Printing plates. May 16th, 2008
These are the CMYK plates, which have just been taken off press after a 6,000 run.
How Many?. May 15th, 2008
We're using a Komori 6 Colour Press to print NoiseFive. It's been busy, in it's short life it's printed over 55 million sheets... lets just hope it doesn't break under the pressure!
Nave. May 14th, 2008
Looking back, NoiseFour in San Francisco was chronicled by a series of personal events that tinkered with forth dimensional perspectives in a world we called "Nave". One such event has us attaching big mirrors to the side of a community centre so that passers by could gaze upon the reflected sky rather than an ugly gray building. Nave was out of the studio - out of the realms of relying upon graphic design. This created new boundaries, and signified the confidence and belief of ATTIK to evolve into any form or medium. Nave housed and harnessed creative energy in all areas; architecture, education, fashion, music, community and culture. Nave centered around a hypercube with contributing elements signifying a multidisciplinary collective, challenging the space in which design works – without the restrictions of paper or screen. In the end, ideas generated by NoiseFour made their way into client pitches and ad campaigns, but for a while, these ideas remained unpolluted by any client desires. They were just about our own experimentation.
NoiseFour Wall. May 13th, 2008
We all work close together here at ATTIK, but sometimes we just need our own space - check out our cool new piece of furniture: the NoiseFour wall. Wanna buy one of these? Shoot and email over to: noisefour@attik.com and we'll see what we can arrange (just don't ask for the middle one - it could create book tumbling carnage)
Noise 2...Noise 3.... May 12th, 2008
Looking back, many of our clients who saw Noise 2 and then Noise 3 wanted to use – even overuse – the ideas expressed inside. The look -– highly layered, colour saturated, motion-like – was everywhere. MTV was using it for its promos. So were CNN, Kodak and Microsoft TV. It was frustrating because we got tagged with a set style, but also it was definitely complimentary at the same time. We searched for a way to breed new creativity and conjure a direction that looked nothing like past experiments. By giving everyone (not just the zealots who worked on their own time to create Noise 1, Noise 2, and Noise 3) a chance to contribute, it fostered a richer level of creativity and teamwork. We wanted everyone to spend 20% of their time on experimentation. Shhhhh – don’t tell our Financial Director that we told you this!!!!
The result?
An ivory-white, hardbound book that represents a significant departure from other Noises, which resembled heavy-metal record jackets designed by fanciful pubescent northern boys.
NoiseFour was almost austere.
The idea?
We wondered what rooms of the future would look like. Where walls would be light sensitive and the colours would change, so you could feel as if you were on the beach or at a nightclub. Lots of mini-projects encapsulated in a heavy weight book. One really fascinating little event in NoiseFour, was the 'Nave' project that explored how spaces change depending on individual perspective driven by our guys in San Francisco. We’d definitely recommend you take time to study these events. But in many ways Noise is a process not a book and when the book(s) are published – Noise is over.
You've been framed.... May 9th, 2008
Well NoiseFive has been. This piece hangs in our Leeds studio, and if you look closely enough you might be able to make out most, if not all, the projects which made it into the book.
Production Update. May 8th, 2008
Last week was steady-away, but productive. We have been crunching through the CMYK only sheets and have now moved onto work that also includes metallic and fluorescent specials. As we work through these special inks, the speed will slow down a little as the more complex work starts to creep in. It's easy to forget, but every page has to be under the glass. This includes printed sheets which have standard CMYK, CMYK where the magenta is replaced by a fluoro magenta and Stochastic print* which has to be printed from a different set of plates, which also means that each sheet will need to run through the press twice, once for standard, an again for stochastic.
BTW - If anyone's interested - we are holding onto the make-ready sheets (kinda like waste paper with ink build-up ontop). Not only for testing/setting-up the finishing processes, but also for ourselves to save. We're also saving printing plates too. We'll publish how you can get your hands on these soon.
*Stochastic printing uses random dot placement, varying the spacing between the dots. The dots are varied by density and frequency according to the tone value reproduced. Lighter parts have fewer dots, the darker areas have more. The overall effect is similar to the grain on photographic film and makes stochastic printing very suitable when reproducing pictures.
Weekly Report . May 7th, 2008
In addition to Noise insights on the blog, we're going to keep you updated with our weekly production notes, this one is a little late in coming, but we promise to get back on track soon!
Date: Monday 28/04/08
Monday 14 April: New advert for Celloglas approved. The ad will use Celloglas's Photochromic (light reactive) ink as a 'reveal in sunlight' technique.
Tuesday 22 April: Production meeting with Hammond's the Binders. The bindings gonna be a tough one. Had a meeting to discuss the problems we could encounter due to the various finishing techniques involved. We tried to find ways of guaranteeing that pages were not scratched during the stitching process. Celloglas are going to produce some test sheets so the binders can test stitch the sections most at risk. Get your needles out!
