Finishing...

I want to include information about different print finishing techniques in my publication. I have been reading about different finishing methods in Print & Finish and The Production Manual, both by Ambrose/Harris. Both of these books contain simple and to the point information, which is easy to understand and gets the basics across. The main explanations are good, but it is the captions on the examples shown that actually makes the processes clearer and more applicable to different printing processes.

This information is going to help me form the basis for the information I will include in my publication. I have found other information on various websites that will help me to put together a comprehensive overview of the finishing techniques.

Timeline...

I have been researching the information that I want to include in the Origins and Development sections of my publication. There is an awful lot that I could include, and I think that it will be very wordy and over-saturating. I am considering using a timeline for these two chapters, as it will allow me to include dates more easily, and the reader will be able to see the development more clearly. I have put together the basics of the timeline (below) there are a few more points that I want to include, but I need to clarify the dates for these.

140-86 BCE – Invention of paper

618 CE– The first printing is done in China, using ink on carved wooden blocks.

868 – The world’s earliest datable book, the Diamond Sutra, is printed.

1300 – Movable wooden type is invented in the Korea, a technique credited to Wang Zhen.

1377 – Earliest surviving book is printed using bronze movable type in Korea.

1400 – Laurens Coster (Netherlands) works with movable wooden type. He is however not credited with the invention of movable type in the west.

1423 – Hand coloured wood cut. Earliest dated woodcut. P. 25 british library guide (cutting an image into a piece of wood).

1455 – Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible is printed. Gutenberg is credited with the invention of the printing press and of moveable type cast from metal. He was also the inventor of adjustable moulds for type to accommodate the widths of different letterforms.

1457 – Latin Psalter printed throughout in colours and shows the efforts printers made to emulate the coloured manuscripts of the time. Created using two interlocking parts, inked separately and then placed together in the press.

1476 – William Caxton begins using a Gutenberg printing press in England.

1493 – Albrecht Durer transformed woodcutting into a suitable monochrome process by suggesting tone and texture using hatching.

1495 – The first paper mill is opened in England.

1501 – Italic type is first used.

1550 – Wallpaper introduced in Europe.

1660 – Mezzotint is invented in Germany.

1702 – Mezzotint is used by Jacob LeBon to create full colour images using three or four separately printed colours. Initially a very slow and expensive process, therefore mainly used for special classes of work.

1725 – Stereotyping is invented in Scotland by William Ged. The process involves a whole page of type being cast in a single mould so that a printing plate can be made from it.

1798 – Lithography is invented.

1797 – Thomas Berwick develops the ‘wood-engraving’ process. A more refined version of wood-cuts, where the image stood in relief and was therefore able to be printed along side type in a press. His technique was used in countless illustrated books and journals in the nineteeth century.

1800 – A colour print is made using 29 wood-blocks by letterpress printer William Savage in London.

1800 – First iron printing press is introduced by Stanhope. It helped to increase output and many other iron platen presses followed this.

1814 – The Koenig powered cylinder press is introduced. The entire process for using this press was mechanical apart from feeding of sheets, which was done by hand.

1816 – William Caslon IV develops the first sans-serif typeface.

1820 – Lithography starts to spread outside of Germany. It begins to replace letterpress and copperplate printing due to the ease and low costs of production.

1820 – American, Jacob Perkins replaces copper with steel as the surface for intaglio (creating a hollow in the plate) printing as the plates were tougher and therefore gave longer print runs. Perkins’ firm in Britain printed the Penny Black postage stamps.

1829 – Embossed printing is invented by Louis Braille.

1837 – Godfrey Engelmann patents Chromoliography, a process that outstripped all other colour printing processes. Similar to Mezzotint, Chromolithography used separate plates and coloured inks to create one image.

1840 – The first working machine for composing type was the Pianotyp. Operated by two people; one working the keyboard and the second inserting spacing between the words and justifying the line.

1851 – The first mechanized lithography press is patented by Austrian engineer Sigl. It had automatic inking and damping and could be worked by steam or by hand.

1878 – Photogravure printing is invented by Karl Klic. By the late 1880s the gravure process was often used to illustrate high-quality books with photographs.

1880 – Mechanical tints were invented by Benjamin Day in America. Consisting of lines, dots and other patterns, that could be used by lithography draughtsmen to get tonal effects quickly. Chromolithography provided late-nineteenth century society with a huge range of colour printed artefacts, from manuscripts to throwaway scraps.

1892 – 4-colour rotary press invented.

1900 –Due to the industrial revolution the majority of printing processes were mechanized to some degree by the end of the nineteenth century. This is the lithographic machine room of Charles Goodall & Son, London. The machines shown are printing from stone, which was still in common use industrially in this period.

1904 – The first comic book is published.

1907 – The commercial silk screen is invented

1937 – Chester Carlson invents the Xerox copying process using electrostatic energy. Xerography provides the foundation of modern laser printing.

1950 – Offset Lithography becomes the dominant form of commercial printing.

1957 – The Helvetica typeface family is developed

1970 – The first Personal Computers are manufactured.

1969 – The Laser printer is invented by Xerox, which was developed and networked into a printer system by 1972.

1963 – The first Pantone colour matching system is developed.

1976 – The inkjet printer is invented.

1987 – Layout design software QuarkXpress is released for Macintosh computers. It quickly became widely used by page designers, typesetting industry and printers.

1988 – Inkjet printers become a home consumer item with Hewlett-Packard’s release of the DeskJet inkjet printer, priced at $1000.

