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NME returns to print for special Netflix issue

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 15:46:33 +0000

NME magazine exited its print run last year after 66 years, but the publication is returning for a special edition issue.

Packaging Innovations

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 12:56:11 +0000

Packaging Innovations is one of 2019’s most exciting exhibitions, showcasing the latest technology and ideas for the sector. Genevieve Lewis looks ahead to February’s innovative event

Collators and Feeders

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:41:06 +0000

Feeders and collators are important pieces of kit in the print production process. With this in mind, Rob Fletcher picks out some of the latest solutions to help print companies boost productivity

Fears over Brexit, late payments and paper prices

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:41:06 +0000

The latest Printing Outlook survey by the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), has revealed that despite 2018 finishing stronger than it started, the print industry has fears and uncertainties around Brexit, late payments and paper and board prices.

Recycled packaging hits the runway

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 11:41:05 +0000

We have seen 3D printed collections debuting the catwalk, and now recycled packaging has made the move into the fashion world with designer Vivienne Westwood’s autumn/winter 2019 show.

SAi launches downloadable signs assets library

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:55:30 +0000

SAi has launched Sign Design Elements, a stock library of over six-and-a-half million downloadable assets for the sign industry.

Reed’s acquisition of InPrint and Pure Digital show organiser now complete

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:29:01 +0000

Reed Exhibitions has completed its acquisition of Mack Brooks Exhibitions, the company that owns InPrint and Pure Digital event organiser FM Brooks. Nicola Hamann will continue as MD of Mack Brooks, and the company will continue to be based in St Albans.

Architextural to stock new printable Squid window media

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:28:34 +0000

Architextural, part of William Smith Group 1832, has become a UK supplier of a new Squid self-adhesive, transparent window fabric from Belgian textile company Lampe Textiles.

Ted Stearn: The Jerry Lewis of Comics

Steven Heller — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 05:10:45 +0000

I did not know about Ted Stearn‘s work before he passed away on February 1, 2019. I wish I had. I learned about him from David Langton, a creative director in New York and a friend. Stearn was featured in this Comics Journal Interview with David Mazzuchelli a few years ago and is best known for his “Fuzz and Pluck” books published by Fantagraphics. “I often teased him that he was the Jerry Lewis of comic book artists,” wrote Langton, “under appreciated in the States and adored in France. His book signings in France would attract long lines. More can be found on the Ted Stearn website. I know you sometimes feature great Illustrators, and Ted was one of the best craftsman I’ve ever seen.”

Fuzz and Pluck: Two Sides of the Same Coin

When I saw the range of his work, I too was smitten by the gesture, expression, and wit he brought to the fore. An obituary their alumnus wrote for RISD says that in 1992, he began making comics, including a haunting series of strips called ‘The Forgotten Dream of a Melancholy Chef,’ and his best-known work, the Fuzz and Pluck stories.

Described in ‘The Comics Journal,’ Fuzz and Pluck was depicted as: ‘Fuzz, a rejected, perennially abused teddy bear with no self-confidence, and Pluck, a poultry-slaughterhouse escapee with self-confidence in (over)abundance…unlikely companions trying to survive in a world of users, losers, and desperate seekers.” Ted claimed they were inspired by the two sides of his personality.

Fuzz and Pluck Go to France

Stearn’s work was nominated twice for the prestigious Ignatz Award. The second Fuzz and Pluck book, “Splitsville,” an exquisitely drawn, comically violent allegory of freelancing, was released in 2009. This and the first book were published in French translation in 2013. The last, riotous installment, “The Moolah Tree,” was published in America and France in 2016. Publisher’s Weekly wrote: “Stearn’s simply drawn cartoon protagonists…move through a richly rendered world of dramatic mountains and ramshackle pirate ships cutting through stormy seas in a bleakly funny parable as the opportunity of unlimited riches floats just beyond reach for the hapless duo.”

Here are some of his other drawings showing his humorous and formal range.

The post Ted Stearn: The Jerry Lewis of Comics appeared first on Print Magazine.

