Friday 16 May 2014

What is ...Cast Coated Paper?

What is ...Number 5
Regular followers of this blog will know that in the middle of the month, I publish a "What is ....? post. The article covers various aspects of paper, printing and finishing in greater depth. However, many of these subjects are complex, so these posts are only intended to be a brief introduction to the topic.
 
What is ...Cast Coated Paper?
'Cast Coated' papers and boards have an extremely high gloss, reflective surface on one side with an uncoated reverse (see below about 2 sided boards).
The coating formulation is a mix of china clay, satin white (calcium sulphate and alumina) and precipitated calcium carbonate (chalk) held together with binding agents such as latex - so basically the same coating as for all coated papers (matt/gloss/silk).
The high gloss result is due to the use of a chromium plated roller, heat and elongated drying line. The wet coating which is applied in the traditional manner, via a series of applicator rollers, is pressed against a highly finished chromium plated metal cylinder which is heated on the inside. As the coating film dries, it takes on the even, level glossy surface of the casting surface (ie the chrome plated roller).
 
The process used today has remained largely unchanged since the early 1950's when an American company called S.D Warren developed and then patented the process. In order to stimulate the market in other areas of the world, they 'licensed' the technology to paper manufacturers, including two in the UK: Star Paper Mill (Blackburn) in 1954 and Tullis Russell (Scotland) in 1989, plus various other paper mills in Europe.
 
Cast coated papers and boards are mainly used in labelling and the "luxury packaging" market. In the 1960's and 1970's, when glossy was seen as modern and luxurious, cast coated products were really big. The products had names such as Astralux, Chromolux, Lustrulux - (you probably get the common "lux" theme!) and luxury packaging for such brands as Chanel relished in the clean, sleek, modern look.
 
A development was the addition of pigments (colours) on the coating and self coloured boards with a colour one side and a white uncoated reverse became a highly desirable board for business cards and membership cards - back in the 1960/70/80's when colour printing was expensive and much printing was still letterpress, using a coloured board (especially a glossy one!) was a way of introducing colour, cost effectively into a black and white world! 
Further developments have included the additions of metallic colours and pearlescent colours. Also, two sided products (in white) are now available by 'pasting' two one sided boards together back to back.

You maybe thinking from the way I am writing this that cast coated papers and boards are a thing of the past, they most certainly are not! It's just that with the advent of film lamination (more commonly known as gloss lamination) a large part of the market for cast coated boards disappeared. Although it should be remembered that gloss lamination is a plastic based process and makes recycling, much, much harder. If you want to see a beautiful job produced on Astralux, you don't have to look any further than the Alexander McQueen project here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/mcq-aw13.html
 
Fenner paper is the UK stockists for the market leading Astralux range manufactured by Favini in Italy (although, as they say on the BBC "other brands are also available")

The range comes in 27 different shades and also includes a black board, reverse, with a shiny black coated front - very nice... 
Posted by Justin Hobson 16.05.2014 


Wednesday 14 May 2014

26 Characters

This is a very special publication published by 26, which is a writers' collective founded in 2002. The project is to celebrate and demonstrate the power of stories to inspire learning - especially for the young.
The size is 170x120mm portrait, saddle stitched. It has a 4pp cover and a 64pp text. There are five different colour covers, all printed on our Colorset 120gsm. The text is printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm, which combined with the light cover makes for a compact, light feel which flows beautifully in the hand as you turn the pages. As you will see from the images below, the reproduction of the illustrations is simply superb.
The writers who contributed to the project were each allocated a letter of the alphabet to start their poem with. To bring the poems to life and make the book visually exciting, 26 illustrators were invited to respond to each poem including the letter in their image, with great results...
It's worth pointing out that although the different colour covers had no definitive meaning, they were just run on different colours - it's a great way of creating a 'series' at little or no extra cost.
Design is by Clerkenwell based studio, Design by St. Creative Partners are Steve Fenn and Tom Pollard and the designer is Stef Bushell.
Printing is by Push and the repruduction on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm is truly scrumptious! You can read more about the project on the 26 website below
Posted by Justin Hobson 14.05.2014

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Progressive Greetings 2014

Today, the Progressive Greetings Exhibition or "PG Live",as it's known, opens at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Aimed at the greeting card industry, it's open on 13th &14th May and here's the picture of our stand...
Our modest stand of 3 x 2 metres, features a whole pallet of paper and displays our boards that are especially suitable for greetings cards and as you can see from the display below, we now have quite a few!  Fenner Paper is proud to have been the first paper company to be granted Associate Membership of the Greeting Card Association (GCA), in 2013.
Our stand is designed by Vincent Design and also features a 'guess the number of sheets on the pallet' competition with the closest guess winning £500 worth of paper!
 
