Art Book Printers: John Dwyer

John Dwyer: Exploded Globes – Posters from 1999-2016

Book Profile – Books We Love From Other Printers

(File Under O.P.P.)

 In 2017, John Dwyer’s book, Exploded Globes – Posters from 1999-2016 was published by Castle Face Records. John Dwyer fronted several American underground bands spanning roughly twenty years. Many of these bands emerged from San Francisco and surrounding parts of the bay area of California. Dwyer experimented with sounds rooted in Southern California punk with his band  The Coachwhips a Stooges-like proto-punk outfit as well Liars and jazz-punk with The Hospitals. Since then a myriad of musical styles of popped up in his many musical projects including The OCS, The Oh Sees, Thee Oh Sees and most recently and more succinctly a final play on these variations, Oh Sees as well as his most recent band Damaged Bug.

 

Dusty from Publicide Inc. has had a long-standing crush on John Dwyer and his prolific output of all things punk. Dwyer co-founded Castle Face Records in 2003 with Brian Leee Hughes and Matt Jones initially formed to release Sucks Blood by the sixth studio album by Thee Oh Sees. Castle Face releases an eyebrow-raising number of bands for an independent label, The I.L.Y’s, Ty Segall, The Fresh and Onlys, White Fence as well as reissues of Coachwhips.

          

Dwyer constructed the book, Exploded Globes, a collection of annotated show posters and flyers to showcase seventeen years of his work. It was released on March 24^th, 2017 and printers all over the world savvy to the punk scene stood at attention. The hardcover book was printed in a beautiful red linen with a turned edge, gold edge gilding on the book block, a deboss well on the cover with a tip on a full-color print of one of the Images in the book stuck to the front, with gold foil stamps on the spine, back and front. It’s a printer’s dream or nightmare depending on how you look at it and creates a vivid set up for the contents of the book: images of Dwyer’s hand forged and often silk-screened images made to promote rock shows for all of his band and many others as well. The handbill, posters, and flyers for the shows appear in no particular order. Dwyer employed styles that were imperfect and hard to describe. He wasn’t a DE constructivist using standard printing methods to give an alternative look to a recognizable format. Dwyer was simply just not that interested in making them look like every other traditional rock show poster. And they are self-admittedly kind of a mess. But this aesthetic, if you must, matched the tone of the music that was emerging in a post-grunge, San Fransisco garage rock scene where previous generations of punk had been identified, named, commodified and sold to the highest bidder. Dwyer made a clear break from that aesthetic. His work both musically and visually was raw, a little bit clunky and totally in your face inventively reminding a new generation punks to keep it jagged and play it unsafe.

Nice work John Dwyer + Castle Face Records! We love you!

Letterpress Business Cards

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Letterpress Business Cards

Letterpress printing is the new standard-bearer for luxury printing in the same fashion as Maserati is road travel; both are the opposite of ordinary. Even so, one thing is for sure; Letterpress printing in its extravagance and magnificent craftsmanship is also both simple and attainable.

Like The Taj Hotel of printing, all letterpress business cards are bound to be singular in their punctuation of one brand’s attractiveness, yet at the same time, all letterpress printing done well is undeniably appealing. This is why letterpress business cards, announcements and the baronial envelopes in which they are delivered have stood the test of time through various newer printing technologies.

The wide-ranging choice of paper that letterpress can be printed on is one of the key elements to its sustainability. Bagasse paper pressed with blood red ink will summon the visual complexity of experimental Thai furniture and the Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi – Imperfect Beauty. Bamboo and cork skin papers are courser yet still irresistibly touchable when measured against the industry standard of silky smooth cotton. The scope of matter that exists ready to have your imprint impressed upon it is diverse and next to limitless.

The Heidelberg Windmill letterpress printing machines themselves use pressure to gently pound inky plates of copper against surfaces leaving lasting impressions. Choosing letterpress over other types of printing is the way to be sure you’ve made your mark.

The Heidelberg has been the champion of master printers since 1927, the year of its inception, for its remarkable precision and reliability to get the job done.

If you are just starting up, letterpress business cards are the way to get noticed. If you’ve been around for a while and are looking to recapture the imagination of your client base letterpress printing is an invitation to revisit what you Letterpress Printing will always win the admiration of the aesthetically inclined individual. have to offer.

Art Book Printers

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Yto Barrada – Tree Identification For Beginners

Book Profile – Books We Love From Other Printers

(File Under O.P.P.)

