Foiled

Amelia’s Magazine | Introducing the printers of Amelia’s Magazine: Principal Colour

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Alan and Martin Principal Colour by Kellie-Black
Alan Flack and Martin Darby of Principal Colour, help illustrated by Kellie Black for the launch of ACOFI.

I have been working with Kent based lithographic printers Principal Colour for 8 years now, ailment ever since Martin Darby and Alan Flack so kindly helped me to produce the very first issue of Amelia’s Magazine in print way back at the start of 2004. Over the years my harebrained ideas have inevitably demanded that each new issue utilise a new print technique, and they have patiently helped me through all the most difficult of production issues. Die-cut, flocked, scratch ‘n’ sniff, Swarovski crystal encrusted, glow in the dark, metallic, holographic, foiled, 6 colour, different papers for different pages… the list of my requirements went on and on. And then I went on to produce two books with Principal Colour, Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration and Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (both in the shops now) – and these also featured awkward production challenges, including embossing accurately over print and pearlescent effects. Yup, I have been anything but an easy customer, but I am always sure of what I want to produce and Principal Colour are always more than happy to help me achieve things which even they have never heard of or tried to do before. Working with Principal Colour has been absolutely essential to everything I’ve done in print, and it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with such delightful people – I fully believe that good relationships are the key to a sustainable and happy business.

Now, after several years of nagging, I have finally persuaded Martin and Alan to embrace the wonders of Social Media, with me at the helm. Because Principal Colour do a lot of high end lithographic print design alongside their bread and butter jobs, my output for them on social media will concentrate on interesting design for print, as well as tips for the best outcome using lithographic print techniques. Much as I adore the internet, my heart will always lie with quality print design, and since I really enjoy the whole production process I shall relish the process of discovering more. Why not join us to learn more about the secrets of print, for there is a lot to share.. and believe me, however big the internet gets, print design ain’t going nowhere.

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. Our first blog on Tumblr is a Q&A with director Martin Darby about the history of Principal Colour and what makes the company tick…

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday October 18th, 2011 9:04 pm

Categories ,Alan Flack, ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,Crystal Encrusted, ,CYMK, ,Die-cut, ,Facebook, ,Flocked, ,Foiled, ,Glow-in-the-Dark, ,Holographic, ,Kellie Black, ,Lithographic, ,Martin Darby, ,Metallic, ,Miss Pearl Grey, ,principal colour, ,Print Design, ,Printers, ,scratch ‘n’ sniff, ,Swarovski, ,Tumblr, ,twitter

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Pretty Green Look Book designer Dave Uprichard of One Big Company

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Creative design agency One Big Company designed the new S/S 2012 look book for Liam Gallagher’s clothing brand Pretty Green, which was then printed by Principal Colour in Kent. This beautifully made object was inspired by record sleeves and features stunning photography shot on London’s Hampstead Heath. We caught up with designer Dave Uprichard to find out what goes into putting a look book together.

Your most recent project has been the creation of a look book for Liam Gallagher’s clothing company Pretty Green. How did the collaboration come about?

Myself, Matt and Neil (the other members of the One Big Company team) were contacted by a former colleague from our time at Ted Baker who now designs the collections for Pretty Green.

Have you worked on the design of many look books over the years?

Yes indeed, working at Ted Baker they were one of the bi-annually repeated projects we looked forward to most and as a bonus towards the end of my time there they started creating a High Summer mini-lookbook too so I got to turn my hand to that as well.

One of Dave’s Ted Baker look books (also printed by Principal Colour).

What do you think sets the Pretty Green collection apart from other fashion collections for men?

Apart from the inherent sense of cool which comes through its associations withLiam Gallagher and the best bits of the British music scene what’s great about Pretty Green compared to other fashion collections is that each season is different – obviously your staples are still there but there’s no taking the best selling styles from previous collections, adding a different button or pocket to it and rolling out something which is 99% the same as last year.

What inspired the design of the look book?

It’s inspired by the British music scene of the 60s & 70s, the format is a 12” with a black slipcase to echo a record sleeve and then all the shots have been graded to give an aged analogue feel. There’s no digital crispness with this book, we wanted it to look raw.

The sleeve was die-cut and foiled.

How did you choose the materials and print production techniques for your look book?

Firstly the paper stock had to be uncoated to be in keeping with the grading we’d added to the photography, we knew this would darken up any imagery so that had to be taken into account when printing. We picked Challenger Offset by Antalis McNaughton for this. Other than that it was a case of picking a great black stock for the cover and slipcase (Colorset by Fenner Paper) and ensuring that the foiling of the logos was of the highest quality. We haven’t been let down!

You’ve clocked up 10 years in the print design industry – what have your design highlights been?

The biggest highlight would be breaking free of corporate shackles and setting up with Matt & Neil, maybe not a design highlight but a highlight of my design career! Other than that, it’s hard to say… I’ve worked with so many great clients and brands from MTV to Ted Baker to Pretty Green. Can I just say that the past 10 years have been a highlight?

Where did you work before setting up One Trick Pony? And what skills did you learn at each different place?

I started at a boutique creative agency called Point Blank which was lead bySteve Wallington, it was the perfect place to cut my teeth as everyone had input into creative briefs – the ethos of PB was that a great idea was a great idea no matter whether it came from the Creative Director, Junior Designer or company accountant! After that I went in-house in fashion, working at Ted Baker for just over three years. Then I took a foray into retail design with Portland Associatesbefore setting up One Trick Pony with Matt Bishop and ultimately One Big Company with Matt & Neil.

Aldgate Lofts property brochure – produced for BMOR

What prompted you to start out on your own?

Without wanting to sound bitter it was getting made redundant for the third time! Admittedly Matt and myself had been freelancing for a year or so as One Trick Pony before my employment was cut short and it couldn’t have happened at a better time as Neil had just approached us with a very exciting offer of a monthly retainer from a fairly sizeable property client so everything fell into place perfectly.

Aldgate Lofts property brochure – produced for BMOR

One Trick Pony is about to become One Big Company – what’s the difference?

Pretty much the name is the only difference…

…you can read the rest of this blog over on the Principal Colour tumblr. Please do visit!

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday February 23rd, 2012 3:58 pm

Categories ,Aldgate Lofts, ,Antalis McNaughton, ,Bluewater, ,BMOR, ,Challenger Offset, ,Colorset, ,Dave Uprichard, ,Die-cut, ,Fenner Paper, ,Foiled, ,Hampstead Heath, ,Liam Gallagher, ,Matt Bishop, ,O’Dear, ,One Big Company, ,One Trick Pony, ,Point Blank, ,Portland Associates, ,Pretty Green, ,principal colour, ,Ted Baker

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