Monday, 22 July 2024

Modern Poetry in Translation 2024

This is the latest edition...
Cover art by Liliana Dmitrovic
Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT) is a magazine, originally founded by Ted Hughes and Daniel Weissbort. The first issue, published in 1965 was a 12pp broadsheet printed on a Bible paper and cost 2s 6d! MPT presented poems by a wide range of authors, particularly from Eastern Europe introducing them into a wider circulation in English in the West. The original designer of the publication was Richard Hollis, continuing until 2004.

This issue titled ‘Bearing the Burden of Sameness’ spotlights the poetry of care. Featuring Rachel Rankin’s new translations of Brynjulf Jung Tjønn’s experiences of adoption in Norway, the myth of the Chinese river snail reborn in Tuoya Wulan’s version of Xinyang Wu, and Beth Hickling-Moore’s translation of Carla Nyman’s radically physical poetry of the body. Also: brand new translations of Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Olga Ulturgasheva on Siberian animist poetry, and Jenny He interviews Fiona Sze-Lorrain. 
The magazine is 215x140mm, portrait. The 114pp text is all printed offset litho on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and printed in 2 colour, burgundy and black throughout with an overall tint over some of the sections. Images are reproduced as halftones. The publication is perfect bound.
This is a really lovely piece of literature which feels good in the hand and is definitely one of those publications which invites the reader in. It flops and flows beautifully.

The perfect binding is nice and neat as you can see below...
Design is by Brett Evans Biedscheid. Print is by Wakefield based Charlesworth Press.

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.07.2024

Wednesday, 17 July 2024

Colorset has 37 shades

For those of you not familiar with Colorset, it is our range of coloured text and cover papers which is 100% recycled and more competitively priced than some other well known brands of coloured paper!

A few years ago we launched 350gsm, so we now have ALL Colorset shades in 120gsm, 270gsm and 350gsm - all in B1 size (700x1000mm). 
A few years ago we further developed the range with 9 new colours, making this a collection of 37 shades.
The new shades include five light shades and three deep shades. The new shades are Blush, Warm White*, Glacier, Storm, Nautic, Hopsack*, Charcoal*, Spearmint* and Deep Blue (Note: four of the new shades with an asterisk* are virgin fibre)
...so there you have it, a range with 37 colours including SEVEN greys!

If you would like the updated swatch, please drop me an email and I'll pop one in the post justin@fennerpaper.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 17.07.2024

Monday, 8 July 2024

Have bike (& printing press) will travel!

Nick Hand, designer and letterpress printer at the Department of Small Works in Bristol, is embarking on another of his epic cycle rides... 

As Printweek reports...

Cycling printer Nick Hand will return to the road for a new tour of the UK on his custom-built letterpress bicycle. Armed with an Adana 8x5 letterpress affixed to his custom-frame bike, Hand will make three cycling tours to visit public libraries throughout the UK.

At each library, Hand will print bespoke bookmarks that celebrate each library, and famous figures who used them.

Now 67, he is an experienced hand at touring the Adana press, having pedalled his press-bike hybrid all the way to printing progenitor Gutenburg’s birthplace in Mainz, Germany in 2014; from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 2017; and most recently around festivals throughout the UK in 2022...

You can read the full Printweek article HERE.

https://www.departmentofsmallworks.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2024

Wednesday, 3 July 2024

Jobs from the past - Number 176

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 eleven years ago. 

Peter Doig - No Foreign Lands - August 2013
This is the literature and private view invitation for a major exhibition titled 'No Foreign Lands' devoted to one of Scotland's most internationally-renowned artists working today Peter Doig. Works from the previous ten years were shown in this first major exhibition in the country of his birth held at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
The invitations are printed on our Omnia 320gsm duplexed to make 640gsm ...and as you can see, beautifully reproduces the detail of the scene in Trinidad. This invitation is a 2pp, portrait, A5 (210x148mm) format and is printed offset litho.
 
To go with the show, there is a superb 8pp concertina leaflet, size 235x170mm printed on our Omnia 120gsm.
The colour reproduction is strong and vivid and the whole publication has a matt, tactile look and feel which works perfectly with the artwork. 

...for interest, here is a close-up of the duplexed invitation which is around 1mm thick:

The invitation is printed in one colour (blue) on the reverse and the name DOIG is hot foil blocked in matt white foil. Omnia foils beautifully as it has a high bulk and flattens out leaving the foiled type, smooth and slightly de-bossed.

