From Q to M – three centuries of typewriter art

There is a talk at the St Brides Foundation which should be absolutely superb and you should know about!

Barrie Tullett is Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design at the Lincoln School of Art and Design, and cofounder of The Caseroom Press, an independent publisher of artists' books based in Lincoln and Edinburgh. As a freelance graphic designer, his clients have included Canongate Books, Princeton University Press and Penguin Books, amongst others. He has recently published a book titled "Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology" and he will guide the audience through three centuries of typewriter art

Image courtesy of Laurence King

Special guest Keira Rathbone will be live typing throughout the evening demonstrating how this most rigorous and unforgiving of machines still inspires today. Keira Rathbone’s unique art explores the often forgotten creative tool the typewriter. Her works involve using a typewriter as a drawing and mark making instrument, a discipline that has evolved over a ten year period to create works as stunningly complex as they are beautiful and absorbing. Works and performances are developed from many sources; live events, people and architecture prove that the typewriter is a valid and provocative medium that challenges our perceptions of technology and the creative process.

Image courtesy of Laurence King

Copies of Typewriter Art: A Modern Anthology by Barrie Tullet, published by Laurence King, will be available to purchase on the evening at £19.95 each.

Image courtesy of Laurence King

The talk is on Wednesday 24 September 2014 at 7pm

Don't put it off - book a ticket now - Tickets £15.00 • Friends of St Bride Library £12.50 • Students (bring NUS card) £10.00

You can book your ticket here:

http://www.sbf.org.uk/from-q-to-m

 

www.barrieagogo.co.uk

www.keirarathbone.com
http://www.sbf.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.09.2014

American Trilogy Invitation

This is the beautiful invitation for the private view of the Ernesto Cánovas exhibition held at the Halcyon gallery in April. I previously wrote about the catalogue for the exhibition on this blog: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/american-trilogy-by-ernesto-canovas-at.html

This shows the thickness

Size is A5, portrait and is a single card (2pp) made by printing and then duplexing our Omnia 280gsm  to make 560gsm - which is around 800micron thick - a truly substantial invitation! The front of the invitation is printed CMYK with a section of the artwork titled 'Rudolph Territory'. The reverse is printed offset litho in special gold plus black.

One of the main things to mention about the front of the invite is that the image area (below) is over-printed with a gloss UV varnish. (...just worth pointing out that Omnia is one of the very few papers with an uncoated look and feel that you can successfully UV varnish on to with one pass and it looks excellent). It also reflects the look feel of the actual artwork itself.

The gloss varnish also accentuates the artist's injection of vivid colour which features throughout his work.

The invitation is designed and produced at the Halcyon Gallery. Designer of the invitation (and catalogue) is Alfie Hunter.

Printing is by Leicester based Greenshires with Richard Dalby handling the project. Beautifully printed and finished, the UV varnish looks great - a really well produced piece.

http://www.halcyongallery.com/

http://www.greenshires.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.09.2014

Jobs from the past - Number 59

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...

Studio8 Brochure

 

This is a particularly unusual piece of literature combining different print processes and binding. Studio8 was established by Zoë Bather and Matt Willey and by 2008 the studio had been established for few years. They had produced a wide and varied portfolio of work and were regularly asked to presentations and required a credentials "leave behind". In the interests of economy, they decided to produce a 100 copies of a digitally printed brochure.

 

Size is 308x220mm (which was the largest size that could economically be printed using the B3 size HPIndigo press) and is portrait. The 8pp dustjacket (see left) is printed letterpress with the help of Bill Bragg at Le Gun and is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 80gsm. This 'jacket' wraps around the cover which is unprinted on Colorset Nero 120gsm. The job is constructed using individual cut leaves which is then bound using a binding method called 'cheque book binding' ...simply named as this is the way that cheque books are bound,. basically individual sheets are collated and 'stab-stitched' (that is through all the sheets) with a wire stitch and then binding tape is applied around the spine which covers up the staples - as you can see in the picture below

Close up showing the 'cheque book binding'

The 24pp text is printed on our Marazion Ultra 90gsm. This is a lightweight paper with a matt coating but which has an amazing bulk, tactile feel and excellent opacity for 90gsm. It feels just right for this project, because it just flops over wonderfully which is one of the things with the binding - if the paper choice isn't right, it just won't work and will be virtually unreadable - because you'll be fighting to keep it open!