Yto Barrada’s executed her most recent show in New York City and art book printers and art books, in general, have been a hot topic at Publicide Inc. Publicide acquired the art book that was printed for Barrada’s show How To Do Nothing With Nobody Alone All By Yourself. Pace gallery commissioned a beautiful book to accompany this show. Crisp, glossy and silk screened, this white bound book Tree Identification For Beginners is a meticulously constructed object. Conversely, the contents of this edition are offset printed on newsprint with one color with an intention of accessibility and affordability. Not only for the artist but also for the observer.

          

Approachability is the gesture of the book as is the artwork its self and is reminiscent of and lends its self to the do-it-yourself nature of the early 1990s. The Pacific Northwest in the early 1990’s punk and alt-rock scenes was cemented in an ideology of attainability. The inexpensive price denoted the importance of accessibility to the art itself. This cruciality of punk created an air of exclusivity while at the same time commanded that DIY art exists in an outsider position. Outsider was a demonstration of otherness necessary to the times.  Most notably in the case of this work we are reminded of zine culture in general but specifically Riot GRRRL whose publications were intentionally not copyrighted and usually produced in limited runs on ditto machines.

Owned by no one, these zines were made with the awareness of bootlegging.

A similar sentiment is present in Tree Identification For Beginners. Proposing a getable thing that includes an attitude of shareability is central to Barrada’s work but especially the book which is a substantial piece of art in its self. Barrada presents a fashion in which this tangible article elicits a sense of urgency; a call to action surrounded by a larger culture that might seek to silence it.

Barrada installs film and performance works that are designed in the temporal as is evident in the book Tree Identification For Beginners. The work is fleeting and by the same token, the art book is purposely not archival, a nod to but also a gentle shove against a loftier art world and its more precious publications.

For most art book printers, Tree Identification is a wholly unique situation. Usually, art book printers would not have instant access to some of the processes utilized here. Silkscreen printing and newsprint paper require multiple sources. This hints at a highly collaborative sense of community.

Attainability and the DIY nature of this art book demand a is a reflection in its price. The printing of the book demonstrates that a short-run, small batch boutique book printing is affordable if not fairly inexpensive. Available to a much larger pool of artists.

Pace Gallery publishes Tree Identification For Beginners in New York City. Printed Matter offers it for sale both in person and on their website.

Art Book Printing

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Robin Cameron – Right Now

An art book profile by art book printers

(File under art books)

Robin Cameron employs a wide range of practices and has a notable relationship to art book printing. All art book printers dream of the types of projects Cameron produces. She applies unconventional approaches to time space and identity to her art as well as her cyanotypes and printmaking. Cameron’s atypical methods of dealing with traditional media make her a beloved and highly regarded maker of books. These books find their homes not only in the hands of avid fans but also places such as Printed Matter in New York City. The permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art houses her work and many prestigious publications rave review it.

Cameron printed her 2017 book, Right Now with Publicide Inc. 365 stories are presented in a chic collectible object; the book is an artwork in its own right. The stories detail chronological events from an email archive that span ten years of the artist’s life that are cut up, blurred out and re-arraigned. Themes of permanence, change, and nostalgia weaves their way through a fractured narrative. Right Now seeks to observe as well as examine the reader’s correspondence with their own sense of time and questions alliances to memory. A paradox in referential text.

          

Publicide Inc. takes great care and much pleasure in printing art books and Robin Cameron’s Right Now ranks high on the list of favorite works. Publicide printed 125 of these stunning books. Finished in Perfect Bind with a cover of Coral Vellum peach Basis Cover paper stock, the front cover of Right Now is embossed with a Yellow Gloss Foil Stamp. The foil stamping of the cover lends its self to the ideas of ceremonial indefiniteness that Cameron proposes in her written work… Lasting Impressions.

Robin Cameron’s Right Now is published by Run / Off Editions, edited by Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Designed by Franklin Vandiver. Printed at Publicide Inc.

Thread Sewn Bookbinding

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Thread sewn bookbinding is the trend-driven bookbinding for all kinds of publications. Thread sewn bookbinding is the bookbinding Publicide Inc. uses for everything cool. Publicide utilizes thread sewn bookbinding for high-quality, long-lasting objects that will stand the test of time. Thread sew bookbinding is also ideal for books that must be made to be open flat without splitting along the spine.

This enviable recipe book for handcrafted gin cocktails was printed by Publicide for Sipsmith, London’s newest, traditional copper gin distillery. The first copper distillery to start up operations in over one hundred and fifty years. The last one to open in London was in1820.

We love not only the thread sewn bookbinding but also the design as well as the printing techniques employed to manufacture this perfect little book.  This book of handmade gin cocktails goes beyond bespoke, and into another realm of the old-world aesthetic.

