Paper production in Europe falls further

This is a new article from Print Business magazine... "Paper production across Europe dropped faster last year than in the Covid years according to the Confederation of European paper industries (Cepi). Paper consumption and production across Europe in 2022 fell to a greater extent than in the Covid years. According to Cepi, the consumption of paper and boards fell 3.5% while production of paper and boards fell 6.5% in the same period."

"In many sectors, consumption fell by double digits, while production was hit by the loss of mills and paper machines, cutting overall production capacity. There were 23 fewer mills at the end of 2022 compared to the year before with 21 fewer carton board making and paper machines."

Read the full article here...

https://printbusiness.co.uk/european-paper-production-dives-says-cepi/

Posted by Justin Hobson 18.07.2023

Orange Peel

Orange Peel is a publication with one goal... to put a smile on the readers face. It is designed to provide a sense of joy through positive content. Issue No.1 is an accumulation of artistic forms, including photography, illustration, painting, screen prints, poems and interviews. These transform the publication into a collectable work of art that provides the reader with an experience.

“Orange Peel” is the final major project by Alice Emery, a graduating student from the Arts University Bournemouth on the BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communications course.

Orange Peel features our Crush Citrus 120gsm, which is paper made using residues (15%) from the processing of citrus fruit and juicing process in Italy. This is sustainably sourced paper from Favini that uses waste and recycled fibres reduces the number of trees required to make the paper.

Crush Citrus 120gsm forms most of the text pages and is combined with other papers from that other well known "Hull based" paper merchant! (GF Smith)

Alice says..."These colourful pages of artwork make the publication feel more vibrant with a happy tone with the textures providing a tactile experience to ground the reader. The publication is size 270x360mm. This large format compliments the artwork in the publication making it feel important. The publication is bound with two short wire bindings allowing the pages to lay flat to fully appreciate the artwork on each page for an easy reading experience. To open the publication there is a wrap around using orange ric rac trim that the reader needs to unpeel to get to the content inside. This changes the way the reader interacts with the publication providing a tactile experience they can get their hands on and enjoy!"

Alice Emery is from Portsmouth and has always loved being creative, enjoying painting and drawing in her spare time. She has just graduated with first class degree BA (Hons) Fashion Branding & Communications. 

“Orange Peel” was a real passion project for me bringing together my love of art and fashion into creating a carefully crafted publication including content creation, branding and marketing. I am hoping to launch my career in fashion marketing using these skills and developing my practice.

The publication was digitally printed by Dayfold in Dorset with silkscreened additions.

Congratulations to Alice on a very accomplished piece of work and our best wishes for a successful career ahead.

https://www.graduatefashionweek.com/search-portfolios/alice-emery

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.07.2023

Lana paper mill to close

More sad news from the world of paper...

In April, Lana Papier, based in Strasbourg entered into an insolvency procedure and now, in the absence of a rescue deal or buyer for the business, a liquidation process began last month. The mill is now closed and machinery awaiting a buyer.

Lana made a range of specialist and bespoke papers spanning security, labels, publishing, technical, fine art and stationery papers, including the Distincton and Director brands of watermarked stationery papers.

This is very sad news both for the owners and the 67 staff at the mill but also for the industry.

You can read the full Printweek article here... 

https://www.printweek.com/news/article/specialist-papermaker-shuttered

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.07.2023

Blue Angel Certification

 Last week our new 'Blue Angel' certification arrived...

Fenner Paper has been certified for many years and I am often telling people about the Blue Angel mark as here in the UK, it is hardly known about or recognised, whereas in Germany (where it was established) and in mainland European countries, it is both highly visible on products and very highly regarded.

The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel) is a German certification for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects. The Blue Angel mark is the oldest ecolabel in the world, and it covers some 10,000 products in some 80 product categories!

