Jobs from the past - Number 168

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 - this project is from 2016.

Paul Smith - Spring/Summer 2016

The Paul Smith brand (and person) has become synonymous with classic British tailoring and style. Renowned for well-made, good quality, simple cut clothing with interesting fabrics which is easy to wear. There is often a splash of vibrant colour, a floral print or the signature multi-coloured stripes. Paul Smith now has 19 shops and concessions in the UK and 200 shops worldwide with the business still based where it was founded, in Nottingham.

This is the lookbook for the Spring Summer 2016 collection. The finished size is A5 (210x148mm) portrait and it is a 16pp 'closed double gatefold' making the flat size 210x880mm.

..opening out to this spread:

...and then this one:

The below image showing both sides of the publication, fully open:

Click on images to enlarge

It is printed in CMYK offset litho on our Omnia, White FSC 280gsm and is printed and finished beautifully. Birds eye view below:

The material chosen is our Omnia 280gsm which gives it that dead matt, tactile feel but with great reproduction.

...and here's the plug for the paper!  - As you can see from these images, there is lots of colour and images with CMYK dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing bright vibrant colours, whilst retaining detail in the dark areas (in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?) See the detail in the bag image below

Although this is a simply produced publication, it's often the simple jobs which don't get the attention to detail. This is well creased and folded square which is just perfect

Creative direction and design is by the in-house design team at Paul Smith. Printing is by Leicester based Greenshires with Richard Dalby handling the project. Beautifully printed and finished - a really well produced piece. 

https://www.paulsmith.com/uk
https://www.greenshires.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.11.2023

Book of I

The Book of I is a notebook style publication produced for Accenture. It is an internal publication for employees to note their personal development. Size is 210x137mm portrait with a 4pp cover and 128pp text and is section sewn, the spine is 10mm thick. On the outside cover it is simply printed and blind embossed on an embossed cover from that well known "Hull-based" paper merchant!

Being an internal publication, it isn't appropriate to show you the inside text pages, suffice it to say the job is printed offset litho in just one colour with the majority of pages are just printed as lines...

...or squares

...or dots

 [Please excuse my fingers appearing]

The below image shows the very neatly sewn sections.

The 128pp text is printed on Shiro Echo, Bright White 120gsm, which is our 100% recycled paper with FSC accreditation.

Print and hot foiling is by Identity Print, based in Paddock Wood with Paul Martin handling the project.

https://www.identityprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 24.10.2023

Yateley Papers

Yateley Papers was born out of passion for both traditional block printing techniques and a love of utterly gorgeous home, desk and stationery accessories. For 10 years Trudi Savin ran the studio at Tobias and The Angel in Lingfield (Surrey) before establishing Yateley.

Yateley Papers produce stylish handmade desk stationery and home accessories all covered in their own bespoke designs inspired by their extensive experience of block printing on textiles. All products are made and hand prepared exclusively in Great Britain.

This is their set of five luxurious A6 notecards plus envelopes

The Yateley collections are all from patterns made using hand block printing, a careful balance of traditional techniques and modern technologies. These cards feature a blind embossed border (about 3mm wide). The printing is done using an HP Indigo press.

Click on images to enlarge

Accompanying the cards are these wonderful quality, diamond flap envelopes made using Zeta Hammer, Natural 120gsm (see below pic) which are lined envelopes  ...so the pattern you see printed in the image below is not printed on the inside of the envelopes but on a separate liner (printed on our StarFine) which is stuck inside the envelope. They are gorgeous.

Click on images to enlarge

The cards are all printed on our Zeta Hammer, Natural 350gsm, which has a wonderful texture and is totally sympathetic to the block prints.

It is hard to photograph the texture of the cards, but I have done my best....

Click on images to enlarge

Reverse of the cards

https://www.yateleypapers.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.10.2023

Rare £5 for auction

An exceptionally rare £5 banknote, printed in 1900, is expected to fetch up to £16,000 when auctioned at Noonans’ auction house in Mayfair on 12 October. Unusually, the note was issued in Leeds, and signed by Horace G. Bowen the Bank of England’s chief cashier from 1893 to 1902. “This is a great note,” said Andrew Pattison, Noonans’ head of banknotes.

“Very few Bowen notes are in private hands, especially from this exceptionally rare Leeds branch. "The York hand stamp shows part of the journey of the note, issued in Leeds and paid into a bank at some point in York.” Before coming to its present owner, the note was sold by British businessman and collector, David Kirch, who at one point had assembled the UK’s largest collection of provincial banknotes. Pattison added: “This is not the first Leeds note that Noonans has sold. An extremely rare £500 note dated 1936 was sold for a hammer price of £24,000 in March of this year.” The £5 Leeds note will go up for sale alongside several other rare notes, including an 1862 £5 note, valued at £10,000–£15,000 and a £50 note from 1845, valued at £15,000–£20,000. A very early example of a £2 note will also be up for sale, dated to 1798, and is expected to fetch up to £16,000. All four notes were printed at the Bank of England’s central london Threadneedle Street printworks, where all paper notes were printed from 1791 to 1917, when printing moved to the former Lunatic Hospital of St Luke’s in Old Street. 

Image credit: Noonans

 By 1920, the former hospital had been fully converted into a recognisably modern printworks, with concrete floors, three large machinery halls and amenities for staff. The Bank now prints notes at its purpose-built site in Debden, Essex, where print operations have been handled since the 1950s. Its partner De La Rue operates the site under contract.

