COS Greeting cards & wrap

Swedish label COS was launched in 2007 and has since become a real presence on high streets and shopping centres. COS (it stands for Collection of Style) is part of the H&M group which is one of the world's largest retail clothing groups.

Having started purely in clothing, COS now also offers a range of accessories and homeware. This article is about a simple range of greeting cards and wrapping paper.

There are just two designs - a speckled snow scene and a stripe. The size of the wrapping paper is 670x470mm. Printed offset litho in one colour on the front

...and on the inside the FSC credit. The wrapping paper is printed on Shiro Echo, White 90gsm 

The designs are produced on A6 (148x105mm) 4pp cards. The cards are printed offset litho on Shiro Echo, White 300gsm.

The cards come with C6 gummed envelopes, produced from Shiro Echo, White 120gsm

One of the things that it's difficult to show here is just how wonderful the cards feel as the design is superbly embossed. The snow dotty pattern is shown below

...and you can see the rich embossing on the inside of the card below

...and the stripes printed below

with the embossing below

Design is by the in -house design team at COS. Printing is by Severn Print who are based in Gloucester and have a variety of environmental certificates. The project was handled by Anita Barry at Severn Print.

Thanks to Anita for sending me the file copies and the lovely note.

http://www.cosstores.com/gb/Women/New/Greeting_Cards/32993034-59060101.1#59060103

http://www.cosstores.com/

http://www.severnprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.06.2017

OK by Supermundane

I've just received a beautifully produced silkscreen print from Gary Parselle at The Private Press.

This print is one of the series called Editions which is Gary's own collection of exclusive, hand-pulled limited edition screen prints, featuring a carefully chosen selection of artworks by leading contemporary artists. Working collaboratively with the artists, Gary aims to use this series to showcase the possibilities of creative screen printing using interesting inks, papers and techniques.

This print is by Supermundane: “I’m a big fan of screen printing and how physical a process it is. I’ve had the pleasure of working with The Private Press on a few projects in the past so I was excited to be asked to be involved in this new project. My print is part of my on going ‘You Made This’ project which explores our fears and desires. This time I’ve hidden the term OK in there that represents the word and a mouth and body of sorts at the same time."

The print is silkscreen printed in three colours onto our Colorset (100% Recycled) White 270gsm board. The yellow and blue inks overlap and combine to make green in select areas.

The below image shows before and after on the drying rack! On the left - yellow and blue, on the right - overprinting black.

The size of the prints is A2 (420x594mm) and is a limited edition of just 50, signed and numbered by the artist. My thanks to Gary for sending me this print and his lovely note...

The Private Press is a small Brighton-based screen printing company, established in the summer of 2013. The studio was established by Gary Parselle, who has more than 10 years of screen printing experience. Before setting up the Brighton studio, Gary worked extensively in some of London's most renowned graphic design and advertising agencies where he specialised in print production and this is where I met him (...at Interbrand I think). This is the reason that Gary has an in-depth knowledge of print, paper and finishing techniques.

The Private Press specialises in high quality, hand pulled screen prints for artists, illustrators and graphic designers. Below are the other prints from the 'Editions' series...

https://www.theprivatepress.org/
https://www.theprivatepress.org/editions
https://www.theprivatepress.org/editions-supermundane
http://supermundane.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.06.2017

Jobs from the past - Number 92

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.

Tuna - Published in 2000

Why is this tin of Tuna appearing on this blog, which is usually about printing? - I hear you ask. Well it might look like an ordinary tin of Tuna, but it's anything but.

Click on images to enlarge

Image showing the bottom of the tin:

This project might look like a humble tin of Tuna, but it is in fact a book published by photographer Marcus Lyon. Photographed in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo in 1999, it tracks a day in the life of the single largest covered market in the world. Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the home of the world famous Tuna auction where much of the world’s blue fin Tuna is sold.

The book has tin plates fixed front and back and is silver edged, which makes for the perfect tin facsimile - it really does look and feel like a tin. To get the rounded shape, the bound book blocks were 'ram-punched' to achieve the rounded corners.

You can see from the images above and below just how good the silver edging looks. The print production was handled by Phil Le Monde at Gavin Martin and I recall Phil telling me at the time that they had tried traditional gilding with silver gilt but it wasn't robust, especially on the spine, so they ended up clamping each book and spraying the edges using silver spray paint for cars!

The below image shows close up detail of the edge, showing the individual pages, but unless you get close and personal, you really can't tell it's a book.

