RESOLVE

This book is a photographic study by Edward Barber with an essay by Danielle Inga. The introduction perfectly sums up the content of the publication: "Resolve: An intimate survey of work is a photographic study of a wider, burgeoning social movement, acknowledging and celebrating a highly significant yet almost invisible workforce. Individuals are linked through their own personal sense of resolve to persist and remain tenacious in their chosen field. This is not an exhaustive survey but and opportunity to start a dialogue about the nature of work in the twenty first century"

The book contains forty portraits of people working in a diverse range of occupations from Jeweller to textile trader, baker, shoe retailer, medical herbalist etc, The one thing these subjects have in common is that they all work for themselves.



The book is 270x210mm, portrait, and is section sewn. The 96pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm and as you can see from the above images, there is lots of colour going down  - loads of ink and it looks great on the Omnia, while still retaining a tactile uncoated look and feel.

Introduction and the essay

This 'limpbound' book has a cover on Colorset Flint 350gsm, which is hot foil blocked in black gloss foil. Below you can see the front cover of the book sitting inside the 'book-jacket' which is also printed on Omnia 150gsm

Inside the cover, there is a 2pp 'tipped-in' flysheet on our Colorset 120gsm and which is completely unprinted. This is a really cost effective way to increase production values and very little cost. By including a sheet like this in the publication, it reinforces value but because it isn't being printed or processed in any way, the only cost is the paper, no overs involved or the cost of printing.

Images showing 2pp unprinted flysheet which appears both at the front and the back.

The below image shows the 12mm spine and the way that the book-jacket wraps snuggly around the section sewn binding.

Ed Barber is a photographic artist, specialising in images of people and their relationship to space and environment. He is best known for his portraiture, through major projects such as Peace Moves, All Dressed Up, In the City. He is one of the few photographers to have their work displayed and in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Design is by SampsonMay with the typography by Liam Weyell.

ALSO today (election day)  is particular apt day to be posting this project. Ed's response to the General Election countdown was to post an image every day on Visual Athletics Club - for the last 100 days http://visualathleticsclub.blogspot.co.uk/

Printing, including the hot foil blocking on the cover, is by Ambrose Press. Jonathan Savory handled the project. Particular care has been taken over the repro - as with all projects for photographers, there is detail in the images which can only be appreciated by the photographer and it is the skill of the printer to be able to listen and interpret these comments in the finished printed job. Not always easy to do but this is a beautiful piece of printed literature.

http://edwardbarber.net/
http://concreteed.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.sampsonmay.com/
http://www.ambrosepress.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.05.2015

Wunderkammer

This is the cocktail and food menu for the brilliantly named Wunderkammer, which is a concept bistro in the Renaissance Wien Hotel in Vienna.

This modern European bistro is restaurant, bar & lounge, regularly featuring a DJ. There's a culinary offering of international cuisine, a Sunday brunch and a classic bar offering signature cocktails.

The menu covers are produced on Stardream Lapislazuli 285gsm. The finished size 230x153 mm and they are made up as an 8pp, with the flap on the inside front cover being stuck down, increasing rigidity, and a pocket being formed on the inside back cover to allow the text booklet to be inserted and held in place. The covers are simply hot foil blocked in metallic gold foil, which looks great.

Art direction is by Scott Wittman of the Gorgeous Group who are based in London. Designer on the project is Maartje Smolders.

Print production was done locally in the region by Scholz Druck & Verlag GmbH in Bremen www.scholz-bremen.de

This is an excellent example of a project where a material has been chosen which has been used to great effect with minimal print and processing. Having said that, it is important to stress that what has been done, hot foiling and creasing, has been completed to a very high standard, otherwise a production like this would not look and feel so special.

http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/viehw-renaissance-wien-hotel/
http://www.gorgeousgroup.com/
http://www.cordenons.co.uk/
http://www.scholz-bremen.de/de/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.05.2015

Jobs from the past - Number 67

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...

Heart of Glass - November 2002

This is the private view invitation for an exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery in London. The invitation is the the opening of an exhibition titled Heart of Glass, featuring work of the artists Jean-Michel Othoniel, Tony Oursler, Katy Schimert, Kiki Smith, Jan Vercruysse, Not Vital and Robin Winters. 

Click on image to enlarge

The size of the invitation is A5 (148 x 210mm) Landscape and is silkscreen printed on one side in one colour (red). The viewing apertures are die-cut, providing eyeholes to look through which is really effective.

The invite is printed on our Kemikal, Cotton White 1500mics which is a natural feeling, neutral white thick board - 1.5mm thick. so it gives great thickness, although it isn't as dense as other thick material that we do such as Monoblack. As you can see from the image below, the thickness makes this invitation work fantastically.

Design is by Andrew Collier, who works freelance in London.

