A break for Christmas

So... Christmas is almost here and the news blog is taking a well deserved break, back in January with some more news and some changes... intrigued? In the meantime an image (not very clear, I'm afraid, desperately in need of good lighting) of Inkthread's Christmas card and my best wishes to all of you on the other side of the screen!

In the spirit of the season

In case the Christmas madness hasn't got to you yet here's one I made earlier... not really, I haven't made one yet but I might, when I get a spare moment. Playing with paper is always gratifying, find the instructions here. (via Core77 Christmas list)
And if you are already planning the year ahead you may be interested in a calendar, I quite like the one by Pentagram, this year it's designed by Kit Hinrichs with twelve different beautiful types. Or this diary-sketch book by Typotheque, nice.

All I want for Christmas is...

It's only mid-november, I know, but the Christmas shopping madness seems to have started a while ago and I thought it would it be a good idea to join in... from the safe distance of my screen! So, this is my wish list, for the time being...

No1. Gateshead Get Carter Car Park print by We Live Here , litho printed.

No2. 3D letters in recycled card by REfound Objects, one letter would do, really.

No3. This colouring book from People will always need plates, and maybe one of their mugs too...is that too greedy?
No4. Anything from Blanka... no need to explain, I think.No5. These plates by Le Petit Atelier de Paris

No6. This poster by Transfer Studio, it can be bought via Beyond the Valley

This list seems to be getting longer and longer, and I'm sure I can think of a lot more to add! I may publish a second part, it may give some people ideas, you never know!

*all images by their correspondent authors as they appear on the linked websites.

Letterpress from Japan

At least I think it's from Japan ( please correct me if I'm wrong- anyone reading understands Japanese?). I regularly check Papier Labo's blog even though I don't understand a word, but the images are nice and they do letterpress - do I need any more reasons? There's a link to Sab Letterpress who have a very nice website with beautiful images of type (Japanese type?), I'm not sure how they are all related -again for obvious reasons since as I said I don't understand the text. I particularly like the images showing Japanese typography rather than the work in English (although it's also rather good!)

*top image a still from Sab Letterpress' website, second image from Papier Labo blog

Oldies Goldies

So, I've found this really interesting and useful book"The Penrose Annual 1958". It's a review of the graphic arts at the time, with multiple articles on typography, printing techniques and the use of graphics in advertising; to illustrate the articles it also includes printed samples. Most of the samples are just photos but some of them, oh beauty, are the original pieces specifying the type of paper and impression used (including newspaper samples), what a jewell! The book itself is a very good binding job, with nice finishing touches, it made my day.

Alex Noriega

I haven't posted about illustrators for a while and I've been meaning to mention Alex Noriega for a long time now. His work is always colourful but subtle and rich in detail, with a child-like quality that reminds me of fairytales. He ran a contest via his blog where you could win one of his prints, if you (like me) missed it do not despair! some of his work is for sale through his website.

*all images by Alex Noriega

On a different note: I have added a flickr account to the blog where I'll be uploading bits and pieces that are not really worth mentioning but that maybe nice to look at... unfinished printouts, letterpress tests, rejected proposals...

There's something about cutting paper

(I've been having problems with my connection and finding quite hard to post, let's see if this one works!) The images above are stills from an amazing animation by Andersen M Studio, found via It's nice that. I've seen quite a few samples of recent work using animated paper cut silhouettes, one of my favourites is Checkland Kindleysides' website.

It's been a mad couple of weeks here and I'm afraid the posting has suffered quite a bit of neglect. Things will get better from next week as normality kicks in again, more posts then. In the meantime some nice and intriguing images of work by Trip Print Press from Ontario, it's worth checking their flickr too.

*all images by Trip Print Press

Letterpress and maths

Browsing the internet in search of letterpress equipment (a completely unrelated search as it happens), I came across London Transfer Studio. All the images above are from their Letterpress & Maths project, they describe it as a self initiated project to learn the proccess of letterpress printing: "The cards are a representation of different measurements and rules related to letterpress printing and to typography in general"... very clever and equally beautiful.

*all images by Transfer Studio

Some nice work

Recent work by Madethought for furniture dealer Viaduct. They also have done some very nice packaging for Stella McCartney and for London restaurant and tea house Yauatcha. They certainly have a very impressive list of clients and a beautifully simple website.

