Critical Tensions

You may remember my post back in August (12.08.2011) about the forthcoming St Bride's Conference but now there's a shiny new poster and  more speakers have been added including:
Tom Farrand, Tom Rowley and Dan Burgess from Good For Nothing, Amelia Gregory, Matt Jones & Matthew Webb and Jack Schulze from BERG.

...this is on top of the original line-up of speakers including Phil Baines, Jonathan Barnbrook, Zoë Bather, Alan Kitching, Gerry Leonidas, Vaughan Oliver, Paul Rennie, Lucienne Roberts, Jack Schulze, Steve Watson, Rebecca Wright and Derek Yates.

Becky Chilcott and John Walters are co-curating the conference, which is being held on the 10th and 11th November 2011 at the St Brides Institute in London.

The conference is reasonably priced, and if you are an Eye subcriber, you get a discount too. Sign up now!  http://stbride.org/events?show=criticaltensions

PS - You may also notice from the logo on the above poster that it's being sponsored by the other well known, Hull based, paper merchant ...who am I to deny them the oxygen of my publicity!
www.stbride.org

Posted by Justin Hobson 19.09.2011

Addendum - 15.11.2011: The above poster was designed by Roger Swindale and Katy Mawhood, students at the University of Reading using Infidel by Jonathan Barnbrook / www.virusfonts.com

Apologies for missing this off the original post

The Way We Live Now - Terence Conran



Terence Conran/1950's

Photo: Ray Williams

Terence Conran’s vision, energy and achievements have shaped the look of our world and influenced how we lead our lives. His drive to make good design part of our everyday life has arguably had more impact on popular culture than that of any other designer of his generation. As his 80th birthday approaches, the Design Museum in association with Tate Modern is hosting a talk to celebrate his achievements.

Chaired by Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic, this evening of presentations and discussion draws together leading figures from the various worlds that Terence Conran’s parallel careers have influenced and informed. Fiona MacCarthy, Christopher Frayling and Stephen Bayley will each discuss an aspect of Conran’s way of seeing the world.

It's also worth mentioning that there is a Terence Conran exhibition at the Design Museum opening in November.

This event is on Tuesday 20 September, 6.30 - 8pm at TATE MODERN, Starr Auditorium, so hurry up!
See you there...
For more details, follow the links:
The Way We Live Now: An evening celebrating Terence Conran is on Tuesday 20 September 2011, 18.30–20.00
The Way We Live Now at the Design Museum is open 16 Nov 2011 – 4 March 2012

Posted by Justin Hobson 16.09.2011

Soundwave Festival Programme 2011

I'm sure that many of those reading this will be familiar with the Soundwave Festival held in Croatia (I wasn't, I guess I'm just not groovy enough!) Now in it's third year, the festival is bigger and better than ever. The line up included Bonobo, Roots Manuva, Little Dragon, Zero 7 with DJ's Mr Thing and Jenna G. Another feature of this festival is the hosted boat parties - a truly unique facet of this event.

...and this post is about the programme ( -on our paper of course!). It's a very comprehensive piece of literature which has been designed to convey the look and feel of the festival.

Above is cover showing Gloss UV varnish which is a subtle but effective use of the Soundwave mark and which works really well on Omnia.

The programme is an A5 portrait format, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover on Omnia 200gsm and a 64pp text on Redeem 100% Recycled 100gsm.
The programme is produced by Beatnik. Editors are Sven Carlsson and Ali Raymond. Creative Directors are Rachel Crowther and Ali Raymond. Design and production is by Ali Raymond.

Print was Handled by Rob Squires at Pureprint. As you can see from the final spread, they have worked hard (and succeeded) on the readover which is printed on two very different materials.

...and with the wonder of modern technology, you can see the programme page by page:
http://vimeo.com/30493809
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StkKN9T25JY

www.beatnikonline.net
www.soundwavecroatia.com
www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 15.09.2011

London Design Festival 2011

Just a reminder that next week is the London Design Festival: 17th -25th September 2011.

