Brainstorming a new brief

all g2 covers printed

Newspaper club - an outlet for creative newsprint

I visited the newspaper club's website and pulled this statement from it that sums u what they are about:

"This is Newspaper Club. We're here to help you make your own newspapers. Whatever you'd like to make by putting ink on newsprint, we'd like to help you.

Newspaper Club was made by the Really Interesting Group, and is supported by 4iP. You can follow us on Twitter, read our blog or see what people have tagged as 'newspaperclub' on Flickr.

And if you want us in a nutshell it's this; we think the web is wonderful and printed newspapers are a tremendous, highly-evolved way of reading stuff. We think combining the two is a good idea. We're not about news or any particular form of content, we're about ink on newsprint. Whatever you think would be good to print that way; we think you're probably right."

Maximise the image to see the definitive price list. It seems that full colour printing of my covers for the G2 brief is not an option considering the minimum quantity and price, but the site is a great resource, and the whole process can be initiated online and delivery on minimum orders is free. I might get in touch with them to find out if they could print a 1 off full colour publication for the sake of this module, but it seems unlikely, I can but try!

- hold that thought- 

their FAQ section says this in relation to my query:

Can I have a sample newspaper to look at?

Yes. But if you want to print in colour (above 300 copies), the easiest thing is to get any tabloid newspaper (like The Mirror or The Sun), take out a few pages, and that’s your sample. The paper and the reproduction will be exactly what we’re offering.

Can I print fewer than 500 copies in colour?

Unfortunately not. For colour printing, we use a huge web offset press which is designed for printing hundreds of thousands of copies as quickly as possible. Due to the effort involved in setting up the press, and the speed of the machine, we can’t offer colour printing for any fewer than 500 copies.

This means I could get a sample cover printing, but I cant help thinking I would be messing them about a bit only wanting a free sample. I would definately have to ring them to inquire about this idea. It would be good to have to compare with covers I have printed, and also to refer back to in the future if I ever need to use these facilities.

Here's some examples of what's been done there, just to show how useful this facility really is.

Full colour overlays, looking vereh nice - the magenta looks really pink to me though..

As far as im aware, this is what they use to print their papers, this will be the one colour press.

Nice example of effective duplexing, no paper cockle or over saturation

Full page of black doesnt seem to work 100%, but it adds to the DIY feel of this paper.

Website is up and running!

Jonny Packham Illustration

check it out, at the moment its a basic indexhibit template, but its working effectively as an online showcase for my work. I dont want to over develop the website too much, but I will be looking into adding a bigcartel profile to the site for a shop section. A few links need my most recent work adding to them, which I will be shooting hopefully after easter. I also have a working email adress which is:

hello@jonnypackham.co.uk

All is well in terms of web presence.

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.