Friday 29 January 2010

Clever design solution...

Here is a well designed, clear and thoughtfully produced little job. It is a membership booklet for Dartington, which is a charity with a long history back to the 1930's when the founders set up the "Dartington Experiment" at Dartington Hall in Devon.

This A5 booklet combines the need for clear information, a clever reply element (the pull out centre 4pp pages have a re-moist glue around three edges) and an equally clever delivery element - as the cover makes it's own envelope by use of a flap and an adhesive tape strip.

Picture above shows outside back cover and the pic below shows the front and back cover with the flap that forms the "envelope" style flap. Text on the cover has also been hot foil blocked in matt white foil which gives a rich contrast with the self-coloured cover board.
The project is designed by biz-R who are based in Totnes, Devon. Creative Director on the project is Blair Thomson and design and (some!) of the copywriting is by Blair Thomson and Tish England.

It was in keeping with the charity's aims to use 100% Recycled materials, so our Colorset Deep Orange 270gsm was used for the cover combined with another recycled text paper ...sadly not on our material (it was on cyclus offset).

Print was by local firm Kingfisher Print and Design based in Totnes, Devon.

http://www.dartington.org/
http://www.biz-r.co.uk/
http://www.kingfisherprint.co.uk/

Thursday 28 January 2010

Kino spotlight

Yesterday I went to Kino Design in London. They invited me to come in to one of their "Spotlight" presentations. About once a month they get people to come in and talk about what they do. Must have been a hit as I'm on their blog!

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Happily Ever After

Here's a lovely project produced by Happily Ever After. It's an exhibition catalogue for Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

As creative partner, Sara Carneholm, said in her e-mail "Well it looks rather sweet and the text pages are Neptune Soft White. Cover is a non-Fenner I'm afraid, Millstream Sky Blue. But its a nice combo! Thought I should share that with you." Well it is a lovely combination and the job looks lovely, so thank you Sara.
The pocket sized catalogue is to accompany Pretty Eyed, Pirate Smile an exhibition of six video works from Ellie Rees. The works, made over the past two years, explore the archetypes and broad narrative structures that opera and film rely on, particularly regarding gender and love, specifically those of women in romantic relationships.
Design is by Sara Carneholm and Leah Harrison-Bailey.

Monday 25 January 2010

Madomat looks after the trees...

This is a lovely idea sent to me by Madelyn Postman of Madomat.

For Christmas gifts, they gave trees to their clients. They wrapped the Woodland Trust's own dedication card with this "once upon a tree" cover sheet with an image silkscreened in aubergine on our Colorset (100% recycled) in Dark Grey 270gsm and all finished with an aubergine coloured ribbon. The trees in the image are actually from a wood in Buckinghamshire which Madomat sponsors!

www.madomat.com
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk

Friday 22 January 2010

If you could collaborate exhibition ...take 2

I made it to the "if you could collaborate" exhition at the A Foundation Gallery in London E2 (see previous post 15th Jan). Here are some of my favourites out of the 34 exhibits:
[Above] Fred Butler and No Days Off: The launching of the 8 days a week campaign...
[Above] Oliver Jeffers & Aaaron Ruff: A machine to enable a 4D view of the world!
[Above] Sandy Suffield and Fiona Woodcock: Stitched, hand painted reactions to tabloid headlines.
[Above] Rob Ryan and Michael Marriot: "The rockin' Rob Ryan chair"

It's on until 24th January... so go!
www.ifyoucould.co.uk/
http://www.afoundation.org.uk/
www.itsnicethat.com/

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Opera North - Invitation

I've just received a file copy of this lovely invitation for Opera North for an event which is "an installation of forty voices".
The job is A5 in size and is very simply (but well) printed on our Kapok 500gsm, which is a natural coloured unbleached brown board with excellent rigidity. It has been printed using black and silver (Pantone 877). It's an excellent example of a job where the material has really worked with the design in a very simple and effective way.

Design is by Joe Gilmore at Qubik Design in Leeds. Print is by Northend Creative Print Solutions in Sheffield.

www.howardassemblyroom.co.uk
www.qubik.com
www.northend.co.uk

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Chase Calendar 2010

This is such a great calendar, so I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The size of the calendar is A2 (420x594mm). It is glued at the top edge and is drilled with seven holes for hanging and is "round cornered" as well. There is a page for each week and a total of 53 graphic/typographic designers have chosen their favourite typeface for a given letter and give a brief explanation for their choice - it's a great idea and really well executed.

I'm not going to list all 53 but they include people such as David Pearson, Alan Herron, Mike Dempsey, Jeremy Tankard, Phil Baines, Fernando GutiƩrrez and the list goes on...! Below is the whole lot in one spread which Li Rui kindly sent me.

The calendar was printed on our Eco-Pure Recycled (100% Recycled) 100gsm which was a special making for this project. Printed and finished by DXG Media.

Design Director on the project is Ben Casey at The Chase in Manchester and the designer is Li Rui. http://www.thechase.co.uk/

The calendar was produced in collaboration with the following type companies:
http://www.atomictype.co.uk/
http://www.fontshop.co.uk/
http://www.type.co.uk/