#the50 at D&AD New Blood 2011

Yesterday afternoon I made my way to the Truman Brewery in London's Brick Lane to lend a hand at #the50 advice panel at D&AD New Blood 2011.

The idea is to bring established people within the creative industry (including a paper merchant, like me!) to talk to students one-to-one on all aspects of life-after-college.

Unfortunately I arrived late at the end of the day as it was all winding down, but it was a great idea and I can see from the people that I saw, that it can be a really useful thing to speak on a one to one basis to people working within the industry.

It was all organised by Jamie Wieck from Airside seen pictured here on the stand, along with Steven Bateman.

Here's a complete (I think?) list of people on the panel throughout the day (apologies for any missed off)

OK-RM
Alice Stevenson
Anna Fidalgo (Crispin Finn)
Richard Hogg
Sarah Jane Coleman (Inkymole)
Luke Pearson
Guy Moorhouse (Airside)
Mathew Wilson (With Associates)
Michael Bojkowski (ok interrupt)
Mia Frostner (Europa)
Emily Alston (Emily Forgot)
Maggie Li
Jack Cunningham (Colour Club)
Johnny Kelly
Steven Bateman

All in all, a really good idea and well done to Jamie for actually making it happen.

www.jamiewieck.com

www.the-50.org/newblood

Posted by Justin Hobson 05.07.2011

Jobs from the past - Number 21

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...

University of Lincoln Annual Review 2004-2005

The brief for this annual review included the words: crafted, established and tradition. The University of Lincoln was less than ten years old at this time, yet situated in beautiful, ancient Cathedral City that could rival Oxford and Cambridge for both it's heritage and ecclesiastical connections.

This annual report was designed to emphasise the modern and attractive campus at Brayford Pool within the context of an established  and crafted piece of literature.

Size of the document is 240x235mm (just slightly landscape) and is 3 hole sewn with black thread. It has an 8pp cover and a 24pp text.

As you can see, it is based around the beautifully commissioned photography. It is printed in Duotone (black/grey) throughout which have a rich feel and depth to them and work well with the natural/off white material. The cover was printed on Modigliani, Bianco 260gsm which has a traditional "watercolour" type feel to it and the text is on Optimale Blanc Naturel 140gsm.

Art direction and design was by John Dowling. The superb photography is by Andy Weekes (http://www.andyweekes.net/). Print was by Gavin Martin - they deserve credit for the excellent duotone reproduction and well finished three hole sewing.

www.lincoln.ac.uk

www.dowlingduncan.com

http://www.andyweekes.net/

www.gavinmartin.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.07.2011

#the50 is coming to D&AD New Blood 2011

On Monday 4th July 2011, #the50 will be hosting an advice panel at D&AD New Blood 2011, bringing established creatives from all disciplines to talk to students one-to-one on all aspects of life-after-college. All organised by Jamie Wieck from Airside. www.jamiewieck.com

...and it struck Jamie that a paper merchant might be a good inclusion - so he asked me! The panel will be present for the entire day offering free advice and portfolio reviews for anyone who wishes to drop by (my slot is between 5-6pm)

www.the-50.org/newblood

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.06.2011

Topman SS2011

Now hold on to your seats! ...this could possibly be one of the best jobs of the year!

This is the latest collection from TOPMAN. As you might expect from one of the Arcadia group's fashion concious male brand, this piece of literature is produced to the very highest standard with superb art direction, photography and print reproduction - and a few little tricksy surprises lurk within as well!

This lookbook is 280x350mm, portrait format which is just a lovely size - different (not uneconomical either) but just feels right for it's sub A3 and slightly squarer format. The piece has a 4pp cover and a 68pp text and is perfect bound.

For me, one of the joys of this piece of literature is the way it easily flows in the hand. Many designers will use a really heavy cover when producing a document with a substantial number of pages and this can cause disruption with the way the cover interacts with the text - it can be way too flicky!  The cover of this job is 200gsm - it is on Omnia, which is a bulky material, but it is the perfect weight. The cover is hot foiled blocked in gloss white foil. The 68pp text is printed on Omnia 120gsm which gives it that dead matt, tactile feel but with great reproduction - let the pictures do the talking...

...and here's for the surprise (well three of them actually). There are three smaller (310x230mm) right hand page "throw outs" with closer up detail shots. These are printed on our high gloss, one sided cast coated paper Astralux 115gsm. The images are printed on the gloss side and the uncoated reverse is printed in a flat solid cool grey.

and if that wasn't enought the whole book is inserted into a custom made capacity

envelope, also made out of Omnia 200gsm.  Art Direction and design is by Gill Patchett. Production is by Stephanie Johnson. Photographer is Boo George (at Streeters). Printing is by Ortek printers in Walsall and they have made a superb job of it - colour reproduction is fantastic - solid flat areas of colour work amazingly well as do the mono images - it is difficult for me to say too much more about it - the images speak for the job...

and a big thank you to Gill for sending me some file copies.

www.topman.com

www.ortek.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.06.2011

DesignWeek - a newsworthy event

It was announced yesterday that the publisher Centaur Media is to axe the print editions of Design Week and New Media Age.

