fmp boards

Open publication - Free publishing - More book

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Open publication - Free publishing - More boards

Brief 1: The Ebb & Flow

product photography brief 1

I think this photography shows the products well, in their various forms, I'll be putting images of the printed posters on my boards alongside these images.

Book fair range, needs to be shot properly

talk about the whole range, brought together - visual uniformity - clear theme

why I extended the range further into badges

and considerations for packaging

A totally failed attempt at book binding

Open publication - Free publishing - More ebb

Extending haiku book context - screen printed posters

These two prints came from the idea I had for the book cover, where I combined digital print with bespoke print, but I basically wanted to focus more on bespoke print here, and at a larger format. I digitally printed the background onto brown brown sugar paper (to emulate a digital texture on the book cover) and screen printed the rest. The paperstock did begin to cockle with a textured background, my guess is that the water based ink started to oversaturate the print itself. I also learnt never again to overprint black ink on top of white ink. 

This is because the white ink has to be thicker in consistency to reach the same level of solidity as other pigments. It made the black ink crack a little, but (and I know people say this alot) but I genuinely think its not an issue visually, because it adds to the 'wabi sabi' tone of voice bens haikus have and the japanese inspired bonsai art on the page.

"Wabi-sabi| represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience. The phrase comes from the two words wabi and sabi. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". ... 

(the definition of wabi sabi) sounds a bit like a print based scapegoat the more I look at it, but it nevertheless holds weight in the concept behind the print work done for this brief.

There was also no point in printing the 1 colour posters, because it looks like a digital print, this is good because it shows all the detail, but i should have used other colours and made it more interesting than it is. Non the less, I printed 5 of each, off the back of the other print run in time for the book fair. I sold all of these prints, and got to natter about bonsai trees for 15 minutes everytime somebody asked about the prints.

Haiku Book cover: The Ebb & Flow

This cover was the product of experiment to be honest, I literally printed out the cover onto brilliant white 120gsm matt, and left the title space blank, because I had exposed the title onto a screen. It was a paper screen so it meant straight away, I couldnt use glue for foil, but I also didnt want to use gloss because It can be a messy experience. This left me to screen print in a more traditional manner. I had Gold metallic powder mixed up, and so decided to spread the materials wider as to not waste them, and also for a more solid uniformity across the print range for this project. I produced 5 of these covers, and I think two worked as well as I wanted them to. I kept getting a double image, but this wasnt because of wanton screen pulls, it was down to having to do more than one because the metallic ink would not take of the digitally printed, dark green image. The photos above are the best examples from that production session. Also, the reversed out white type is legible, but the quality obviously isnt professional because I wasnt prepared to outsource a printer for this brief, and the stock itself is slightly pourous. The subtle application of a texture onto the image seems to have acted as an enhancer as well which im happy about. I was worried it would look over the top.

I had decided early on that this was going to be hard back basically because I have done too many softback publications, which were a bit of an avoidance of perfect binding. I decided to bite the bullet here and back them onto a greyboard which was approx 400gsm ( I sourced this from the downstairs print room so Im unsure of its weight because it was part of some paper stock packaging.) The covers, spine and bind (which I will talk about in another post) are mediocre, but the brief was very quick turn around (a week and three days) in time for the book fair.

Issues with screen printing, screen blocks and doulbe images.

The photos above show a screen block at its most ugly! happens when you flood the screen too many times and the ink begins to dry and stick into the smaller areas of the screen, for example, corners, fine lines and detailed patterns in illustration. This is generally a cumulative process, and you can prevent it by noticing it early on and immidiately washing the screen.

Double image: Literally done by doing too many pulls when using rickety print beds, the air bed keeps the paper in place, but the framing structure itself (which keeps the screen in place) moves from pull to pull. I just had to trust that one pull was enough to get even ink coverage - because it was!

Bad registration - this was happening for me because I was rushing into the printing process when doing the registration process, and therfor just not lining the images up properly on the truegrain, and also because the truegrain had too many test prints on it, which made it confusing when trying to register my screen. Its all part of tightening up my print practise though, so i see it as neccessary mistakes to make, as long as i realise that I have to be more patient, in general, when it comes to screen printing.

Brief 1: Print production & International Book fair

The Brief

Illustrate A book of haikus from Ben Bowsher & provide an extra range of printed materials for the international bookfair.

Concept

Ben Bowsher wrote a Haiku every day for 2 months, he has picked the best and requires concept driven illustration to go alongside his poetry. The illustrations have to be 1 colour to keep printing costs low for the production of a few (5) copies.

Deliverables

1 x set of illustrations for book : The Ebb & The Flow Vol. 1
A set of screenprinted posters & additional materials to be sold at the book fair.

overlay sheets for screen printing

I went to get the illustration printed in its two parts in the downstairs print room, hearing that james has changed what stock he uses to print negatives onto. The stock is now a light brilliant white paper that has a slight coating on it, as apposed to trace. The showthrough is unbeleivable, but i suppose it needs to be so that it exposes correctly and sharply. At this point in time, I am sketpical abot wether this will expose well enough to pick up all the detail in the illustrations, ill post up later on it.