Wednesday 6 May 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

Friday 1 May 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

Thursday 30 April 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.
Posted by Justin Hobson 30.04.2015

Tuesday 28 April 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.
 
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

Monday 27 April 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

www.stanleyjamespress.com
Posted by Justin Hobson 27.04.2015

Thursday 23 April 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

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Zanders Zeta now stocked by Fenner Paper

For most of you the Zanders Zeta range will need no introduction, it's Europe's market leading paper for business. Unfortunately with the abrupt closure of the Paperlinx group (Robert Horne, Howard Smith and PaperCo) there was no UK stockist - follow the link for my previous post about Paperlinx: http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/sad-demise-of-paperlinx-in-uk.html. 

As a result of their sad demise, the mill needed a distributor for this range in the UK which has been extensively marketed over the years ...and that's where Fenner Paper comes in!
The good news is that we taken on a broad range of Zeta papers into stock, including the popular Zeta Hammer and Linen embossed finishes. Yesterday the first large stock consignment arrived by trailer, as you can see from the picture below: 
Zanders Zeta is produced by the Reflex Paper mill in Düren, Germany which was founded in 1857. The mill also produces transparent papers, label papers and artists papers.

You can read more about the new arrangement in Printweek:
http://www.printweek.com/print-week/product-news/1150950/fenner-paper-now-exclusive-uk-stockist-of-zanders-zeta

You can see the current range here: http://www.zetapaper.co.uk/

BUT...
please don't throw away your old Zeta swatches as currently we don't have any available. We'll distribute new swatches when they are produced but in the meantime, at least you know where to come to get the product (in fact if you have a moment why don't you grab the Zeta swatch off the shelf and write Fenner Paper on the back - it might save you time and trouble at a later date!
Posted by Justin Hobson 21.04.2014