The last editions of the magazines are expected to go on sale this week, with both titles going online-only after that.

The "death of print" has often been mooted but it seems to me that there are more and more independent magazines starting off and setting up (in print) than ever before, it's curious as to why this is and why traditional publishers such as Centaur magazines are pulling away from print. This is especially strange given the parallel that the uber succesful www.itsnicethat.com blog, having run a great blog started to put it's work "in print". I guess the thing is that people only want to read good stuff, it doesn't matter whether it's in print or on line - if content is good people will want it.

www.designweek.co.uk

www.itsnicethat.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.06.2011

GAP Corso Como

This piece is for a limited edition that links a US brand, soon debuting in Italy, with a concept store: GAP and 10 Corso Como. The launch was at 2011 Milan Fashion Week.

Garments and accessories are signature GAP, cotton t-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, canvas shopping bags.  The printed motif is the distinctive feature of 10 Corso Como: the pattern with the loops.

The "private view" invitation is for this launch is 145x103mm folding out to 595x415mm. It is formed by a poster which is concertina folded in both directions and then has heavyweight cards mounted on both the front and the back. Confused? ...hopefully the pictures will make it clearer!



The invitation is printed in just one colour using one of the GAP Corso Como collection images. The paper weight used is our lightweight Redeem 100% Recycled in 80gsm and the card mounted front and back is Flora Noce 350gsm.

Printing is by Absolute Ink who are based in Clapton in London and who work directly with many of the large brands such as GAP. Art director and designer on the project was Jonathan Baron working in conjunction with the in-house production team at Gap.
...and thanks to Jonathan for sending me some copies.

http://www.gap.com/

http://www.studio-baron.com/

http://www.theabsolute.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.06.2011

2011 ISTD Student Assesment Scheme - Part 2!

Following on from my post yesterday about the ISTD Student Assesment scheme, I thought it might be of interest to readers if they could see one of the set briefs and an example of the way a finished piece looked...

You can read all the briefs on the ISTD website http://www.istd.org.uk/education

Brief No 5: FLATLAND
With this brief we take a different approach. Rather than offer a theme that requires you to generate the content, we are directing you towards existing content – the Victorian (1884) novella Flatland by the English schoolmaster, Edwin A. Abbott. You will find a mass of references and the full text freely available online.

The Brief
Your task is to produce a proposal for a new edition of Flatland that doesn’t necessarily engage with the conventions of ‘the book’ as we understand them, although it may have text matter, pages and a cover – or not. It could be a pamphlet, a chapbook, a poster, a landscape, a happening, a dream, an installation, a text, a sound piece, an animation, a moment.

Interpret the text typographically – you can be as ambitious as you wish to be, but you must deal with the full contents of at least one chapter and show how the rest of the text would develop.
There are no restrictions, no conventions, no rules, no given formats. Static work, moving image, physical, virtual, ephemeral are all up to you, as is the navigation of the piece, its viewer/reader/user engagement, its scale, simplicity, complexity, composition. What can it become? There is a quote in the film Amadeus that says if you have four people talking at once, then that’s an argument . . .
if you have four people singing at once, then that’s Opera. Make an opera, not an argument !

Target Market
Define your market, and how you will target it, in your Strategy.

Requirements
• Research and Development
• Strategy
• Specifications/Grid(s)
• Dummy/Prototype(s)
• Presentation
==========================================

Tom Nurse is a 3rd Year student on the BA Graphic Design course at the University of Portsmouth and his tutor is Mike Harkins. Below are pictured Tom's interpretation of the above brief for which he was awarded a Pass at the awards.

Flatland - folded to finished size.

Flatland - partially unfolded

Flatland - fully unfolded

Flatland - detail

I know it's difficult to look at four pictures of any piece of work and make a judgement from it, especially as I can't reproduce the supporting presentation. I just want to comment that as well as being fully scrutinised from a typographical point of view, what really impresses me is that entrants must support the piece of work with a full type layout specification and when there is print involved, a written print specification as well. This is the sort of discipline which many courses do not seem to insist on and which is where many students are let down by not being taught some of the skills essential for the workplace. Well done to the ISTD and I hope they continue this scheme ad infinitum.

So congratulations to Tom on his Pass and if anyone is interested in seeing more of his work (or get him in to have a look at his portfolio...!) you can see more on: www.tomnurse.co.uk

[PS just in case you were wondering, this isn't a shameless plug for a member of my family, we're not related! He did however blag some Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm from us for his presentation, so that also shows some initiative!]
www.istd.org.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.06.2011