Full-color CMYK digital printing marks highly saturated colors chosen by the designer to stretch the capabilities (or color builds) of the press. Understanding the limits of CMYK digital, the designer maximized the visual impact of this recipe book fitting the style and density to the parameters of offset printing.

Choosing a felt finish on the inside pages of this book was paramount to the design. Felt finish is the most highly textured of natural tree fiber papers. Very much like watercolor paper, felt finish is made to absorb ink density and feels slightly rough and deconstructed to touch.

Choosing a smooth, soft touch marshmallow paper finish, the cover is almost velveteen in its matte feel applied by the process of lamination. This finish is highly regarded and quite popular with small run books. Soft touch marshmallow finish is noted for its collectability if slightly precious. Sensitive to human touch and environmental residue this finish is rarely seen on high traffic printed stuff such as restaurant menus and letterpress business cards

A beautiful gold foil stamp debossed with a copper plate pounds home the aura of sustainability to Sipsmith’s brand

Other binding such as staples, glue binding, and lay flat are available to this type of book but thread sewn binding is the way to do it for archival articles to look like they were made in another century and to withstand the centuries ahead.

Gallery Catalogues

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Gallery Catalogs elevate artist work to new heights. Viana Art – Exhibit 01: Space canonizes the gallery catalog to luxury’s high-ground. Publicide Inc. polishes off this remarkable art book with a firm stamp of luscious gold foil that sparks; makes it impossible to miss.

A German HP Indigo 7000 digital press prints immaculate and rich color that matches the art it represents perfectly. The Indigo 7000 is the only press that allows for a one-off proof that shows our customer precisely what the finished product will look like before it goes to press. The ability to proof a gallery catalog saves time and side-steps any unwanted glitches. Unlike letterpress printing with its delightfully unexpected bespoke quirks, Indigo offset is laser sharp. You can expect each and every piece that it produces to be exactly the same, indistinguishable from one to the next.

   

Usually, gallery catalogs would come in paperback or softcover form with regular CMYK color printing which is beautiful and useful in its own right. But Viana Art – Exhibit 01: Space is perfect bound with eighty-point book board. A sumptuous slate grey linen wrap hugs the edges of the book and opens to stark black endpapers.

The hard shine gold’s imprint is pounded out by a Kluge foil stamper that softly explodes in fierce tonal contrast to the books soft grey binding. General roll leaf provides a gentle metallic glow or intensely blinding burst of light depending on how we choose to employ its malleability.

Publicide takes great care when considering how to bring gallery catalogs to life.

Many of the same techniques and textiles used to produce a gem of a book like Viana Art – Exhibit 01: Space can be applied to other projects as well. Publicide produces books similar to this one for architects, designers and anyone in need of a show-stopping portfolio.

Hardbound gallery catalogs will always stand out with a shelf life of forever in their archivability and want to be seen.

Short Run Book Printing

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We at Publicide Inc. printed this novel/art book and we couldn’t be more delighted. Short run book printing is our amour du jour. Ranbir Singh Sidhu’s coming-of-age tale about a bright green dodecahedron found in the Arctic at the turn of the last century is a fluid and liquidious read. Ranbir Singh Sidhu’s Object Lessons (in 12 Sides w/Afterglow is a printing piece de resistance. This 128-gram book is luxuriously light, printed on uncoated smooth yet thick paper. The paperweight was chosen for its opaque quality so they type is not visible through the pages.

Object Lessons (in 12 Sides w/Afterglow is bound with a hinge score so the book opens at the hinges instead of the spine so as not to put extra stress on the glue that holds it together. This makes for a long lasting book that can be opened and closed, shelved and re-read a zillion times over without much wear and tear.

This is why hinge binding is perfect for Novels, product catalogs, and artist, designer or stylist lookbooks – Objects to be touched used and read not put away for display or “framed”. It is luxurious without being precious.

The cover is uncoated paper printed with a gradient fluorescent green ink, PMS-802 color (We’re on the slime green trip too!) that gives an ombre effect. Topped off with a gloss black foil stamp, this cover choice evokes the shifting shapes of water that the story is about. A perfect reflection both literally and figuratively.

To punch it up the cover has an in-fold to give the book a little extra weight to its liftability.

Object Lessons (in 12 Sides w/Afterglow is a 76-page soft cover book published by Run/Off Editions. The same publisher we featured earlier with Robin Cameron’s beautiful book, Right Now.

And just in case you were wondering a dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces.

This project hits at the infinite possibilities of printing art books and novels. It was our pleasure to bring the content of Sidhu’s Object Lessons (in 12 Sides w/Afterglow to physical form on paper.