Read the whole story on Printweek here...

https://www.printweek.com/content/news/rare-123-year-old-5-note-goes-up-for-auction/

https://www.noonans.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.10.22

Jobs from the past - Number 167

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 2013

AMC² Issue4

Archive of Modern Conflict is an independent publisher based in London and this is issue 4 of  their series of journals. (their books on photography and art have won or been shortlisted for many prizes). This is a truly beautiful book, which is just a delight to hold and leaf through.

 

AMC² issue4 comprises photographs from Collected Shadows, an exhibition curated by the AMC for Paris Photo 2012. The works span a period from the early 1850s to the present day and are by photographers both known and unknown, amongst them Bertha Jaques, Gustave Le Gray, Robert Frank, Willi Ruge, Paul-Émile Miot, Johann Böhm, Ferdinand Quénisset, Mario Giacomelli, Eugene Atget, Josef Sudek and many others, while subjects include earth, fire, air, water and ether as well as divinity, astronomy, meteorology, flight and dance (these words from AMC books)

The size is 230x200mm, portrait and is perfect bound. The publication has an 8pp cover on StarFine White 200gsm. The text is made up using "French-folded" sections on Marazion Ultra 90gsm which gives it a sensational light feel and flows beautifully in the hand. The book has a 14mm spine.

The book has 140pp or printed pages (which I would normally describe as 70 x 4pp French-folded sections) - this actually makes 280pp but because the other side is unprinted and the ends are bound, each 4pp = 2pp. It's a bit tricky but if you think about it, it makes sense. French folding with a material like Marazion Ultra 90gsm feels fantastic because the weight of the material lets the pages flop and flow beautifully. The 8pp cover (pictured below) on Starfine 200gsm contributes to the soft feel. 

The picture below shows the foredge with the "french-folded" text

The book is printed by a Belgian printer, Die Keure, who are based in Bruges. They are one of the most renowned European book printers and they print for many of the high end publishers in Europe. The print and binding is superb on this book. It is printed CMYK throughout but most of the images have a mono/sepia reproductions and it's hard to get the consistency of look and feel in one publication from multiple image sources but this is an admirable result.

 

The designer is Melanie Mues, who I have worked with for many years. It was great to have the opportunity to work on a book project together, especially one as exquisite as this. 

https://archiveofmodernconflict.com/amc2-journal-issue-4/
https://www.muesdesign.com/
https://www.diekeure.be/printing/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.10.2023

Carriage Works Swindon

Once a booming Victorian industrial town, Swindon’s reputation has suffered greatly since the Second World War. Swindon Borough Council recently commenced an ambitious regeneration plan for entire town. At its heart is the Railway Heritage Quarter, made famous by Brunel and Gough’s Great Western Railway in the 19th century.

The entire area is known as the Great Western Works (GWW) and the Carriage Works is a development for the tech and innovation business hub within GWW.

Size of the publication is 297x250mm, portrait with a 4pp cover on Omnia 320gsm and a 12pp text with two throw-outs (16pp total) printed on Omnia 150gsm.

Picture below shows the throw out...

Click on images to enlarge

The material chosen for the publication is our Omnia. This material has a high bulk, required as effectively this is only a 20pp brochure. The solid yellow, almost looks fluorescent, it is so vibrant. The photography and the CGI's have reproduced brilliantly on the Omnia.

Even though the 150gsm text paper is bulky, it still rolls and flows nicely in the hand without feeling too stiff and rigid....

Birds eye view, showing the two throw out pages:

Click on images to enlarge

A really nice feature is the singer sewn binding, which you can see here on both the exterior and interior of the publication.

Above showing exterior stitching (on the outside spine) and below showing the interior stitching on the centre pages.

The pantone special yellow is so vibrant!

Art direction and design is by Bell Integrated. You can read more about the whole project here: https://www.bell-integrated.co.uk/portfolio/great-western-works/. Printed offset litho throughout. The excellent print, repro and finishing is by Gavin Martin, based in London

https://www.bell-integrated.co.uk/
https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.09.2023

The Annual St Bride Foundation Conference returns!

St Bride Foundation has reprised its annual conference, with the event set to take place in November. It's live event and also being live-streamed to a worldwide audience for the first time.

Conference Identity by David Pearson

Talking to Printweek, event curator Becky Chilcott said the pandemic had resulted in “a greater need to bring our fantastic community together more often and inspire and engage with them and their creativity”, and it was the perfect time to revive the event. “Not only will the conference keep the St Bride Foundation alive in people’s creative imaginations, it will also raise vital funds to help the upkeep of our Grade II listed Victorian building, management and conservation of our unique and irreplaceable library collections and running of our print workshop and learning programme.” The St Bride Foundation said the event would be “a conversazione celebrating innovation, inspiration, imagination and invention”. 

The speaker line-up includes: Naïma Ben Ayed, Neville Brody, Jean Julien, Naomi Kent, Alicia Martin, Bob Richardson, Venessa and Vanice Scott, and Dominic Wilcox. Attendees will also be able to find out more about some of the treasures and notable items in the St Bride Library collection, and will have a chance to try letterpress printing using the historic presses in the St Bride printing workshop

Fenner Paper is pleased to be one of the principal sponsors along with Commercial Type and the Fleet Street Quarter together with Google and the Wynkyn de Worde Society Charitable Trust.

Principal Sponsors

The conference will take place on Saturday 11 November at the St Bride Foundation in London. In person tickets cost £60, £70 or £80. Online tickets for the live-stream are £35, £45, or £50. The discounted rates apply to students and Friends of St Bride.

You can book HERE. So why don't you get those little grey cells moving and sign up! NOW

https://sbf.org.uk/whats-on/view/the-annual-st-bride-foundation-conference/