The size of this tin of Tuna is 100x140mm portrait with a depth of 22mm. Including the cover (which have the tin plates affixed) the whole publication is 42pp. The 'pages are made up by 'back to back' laminating sheets together, which then form a 'hinge' which forms the spine - which, as a result, is no thicker than the top, bottom or foredge of the rest of the book. Below image shows the 'spine' which also demonstrates just how well the silver paint has survived.

The below image shows the way the sheets are back to back laminated to form the pages.

...and now for the paper bit! It was printed on a coated paper range of ours called Aerographic Twin 380gsm, which was a two sided coated board range we used to stock made by Tullis Russsell, who sadly went bust in 2015. The bulky board laminated together makes each page 900micron thick.

The publication is printed CMYK throughout, the images having all been printed in mono. The result is an amazingly evocative set of images of the market throughout the day...

Click on images to enlarge

I had no idea that Tuna fish were so large

The timeline and credits for the publication are listed on the inside back cover, as is the limited edition number - this was an edition of 100. Now it turns out that my 'file copy' is un-numbered which either makes it worthless or worth more!

This project was recently shown as part of an exhibition in San Francisco in 2015 at RayKo Photo Centre. As part of the exhibition, they made this video which shows the project page by page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9O5KulyVmE

The project was designed by The Partners and the lead creative designer on the project was Greg Quinton. The team credited in the book is as follows: Kaz Naito, Julia Pae, Matthew Stuart, Dana Robertson, Greg Quinton, Tony de Ste Croix, Christina Boyes, Kumiko Yamamura, Louise Irving, Kevin Leighton, Hannah Davies and Kirsten Young.

Print and most importantly the amazing production is by Gavin Martin Colournet with Phil Le Monde handling the project.

The project was the subject of much coverage in the design press and appeared in many awards. It was highly commended in the Design Week Awards 2002, New York Art Directors Club Gold, 2002 and it was published in the D&AD book 2001.

A truly amazing project - I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

http://www.marcuslyon.com/
http://www.the-partners.com/
http://www.gavinmartincolournet.co.uk/

Published by Justin Hobson 05.06.2017 

Land's End to John O’Groats on a printing bike!

Nick Hand is a graphic designer based in the west of England and has appeared on this blog previously with his work for Howies and the Do Lectures. More recently he's turned his hand to being a letterpress printer and established an open access letterpress project in Bristol called The Letterpress Collective in 2013.

In 2014, Nick commissioned his workshop neighbour, bicycle maker Robin Mather to build a printing bike capable of carrying an Adana 8x5 printing press, together with inks, paper and type. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Nick travelled from Bristol to Mainz, which is where Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with moveable type in 1440. Along the way he collaborated with artists, writers and poets, printing along the way.

The printing bike has now hit the road again!

Following yet another successful Kickstarter campaign, earlier this month, Nick set off from Land’s End winding his way up the spine of Britain to John O’Groats seeking out the makers in towns known for making one particular thing. He plans to visit towns such as St Ives, Yeovil, Cheddar, Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent, Northampton, Nottingham, Halifax, Harris and Dufftown. In celebration of each craft and town, he will print a set of cards on the Adana 8×5 press mounted on the back of the bicycle.

My best wishes to Nick and I hope the weather is fair, both for both cycling and printing. According to his twitter feed @nickhand Nick is in Wolverhampton today.

You can read more about the adventure here: http://theletterpresscollective.org/blog

www.theletterpresscollective.org
http://www.departmentofsmallworks.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 31.05.2017

Paul's pocketbook portfolio

This is an interesting concept - rather than a big flashy studio brochure , Paul Grogan has deliberately produced a "pocketbook portfolio". The size is A6 105x148mm) landscape and is saddle stitched. The 4pp cover is on our Colorset 120gsm and 36pp text is on 90gsm, which means that it sits nice and flat.

The cover is printed on Colorset Flint 120gsm, printed digitally in white ink - very effective.

Click on images to enlarge

The text is printed in colour, also digitally 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 and sits nice and flat.

Click on images to enlarge

As you can see from the image below, it really does sit nice and flat, the overall thickness is under 2mm thick, so it really can fit in a pocket.

An excellent example of a cost effective, simple piece of promotional collateral.

 

Paul Grogan lives and works in the Manchester area. Digital printing and finishing is by Galloways Printers based in Poynton using their Heidelberg Linoprint press, which is toner based digital.

 

www.thinkdesignagency.co.uk

http://www.galloways.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 30.05.2017