As I recall the silkscreen printing was produced by Artomatic, who also ran a print boutique in Great Sutton Street EC1. Sadly they are no loger in existence. I wrote about Artomatic on this previous post here: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/job-from-past.html

http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.05.2015

Johnson Banks 21 years #3

To mark their 21st birthday, Johnson Banks has produced a series of four brochures. Johnson Banks was established in 1992 and is now a studio which has an international reputation.  Previously I have written about 'Blue Chip and Commercial projects' and 'Charity and Not for Profit'.  

 

I'm writing about each of the four brochures individually. This post is about 'Education and Government'.  As you can see from the images below, they have worked on a many projects for the government in the 'noughties' and the Design Council, British Council, Kings College London and Ravensbourne, amongst many others.

 Size of the publication is 148mm square with a 4pp cover with a 32pp text and is perfect bound. It is printed on our StarFine White 300gsm and 150gsm. The spine is 3-4mm thick. As you can hopefully see from these images, the printed result on this StarFine uncoated text & cover paper is superb. The whole project is all printed digitally on an HP Indigo press by Pureprint - simply a stunning printed result.

StarFine is not a 'digital' paper but it has been "sapphire treated". This treatment is a pre-coat and is often applied to more unusual papers and provides a "key" so that the inks (different to litho inks) adhere to the paper surface. If you would like to know more, you can read about it here:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/what-is-sapphire-treatment.html
This project doesn't have a 'digital' look and feel like many digitally printed projects in part, due to the materials chosen.

Creative director is Michael Johnson, designers on the project being Kath Tudball and Julia Woollams.

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

www.pureprint.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2015

Tullis Russell Papermakers ceases production

I have previously drawn people's attention to the poor state of the paper industry, in general. Unfortunately the decline in quantities required and the high cost of production in western economies has meant many mill closures, and more recently the demise of PaperlinX paper merchants which includes the names of Robert Horne, Howard Smith and The Paper Co.

http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/sad-demise-of-paperlinx-in-uk.html

 

Yesterday, a further blow for the UK paper industry was struck. It was announced that Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd, a paper mill in Markinch (Fife, Scotland) had been placed into the hands of administrators. The management had tried to sell the business but to no avail and the losses at the £125million turnover mill continued to mount. The mill employs over 470 people.

 

This is very sad news for the staff, the local area and for UK manufacturing. It will also affect readers of this blog - graphic designers and printers - it means far less product choice.

Tullis Russell makes many products that you will be familiar with: Naturalis, Trucard,  Advocate, Gemini, Mellotex, Lustrulux and Rothmill to name just a few.

You can read more about it here on the Printweek website: http://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1151059/tullis-russell-in-administration

It would be great to think that a buyer for the business can be found and I sincerely hope that the mill can be saved. It's further evidence, if more were needed, as the dire state of the paper and print industry globally and especially in Europe.

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.04.2015

Fieldwork literature

Last week I received a lovely little envelope in the post. Contained inside was a selection of printed items from  Emily Macaulay at Stanley James Press, a "Brighton based design company, specialising in the design and production of printed goods"

 

The items in the pack are pieces of printed literature for an organisation called Fieldwork.  Fieldwork is a company that does ethnographic research into people's working lives and they produced a pack to help assist with the collaborative part of their research.

 

There are two notebooks with covers on Flora Betulla 130gsm - covers are three hole sewn. There are business cards on Flora Betulla 350gsm. They are printed one colour letterpress and are beautifully produced. 

Below is an A5 form, printed on Flora Betulla 130gsm ...but there is a lovely touch...

in the top left hand side of the form, a lovely neat de-boss produced using their Adana letterpress:

 

Stanley James Press describe themselves as follows: We enjoy designing and making real things, physical things that you can hold in your hands. We mainly make paper things like books, interesting mail-outs and portfolios. We can letterpress things, we design complicated fold out and pop up things. Most importantly we love a challenge and projects that make us consider how to make things differently.

Design, Print and production by Stanley James Press. Illustrations by Eliza Fricker

http://www.wearefieldwork.com/

www.stanleyjamespress.com

Posted by Justin Hobson 27.04.2015

Alan Kitching's A-Z of Letterpress

Yesterday evening I was fortunate to be invited to the book launch of Alan Kitching's A-Z of Letterpress. This new book showcases Alan's extensive wood-letter fount collection that he has collected over the decades and which also celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Typography Workshop.

The book is a collaboration between Kitching and Angus Hyland and the book launch was held at Pentagram. Having devised a page layout together, Alan then set the entire book, printing an original in letterpress at The Typography Workshop, which was then used as artwork to produce the book (which was litho printed in China).

After an introduction by Laurence King, the publisher of the book, Alan gave a brief insight into the project which remarkably took less than a year to complete.

Alan Kitching, Angus Hyland and Laurence King

The hardback book boasts 1352 pieces of type and has 272 pages. Size is 196x152 mm

Images courtesy of Pentagram

You can read more about the book here:
http://new.pentagram.com/2015/04/new-work-alan-kitchings-a-z-of-letterpress/

Thank you to Pentagram and Alan Kitching for inviting me. It was a lovely evening with the usual friendly nature and good hospitality found at Pentagram.

Posted by Justin Hobson 23.04.2015