*images by Madethought.

Penguin does "handmade"

These are some of the covers from Penguin's new Great Loves series, designed by David Pearson. For this series they've decided to use more traditional printing methods such as lino cuts and screen printing to achieve a distinctive look. Shame they couldn't screen print the covers for real, obviously that would have made them very expensive paperbacks! A limited edition maybe? Here's the man himself explaining the process.

Flipping again and again

A really simple and smart old-style clock screen saver by 9031, beautiful, don't you love nice freebies!
(via It's nice that)

Some recent work

Being a wee bit sneaky here, since the work in the images hasn't been published (or printed) yet. These are the mock-ups for some work just completed for one of The Textile Society's events (in March). Also some identity work (images at the bottom) for a consultant in bicycle maintenance and cycling safety -this job will be letterpress printed- again these are just the mock-ups. Just to satisfy the curiosity of those who have been asking...

For rainy days

Illustrator and artist Keri Smith has published through her website an "Artist's Survival Kit" that can be downloaded for free. As she says it's "for the really bad days (...) when you want to lie in bed for a month and eat chips." She intended it for artists but I think it works absolutely fine with more practical creative professions: designers, printers (he,he)... or for anyone who's decided to work in a non conventional way! We all have bad days and a bit of humour goes a long way.

*all images by Keri Smith

...and here's the animated version

I thought they looked familiar

Now, unless I'm very much mistaken this -the latest Robinson's campaign- looks like the work of Adrian Johnson (the image at the bottom is from his website). I don't know if it succeeds in making parents buy more of the product, or indeed in making kids ask for it, but they surely are cute!

Type city

A very sweet city all made of type... thanks to Veer.

A book by its cover

Ever judged a book by its cover? "Everytime" would be my answer. I admit it, I'm a sucker for a nice cover, beautiful packaging and other shiny and colourful things. And in this case I recognised the illustrator Rob Ryan and couldn't resist. If you've never seen his work it's worth having a look at his website & blog. In my defense I'm sure the book is really good too, and with a different cover I probably would have bought it all the same... mmm.

It's that time of the year...

when final year students finally say goodbye to university life and face the future, scary, I know, but also exciting. And before they say goodbye they put together their Degree Show to let the world know they are coming out and that they are full of ideas... so I went to see some of those ideas at GSA. And it was fairly mixed as usual but there was some really good work and worth checking out if you are in Glasgow. I particularly liked the work of Sissel Johannsen (sorry no image!) and Elain Eckford (above, no website yet). The above image has been taken from a class portfolio in the form of a newspaper so it definitely does it no justice. Didn't have my camera with me, damn!

*image on GSA invitation by Pio Abad, entitled "Dogeater's discourse".

Studio Feed

Reading through The Serif I came across Studio Feed from Montréal. Their work is elegant and smart with as they say "an indestructible passion for typography"... what's not to like?

More posters...

Just came across the work of Small Stakes and since it's mainly posters and cd covers (our favourites) I had to share it through our blog. The majority of their clients seem to be from the music industry, a field we would like to look into ourselves.

Is it just me?

Last night I attended the opening night of The Scottish Show at The Lighthouse here in Glasgow. For those of you who haven't heard of it before it aims to represent the design scene in Scotland in an effort, I guess, to help market it. This year it's part of a bigger project called the Six-Cities which involves six major Scottish cities... so needless to say I had great expectations, even more considering that I know some of the designers exhibiting. I still can't put my finger on it, but whatever the reason it failed to impress me... there was some excellent work, some good work, and some not so good that looked a bit student-like (and not in a good way!) and put together in a hurry. There were some pieces that would have benefitted from a better position and more space while others should have done with a lot less! I will however go back and see it in less of a hurry- I couldn't stay long last night- I feel some projects deserve a second look.

Simple but effective?

Well, that's what we're hoping for... our website is up! We intend to add a couple of sections and probably the option to see some of the work at a bigger size... but this is it for now. It's taken us a while since we never seem to find the time to do promotional work for ourselves, hopefully this is just the beginning and we'll try to keep a close eye on the marketing side of things. Smudge seems to think the opposite corner of the studio is a lot more interesting though!