Vintage Restaurant Menu Design: We’re Still Hungry

Nadja Sayej — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 05:00:01 +0000

With the rise of iPads greeting diners at the table, menus—at least print menus—are quickly becoming a thing of the past. To commemorate this graphic niche of restaurant menu design, one 392-page TASCHEN book showcases over 800 printed menu designs from 1850 to 1985. The book, which was recently released in an affordable paperback edition, is fit for any graphic designer’s home library.

A la Carte: 100 Years of Menu Design in America is co-authored by Steven Heller, a renowned graphic design book writer and School of Visual Art design faculty (Editor’s Note: and author of The Daily Heller right here on printmag.com!), culinary historian John Mariani and TASCHEN America executive editor, Jim Heimann.

Formerly Fancy

The book outlines how print menus were rare in the 19^th century and reserved only for special occasions. With the rise of affordable restaurants in cities America, combined with the rise of diner culture, menus became commonplace culinary listings. Though restaurant menu design wasn’t really center stage compared to poster or editorial design, paper menus designed for keeping while eating out was a marketing tool.

For Heimann, his favorite menus in the book are those from the early 20^th century. “Mostly because of the complex elements that went into some of them,” he tells us. “Often urban restaurants had hundreds of items that had to incorporated and still be legible. The graphics are certainly very decorative and hand lettering plays a big part in many of the them. There was also the element of making them special and elaborate with special die-cuts, ribbons, and sometimes pop-ups. Certainly at lot of attention was devoted to the menu.”

An impressive example of detailed restaurant menu design can be found in the Early Fine Dining chapter of the book. It shows the illustrious menu for The Royal Blue Line from 1891, showcasing a menu of a luxurious restaurant, with gold embossed type, ornate typography, and a blue lace ribbon binding. In the Holiday Menus chapter, a Thanksgiving menu from 1918 at Hotel Leighton in Los Angeles shows a holiday gobbler alongside an American flag wrapped around the gold font.

Restaurant Menu Design: A Themed Affair

The Leaf-Themed Menus chapter showcases a dinner menu from the National Cigar Leaf Tobacco Association, who held a gala at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in 1912. Their menu was written entirely in gold embossed all-caps, describing items like “saddle of spring lamb” and “little neck clams.”

Among the best in the Novelty Menus chapter, a doll-like fairy graces the Catacombs Caverns menu from Columbus, Ohio, showcasing a two-colored drink menu from whiskies to beer.

There’s a whole section devoted to Tiki-themed menus, featuring the drink menu for the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and The Traders restaurant in Chicago from 1957. Tiki-themed restaurants saw their rise in the 1950s and 1960s, using Pacific totems and Hawaiian cocktails as a theme for their setting.

A Thing of the Past Now

While the book looks at menus from the past, it also reflects the present changes in today’s menu design. “Because of the ease of changing items and prices, digitally produced menus, often with stock designs, are becoming the norm for most restaurants,” said Heimann. “Call it the ‘neutering or blanding of the dining experience.’ Most eating establishments don’t want to incur additional costs by producing something that is unique and has to be altered.”

Something we don’t see today in restaurant menu design is analogue design, be it letterpress, creative paper works or even something beyond your typical chalkboard. “Along with tablets, menus have become a necessary but not very adventurous part of the culinary world,” he said. “There are exceptions of course, but for the most part, economics and speed have overtaken a once creative and unique category of printed matter. Hence the book.”

The post Vintage Restaurant Menu Design: We’re Still Hungry appeared first on Print Magazine.

Joint development of tinier and less power-hungry quantum atomic clock

Ricoh Co.,Ltd. — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 02:00:00 +0000

Tinier and less power-hungry quantum atomic clock push toward intelligent IoT

Apple tests publishers with “Netflix for news"

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27:46 +0000

Apple is planning to create its own subscription service for news outlets which has been met with resistance from major publishers.

Young people create spike in business card sales

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27:46 +0000

With personalisation and custom printing having grown in popularity in recent years, instantprint has experienced a 195% increase in business card sales in the last five years, with young people heading the surge.

Recycling scheme equalises firm’s CO2 emissions

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27:46 +0000

For the eighth consecutive year, self-adhesives materials provider HERMA, has equalised the CO2 emissions of its entire 78-vehicle fleet.