I found the majority of this information in The British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques, Michael Twyman, and the rest I found online at various websites, mainly Timeline of Printing.I think that this is quite a comprehensive overview so far, but I am going to ask a few of my colleagues if there are any points that I have missed that they think would be important to include.

Responses and Plan...

I have had a few responses to my questions, which is a huge relief! People have been really helpful and turned them around in a few days for me. On Monday I also rang a selection of new companies that I hadn't contacted before, and a couple of them were really eager to answer my questions and got them back to me the same day.

I am starting to feel a little better about my context publication now. I have considered exactly what I want to include, and how I can use secondary research to make my publication more relevant to my design practice.

My publication is based on Print (all forms of print) design, so I feel it is appropriate to give and overview of how print started and the progression it has made from the early days of letterpress and woodblock printing. I have come up with a plan for the book:

1. What is Print?

A prologue/overview of what print is and what the rest of the book will focus on.

2. Origins of Print

Inventions of print in the far east and in europe. Explanation and investigation of hand print production.

3. Innovation and Development

The introduction of the printing press. Wood engraving and mass market opportunities. Colour printing

4. Digitisation and Modern Print

An explanation of how hand print moved onto being mechanized and how this is used in modern printing.

A break down of different printing processes, with explanation and examples of pieces:

Lithography (compare to relief printing)

Gravure (compare to intaglio printing)

Flexography

Lino

Silk screen

Letterpress

Thermography

5. Finishing

A breakdown of how printing is finished using different techniques:

Stocks and substrates

Varnishes

Die cutting

Embossing

Foiling

Fore edge printing

6. Interviews

The answers to my questions from a range of designers and companies. I will include some full interviews, some snippets and some strong quotes from all of the responses I have had. I want this section to round the book off and reinforce the information that I have included.

I think that 6 sections will be enough for the book. There is quite a lot of information that could go into the first three sections. I need to make sure that I do not focus too heavily on this as it is not the main theme of the book.

Designs of the year...

I went to the Design Museum to see the Designs of the year award finalists. I was disappointed that the rest of the museum wasn't open on the day I went (why do they not put this on the website!?), but the Design of the year exhibition was, so I had a good look around. It was interesting to see the developments that are being made in a range of different design fields, and how this will translate across design in the future.

I was impressed with the folding plug design, which won the Product award. It is such a clever idea, and really very simple. I am sure it won't be long before this design is picked up by manufacturers for their travel based products.

The Graphics category wasn't amazing; the nominees felt a little limited and in all honesty, a bit lacking in the design stakes. The winner was the Newspaper Club, a reaction to the all consuming rise of digital media. It enables anyone to create their own newspaper/printed medium using the internet to upload designs, and waiting for a free spot on a printing press. It is an interesting idea, but not exactly 'graphics'. I would consider this more of a digital based system, rather than a graphic solution.

Overall, the exhibition was good. I appreciate all good design, but I felt a little like some of these exhibits had been thrown in for good measure, and to keep all areas of the design industry 'happy'. It will be interesting to see which of the designs really take off, and which are less suitable for the mass market.

Kemistry Gallery...

I visited the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch to see an exhibition by a Polish design company Homework. Since forming in 2003, Warsaw-based studio Homework has been creating posters for cultural events. Joanna Górska and Jerzy Skakun have created a distinctive style that has seen them garner prizes at poster biennials across the world as well as gallery exhibitions in Paris and Berlin. I was impressed with the range of styles and contexts their work had, it was all very diverse and experimental. It surprised me a little to learn that Homework only design posters, as this seems like a very limiting design practice. However, they're clear passion and love of design shows through in their work, and helps it to become something more than just a poster.

Starting to panic...

I have had just 1 response to my questions that I emailed out two weeks ago. I didn't want to bother people last week because it was Easter week and I thought they might have been away etc. I am now starting to panic a little because I do not have the information I need to put together my design context publication!! Ahhhhh!

I am going to spend a good chunk of my day ringing the companies again, and asking them nicely if they could get it back to me in the next few days. I realise that I am not their priority, but I think that it is unfair to say you'll respond and then not do it!

I am coming up with a back-up plan, should this all fail!

Comparisons...

Morrisons current design:

My current Re-design:

Tesco:

The white background is quite strong here, and allows the type and image to stand out well. The two colours are a strong contrast to each other, which makes the design a little difficult because everything seems to have an equal impact. The images are a little odd, they seem to be recoloured, which is a bit strange. The overall design is quite strong, compared to mine I think that mine needs a little more consideration with the layout and placement of information.

Asda:

Comparing this design to mine I can see that the layout of information is very central, and I think that this could work better for my design. Keeping the information central is strong, and makes the design feel balanced. The limited colours here work well, but the impact isn't amazing. I can see that my design needs to be lighter and less coloured.

Sainsburys:

Similar limited colour pallet, but the design feels much lighter and simpler. The orange colour works really well because it stands out so strongly against the white background. The hand written type is interesting and works well with the personality of this design. It is certainly stronger than my current design, mainly because it is fun and friendly.

Waitrose:

These products feel quite high-end, despite being part of an 'essentials' range. The use of coloured illustrations is good, but they are very detailed and would take a lot of time to produce, which isn't very practical for value products. Compared to my design these feel much better quality, as they have a more considered design. The surface areas feel spacious and uncluttered. I want my design to be more desirable and attractive to the buyer, so I think that I need to focus on creating more space for the information within the design.