Earth Day 2025

Earth Day is an annual event first held on April 22, 1970. It now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. Above all, Earth Day is the "people's day" for doing something to take care of the Earth. That "something" can be local, national or global. It can be a solo action or involve a crowd.

What better day for me to remind you about one of our range of recycled and environmentally friendly text and cover papers...

 

Creative Print is a range of 100% recycled, uncoated text and cover materials. 

The paper has an uncoated, natural surface and is produced on the "Rolls Royce" of papermaking machines - a twin wire machine which ensures even-sidedness which improves printability over other inferior products. The range is available in two shades, Diamond and Champagne and the weight range is 90, 120, 170, 210, 270 and 350gsm.

 

Creative Print is manufactured by Euler in Germany, which is part of the Koehler Paper Group. The range carries the "Blue Angel" certification. Introduced in 1978, the Blue Angel scheme is the oldest ecolabel in the world, and it covers some 10,000 products in some 80 product categories. After the introduction of Germany's Blue Angel in 1978 as the first worldwide environmental label, other European and non-European countries followed this example and introduced their own national and supra-regional environmental labels. The common goal of these labels is to inform consumers about environmentally friendly products thereby giving global support to product-related environmental protection - perfect for highlighting on Earth Day!

 If you would like a swatch of this range, just drop me an email Justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

 

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.04.2025

10 years on...

Many of you reading this blog may never have even heard of the companies in this article - Robert Horne, Howard Smith Paper, PaperCo, which were all laterly under the Paperlinx banner.

It was exactly ten years ago today that the Paperlinx group companies were placed in administration and I wrote about it on this blog HERE 

It was a sad day for our industry and for the near one thousand staff working in the UK for the group. Although this may have been a chronically mismanaged company, it highlighted the direction of travel for the paper and printing industry...

Paperlinx was an Australian company which bought up three very sucessful and profitable companies and ran the whole thing into the ground.

You can read more about the history on the Printweek website:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150685/breaking-deloitte-appointed-at-paperlinx-uk-most-branches-closed

Regular readers of this blog may well remember that I had a bit of a 'run in' with Paperlinx and their solicitors after posting a hyperlink (with allegedly defamatory remarks) when I wrote about Toby Marchant's 'golden goodbye' departure:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/toby-marchant-exits-paperlinx.html
Sadly, Graham Critchley, who ran the website exposing the shananagins at Paperlinx (and who's blog I linked to) passed away in January 2014. The financial troubles at Paperlinx continued to persist.

More history here:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1150698/merchants-move-to-plug-paperlinx-gap https://www.printweek.com/content/news/paperlinx-debts-revealed/

https://www.printweek.com/content/news/former-paperlinx-business-subsumed-into-japanese-giant/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.04.2025

The Marrakech Collection

Olivia von Halle is a British luxury nightwear brand that launched at London Fashion Week in September 2011. The brand can be found in nearly 100 stores in 20 countries including Harrods, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and online with Net-a-Porter.com.

Focusing on beautifully cut silk pyjamas in stunning exclusive prints, Olivia von Halle has quickly made a name for itself in the world of high-end nightwear. In 2013 the company was awarded the ‘Blue Butterfly Trust Mark’, which is given to brands and companies that have a positive impact on people and the planet.

This is the look-book for the Marrakech Collection. The publication is sub A4 - 290x205mm, portrait. It is a 16pp self cover format printed on Omnia 150gsm

Unlike many of the fashion 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!

Click on images to enlarge

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.

 The self cover format means that it flows well with the pages turning nicely.

 A nice touch is the use of the white wire for the saddle stitches, in fact so white, you can't see them!

Graphic design is by Michael Knight, who runs his studio in East London called A New Mark. Print and finishing is by Gavin Martin.

https://oliviavonhalle.com/
https://anewmark.com/
https://www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 11.03.2025

VIP Preview

This is the beautifully produced invitation for the VIP preview of  thePaddington Square development in west London held at the Chiltern Firehouse.

Size of the invitation is 215mm square and looks stunning.

The square on the front of the invitation is hot foil blocked in Rainbow SHLR from Foilco and the type printed in "Just Black 700" which is one of Foilco’s most popular pigment foils and has a Gloss finish.

The invitation is printed on SUMO, which is our a heavyweight, thick board manufactured by FAVINI in Italy. It is available in black and white and the consists of 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm up to a whopping 3mm thick ...seriously chunky! Last year, the range was extended to include a small range of colours - five new shades all available in 1mm thick.

