Tuesday, 26 July 2022

Gorse - Simone Rocha

Simone Rocha was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1986. In 2008 she graduated with a BA in Fashion from The NCAD in Dublin followed by an MA from Central Saint Martins in 2010. Simone debuted at London Fashion Week in September 2010 and her collections can be found in some of the most prestigious stockists in the world.

This year at the British Fashion Awards Simone received the “British Womenswear Designer Award” as well as the 2016 Harper’s Bazaar Designer of Year Award.
This publication is a limited edition book produced in collaboration with photographer Colin Dodgson in Ireland. Titled "Gorse", the scale is a luxuriously large 303x420mm, landscape format, which flops and rolls beautifully.

Front Cover....
There is lots of white space, a very uncluttered feeling.
Click on images to enlarge
The publication is printed offset litho on our Omnia White 120gsm, the result is superb. The look and feel of the whole publication is very uncoated and tactile but there is absolutely no loss of detail in the images.The feeling of space continues with many unprinted pages...
It is bound using three hole sewing in a red thread. Actually this has two rows of three hole sewing. Below is the centre spread, showing the binding on the inside. 
Detail showing the binding (inside)...
Below pic shows detail of the three hole sewing on the spine:
So successful was this publication that many of the images were used as campaign imagery in titles such as Dazed and Confused, The Gentlewoman and Self Service.

Design is by Simmonds. Print production, including the binding is by Pureprint.

https://simonerocha.com/
http://www.simmondsltd.com/
https://www.pureprint.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 26.07.2022

Friday, 22 July 2022

Introducing NEW Crush Cocoa

The latest addition to the Crush range is Crush Cocoa which is now available from stock together with Citrus, Grape, Cherry, Lavender, Corn, Olive, Coffee, Kiwi, Hazelnut and Almond.

Cocoa is a big market, in fact in a year we spend $100 billion on chocolate products. Estonia tops the country list: Consuming more than 7 kg of chocolate per capita p.a. The cocoa plant has very ancient origins and the first farmers were the Maya around 1000 BC. But it is only since 1500 AD that it reached European civilization. Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario are the most common varieties of cocoa from which chocolate is obtained, one of the most popular foods for adults and children. But who would have thought that it can also be used to produce paper...? 

Below shows the life cycle of cocoa from the fruit to the ecological Crush paper.
Which by-product does Favini use? The skin of the cocoa bean is used to make the Crush paper. It is micronized at their factory in Vicenza, Italy so it can replace up to 15% of virgin cellulose.
You can read more about it HERE or if you would like a sample, please just email me justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

https://www.favini.com/en/news/from-the-bean-to-crush-cocoa/
Posted by Justin Hobson 22.07.2022

Tuesday, 19 July 2022

Orla Kiely Ltd Editions...

Today is the hottest day ever in the UK apparently, so here is some hot news!

Harvey Lloyd Screenprint is a silkscreen print studio based in the South East of England and their work has appeared on this blog many times over the years. Established 40 years ago, they produce work for some of the best names in the industry, Harvey Lloyd have gained a reputation for having artists at their studio and working together to produce their artworks.

At the end of last year, Harvey Lloyd Screens printed three Limited editions for Orla Kiely - within 2 hours of launching the print, it sold out!
This image 'Colour Block Stem' is printed silkscreen in 4 colours and is printed on our 100% recycled Creative Print Champagne 270gsm...
Size is 297x420mm (A3)
The prints are produced in an edition of 100 copies. and have been beautifully printed by Harvey Lloyd Screenprint, who are based in Wadhurst, East Sussex.

https://orlakiely.com/
https://www.harveylloydscreens.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 19.07.2022

Friday, 15 July 2022

The Charles Hotel - Munich

Set within the verdant Lenbachgärten quarter and close to the historic Königsplatz, the effortlessly elegant Charles Hotel in Munich is where contemporary style meets traditional Bavarian hospitality. Centrally located by the Alte Pinakothek and the Lenbachhaus, The Charles Hotel also enjoys the calm backdrop of the Old Botanical Garden. Built on the site of a former university library, the hotel was created in 2007 and named in honour of Sir Rocco Forte’s and Olga Polizzi’s father, renowned hotelier Charles Forte.

This the brochure for the hotel, which follows the recent branding by Pentagram.
Size of the brochure is 266x204mm, portrait and is saddle stitched. The cover is an unusual format as there is an 8pp cover with 140mm wide flaps and there is an outer jacket, only 210mm high, also with 140mm flaps. It is the first time I've seen this combination and the effect is superb...
The materials used for the covers is our Dali range, which is a 'felt-marked' paper with a linear effect and a natural, tactile feel. If you click on the image below, you will be able to see the texture in the paper.
Click on images to enlarge
The cover is on Dali Nero 200gsm and is hot foil blocked in matt white and copper foil. The jacket is printed on Dali, Candido, 160gsm and is litho printed in CMYK on one side only.
The 16pp text is printed offset litho on our Marazion Ultra 135gsm, chosen because of it's dead matt flatness which would reproduce the interior images well without a glossiness which would detract from the classic look and feel of the hotel.
The brochure has a beautiful, quality feel and flows in the hand superbly. The combination of photography, materials and quality print makes this a wonderful piece of print.