Thursday 24 April: Signing off new proofs for the Noise section. All correct for the first time, success! No tweaks were needed to any of the artwork. New plates were run out over the weekend and production re-started on Monday 28 April.
Monday 28 April: On press. Three sections printed, each on different stocks (gloss, silk, uncoated). No issues to report here – just time spent tweaking colours on press. On one particular sheet (gloss) the 4 colour black is amazing - really strong and dense. Also, we have used a gloss varnish on an uncoated sheet (not something that would be advised by any printer!) The varnish has held much better than we thought and could almost be mistaken for an overprinted colour.
The production schedule for the Noise section, until completed, is 6am start, running 12 hours till 6pm, fewf! Only one press operator, the dedicated Gerard, will run the entire Noise section (and possible the Retro section too).
Blast from the Past. May 6th, 2008
This interview (below) was pre-blog and originally published in 1999. We wanted to publish it again as a reminder to ourselves really that although we’ve all got older, in actual fact we’d still say the same things.
Where do you think design is headed in the near future?
Simon: Deconstruction and the degrading of information and the reconstitution back to clean into a new form of communication are important to my work. It is intuitive, spontaneous, and draws on many available media as that develops before our eyes. It is a specific approach - and is neither a fad or a permanent proposition.
James: It’s moving fast. People feel the need to grow up quicker – especially teens. The life of a concept is not as long as it was a few weeks ago so individual and collective styles must change and we have to push the new mediums and cultures to aid this self-development.
Will: I think design has to live through all phases of approach and style to generate new and innovative approaches. I'd love to see superb creativity being more accepted in the market place and extinguishing the excuse "because it's being targeted at Middle America".
Technology Today.
Simon: Technology is pivotal to our work. It allows us to express and develop ideas into areas we would not otherwise be able to do. However, the work is based on thoughts and principals that use the computer rather than the other way around. It is easy to find a quick solution on the Mac - to mess it up and push the envelope is a lot harder.
James: The computer is a dangerous tool in the wrong hands. We shouldn't hold anyone back but at the same time we should make sure people understand how potentially creatively damaging it can be to our industry. I'd also like to see experimental work with more organic real images, textures and tones coupled with the computer's capability but not drowned in techno.
What is the most important lesson you've learned since starting ATTIK?
Simon: Anything is possible if you have enough passion and interact with people with a similar passion.
James: Be tenacious. Have dexterity.
Will: A level headed persistence and soul deep belief in your product will win through to success.
Since this interview, there’s been a boom, a bust, terrorists, changes of styles, media, trends, another boom, a recession, tons of political changes and just about everything else you can see in front of you right now. Shit what’s it going to be like in 2020?
If you have any questions you'd like to ask ATTIK, about Noise's past and present, or just about design in general, please email noiseblog@attik.com and we'll post them up here - once we get a spare minute to cobble together an answer.
Ouch!. May 6th, 2008
Printing presses are very dangerous machines; this is why we’ll stick to Apple Mac’s!
Paper Fibers. May 2nd, 2008
You know how we said this would be a journey, an experiment of sorts, and we weren't entirely sure exactly how things might turn out – its becoming a reality. The stock used here is Skye Coated Extra Matt, because it's this certain paper, along with the density of ink we've used - some of the fibers from the paper lifted when the sheets went through the press - looks quite cool though.
Densitometer. May 2nd, 2008
A what?! Come again? Den..sito…meter. Right got it, kind of. This is the densitometer reading whilst passing Noise sheets on press. A densitometer is a device that measures the degree of darkness (optical density) of a photographic or semi transparent material or reflecting surface. Basically it measures colour saturation, and this is good because…. answers on the back of a post card please.
Have we bitten off more than we can chew?. May 1st, 2008
Well if we have, it's not the first time and it's basically because this isn't just your average four colour print job, the printer has a detailed spec sheet giving an overview of each of the 40 sections being printed for the Noise section of the book. With well over 20 different spot colours - it's taking some serious planning. It makes client work look easy! Let's hope we don't print pages on the wrong stock and with the wrong colours. A lot of the sections will need to go through the press at least twice, some will go through three times. Send us a jar of Nescafé!
We need to buy an ATTIK-dog and call it "Spot!". May 1st, 2008
Why? Because we definitely go to sleep each night thinking and dreaming of spot colours - how sad are we? Anyway, we thought about printing this particular sheet as a pure spot colour job, but decided against this when we were told that it would have to go through the press 167 times!!! That's more than the cups of tea we make in Leeds each day ... (just!). Anyway, back to production-talk, apparently paper can't take the strain of that many runs through the printing press, so on occasions like this, we agree that a simple 4 colour print process was the best solution. In fact you know what ... let's vote for the CMYK-Party in the upcoming elections! Sack that dog off.