The beautifully designed spreads work perfectly on this paper. Print reproduction is fantastic and in no way has a 'digital' feel.

Spread showing Studio8's awesome D&AD 2008 awards gala installation

As I hope you'll be able to appreciate from these pictures this is a superb piece of design and print.

The digital print and finishing is by Mark Carey at Impressions, who are based in Essex. mark.carey@impressionscom.com. Combining the digitally printed brochure with the letterpress printed dustjacket is a masterstroke!

Needless to say, design is by Studio8 where the Creative Directors were Zoë Bather and Matt Willey. Sadly, Studio8 closed in May 2012 and Matt and Zoë now work on their own projects, many of which have also appeared on this blog.

 

www.zoebather.co.uk
www.mattwilley.co.uk
http://www.billbragg.co.uk/LE-GUN
www.impressionscom.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 02.09.2014

Your Story Starts Here...

Writer’s Notes is a notebook for writers, containing ‘advice on how to write well from the experts at the Ministry of Stories’. The book was initially commissioned by The Story conference, as a gift to their guests. It is now available for sale in the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Shop.

The 'experts' who wrote the advice reproduced on the dividers are aged between 9 and 13, and their notes are printed on eight asymmetric dividers throughout the notebook. Here's a bit about the Ministry of Stories:
The Ministry of Stories is a charity that aims to inspire young people through creative writing. Founded by Nick Hornby, Lucy Macnab and Ben Payne, and operating out of the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies shop, they run workshops and provide one to one mentoring to local children.

The finished size of the notebooks is A5 portrait and they are wiro-bound. The covers are 'French folded' (to give a double thickness) on our Flora Betulla 240gsm, which gives it a deliberately 'exercise book/notebook' feel. The eight dividers are all printed (both sides) on different colours of  Colorset 270gsm, distributed throughout 90pp of ruled pages.

Design and production was handled by Burgess Studio. You can read more about the project here:
http://burgess-studio.co.uk/projects/your-story-starts-here/#showhide-info.
Creative director is Alexis Burgess and the designer on the project is Ed Cornish.

This is a truly fantastic piece of printed literature - it has a real WOW factor!

As a charitable organisation, the budget was limited which meant the project was a labour of love which included some of the printing being done in-house! Guillotine cutting and wiro-binding handled by Dash Finishers based in Croydon.

www.thestory.org.uk
www.ministryofstories.org
www.burgess-studio.co.uk
www.dashfinishers.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.08.2014

Responsibility Matters #2

Shire plc is a leading specialty biopharmaceutical company. The company has grown globally, through acquisition, recently completing a series of major transactions that have brought growth and diversification in a company that employs over 5,000 people.

Bostock and Pollitt have been working with Shire for ten years on brand communications, which includes this regular publication.

This piece of literature is mainly intended as an internal piece of communication and as such has a 'newsy' look and feel. The format is 410mm x 285mm, portrait, has 8pp and is 'loose bound'. The paper used is Offenbach Bible 60gsm which is a lightweight material and lends itself to a newspapery feel. It has also been 'endorsement folded' (ie in half, as the above pic). The colour reproduction, in particular the illustrations are superb. Printed offset litho in CMYK throughout.

Art direction and design is by Bostock and Pollitt. Print is managed by Urban Print Support.

www.shire.com
www.bostockandpollitt.com
www.urbanlifesupport.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 26.08.2014

My Card

This post is basically a 're-blog' ...a bit of a cheat really!

