Armistice Day

Today is Armistice Day, also know as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day and is a memorial day observed in the UK and the Commonwealth since the end of the First World War. Many people will observe a two minute silence at 11am and also at Remembrance Sunday, which is the following Sunday. Most of the coverage is focused on those that served in the armed forces (and quite rightly so) but I thought I'd write today about an individual who was a designer, typographer and illustrator, who also wore a uniform.

Some of you will have heard of Abram Games. During the Second World War he was appointed 'Official War Poster Artist' and designed over 100 posters. It's worth remembering that posters were one of the most effective ways of getting messages across to a mass of people and had equal if not greater importance than newspapers, magazines or the radio; and exceptionally well designed posters could be exceptionally effective!

I was fortunate enough to meet his daughter, Naomi Games, who gave an excellent talk about his life and work, including the war years.

Click on images to enlarge

Abram Games was born in 1914. He attended St Martin's School of Art and was already working as a commercial artist before the war. Following 6 months training in the infantry, he was transferred as a draughtsman and after winning a competition to design a poster, was posted to the War Office in June 1941 and his work designing posters for the war effort began.

These images are taken from a booklet about the work of Abram Games, printed on Omnia, which I wrote about here.

In November 1942 he was promoted to Lieutenant and became the Official War Poster Artist, a title never before or since claimed by any other artist. You can see much more of his work here:
https://www.abramgames.com/

Click on images to enlarge

He tried to re-join his regiment, concerned that he had a "cushy job". His commanding officer replied 'You have been appointed to do a job and as far as the army is concerned, you are the only man who can do this and you will bloody well get on and do it! We can always replace a soldier, but we cannot replace you'. He ended the war as a Captain and had designed over 100 posters. Very few examples survive, as they were pinned or pasted up and rarely endured the war.

In 2019, there was an excellent exhibition of his wartime posters at the National Army Museum called 'The Art of Persuasion' and I was kindly shown round by Malcom Clarke at the NAM.

Alistair Hall of We Made This wrote about his visit to the exhibition in an article which puts my writing and photography on this blog to shame! ...so I suggest you have a look: https://www.wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2019/04/abram-games-the-art-of-persuasion/

Here is the exhibition guide...

After the war, Abram Games had a wonderfully successful career with a prodigious output. He designed the symbol for the 1951 Festival of Britain and clients included Guinness, the Financial Times, British Airways, London Transport and British Rail.

Although not serving on the front line, Abram Games was an exceptionally important part of the war effort and like the millions of other exceptional, yet ordinary, people who made their own quiet contribution to the eventual victory over the Nazis, deserves to be celebrated.

https://www.abramgames.com/
https://www.nam.ac.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.11.2022

The Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture 2022

Regular followers of the blog know that I often write about talks or lectures that I think might be an interest to readers of this blog and this is just one of those events... 

This year's Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture is being delivered by Nicolas Barker at the St Bride Foundation.

Renowned as ‘The First Lady of Typography’, Nicolas first met Beatrice in the late 1940s. He describes her as a force of nature, and an enthusiast for printing and printers of all types. She wrote several works on the subject, especially supporting British Typographer Stanley Morison. Warde was the best ever sales-person for Monotype, its products and users; and she was known, indeed a by-word, throughout the world of printing and design. As a lone female voice in the male-dominated printing Industry, her success and popularity challenged the idea that being male was a prerequisite for a prosperous career in printing. According to Nicolas, her book, 'The Crystal Goblet' is the best guide to typographic design ever written.

You can read more about the talk HERE

It is both on Zoom and in person, so you don't have to be in London or the South East.

The talk is this Thursday -10 November 2022 St Bride Foundation and Online via Zoom In-person time (GMT): Doors/bar: 18:15 Talk: 19:00-20:30 In-person tickets: £8, £10, £12. Online time (GMT): 19:00-20:30 Online tickets: £3, £5 Book tickets HERE 

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.11.2022

One year on ...now it's COP27

Today, the United Nations Climate change conference, known as COP, launches COP27 at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, attended by leaders of governments, environmental organisations and NGO's. I thought it would be a good day to remind you that it was exactly a year ago, we launched PaperWise, made using 100% agricultural waste, at COP26...

 

Fenner Paper has launched PaperWise at an online event to coincide with the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. PaperWise is an entirely new concept, a range of paper and board manufactured from agricultural waste - this is the stems and leaves left over the harvest and which is often left in the field or burnt.

At the online launch, Justin Hobson, Marketing Manager at Fenner Paper said “PaperWise users give a second life to agricultural waste. In doing so they lower their ecological footprint, add value to waste, and prevent wastage”

There are additional benefits: PaperWise is produced in factories in India and South America that make a big difference to local communities. Investments are made in education, infrastructure, and healthcare while the manufacturing process is geared toward safety, zero waste, and preserving local ecology.

