Pressing On: The Letterpress Film - Kickstarter Trailer

Lol's Photobook

I'm a bit behind with my blog entries so let's get up to date.
Pictured is a photobook I finished recently. As a nod to the big red book of "This is Your Life" fame, it is an A3 landscape, printed in full colour on 170gsm silk and case bound. Instead of a leather-effect it's more of a plush. The cover cloth is FT Ratchford's Dainel, the colour is Tomade 16.

The History of Wymondley Baptist Church

The latest short run book I have designed for the author, Nigel Billingham. Printed a couple of months ago at Beacon Printers, it's good to see that niche books are being produced. This one was 180 pages, printed in black and white on 150gsm silk stock. The cover was printed on 350gsm silk and gloss laminated then perfect bound by Abbey Bookbinding.

Where it all started

I came across this photo in the book "Cardiff - Those Were The Days", a collection of photographs compiled by Brian Lee. Brian Lee worked for the Western Mail and Echo, in Cardiff, which had connections to the Tudor Printing Co, the previous occupiers of the building which housed Qualitex Printing. The photograph, I would think, was taken between 1968-1970 judging from the hairstyles and the Cornerstone frames. Although a taken a little while before I started some of the faces circled were still there. (From left to right: Glyn Mayor, Dennis Mayor, Bill Cuthbert (the Father of the Chapel), Ken Jones, Mike Manley and Maurice Nolan (the Comp Room Overseer). For the first three years of my apprenticeship I carried out my work at the frame in front of Ken Jones, who then occupied the frame in the very bottom left, just out of shot. In my time, behind Ken, was another tall bench/frame where the leads for line-spacing were cut. In the top right of the picture you can see the Monotype Keyboard room. When phototypesetting was introduced in the mid-seventies, this room was partitioned and annexed to the very back of the comp room, with a couple of keyboards moving upstairs into a room in the loft - where I took up residency in the last two years of my time.

Shades of Green

"Shades of Green" is a collection of articles originally written for the South Wales Echo by local gardening expert Clive Edwards. Clive had the idea of combining them all into one volume and producing a very limited edition which he would give to his closest friends and family. Clive contacted me, through Abbey Bookbinding, and commissioned me to design and produce the book. Eight editions were produced in perfect bound form and two were case bound.
Both versions were A5 and digitally printed in full colour throughout on 150gsm silk. The perfect bound copies had a gloss laminated 350gsm silk cover while the case bound versions were bound using green cloth in keeping with the theme. The typefaces used were Sabon Roman, Italic and Bold for the text and DIN Light and Black for display.
Sadly, after a very short, sudden illness Clive passed away before he could take the next step and publish a larger quantity. However, his sister, Ann, and brother, Roy, are taking the project on as a lasting memorial.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy please contact Ann Brookman (email: annbrookman2@hotmail.co.uk).

Motorbikes!

As a test for a future photo book I have produced a prototype A4 landscape version. The cover (front and back) has a full image which has been gloss laminated. The inside pages have been printed on 170gsm Printspeed uncoated paper. The book has then been finished with a wiro-bind although this will not be the method used in any future edition which will probably be smaller in size.

Michelle Chick Portfolio

My latest commission to design and produce a portfolio displaying paintings by Michelle Chick. The pages are A3 in size and printed through a Xerox 7002 on 190gsm Perfect Image and the porfolio features a spiral bind so that the images lay perfectly flat. Bound in green cloth it also has a magnetic closure on the right.