If you are a designer or publisher of greeting cards, please do come along and we look forward to welcoming you - we're on stand 506.

www.progressivegreetingslive.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 13.05.2014

Friday 9 May 2014

The Trianon Collection

This is the magnificent brochure for the new Trianon Collection from luxury brand Manuel Canovas, based in Paris. Trianon is a range of wallpapers and fabrics based on paintings, drawn in Chinoiserie style, by Jean-Baptiste Pillement in the 18th Century.
The size of the publication is 240mm x 170mm, portrait and is saddle stitched, printed on our StarFine White. 4pp cover on 300gsm and 8pp text on 200gsm. Printed CMYK offset litho and hot foil blocked in gold metallic foil on the cover.
StarFine is a quality, uncoated paper and as the images show, image reproduction is excellent. The detail of the wallpaper and fabrics is stunning - great detail for an uncoated paper, colours are bright and vivid.
The brass wire used for the saddle stitches is a really lovely touch - which brilliantly compliments the gold foiling on the cover.
Click on image to enlarge
Manuel Canovas is one of the Colefax group brands and this beautiful piece of literature has been created in house at Colefax & Fowler. Designer on this project is Rachael Ashley. Print production is by Pureprint handled by Richard Owers.

www.manuelcanovas.com
http://www.colefax.co.uk/
www.pureprint.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 09.05.2014

Thursday 8 May 2014

A Proper Shop

Here's an interesting shop that I thought you might be interested in having a look at: www.proper-shop.co.uk
Established by Paul Jenkins (creative director of Ranch) together with a partner, Proper has now developed into a fully- formed shop and website (following the success of a temporary Saturday shop).

Proper specialises in mid-century furniture and is based in the East End of London. 'Proper. is a neat summation of all things we sell in terms of quality; attention to detail, solid and interesting use of materials or perhaps a particular quirk of design. Our interest in furniture and lighting transfers to sourcing and commissioning all kinds of print material, graphics and photography, both period and contemporary. Where there is a designer’s mark we hope to provide you with a history and provenance on the piece, thus giving added interest and background.'

They have posters and printed material as well, although nothing on Fenner Paper ...yet!

Go and have a look: Proper Shop, Unit G.01 Northside Studios, 16-29 Andrews Road, London E8 4QF

or online: www.proper-shop.co.uk
Posted by Justin Hobson 08.05.2014

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Guardian News & Media sustainability report

This is the printed summary of the Guardian News & Media sustainability report. The whole report is available online http://www.theguardian.com/sustainability but this report is printed to give out to staff and partners.

The size of the report is 148mm square, saddle stitched and has a 4pp cover and 16pp text. The publication is printed on our Shiro Echo, White (200gsm and 120gsm) which is 100% recycled and also carries FSC certification.
  
 

Detail of illustration
The report is beautifully illustrated by Laurent Cilluffo, superbly evocative artworks make this a really special piece of literature.

http://www.laurentcilluffo.com/

The design, typography, illustrations and the paper choice combine to male this a truly engaging piece of literature.
Design is by the in-house design team at The Guardian. Production handled by Leon Abrahams.

Print is by Cantate, a division of the John Good Group and thanks to Jason Maclaren at Cantate for sending me file copies.

www.theguardian.com/sustainability
http://www.laurentcilluffo.com/
http://www.cantatecommunications.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 06.05.2014

Friday 2 May 2014

Jobs from the past - Number 55

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...

Photography Editions - Chris Boot - Spring 2007

Chris Boot was a prolific publisher of photography books and this was the catalogue they produced to send to book shops, retailers and press about their new editions. Before  starting his own publishing imprint, Chris Boot was previously a director at Magnum Photos and editorial director at Phaidon Press.

This is a very special catalogue and is always admired when I show it to people. The reason is that it is one of the most modest pieces of print but has enormous impact. The size of the catalogue is A6 (148x105mm) and is a 64pp self-cover, saddle stitched,  portrait format and is printed on our lovely Offenbach Bible 60gsm. As a result it has a compact light feel but as you will see from the images, the reproduction, doesn't disappoint.
Spreads with the publication details are in dispersed with spreads using the amazing images which appear in the books themselves. Below is an image by Keld Helmer-Peterson from the book '23 Colour Photographs'
The catalogue is divided into five sections using a colour coded, printed foredge.
One of the points of interest about this catalogue to be made is about the economics of the project. Things have changed recently with Royal Mail and pricing in proportion but back in 2007, postal weight was the absolute key to keeping costs down. This 64pp catalogue weighs just 30 grams! - incredibly light, which meant that the postage cost for sending out this catalogue was just 23pence (probably even cheaper using mailsort). Another crucial factor is that as a 64pp A6, the whole job is printed on ONE sheet of SRA1 paper - yes, just one sheet! Most important is though, it has a fantastic, quality feel about it and has reproduced these images amazingly.

The superb art direction and design is by Glenn Howard and David Hawkins at Untitled http://www.untitledstudio.com/

Printing is by Push and is superlative. Reproduction is outstanding. In particular the coloured section bars running along the foredge are spot on, so great care has been taken with the finishing.

It appears that Chris Boot is no longer publishing books under his own imprint, however he is now an executive director of the Aperture Foundation based in New York. Aperture is a not-for-profit foundation, providing a network for the photo community and its audiences.

www.aperture.org
http://www.artbook.com/chrisboot.html
http://www.untitledstudio.com/
www.push-print.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 02.05.2014