Energy Efficiency

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27:46 +0000

With an ever-growing consumer demand for companies with a focus on environmental impact, Carys Evans takes a look at the different ways print businesses can go green

Management Information Systems

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 20:27:45 +0000

With print firms under increasing pressure to deliver work at faster rates, Rob Fletcher looks at how the latest management information systems can help businesses take greater control

Canon initiative portrays the power of print

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:44:43 +0000

Nearly half of all Americans would feel sad in a world without print, according to a new survey from Canon USA.

Pay increases on the cards shows CIPD report

Mon, 18 Feb 2019 10:00:39 +0000

Almost half (49%) of employers considering a pay review over the course of the year are anticipating an increase to basic pay according to the CIPD ‘Labour Market Outlook’ for the first quarter of 2019.

Approval of a Resolution Plan by the Committee of Creditors of Ricoh India Limited

Ricoh Co.,Ltd. — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 08:00:00 +0000

Approval of a Resolution Plan by the Committee of Creditors of Ricoh India Limited

The New Coca Cola Font

Steven Heller — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 04:10:57 +0000

Close to a year ago Neville Brody announced “TCCC Unity: The New Typeface for Coca-Cola.” It seemed incredible that Brody, once the maestro behind The Face and Fuse magazines and the emblematic types of the late 80s and early 90s was creating type for one of the world’s most emblematic corporations (and products). But his design has long been evolving along with his expertise as a go-to designer and I got the scoop behind the upgrade of the Coca Cola font then and am looking back on its debut now that its first anniversary year is here.

The Endless Variations of the Coca Cola Font

The typeface has been produced in a number of weights and styles to ensure a high level of flexibility and voice in application, and allows the company to control and evolve its visual language. Other influences have played a major role in the development of TCCC Unity, in particular, the Americana of the 1930s and ’50s, with its typography of speed, construction and modernity, combined with a vernacular influence.

The typeface is designed to be open, with a large x-height, and has a wide form, extended to relate this sense of Modern Americana. In terms of functionality, through the development of a text and display version, the font is designed to both operate successfully at a small text size, and to achieve personality and impact at large usage.

A typeface for a company as world renown as Coca Cola is not just any old typeface. What were you asked to achieve with this new Coca Cola font? And how’d you go about finding the best solution?

The process was highly collaborative, and the Coca-Cola Global Design team, headed by James Sommerville, primarily asked us to deliver a contemporary typeface which operated successfully across both a current and future suite of platforms, from digital to mobile and from print to product and environment.

It needed to be something that was highly scalable, from text on a mobile screen to display size on a hoarding, meaning that it had to combine a high level of legibility and function at a small size, and have enough personality and interest at a large size. This flexibility would allow the Coca-Cola company to navigate future landscapes and successfully anticipate technological shifts, and at the same time be able to build a cohesive and coherent typographic language and system across all touch-points.

It also needed to be ownable and recognizable, and be seen as authentically Coca-Cola by relating design qualities that were felt to be part of the brand and story. The company had been using a great font, but one which is now used by so many companies that it has become ubiquitous and no longer delivers the market stand-out that Coca-Cola desired. It also meant that both creative and quality control in its numerous territories was increasingly challenging. An ownable and controllable typeface with a suite of styles and weights helped counter this and delivers greater creative opportunities and integration of messaging.

The Coca-Cola company and product has become globally renowned for specific key elements—the color red, the script font, the bottle shape—but had never in over 130 years owned a proprietary font. This is the first.

Coke has such distinctive branding assets, what influenced the design of this Unity typeface?

Myself and the Brody Associates team, including senior type designer Luke Prowse together with Phil Rodgers, Chris Nott, Jack Llewellyn, Josh Saunders and Joe Dick, maintained a constant state of open communication with the Coke team in Atlanta, including many on-the-ground visits and workshops, making it a live project and increasing the opportunity for dynamism.

We immersed ourselves in the archive at Coca-Cola’s headquarters, spending days investigating thousands of heritage items in order to be able to piece together a tangible Coca-Cola typographic reference toolbox, one formed of shapes, quirks, repeated motifs and structures. We assembled these and selected the most common visual elements to form the core structure of the typeface, which we call the ‘spine’ of the font giving it its language of proportions, line weight, curve and junctions. Once fixed and agreed, we then populated this framework with a number of clear visual treatments and flair informed by our research, and shared these in workshop sessions with the team at Coca-Cola. The final space, “Unity,” was the further-refined outcome of this process.

