Designers are Scraping the Tin

Designers Thomas Matthews are nothing if not thorough when it comes to looking for ways to reduce the environmental impacts of their print. For TM’s rebranded stationery (letterhead, compliments slip, CD slipcase and various card items), they’re using a selection of unallocated papers from Calverts warehouse – small batches of recycled and FSC certified paper that were basically sitting on the shelf waiting for an application. Not only that, they asked us to do multiple overlaid preprints from existing litho printing plates, to create a rich graphic texture on the reverse of each item. To cap it all, they realised that, like the paper, Calverts holds small quantities of mixed pantone inks that were surplus to the jobs they were specified for, and likewise just waiting to be used for a good purpose.

TM will be incorporating some these ink colours into the designs. Word got round, and then we gave some of these surplus (but perfectly good) inks to Rose Gridneff and Alex Cooper from Workshop, the new letterpress design and printmaking co-operative in Hackney.

Modern vegetable oil based litho inks are completely compatible with the letterpress process, so Rose and Alex used the inks for their demonstration and teach-in at Greengaged.

If you want to know more about environmentally benign printing inks, different types and applications for recycled and FSC paper, or in fact anything at all to do with print design, just get in touch.