Lifecycle analysis (LCA) conducted by the University of Amsterdam (IVAM) has concluded that the environmental impact is 47% lower than FSC-paper made from trees and 29% lower than recycled paper...

The natural shade, manufactured from 100% agri-waste is also completely unbleached and has lower Co2 emissions than virgin fibre or recycled papers.

The PaperWise range is held in stock by us at Fenner Paper in Tonbridge. European stocks are held in Rotterdam and include a wide range of packaging boards and lightweight papers with food approval, copier paper and even corrugated boards. 

You can read more about this new range HERE and about how this fits with the UN sustainable development goals...

The paper and boards are suitable for all print work and packaging, with a one side coated packaging board up to 465microns.

In December we will showing PaperWise at the Packaging Innovations Exhibition in Olympia and PaperWise founder Peter van Rosmalen will be there too. You can watch this 1 minute video about PaperWise by Peter here:

If you would like samples, please drop me an email justin@fennerpaper.co.uk or have a look at our website.

https://paperwise.eu/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.11.2022

Jobs from the past - Number 156

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 and this one is from 2015...

Aaaaaaaaah! film poster 2015

This is the promotional poster for Steve Oram's directorial feature debut, Aaaaaaaah! (that's eight "A's"). The film has been written and directed by Steve Oram and the cast includes Julian Barratt, Toyah Wilcox, Julian Rhind Tutt and Holli Dempsey.

This poster is A2 size (594x420mm) and is silk-screen printed in six colours, a combination of tonal work and solid colours - the zip is printed in shiny metallic silver. It is produced using our Colorset, Bright Red 270gsm.

The posters were printed to coincide with the film's premiere in Leicester Square as part of Frightfest 2015. More information on the film can be found at both the Rook Films and Lincoln Studios sites. You can see the trailer below...

There is a review of the film here: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/10/aaaaaaaah-review-satire-of-beastly-behaviour

The prints were screen-printed by Gary Parselle at Brighton based silkscreen studio, The Private Press, and the above picture is from from the studio when they were in the drying rack.

 

Design is by Jay Shaw. Above is a picture of Steve Oram and Holli Dempsey pictured with the poster at the premiere!

https://www.rookfilms.co.uk/aaaaaaaah

https://www.theprivatepress.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.11.2022

Elefantenhaut Range

Originally launched in 1950’s, Elefantenhaut is a speciality paper with a distinctive veining effect typical of papers produced in Germany at the time.

The name of the product directly translates to “Elephant Hide” which indicates the toughness and durability that this paper possesses - but I should point out that no Elephants were harmed in the production of this paper!

Elefantenhaut is a graphic paper with a smooth finish, manufactured using a special production process which results in a paper which is resistant to scratches, abrasion and dirt and can also be wiped clean. The paper has long fibres and is very strong making it the perfect covering material for books and boxes.

We now have this new swatch which shows the seven different colours that the range is available in. The detail image below shows the distinctive veining effect.

Elefantenhaut is ideal for menus, certificates, envelopes and all applications where a durable, natural product is required.

These fine papers are manufactured at the Reflex Paper mill in the town of Düren in Germany, which was founded in 1857 and the mill also produces transparent papers, label papers and artists papers. Elefantenhaut is made from Chlorine Free pulp (ECF) and carry the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification

If you would like one of the new swatches, please email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.10.2022

International Print Day 2022

International Print Day provides education and creative inspiration via 24 hours of open knowledge sharing on social media. The day provides participants with access to a wealth of information on global companies, products, and services from the print and marketing community, and serves as a platform for global networking opportunities. Its aim is to get print trending worldwide through 24 hours of social media by using the hashtag #IPD22. 

This year’s theme is #PrintSmart, which represents working with the right tools and partners to maximise creative, marketing, and business results through print. Below is the IPD poster produced by Craig Bower at Design That Rocks

 Last year’s event generated more than 14.6 million impressions, with more than 100 million impressions for International Print Day recorded to date. 

https://internationalprintday.org/

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.10.2022

ISTD this Wednesday

This Wednesday there is an ISTD online talk, which will be worth watching. Astrid Stavro introduces Brian Collins, co-founder of COLLINS

COLLINS is a brand experience design company based in New York and San Francisco Known for their stellar work for clients such as CNET and San Francisco Symphony, they have recently moved to a new studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Astrid is now President of the ISTD and I'm sure this will be a very interesting talk...

You can watch it live on Wednesday at 6.30pm HERE: www.istd.org.uk/live

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2022