We are supporting one of the events organised by Graphic Birdwatching: http://www.graphicdesignwalk.com/#1765696/Graphic-Design-Walk

Have a look at all the forthcoming events:
http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.09.2011

CN Originals

This is an interesting job which is effectively a look book for Cartoon Network’s Originals, which highlights how brands can licence and apply the crazy original characters to create retro merchandise with attitude. So the items displayed are not available, it's setting the look and feel of possibilities.

The book is 280x195mm, portrait. Binding is "singer sewn" with yellow thread. 4pp cover on our Neptune Unique FSC 250gsm and 28pp text on Neptune Unique FSC 120gsm

The designs incorporate Cartoon Network characters - Samurai Jack, Johnny Bravo and friends and the characters are used on everything from clothing to mugs, pictures, cereal bowls etc.

The book is encased in a bespoke yellow envelope with a lovely "disc and string" closure - lovely! - see pic below. The piece was commissioned to be used at the International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas.

For those that aren't familiar with the term "disc and string" - here, goes!
Basically, it's a fairly self explanitory term. A pair of small discs of board - in this case the same material that the envelope is made from (so it's colour coordinated) is cut out and riveted onto the envelope. A piece of thin string (in this case black) is then riveted/glued under one of the discs. The string is then wound in a figure of eight pattern around the discs. It's a lovely idea and solves the problem of permanently sealing with glue, an envelope which may need to be re-opened several times.

Design and Art Direction is by CRUSH based in Brighton. Print production is by Print-Source, who it's worth pointing out, made a superb job of the "disc and string" envelopes

http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/

www.crushed.co.uk

www.print-sourceuk.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 13.09.2011

Flockage with real Swarovski Crystals

Here's a fantastic luxury greetings card range called TU&Co produced using our Flockage Colours. The cards are beautifully foiled and have Swarovski crystals stuck onto the cards by hand.

Not only is this a truly lovely range but the designer responsible, Phan Tu has been nominated (and is a finalist) for "The most promising Young Designer or Artist at the Henries Awards (The Henries are the Awards for the greeting card industry)

www.thehenriesawards.co.uk

 

The cards are produced by Abstract Greetings and are made in the UK. They are hot foil blocked on our Flockage Colours -Anthracite, Black and Bright Red in 400gsm and Flockage Litho White 300gsm.  They are really lovely and good luck to Phan at the awards on 11th October.

http://www.abstractgreetings.com/AGL1/HOME.html



http://www.thehenriesawards.co.uk/categories.html#YoungDesigner

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.09.2011

A sad end for FS Moore

This is the report that appeared in Printweek, yesterday, about the demise of London printer FS Moore, which I reproduce below...

FS Moore owed almost £2m when administrators appointed
By Adam Hooker Tuesday, 06 September 2011

East London printer FS Moore went into administration owing almost £2m to creditors, according to the administrator's report.

The Bank of Ireland was the largest creditor, owed £517,000, but a number of paper companies, print finishers and trade printers were also included.

One paper company was hit for £137,000, while another two were each owed just under £50,000. One finisher included in the creditors' list was hit for as much as £70,000, although most were owed £10,000 to £20,000.

The company also left £250,000 owed to HMRC, around £50,000 of which was for VAT. Redundancy claims accounted for £182,000. Insolvency practitioner BDO was appointed as administrator on 28 July, before selling the business and assets to DG3 Europe in a pre-pack deal the same day.

The report reveals that the business was bought for £140,000, comprising £135,000 for plant and machinery and £5,000 for stock. DG3 also agreed to pay 1% of annual turnover from FS Moore up to £1m and 2% over £1m annually for a period that has yet to be agreed.

According to the report, FS Moore saw turnover drop by around £800,000 in the two years leading up to its administration, from £4.2m in 2008 to £3.4m in 2010.

Initially the directors planned to sell the company in November 2010, however the deal fell through when HMRC refused to defer the repayment of its debt.

It's a real shame when companies which have a good reputation, such as Moores (who's work has appeared before on this blog) hit the buffers. However, it is indicative of the current state of the print and paper market.

You can read the article in full on the following link:
http://www.printweek.com/news/1089465/FS-Moore-owed-almost-2m-when-administrators-appointed/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.09.2011