition titled Heart of Glass, featuring work of the artists Jean-Michel Othoniel, Tony Oursler, Katy Schimert, Kiki Smith, Jan Vercruysse, Not Vital and Robin Winters. 

Click on image to enlarge

The size of the invitation is A5 (148 x 210mm) Landscape and is silkscreen printed on one side in one colour (red). The viewing apertures are die-cut, providing eyeholes to look through which is really effective.

The invite is printed on our Kemikal, Cotton White 1500mics which is a natural feeling, neutral white thick board - 1.5mm thick. so it gives great thickness, although it isn't as dense as other thick material that we do such as Monoblack. As you can see from the image below, the thickness makes this invitation work fantastically.

Design is by Andrew Collier, who works freelance in London.

As I recall the silkscreen printing was produced by Artomatic, who also ran a print boutique in Great Sutton Street EC1. Sadly they are no loger in existence. I wrote about Artomatic on this previous post here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/job-from-past.html

http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.11.2021

ASOS BLACK / PUMA

This is the launch literature for the first collaborative ASOS BLACK x PUMA collection. The collection is designed by John Mooney and the garments include t-shirts, technical jackets, tailored shirting together with backpacks and accessories.

Photographer, Jamie Morgan was commissioned to work on a series of portraits for use in both press, online and print literature. The models featured are young street artists pulled together from around the UK.

This project has an unusual format. Size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and content is 24pp but it forms one long concertina (12 panels). On each end a piece of 1500micron Greyboard is mounted, forming the front and back covers. The front cover is silkscreened in black only. The long concertina, which is over 1.7 metres long, is formed by one join, hidden on the reverse of the concertina.

To engage with the street artist look and feel, a recycled, "urban" type paper was required although this is a little at odds with the Jamie Morgan's amazing images! The paper selected is our Redeem 100% Recycled in 240gsm which is a natural looking recycled product, but as you can see from these images, it prints amazingly! ...although that's in no small part due to the quality of original and the printer. The 240gsm weight, creased perfectly, allowing the pages to flow well without being too stiff and rigid.

Design and production is by Asos. Project manager is Ash Durrant, the Creative manager is Vassili Kouznetsov and the senior designer on the project is Jenna Murray. Print and finishing is by Push Print.

https://www.asos.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.10.2021

The Modern House - postcard set

Established by Albert Hill and Matt Gibberd, The Modern House is the UK’s foremost estate agency, only selling modernist and contemporary architecture for over a decade.

"Selling Britain's Finest Modern Architecture" showing four properties in the format of a concertina postcard book.

  

The format is a 12pp A6 concertina. Flat size is 148x634mm, folding to 148x105mm. The concertina folds into a pre-creased 3mm spine. Printed CMYK offset litho and the cards are perforated.

The concertina is printed on Redeem 100% Recycled 315gsm, which prints beautifully and fits with the modernist, utilitarian architecture.

showing how the concertina folds into the spine

The superbly creased 3mm spine. It's touches such as this - good creasing - that make all the difference to a project like this:

Click on image to enlarge & see perforation

...and the other thing that shouldn't be overlooked is the perforations. As you can see from this picture, perforations can look great, even beautiful. These perfs. only look this good because the designer took the time to explain what he wanted to the printer. There are a selection of different perforation "bars" available at print finishers - so do ask a printer to get samples and to show you different types. If you don't convey your expectations to the printer, then they'll generally use the perforating bar that's on the machine and you may be disappointed.


Art direction and design is by Field Projects. Print production is by Michael Keyworth at Key Printers.

www.themodernhouse.net

http://field-projects.com/

sales@keyprinters.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.10.2021

International Print Day 2021

Today is the day! October 20th is International Print Day 2021 which is the eighth IPD to date and will once again trend the planet through 24 hours of social media sharing. 

The idea is that the global print community will use social media to network, exchange knowledge and information, and proclaim their love for print and the people that make it possible by following and sharing using the hashtag #IPD21. Last year’s event generated on Twitter 384 Contributors / 3,735 Tweets / 18,297,446 Impressions and on Instagram 148 posts / 119 Contributors / 250 Comments / 2,835 Likes / 146,300 Impressions. The theme this year is #PrintAgain. It represents the revival of print in the marketing mix.

Print legend Frank Romano is involved and is live for a Project Peacock event. Below is the IPD poster produced by Craig Bower at Design That Rocks  

Navigator Paper has listed some 2021 trends for print, which I think are of interest...

"To celebrate, we take a look at the dynamics at work in the industry, how it has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and the trends set to shake up the global printing sector in 2021" 

1# Challenging global economic conditions: even before coronavirus. 

2# Post-coronavirus the market is struggling 

3# On-shoring and right-shoring as the pandemic disrupts supply chain 

4# The packaging market continues to thrive 

5# Creative marketers are returning to print 

6# Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing market 

7# The need to innovate 

8# The transition to digital print continues 

9# Metal is set to overtake plastic as the 3D printing material

You can read the whole article HERE

Enjoy the day ...and get busy with the hashtag on social media #IPD21 #PrintAgain

https://internationalprintday.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.10.21

Paper price news...

An article written by Jo Francis, published today in Printweek about the recent increase in paper costs...

The fact is that all paper grades are increasing in price, which is very bad news if/when you are trying to convince a client to commit to printing.

You can read the article HERE

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/paper-prices-keep-going-up

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.10.2021

JLR Editors Club

This is a piece of literature produced for Jaguar Land Rover PR and press department. The publication embodies all the core values that JLR stand for and consequently is produced to a very high specification.

The brochure comes in a slipcase/pocket, which together with the 4pp cover is made using Plike Black 330gsm from Cordenons. Size of the brochure is 240x168mm, portrait.  

The slipcase and cover is hot foil blocked in silver foil and the edges are gilded in silver, which does look exquisite.

The 40pp text is printed on our Omnia 120gsm offset litho - and it is printed wall to wall, solid black, CMYK images plus a special silver - all the type is printed in silver.

Click on images to enlarge

In line with the quality look and feel of the brochure, the biding is Singer sewing, which is totally characteristic for this brand.

Click on images to enlarge

The reproduction on the Omnia is magnificent, the CMYK, the solids and the silver which looks metallic, as you can see from the image below.

Art direction and design of the catalogue is by Imagination. Graphic designer on the project is Amish Shah  (www.work-in-process.eu). This is an exquisitely produced brochure which conveys exactly the right look and feel of luxury. Print is by Identity, based in Paddock Wood.

http://www.jaguarlandrover.com/gl/en/

https://www.imagination.com/

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

http://www.work-in-process.eu/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.10.2021