https://www.pentagram.com/
https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.07.2022

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Tolerance

Inspired by the home-made posters displayed in windows during the Covid lockdowns, this print pledges solidarity with marginalised communities and is a reminder to try and see both sides.
Seemingly random elements printed on the front and back of the sheet are revealed as letterforms when backlit. The print measures 720 x 145mm.
Created for window display, it is actually provided with hangers, so it hangs perfectly. It is printed on our Sixties paper in 60gsm. SIXTIES is a paper which has a similar translucency as a tracing paper - but it feels and behaves like a normal paper … you can see the degree of translucency in the images above and below.  Perfect for a project where the theme of being able to see both sides at the same time is of the utmost importance.
Set and printed by hand in a limited edition of just 25. Here it is set up on press (a 1959 Korrex Berlin precision proofing press) with the red inked up and ready to go...
Design and printing is by Richard Ardagh at New North Press. He gave himself the self-imposed limitation of only using three shapes: 'I', 'V' and ‘.’ As can often be the case, the font he chose was lacking in characters so they commissioned Type High Design to cut the additional glyphs needed, as you can see in the image below...
It isn't the first time Richard has used this paper, it was his little new years card, also printed on Sixties 60gsm, that you can see below that served as the inspiration for this print...
You can read more about the Tolerance project and buy one of the prints HERE

My thanks to Richard at New North Press for sharing the story and the images with me.
Posted by Justin Hobson 12.07.2022

Friday, 8 July 2022

Preen Home

Preen By Thornton Bregazzi was founded in 1996 by Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, built on an aesthetic of darkly romantic and effortlessly modern, juxtaposing the masculine with feminine and mixing of hard and soft. Their debut collection at London Fashion Week for Spring Summer 2001 established the brand’s essence of punkish sensibilities with vintage elements and hand crafted details

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi has now expanded to include Preen Home – an opulent offering of soft furnishings
Size of the brochure is 330x240mm, portrait and is singer sewn. The text material chosen was our Omnia, which would beautifully reproduce the photography with the delicate patterns and dark colours superbly - without forgetting the fleshtones ...and it looks wonderful! There is a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and 16pp text on 120gsm.
Click on images to enlarge
Unlike many of the look-books featured on this blog, which are printed offset litho, this has been digitally printed on an HP Indigo press. The colours are strong and punchy and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel - in fact I can honestly say, every bit as good as litho!
Although Omnia was never originally developed for digital, we now keep it as a stock item with "sapphire treatment". This treatment is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (which are different to litho inks) work on the paper surface. The great thing is the job just doesn't look and feel like a digital job. Below is a detail shot showing the excellent fleshtone reproduction.
Click on images to enlarge
Below shows the detail of the red thread used on the singer sewing - just beautiful!
Omnia is a very bulky paper, and the 200gsm cover just works perfectly with the format and the singer sewing
The art direction is by Mark and Chris Thomson and the quality of the direction and photography (by Ash Reynolds) is matched by the exceptional digital print by Screaming Colour.
https://preenbythorntonbregazzi.com/
https://studiothomson.com/
https://www.screamingcolour.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2022

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Banknotes printed on PaperWise

POWER is a show and do project—tracking the real-time progress and pitfalls of building a solar POWER STATION across the rooftops of North East London via enacting a grassroots Green New Deal. It involves mass participation art, documentary film and cooperative energy as a diverse community come together to recognise our collective power and quite literally create it—moving from consumers to producers of energy. This is a public work of art involving practical thinking through making—collaborating with people and photons to explore and expand our relationships with each other and the sun we all live under.
In 2018 they opened a ‘rebel bank’ in a former high street bank and printed paper money. This was part of a Bank Job. Find out more here. In May 2022 the bank will be issuing a new form of currency—the Greenbacks. The plan - to raise £100,000 by end of July 2022 and carry on to £1Million.
The original Greenbacks that became the dollar were a form of sovereign money creation. POWER’s Greenbacks are a form of money creation and economic stimulus that will directly back a grassroots Green New Deal now as the proceeds of their exchange for sterling will be fed directly into POWER—shared 50/50 between building the (solar) POWER STATION as template and demand and building community wealth working with an ecosystem of organisations both doing this and fire fighting cuts and their consequences.
The greenbacks were printed in public in May 2022 in Walthamstow, NE London by a team of local people trained in the methods used and paid at London Living Wage. The printing processes used is a combination of offset litho, Riso, Silkscreen (UV ink) and hot foil blocking - amazing!
A wonderful project! ...and what about the paper?

These special banknotes are printed on our PaperWise Natural 90gsm, which is manufactured from 100% agricultural waste and you can read about HERE As you can see from the image below, PaperWise is a natural shade and is completely unbleached...
You can read more about the project here: https://www.power.film/

With thanks to Hilary Powell for the images and the introduction to the project.

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.07.2022