It was originally conceived and put in place by the government of the former West Germany and has been awarded since 1978. The Environmental Label Jury (Jury Umweltzeichen) is an independent, decision-making body for the Blue Angel and includes representatives from environmental and consumer associations, trade unions, industry, the trade, crafts, local authorities, academia, the media, churches, young people and the German federal states. As a result, it isn't open to political interference, industry pressure groups or vested interests, either from industry or the fanatical green groups. This is the reason that I rate the scheme so highly and it frustrates me that the UK government has never had the guts to put such an independent system in place in the UK - equally it's a shame that there isn't a pan European system.

The award of the Blue Angel is preceded by a review of the entire life cycle of the products. Such review considers as many aspects of environmental and health protection as possible for the respective product. Subsequently, the criteria limit or rule out those environmental impacts which are considered to be the most important impacts for the respective product. The Basic Award Criteria for a product are specified for each product group and they are all published.

The Blue Angel covers a wide range of different products including paints, gardening products, construction, electronics and many more, including paper and board.

We carry products which have been awarded the Blue Angel mark. The Creative Print range of 100% recycled text & cover paper manufactured by Koehler Greiz mill carries the Blue Angel mark, as do the majority of the recycled colours in our Colorset range.You can read more about the scheme here:
https://www.blauer-engel.de/en

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.07.2023

Jobs from the past - Number 164

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 2014

Jimmy Choo - Bridal 2014

This is a beautiful lookbook for the Jimmy Choo bridal range. Jimmy Choo is a now iconic luxury fashion brand defined by an empowered sense of glamour and a confident sense of style. The cut, design and exceptional Italian craftsmanship has created a global luxury brand being awarded 2008 'Designer Brand of the Year' from the British Fashion Council.



The size is 210x148mm portrait. The 16pp text is printed on our Omnia 120gsm with the 4pp cover on a 300gsm "house silk". The weights are just right - Omnia is a very bulky sheet, so this works perfectly at this , opening nicely with the pages turning well.

As always (...this is the plug for the paper!) the images look superb on the Omnia; the fleshtones and the reproduction of the jewels and metallic images with their darker areas and heavy ink coverage - keeping all the detail in those heavy areas of CMYK together with uncoated paper tactility which would be lost on any other paper.  The other important thing to note is that unlike most uncoated products, you can successfully gloss UV varnish on this paper (with a single hit) and it works really well - as you can see in the below pic...

Another luxurious touch is the binding. It is 'singer sewn' in a white thread, which exudes quality whilst also being a practical binding solution.

Art direction and design is by the Jimmy Choo in house design team. Print and print production is by Gavin Martin. Printed offset litho in four colour process.

 

https://www.jimmychoo.com/en/bridal-boutique/

https://www.jimmychoo.com/

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

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.07.2023

Thread Business Cards

...on our Colorset 100% Recycled board

Thread is a studio specialising in design for a wide variety of clients from the art and cultural sector. Thread is the design studio of Michael Windsor-Ungureanu ...and these are his very simple and effective business cards.

Front...

Size of the cards is 85x45mm, there are three different coloured cards, all produced on Colorset 270gsm - a mix of Ash, Lemon and Deep Orange, all printed offset litho in one special pantone (PMS 072U) blue. Michael very cleverly printed these business cards at the same time as his brochure ...very economical!

 

Reverse...

For those of you not familiar with Colorset, it is our range of coloured text and cover papers which is also 100% recycled and more competitively priced than some other well known brands of coloured paper! There are 36 colours including black and white.

Design is by Michael Windsor-Ungureanu. 

https://www.threaddesign.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.06.2023

Blogtastic!

Some rather amazing news... 

It turns out that this month my blog has been very popular and in June I've had nearly 95,000 page views!

I don't get too fussed about statistics, however it would be nice to have over 100,000. So please have a look at whatever pages you like, there's over ten years of blog posts here - 1727 posts in total! Many articles about beautifully printed jobs, different finishing, three hole sewing, singer sewing, hot foil blocking etc etc...

There's only 48 hours to go, so please spread the word!

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.06.2023

1st July Update

In spite of a massive effort, I just fell short of the 100K and I clocked up 99,116 page views last month. Thank you so much