You can find out more about the exhibition here: https://youtu.be/_IKe529_2kM

Design and Art direction is by Freytag Anderson, a Glasgow based studio run by creative partners Daniel Freytag and Greig Anderson.

Printing is by J. Thompson Colour Printers in Glasgow

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/

https://www.freytaganderson.com/

https://jtcp.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.07.2024

Friday, 28 June 2024

Just a little walking log...

As it says on the cover, all walks start somewhere , where they end up is up to you... This is a superb little publication designed and produced by Teresa Coles McGee. Teresa wanted a small log book to record her walks but couldn't find anything available that was what she wanted, so she created her own! The result is this really pleasing little journal which looks and feels just right.
The size is A6 (148x105mm) portrait, with a 4pp cover on our Crush Olive 250gsm and a 48pp text on our PaperWise Natural 70gsm, made using 100% agricutural waste and completely unbleached. The materials really work together well giving the notebook a purposeful look and feel.

They are very simply produced, digitally printed in just black and saddle stitched. An excellent example of how good a job can look with well thought out design, well considered materials and minimal print.

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.06.2024

Friday, 21 June 2024

Print by Veronica Ditting in Japan

The work of creative director and designer Veronica Ditting is being shown at a new exhibition in Kyoto, Japan. The show is titled ‘Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ and it celebrates her influential career so far by bringing together a variety of her print work from the last 20 years. The content includes a variety of printed materials, including books, magazines, other publications, and exhibition designs. The custom made exhibition stands designed for this exhibition are set up at different heights and orientations, allowing the works to be viewed from various perspectives, thereby highlighting the materiality and three-dimensionality of the works. The printed materials collected in the gallery create a landscape, highlighting the essential characteristics of Veronica's work as a collective.
Image courtesy of Veronica Ditting
The exhibition – curated by London-based design historian Emily King – spans two decades of print projects including her time at The Gentlewoman where she worked for 12 years together with other influential printed matter for the world’s biggest brands.

The custom made exhibition stands have all been made by hand at Studio Veronica Ditting in London using SUMO White 1.5mm which is made by Favini and supplied by Fenner Paper!
Image courtesy of Veronica Ditting
Kyoto ddd gallery was formerly DNP Duo Dojima (ddd), a gallery specializing in graphic design and graphic art, established in 1991 in Dojima, Osaka, for the cultural activities of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. The name was changed to the current name when it moved to Kyoto in 2014. ddd Gallery seeks to expand the boundaries between graphic design and art by reading the new era trends and discovering new forms of creativity through exchange and dialogue.

‘Folio Folio Folio: Print by Veronica Ditting’ runs until 28 July 2024. 

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.06.2024

Monday, 17 June 2024

Sorry Paper...


Last week, the Independent Paper Show came to London. On Wednesday and Thursday the Crypt on the Green in Clerkenwell was packed full of companies showing all the best and latest in paper, printing and finishing. The IPS London show has been brought to the UK and is hosted by Foilco in partnership with the  three Swiss companies who originally founded the show: Bubu, Lorenz Boegli and Sonderegger.
I hope these images will give you a flavour of the event...
We are very pleased with our stand where we had a minature tree with scrunched balls of paper, following the event's theme of "sorry paper..."
Our friends from the Reflex paper mill in Germany were on a stand next door to us, showing their label papers, superbly demonstrated on bottles of beer!
...and Reflex were giving away copies of the wonderful Euro24 wallchart printed on Zeta Hammer, Brilliant 120gsm.
Below is Lorenz Boegli giving a talk about screenprinting and about his inventing his revolutionary technique to print RGB
Below are the stands of the original founders of the show: Bubu, Lorenz Boegli and Sonderegger.
As well as the three original founders,and Foilco there were stands from Antalis, Dreyer Kliche, Fedrigoni, GF Smith, James Cropper, Manifattura Del Seveso, Mondi, Procop, Reflex Paper, Slater Harrison, Winter & Co. 

It was a really worthwhile event, absolutely packed for most of the time and was amazingly well organised by Foilco. Hopefully this will become a regular event in the calendar. Our thanks to everyone that participated but especially to Foilco.

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.06.2024