CPI Colour helps mark the Queen's birthday

The official publisher for the Queen’s 90th birthday celebration at Windsor Castle, St James’s House, has produced a one-off limited-edition album to mark the celebration, with CPI Colour appointed for the job.

It is the only commemorative album sanctioned and endorsed by the organisers of the Windsor Castle event and its embossed cover features Arnold Machin’s iconic portrait of the Queen.

The Queen at 90 is a hardback, fully illustrated, commemorative photographic record of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

“Collectively the print run for the book and a programme for the event has exceeded 65,000,” said a spokesman for St James's House. “Any excess copies will be donated to schools in the UK.”

The album was presented as a gift to VIP guests at the Queen's birthday celebration last month at Windsor Castle, with more than 1,500 people taking part on each of the four days.

Production of the album was split between CPI Group in London and Graphicom in Italy, with CPI producing 5,000 copies.

The 472pp portrait publications were printed on 150g GardaMatt with silk acrylic varnish and casebound with 3mm boards and section sewn with a dustjacket wrapped around.

The dustjacket is made of 200g GardaMatt gloss printed CMYK with soft-touch lamination, blind embossing on the front face, with purple pigment foil - Kurz Colorit 937- on the back cover and spine.

St James’s House creative head Anna Danby said: “We enlisted the help of a number of leading royal experts and partners to bring together this wonderful celebration of The Queen’s life to date.

“The pages of this album take the reader on a visual journey, providing a real insight into the life of one of the most celebrated women in the world.”

St James’s House chief executive Richard Freed said: Over the four evenings more than 25,000 VIPs, guests and spectators will attend the event.

“The commemorative album will enable The Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration to reach an even wider audience.”

Two months ago CPI Colour completed a £3.5m investment with a B2 HP Indigo 10000 press to run alongside and HP Indigo 7600 and a 7500 sheetfed digital presses.

The digital kit runs with a recently bought six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 and Kodak Prinergy pre-press and colour management software and workflow.

St James’s House is one of Britain’s leading custom publishers, producing official commemorative albums for events such as the 90th anniversary of the RAF and the 750th anniversary of Parliament.