 

The renowned London based studio, Atelier Works have recently printed their new business cards. They are printed letterpress on our Colorset White 350gsm - simply and beautifully produced.

 

Their blog post about the printing and craft of letterpress printing is superbly written, so I'm not going to do anymore than suggest you click on the following link and read their post: 

http://www.atelierworks.co.uk/blog/aladdins-cave.php

 

The three partners at Atelier Works are Quentin Newark, John Powner and Ian Chilvers.

Cards are printed on Colorset 100% recycled 350gsm and are printed by Phil Abel at Hand & Eye Letterpress, who are based in a charmingly characterful railway arch in Shadwell, London E1 ...but you'll know that already, if you've taken my advice and read their blog link!

www.atelierworks.co.uk
http://www.handandeye.co.uk/
http://www.atelierworks.co.uk/blog/aladdins-cave.php

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.08.2014

Lower Mill Estate

Lower Mill Estate is an award-winning community of sustainable vacation homes set in a private, fully managed, 550-acre reserve in the Cotswolds. The estate was established by the Paxton family 16 years ago with a vision to create a residential nature reserve providing a sense of security and the freedom to escape the demands of urban life.

This is simply a stunning piece of literature and is one of the best pieces of print that I've recently been involved with. This book has been produced to show everything the estate has to offer, conveying the quality of the development in a contemporary and beautifully readable way.

The size is 220x148mm, portrait. The cover is bookcloth, mounted onto board, with silver hot foil blocking on front and back cover. the foiling is a simplified version of the illustrations by Russell Cobb, commissioned for the project which were used for the press ads and on line and mobile applications - you can see them here: http://johnstonworks.com/lower-mill-estate/

The cover is very clever as it is effectively a case-bound book but the text is actually 'singer sewn', which means that the book opens nicely and sits flat. The fact that there isn't a formal, squared off, spine and that the board used is flexible means that, although it feels like a book it isn't as serious as a book, it has a lighter "browse me" feel.

You can read more about Singer sewing here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/what-is-number-3_18.html

The end papers are printed on Flora Anice, 130gsm and are printed all over, again using the illustrations.

If you aren't familiar with Flora, it is a recycled text and cover paper with a deliberately recycled look and feel with specks and inclusions, so it looks deliberately flecky and specky. The thing this project exemplifies is creativity in print! Very few designers take a paper like Flora and print all over it ...and get this terrific effect!

Click to enlarge and see the specks!

Inks for offset litho are transparent. Designers (and often printers) forget this, so effects like this are often forgotten about! Design and print on plain white paper is easy (well, easier) - it's projects like this which challenge and push the boundaries.

The 32pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm - absolutely perfect for this project as it has a natural feel but reproduces the superb photography and interior shots beautifully.

...and here in the text is another fantastic surprise - six 148x98mm 'tip-ins' appearing throughout the text which use the illustrated theme with details highlighted in silver hot foil blocking.

The tip-ins are on the same as the end papers (Flora Anice 130gsm) - and beautifully executed

But "how come all these different colours?" I hear people asking. Quite simply, the sheets are all printed up on one sheet (Flora Anice 130gsm) in CMYK - simple idea, well thought out and beautifully executed.

Design for the whole Lower Mill campaign including this book is by Johnston Works. The campaign also encompasses press, on line and mobile applications, which were all created by Johnston Works.
http://johnstonworks.com/lower-mill-estate/
Director on the project is Kirsten Johnston. The excellent print and finishing is by Push.

I'm sure that you can tell from the way that I've written about this project that this really is a special piece of print - it's one of those projects where all the elements that go into a piece of literature (concept/design/illustration/photography/print/paper/finishing etc) has all come together and collided (in a well orchestrated way!) to form a superb result.

http://www.lowermillestate.com/
http://johnstonworks.com/
http://russellcobb.com/
www.push-print.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.08.2014