This invitation is produced on Sumo, White 2mm thick, which is really substantial and the result is absolutely dead FLAT - unlike the risky business with duplexing boards together which can result in a warped finish...

The hot foil stamping looks superb, sinking into the thick board and giving a wonderful, tactile, quality. 

Design is by property marketing specialists Wordsearch. Designer on the project is Ana Iugulescu and the artworker is Alex Shannon. Printing is by Trident Printing in London.

https://paddingtonsquare.co.uk/

https://www.wordsearch.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.12.2024

Fenner Paper Diary 2025

If you are a user of the Fenner Paper ranges and therefore one of our wonderful customers, you may well have already received one of our wonderful new 2025 diaries... 

The cover has been designed by Carol Kemp using drawn lettering and brush calligraphy. In a career of over 30 years, Carol has produced lettering for over 800 books and logos for numerous brands worldwide

The 4pp cover is printed on our Creative Print, Diamond 270gsm using an HP Indigo digital press. The 40pp text is printed in one colour, on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which has a superb opacity and a good writing surface making this an ideal paper for a diary or notebook.

The diary has been put together by long term collaborator and friend David Coates using typefaces from Buy Fonts Save Lives that raises money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support.

As in previous years, the diary is 230x162mm, portrait and retains the popular 'month to view' format.

Buy Fonts Save Lives sells typefaces to raise money to support Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. 100% of the proceeds go to the charities and to date, over £150,000 has been raised!

Founded by Paul Harpin in memory of his niece Laura who sadly died from cancer, aged just 26. We’re delighted to support and help promote the initiative with our diaries. Any purchases of the fonts help to raise vital funds that literally save lives.

If you are one of our worthy clients (!), you should be receiving one of our diaries in the post. If you want to make sure you are in our address book, drop me an email: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk. For people who aren't customers, they are available to buy through the St Bride Foundation here:

https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/product/fenner-paper-diary-2025

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.12.2024

Garden Scenes from James Ellis

 Here are two beautiful new notecards published by James Ellis in a handy wallet pack containing eight cards.

Garden Bird House by Matt Johnson

The notecard designs are titled 'Garden Fork' and 'Garden Bird House' illustrated by Matt Johnson who lives and works in Cornwall. 

Garden Fork by Matt Johnson

Full images of the notecards are also displayed when the wallet is opened, along with information about the artist. The wallet measures 134 x 134 x 16mm. The cards are 120mm square, and the envelopes are 130mm square. 

The two designs are printed on the front and back of the wallet and each wallet contains four of each notecard together with envelopes.

The cards and the wallets are both printed on our Starfine, Natural 300gsm, which is an natural white, uncoated board with a lovely feel and great surface for printing. It is FSC accredited and also free from OBA's (optical brightening agents). The cards and wallets are printed offset litho by Alpha Colour in Gloucester.

The whole package is plastic free and 100% recyclable, which you can see from the handy information illustration on their website.

https://www.jamesellis.com/collections/notecard-wallets/products/garden-scenes-wallet-of-eight-notecards-by-james-ellis

https://www.jamesellis.com/ 

https://mattillustration.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 09.12.2024

Jobs from the past - Number 181

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 2017.

Wildwood Deli - Pannettone Wrap Christmas 2017

This is a lovely project which was produced for Christmas 2017. I received a call from Richard Davey (who is now at London printer Empress Litho) who asked if we could supply a 60gsm in a red and black paper. We discussed the project further and it turned out that paper was to be printed with a metallic gold text and sent to Italy to wrap the traditional Panettone cake for sale in the Wildwood Deli.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a readily available red/black 60gsm stock paper available from one of our supplying mills and the quantity wasn't enough for a 'mill making',  so I suggested that he could successfully print a solid colour onto our Offenbach Bible 60gsm and the metallic gold text with excellent results. I sent Richard a printed sample of a McQ project to show how well a solid could work.  

The sheets were printed on a B1 Heidelberg offset litho press, in a solid pantone (not panettone colours!) colour plus a metallic gold and as you can see, the paper has printed beautifully. The size of the finished sheets are 550x750mm.

Not only does Offenbach Bible print beautifully, it also is very strong and "scrunches" beatifully! making it ideal for this type of wrapping, where a tissue paper (which you wouldn't be able to Litho Print) would actiually not be strong enough ...and here is the finished packaged article

Couldn't resist trying a slice!

Thanks to Richard Davey for giving us the opportunity to be involved with this very tasty project!

Posted by Justin Hobson 03.12.2024