Killer packaging
Leicester-based packaging company Keenpac has been blazing a trail in the packaging sector over the past few years, producing some extremely innovative print jobs for a host of big-name clients, including Disney, House of Fraser and the Savoy Hotel.
The inks used for the boxes are made from natural soy and they’re finished with a high-gloss, but environmentally friendly aqueous varnish. The end-result is a 90%-recycled carton which is 100% recyclable. To complete the collection, and following the same eco-brief, Disney’s re-useable shopping bags took a step away from non-woven polypropylene towards recycled PET, which is produced from recycled plastic bottles. The full range is now available in Disney Stores.
Equally as impressive is the work that Keenpac undertook for department store House of Fraser when it decided to revive its iconic Biba clothing range. In the 1960s, Biba was a watchword for cutting-edge design and style so the relaunched range needed a stylish Biba bag. The outcome was impressive. The new bag is printed single-colour deep black, gloss-laminated, with the iconic Biba logo writ large in gold foil. Adding the final touch of luxury, the bag is tied with a thick black satin ribbon and completed with hand-stitched black grosgrain handles.
Last, but by no means least, Keenpac also recently conjured up a beautiful new range of luxury packaging for the Savoy Hotel, which reopened its doors in October after a £220m refit. The company commissioned new packaging for its tea shop that reflected the hotel’s Edwardian and Art Deco charm, but at the same time exuded modernity.
The outcome is a range of packaging that includes luxury bags and boxes for chocolates, biscuits and cakes, all of which have been produced in black and white, with a clear foil to pick out the subtle floral patterns. "For simple elegance, the famous Savoy logo is depicted in green foil against a matt black kraft paper, with concealed magnetic closures on the chocolate boxes, for the ultimate in Savoy luxury," explains Davies.
The entire packaging project took just over a year, undergoing several stages of development and sampling to get finishes and mechanisms working perfectly. The final results are stunning and reflect entirely the attention to detail, the vision and the ambition of this unique restoration project.
Personalised books
There’s nothing new about personalised books, but when the book in question calls on the powers of the Star Wars franchise you can be sure that the final result will pack a punch – or should that be force? That’s what happened when personalised book printing operator Penwizard joined forces with the Penguin Group and Nottingham-based printer Prime Group to launch a range of personalised Star Wars children’s books.
It took two years to develop the titles, which retail for £14.99 in the UK. Purchasers simply visit a dedicated website where they can create their own avatar and submit their name so that it can be included throughout the pages of the book along with a personal message printed on the inside front page. The book is printed on HP Indigo presses and is dispatched within five days. Lucasfilm’s director of publishing Carol Roeder says that the personalised application of print is a unique product that immerses fans in the Star Wars universe.
Unusual box sets
DVD and CD box sets have pushed the boundaries in recent years in terms of creativity as entertainment companies look to make their products stand out from the crowd. One of the most innovative recent examples is Time Life and Bear Family’s deluxe box set of recordings by Hank Williams – The Complete Mother’s Best Collection.
The set includes 15 CDs, a DVD, a 120-page book and a 12x12in jigsaw puzzle, all wrapped up in a 216x254x165mm working ‘radio box’ – when you turn the radio knob it tunes the customer into a Hank Williams radio recording. The complex project required a vast team of people according to Time Life’s Janine Morris.
"The designer worked extensively on research for the look of the radio and even more time with the company that structurally designed this box per his vision," explains Morris. The box, which was manufactured by Multi Packaging Solutions, is made out of plastic, but looks like an old radio from the 1940s.
Die-cut books
There has been a series of creative books produced over the course of the past few months that have presented a challenge to publishers and printers alike. One of the most complex projects was the publication of author Jonathan Safran Foer’s "haunting new story" Tree of Codes, which was ‘cut’ from the pages of Bruno Schulz’s The Streets of Crocodiles. Published by Visual Editions this month with a RRP of £25, the paperback features a different die-cut on every page, taking Tree of Codes into "previously unchartered literary territory".
Safran Foer began ‘writing’ his story by literally cutting into the pages of a copy of The Street of Crocodiles to uncover a new narrative. The responsibility for designing Safran Foer’s vision then fell to the Sara De Bondt studio, which took the project from printer to printer all of whom said that a book with a different die-cut on every page couldn’t be made.
But the De Bondt studio persevered and eventually Belgian printer Die Keure was persuaded to clamber on board. It took months of writing, cutting and proto-typing, before Tree of Codes was ready to hit bookshops, but Visual Editions co-founder Anna Gerber says that the journey was worth it. "We wanted to give people an unexpected experience, and through that open doors into how the visual can bring about a dynamic, engaging and surprising storytelling experience," she explains.
Scratch ‘n’ sniff
US film director John Waters pioneered the technique of using scratch ‘n’ sniff in cinemas with his 1981 film Polyester – Waters termed it ‘Odorama’. Now a pair of creative London jelly fanatics have embraced it to launch a series of scratch ‘n’ sniff movie screenings.
Bompas & Parr ran their first Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Cinema on Valentine’s Day in 2009 with a screening of Peter Greenaway’s classic The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. At appropriate moments in the movie cinema-goers were invited to scratch the relevant part of a numbered piece of paper that they had been given on admittance to release micro-encapsulated aromas including rotting meat and dusty books.
Since then Bompas & Parr organised a scratch ‘n’ sniff screening of British classic Gregory’s Girl with another event planned next month when the duo will show an olfactory teasing version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (the duo recently did a scratch ‘n’ sniff project for the Moscow Centre for Contemporary Culture).
Creative magazine covers
For its November issue, design, branding and advertising magazine Creative Review commissioned a cover by acclaimed artist Marian Bantjes. Bantjes, who works from a small island off the west coast of Canada, is a designer, typographer, writer and illustrator and her concept for the cover presented a challenge for artist and printer alike as it involved a layered approach.
Printed by St Ives on a stock called Rives Tweed 350gsm, which was supplied by Antalis McNaughton creative papers, the stock is uncoated and has a textured feel. A Cellofoil silver foil was then applied by Celloglas across the Creative Review logo and large sections of the design. A Textured foil was applied inside square areas, matching the design supplied completing the affect.
Janice Hoyes-Thompson group production manager at Creative Review commented "The cover depicts a dream studio space, the patterns used almost make the cover look like a material, with the stock giving the cover a fantastic textured feel."
Children’s books
Peter and Ann Scott, who work as PatrickGeorge, are a creative husband and wife team who publish their own children’s books from an office in Ramsgate, Kent. Past efforts, include the self-published A Drove of Bullocks and A Filth of Starlings, but it’s their fifth and latest title, Opposites, that has seen them put a different visual twist to the PatrickGeorge approach.
The book contains 11 double-page spreads of simple opposites or contrasting ideas (for example up-down; big-small; girl-boy; land-sea) with a 0.12mm clear PVC acetate sheet between each spread with a simple graphic printed onto it.
That graphic, flipped from left to right, reveals the opposite. For example, the cover shows a candle (hot) and a tap (cold), with a blue tear shaped drop printed on the acetate. When flipped to the left, the drop becomes a candle flame and, against a deep orange background, the drop turns a warm colour.
Flipped to the right, against a white background, it becomes the drip of water from a tap. The pair printed 5,000 litho copies of the book in China through World Print.
