Graphic papers & print

Suomalainen antique book layouts, covers, typography and ornaments

.3 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:48:30 +0000

I was away on an “old” Finnish summer house a couple of weeks ago for Juhannus, during that time I came across some brilliant old books from the 1900′s and around that era or ealier.

I love variety of typographic ornament found on those books, the attention to details and the perfect clean layouts. Examples below go through 1903′s leather bound bible, featuring gothic typography, book cover’s illustration hot foil stamping, beautifully balanced page layouts to amazing front cover’s title drop cap.

Overall, a beautiful collection of historical typefaces, ornaments, icons and layout inspiration and know how.

Duplexed Gmund Mohair letterpress cards part 2

.3 — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:31:30 +0000

Finally received my business card today for colymba. I am really happy with the result and Typoretum has done a great job with the letterpress printing. The Gmund Mohair stock did fantastic with the black on black letterpess with really sharp edges. The reverse on Gmund Color System 43 Color gives it a nice contrast.

Ccredits:

colymba logo set in Triple Condensed Gothic Bold by Red Rooster type foundry
reverse text set in Solano Gothic Bold by MVB type foundry
paper and duplexing by Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund
letterpress by Typoretum

Gmund Mohair duplexed business cards part 1

.3 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:06:47 +0000

I have mentioned in the past this incredible paper stock (in my opinion), Gmund Mohair. I am now producing some self promotional business cards for colymba. The cards will be letterpress black only on both sides, the paper will be a duplexed card with Gmund Mohair Schwarz matt and Gmund Color System 43 Colors.

The only way to get the duplexed stock was straight from the Gmund paper mill, which provided the ready to print A4 sheets, however not too cheap the result looked great. (Note that local printers were not too confident about duplexing a 430gsm Mohair with a 300gsm Color System sheet due to the difference in weight.) The paper came delivered in a beautiful bespoke box made of Gmund Savanna Bubinga, an embossed wooded texture dark brown paper.

Due to the unusual texture of the paper, some letterpress printers were not too confident about the job either (even though the stock is certified with letterpress), but thankfully the brilliant TYPORETUM letterpress studio took on the job and produced some test prints (see below) that looked nice and sharp. The job is now being printed by TYPORETUM in the following week.

More pictures coming soon.

Decades of Design by Antalis-McNaughton

.3 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:25:52 +0000

Antalis-McNaughton has been sending out promotional mailers with postcards featuring their creative papers range. Each mail-out features a decade starting with the 30′s with each card highlighting notable events and creative work from this era, the front graphic of the postcard complement the historic information from the back and showcase different printing processes on various of their fine papers (including Popset, Rives and Curious).

GLitter ink greeting card

.3 — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:39:23 +0000

A few years back (2009!) GF Smith was sending out sample greeting cards to promote some of their paper. This one here was actually screen printed with glitter ink on 330gsm Plike. The inside was a text about seaside holiday. The unconventional texture of Plike combined with the glitter ink was striking.

Linotype: The Film

.3 — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:00:14 +0000

I love printmaking, and I love metal type. We had Helvetica, Objectified, soon Urbanized, and now we will have Linotype The Film.

Linotype: The Film is a feature-length documentary film centered around the Linotype typecasting machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1886. Called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Thomas Edison, the Linotype revolutionized printing and society, but very few people know about the inventor or his fascinating machine.

I love it already, it both calls out for the designer in me but also the geek, who always loved machines and crazy technology. Check out the trailer and why not also support them through Kick Starter.

benwells printers

.3 — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:27:17 +0000

Just came across the site of the London based printer and print specialit, Benwells.

Passionate about printing perfection

If you are passionate about print, materials and printing techniques, or just like pretty things, have a look at their site. You can also follow them through their blog, which I wish I had known about before, when they had the free paper giveaway, damn!

M-real Zanders “World’s Foremost Paper Cultures” Issue 01: T2000

.3 — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:46:13 +0000

M-real Zanders is just launching its “World’s Foremost Paper Cultures” campaign, linking cultures with their papermaking history and traditions.

This is a new innovative and ‘educational’ initiative to make their range of speciality graphic papers (re-) discovered by the design, print and paper community. The complete series will feature ‘all’ Zanders graphic papers with different processes and finishing accompanied with their own technical/printing fact sheet.

The first edition take the lucky recipient of the mailer to Japan with Zanders T2000 with a fold-out flyer/poster featuring calligraphy and artwork printed in 2 colour. “T2000 … is to create new scope for creativity”.

All this will fit in a custom made portfolio box (to assemble yourself), printed with 3 PMS and 1 HKS colours on Zanders Zeta color, for a handy inspiring paper collection.

Original Gmund from GFSmith

.3 — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:26:46 +0000

From September 2010, GFSmith is to be supplying a new collection of papers from Gmund, the Original Gmund.

This is a cotton based paper (10, 50 or 100%) with a warm traditional feel to it, and will now be part of the high quality papers GFSmith distribute the UK.

Gmund is a traditional paper maker from Germany established in 1829 with an history in environment, quality, innovation and tradition.

Han Hoogerbrugge: digital artist

.3 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 10:35:48 +0000

Han Hoogerbrugge is a Dutch artist who depicts the modern man and his everyday life, through illustrations and digital/interactive animations in a humorous and satirical manner.

A large collection of work in different media – water colour: La Grande Fête, interactive storyline: Hotel, interactive animation: Nails series, illustration: Prostress,… – in which he is the principal character when not using real or fictional characters.