Saturday 20 February 2021

Paper from leaves

Some interesting news from the world of Pulp & Paper...!

Valentin Frechka, a young Ukrainian scientist has created the first paper made out of fallen leaves. It was an idea he had while still at school and although still aged only twenty, he has developed the idea and run a successful industrial test.
While at school, Valentin won a gold medal for science at the 2018 Genius Olympiad in New York for his idea. He is now a student at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev and has teamed up with business partner Andriy Vartsaba to set up a development company, Re-leaf Paper, to evolve this new technology.
Please don't think that this is a readily available product from stock - IT IS NOT!  There are no samples available.

At present, it is an extremely interesting idea but the technology is still very much in the development stage and the industrial capacity to process the leaves would still need to be developed, but there is real promise that this may well prove to be a viable and energy efficient alternative to woodpulp for some grades of paper and board, especially for packaging.

It's great to have a good news story in this industry and also at this particular time when the world is occupied dealing with the Covid crisis. 

Our congratulations and best wishes to Valentin Frechka.

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.02.2021

Wednesday 17 February 2021

The Sublime Feminine

Maryam Eisler is a London based photographer and author. Her photographic work, the crux of which is centred around the Sublime Feminine thematics, has been sought in different places and environmental spaces, a personal journey of sorts during which she has tried to trace and visually revitalize this energy, embodied in the female form, as set against the grandeur of nature. Eisler is represented by Tristan Hoare in London and Harper’s Books in New York.

The size of the book is 240x165mm, portrait. The 4pp limp cover, which is beautifully hot foil blocked, houses the 'swiss bound' text. 
Swiss Binding is where the text is mounted onto the inside back cover with the front cover and freestanding spine. The below image shows the inside front cover, inside spine and page one of text with the binding tape covering the spine.
There is an introduction by Maryam Eisler together with an essay by Hannah Barry.
The 100pp text is printed on our Omnia 150gsm which gives it that dead matt, tactile feel but with great reproduction. All printed offset litho throughout. The piece has a fantastic feel - solid flat areas of colour work amazingly well - it is difficult for me to say too much more about it - see the images below, they speak for the job...
Click on images to enlarge

The book is 'section sewn' - you can see the thread in this section break pictured below.
...and here we go for a bit of a plug! - As you can see from the images, there is lots of colour and images with dark areas - loads of ink going down and it looks great on the Omnia, reproducing flat colours superbly whilst retaining that all important detail in the dark areas (in my opinion- but I would say that wouldn't I?)
It goes without saying that the paper is just one aspect and if the quality of the images or the repro and the printing was not equally as superb, then the finished article would not be as amazing. The superlative printing is by Boss Print and you may remember reading on this blog that they won the category for the best catalogue design at the British Book Design and Production Awards in 2017 with another project for this same photographer. Below is a detail image showing the superb reproduction of the mono images.
The images are printed offset litho in two blacks (as a duotone) plus a yellow tint integrated with the images. The solid flat colours are all specials....
The section sewn and singer sewing makes the book flow easily in the hand.
Below image shows the detail of the section sewing. The Swiss Binding was completed in-house at Boss Print.
The book design is by Roger Fawcett-Tang of Struktur Design. It is beautifully printed and finished by Boss Print who are based in West London.

Friday 12 February 2021

LCBA Gift Cards

Here are the lovely new gift cards for the London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA). The LCBA was set up in 2013 and is an open-access educational and resource centre dedicated to book arts based in Fish Island, Hackney.

Images courtesy of Studio Bergini

These new gift cards are hot foil blocked in-house at the LCBA using our Colorset 100% Recycled board which has been triplexed.
Images courtesy of Studio Bergini
Design is by Studio Bergini (Francesco Corsini & Kristian Hjorth Berge) and they look amazing. The below image shows the hot foiling block.
Images courtesy of Studio Bergini
You can buy one of these wonderful new gift cards HERE.

