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.

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.

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.

As well as being nicely designed, the animated infographics ‘educates’ and complement the movie’s story line and message. Rolling through various financial hiccups, indiscretions (i.e. Madoff, AIG) and social differences creating a good thought provoking conclusion to the film.

The title sequence itself was designed/created by the US studio Picture Mill, a visual agency specialised in films, television and advertising.

(The Other Guys is a Sony Pictures Film, End Title Sequence still from Picture Mill)

As a celebration, a 3 years design/photography project entitled A Better Project saw the light. From 2007 to 2009, 3×10 photographers from around the world have been briefed to document “the experience of one man’s spare time”, “their personal view of the modern city” and to report on companies/entrepreneurs “who have distinguished themselves thanks to a work policy which embraced sustainability, creativity and solidarity”.

The result is a 3 books set, 300x300mm hard back, each featuring the photographic work on  the high-quality paper range from Cartiere del Garda.

A Better Time, A Better City & A Better Business.

The first 2 using the GardaPat 13 KIARA 150gsm, while “A Better Business” feature the entire “Excellent Collection” of papers (GardaMatt Art, GardaGloss Art, GardaCover Hi-Fi, GardaPat 13 KLASSICA & GardaPat 13 KIARA), with each paper stock match to specific photographs that match best the surface to enhance the visual impact.

About Cartiere del Garda:
“A business that started 50 years ago with one production line, an entrepreneur, a hundred collaborators and a great deal of good will, Cartiere del Garda has become one of the most modern and respected paper mills producing woodfree coated products in Italy, and continues to build on its time-honoured ethos; the respect for the environment and consideration of the community.”

The 3 books were directed and designed by the Italian, Milano based design agency, Imille.

Photographers include:
A Better Time: Silvia Morara, Julien Oppenheim, Borut Peterlin, Kathryn Cook, Anja Teske, Johan Markusson, Matilde Gattoni, Ingvar Kenne, Sharron Lovell, Susana Raab
A Better City: Stuart Isett, Stephen Gill, Frank Rothe, Alexey Titarenko, Missirkov & Bogdanov, Massimo Siragusa, Weng Fen, Atul Loke, Jordi Bernadó, Yannis Kontos
A Better Business: Espen Eichhöfer, Stefanie Grätz, Yann Mingard, Amanda Calluf, Burkhard Schittny, Paul Kranzler, Rafal Milach, Ziyah Gafić, Fabio Mantovani, Wei Leng Tay

With the same concept, Underware, the design collective author of fabulous typefaces, managed to ‘manufacture’ blood offset ink. For the sampler of their typeface Fakir, a book on the theme of voluntary suffering, The book of war, written byRuud Linssen, will be printed with the author’s blood.

A brilliant, concept and execution!

(Image from Underware)

“Despite all predictions that the 21^st century would see print swamped by the electronic media, today print continues to play a valuable role in our everyday lives and is more powerful than ever before,” (Sappi Fine Paper Europe CEO, Berry Wiersum)