The tools of our trade are sometimes weird and often wonderful.
Here is a case in point:
If you can tell us what these are and what they do then we’ll send a mystery prize to the first three correct answers… on an email to: info@calverts.coop
Archive for December, 2009
That obscure object of design (and print)
Friday, December 18th, 2009Form of the Book Book
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
We’ve worked with both Sara de Bondt and Fraser Muggeridge in 2009, making catalogues for the Hockney retrospective and Frances Stark shows at Nottingham Contemporary, and for the Royal Academy. So when Calverts was offered the opportunity to sponsor the publication of a collection of essays on book design, edited by Sara and Fraser and published by Occasional Papers, we were more than pleased to sign up.
Printed mono on Kaskad paper and board, ‘The Form of the Book Book’ includes contributions from Catherine de Smet, James Goggin, Jenni Eneqvist, Roland Früh & Corina Neuenschwander, Sarah Gottlieb, Richard Hollis, Chrissie Charlton and Armand Mevis.
If you’re a fan of beautifully designed and printed books, please join us at the launch this coming Wednesday, 16 December 2009, from 6.30 to 8.30pm at Artwords Bookshop, 20–22 Broadway Market, London E8 4QJ.
The Calvertistas will be there early, because we’re having our Christmas dinner later in the evening, just down the road at Little Georgia in Goldsmith’s Row. Should be a fun night!
Have a Fine Art Christmas!
Monday, December 7th, 2009
This is one of the trickiest images we’ve ever printed in a Christmas card. Entitled Caged Tree, England 2009, the card is an image of a tree adorned with coloured lights, as seen by renowned artist and Head of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, Richard Wentworth.
After considering a number of substrate options, we printed litho CMYK on Tullis Russell’s FSC certified smooth white board, 330gsm Naturalis Smooth Absolute White, and the end result was really pleasing. The image was low resolution, with vertical bars of reflected light and the midtones containing vital detail which we worked to keep open – particularly the pine branchlets coming in from the left.
Thanks to Octavia Reeve at RCA Publications for bearing with us as we proofed, reproofed, resized and debated different papers, only to find that some of the cards that were slightly skew whiff in the finishing – luckily they came out fine with a bit of tender love in creasing and trimming department. You can buy the cards here; all profits go to the RCA Student Fund.
The Wave
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009We’ve been working with Stop Climate Chaos and Unicef to produce a wealth of placards for The Wave.
On Saturday 5 December 2009, ahead of the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will march through the streets of London to demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all.
Part of a global series of public actions, The Wave will call on world leaders to take urgent action to secure a fair international deal to stop global warming exceeding the danger threshold of 2 degrees C.
Letterpress lusciousness
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009After attending a workshop at Harrington and Squires, our designer Angie was enthused and lucky enough to get her hands on a classic 8 x 5 Adana table-top letterpress machine. Letterpress is the original printing process, as invented by Gutenberg. Today it’s rarely used by most commercial printers but a growing band of aficionados have fallen in love with the hands on, textured feel of the process. There is something inherently satisfying about wielding a compositing stick, metal type and some cornerstone quoins that you just don’t get from other print processes
The iconic Adana Eight-Five was launched in 1953. They continued to be produced in Twickenham until 1999 and rumour has it that a copy of the Adana is currently being made in Japan.
Digital is often sited as being the future of printing but not many digital presses can print onto 700gsm card, blind emboss, cut, perforate, crush your fingers and produce some beautiful print…