Posted by Justin Hobson 12.02.2021

Wednesday 10 February 2021

Lockdown Lion

The work of  British graphic artist and illustrator, Adrian Johnson has appeared before on this blog but this is a new print titled 'Lockdown Lion'.
Adrian now lives and works in Copenhagen and his work is known for his economical, highly crafted graphic work and his working process all derives from obsessively drawing and re-drawing on paper, breaking down ideas and concepts into their purest form.
Size of the prints is 700 x 500mm, portrait. They are five colour screen prints and are printed on our Matrisse 250gsm. Matrisse is a tactile uncoated white board with a high bulk and is perfect for silkscreen work.
Printing is by Harvey Lloyd Screenprint is a silkscreen print studio based in the South East of England and their work has appeared on this blog many times over the years. Established over 40 years ago, they produce work for some of the best names in the industry, Harvey Lloyd have gained a reputation for working together and finding different techniques which are developed collaboratively.
You can read more about the prints (and order one!) HERE

Monday 8 February 2021

St Bride Foundation lecture - this week

This Wednesday (10th) there is a 'not to be missed' on line lecture titled ‘Do It Like You Do It’...
Agyei Archer will explore the value of vernacular design in the English-speaking Caribbean. He will take us on a journey through sharing his work past and present, focusing on the role that hand-drawn and found lettering from the region has played in his personal practice and introducing some canonical work from both self-taught and classically-rooted practices in Trinidad and Jamaica.
He will also discuss the role that this plays in his type design practice, particularly from the perspective of questioning the merits of existing systems, aesthetics, and the potential values in figuring a way around them yourself.
 Agyei Archer is a multidisciplinary designer and art director from Trinidad, focusing on commercial work that integrates graphic design and art direction, typeface design, and programming.
In addition to his design career, he recently co-founded Unqueue, a mobile app created to improve retail experiences in the Caribbean. Collaborators include Google, RISD, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean Mental Health Foundation.
As with all lectures at present, it is on-line, which means you don't have to travel and is excellent value! (only £3/£5) so get on line and order a ticket HERE

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.02.2021

Wednesday 3 February 2021

Jobs from the past - Number 135

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. 

Mr P  by MR PORTER 2017
          
Stylish, yet understated. Simple, but full of detail MR PORTER launched their own label in 2017. "We’ve thought: if only fashion could be a bit more... reliable. This is where the new Mr P. label comes in. It not only embraces current trends, but proposes a permanent collection of new classics that belong in every man’s wardrobe. We’ve worked hard to create superior versions of garments that you know and love, from the perfect T-shirt, to an ultra-fine cashmere sweater, to a coat that you can throw on like a cardigan, and a selection of Japanese denim"
This superb piece of literature is the launch look-book. Size is 262 x196mm, portrait and is 'Sussex bound' with 2000micron greyboard mounted to make the cover, with deboss on the front cover. 150gsm 40pp
The 40pp text is printed offset litho in CMYK on Omnia, White 150gsm and as I hope you can see, the result is superb...
Click on images to enlarge
As always (...this is the plug for the paper!) the images look amazing on the Omnia; the fleshtones in particular look absolutely stunning (see below) and the reproduction of the dark shadowy areas (see above) look amazing - keeping all the detail in those heavy areas of CMYK together which would be completely lost on a traditional uncoated paper.
There is a series of profiles and an essay by David Mitchell (below) - with illustration by Paula Bulling
Click on images to enlarge
Below shows a detail of the section sewing and the 'sussex binding' 
Graphice design is by Lauren Chalmers. The excellent print and binding is by Pureprint.
Posted by Justin Hobson 03.02.2021

Friday 29 January 2021

Pantone colours for 2021

Pantone has named two colours as its colour of the year for 2021 - Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, an "optimistic" hue of yellow. Pantone believes that the pairing of shades will help people "fortify themselves with energy, clarity and hope" in a world that's set to face increasing uncertainty - sounds good to me!
...and it got me thinking that we had two pretty similar shades in out Colorset range - Lemon and Ash:
...and they are also, both 100% recycled!

Our Colorset range has 36 shades, which you can read about HERE
If you would like to see the range, just email me for a swatch - justin@fennerpaper.co.uk