One of the discoveries we made through interrogating the archive collection, was that the Coca-Cola history somehow reflected that of America itself. In 130 years we saw the progression from Victoriana, with its decorative swirls and local engraving-based expertise, to a kind of Modernist Americana, one of frontier-base speed seen in automobile and diner culture. In the middle period we observed an clear influence of construction and industry, somehow mixed with vernacular flair and quirk.

We made careful selections to ensure that the font was not overwhelmed with personality, but that just enough was embedded in order for it to be clearly ‘Coca-Cola’. The font itself is fairly wide, and has a large x-height. Open arcs and rounded counters deliberately bring air into the font, with flourishes and curves bringing a sense of humanism and accessibility.

People use the term “story” or “narrative” to describe corporate branding models. How does the Coca Cola font reflect or support Coke’s narrative?

The current trend of a brand being seen increasingly as a storyteller has from day one been a principle at the heart of the Coca-Cola narrative, to such a degree that it is now part of our mass unconsciousness. Globally, we recognize this brand and its attributes more than any other, and have deep cultural links with its perceived nature and story, from the iconic bottle shape and script to a red Father Christmas.

The most important thing today for a brand is not the content that it talks about, but how it talks about it. The typeface becomes a critical part of that voice and DNA, with consistency, authenticity and believability becoming paramount requirements.

**You’ve come a long way from The Face to Coke. Are there fundamental or nuanced distinctions in the way you designed type then and now?**

To be honest, I’ve always produced commercially-focused work alongside the more experimental work. This project interestingly straddled both of those in some way, in that the challenge here was to understand just how far we could build personality and human quirk into a highly functional font design, a mechanism with surprise. Of course, my understanding of typography and type design has evolved since that early period, but at the heart of my approach has always been the idea that typography is part of cultural image making, and that every font carries information in a way that is emotionally coloured or influenced by its form. The receipt of all information is informed and influenced by the way in which we distribute and deliver it.

How did the Coca Cola font commission come to you? And what makes it a true Brody production?

I was asked by James Sommerville to be part of an internal design conference day put on for the design team at Coca-Cola in early 2016. The great consequence of this was that James understood more about our work in the area of type design, something we usually keep under the bonnet. James had been thinking about the need for Coca-Cola to develop its own typeface. We began a conversation. The beauty is that the teams at Brody Associates and Coca-Cola are small, agile and highly efficient, meaning that we were able to work together extremely well and make decisions quickly.

I would say it is strongly a Brody production, in that it also shares many typographic details and qualities that I have always loved. I have always veered towards early Gothic and constructed typefaces: Venus, Trade etc. It was a thrill to be able to develop this design for such a company on such a global scale.

Are you pleased?

I am. I think it solves the challenges that were set for it, and gives The Coca-Cola Company a typographic language and system that will carry it forward for years to come. It was a difficult challenge. But I believe it is robust and accessible and captures the Coca-Cola personality, and yes, I’m proud of the outcome. To be honest, having the chance to design the first global typeface for Coca-Cola is pretty amazing.

Where top brands end their best.

The post The New Coca Cola Font appeared first on Print Magazine.

Esko and Barberan partner

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 12:55:15 +0000

Esko and single pass press developer Barberan have reached an agreement to work together on a solution that will automate the pre-press workflow for the Jetmaster Series digital printer.

Retro Graphic Design Takes Flight in the Golden Era of Airline Posters

Nadja Sayej — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 06:32:28 +0000

It wasn’t until the 1950s that commercial aviation became popular, which carved out an entire niche for graphic designers. A few of the ads at the heart of this retro graphic design era are on view in The Golden Age of Graphic Design 1950’s- 60’s: The ‘Mad Men’ of The Airline Poster, which is an exhibition on at the Chicago Center for the Print in Chicago. From Paris to London and all the way to the sunny beaches of Los Angeles, it showcases graphic design masterpieces by a selected few designers who helped sell airline tickets to the well-heeled.

But the golden era of graphic design was also the golden era of airline travel, at least in the picture-perfect advertisements. In reality, there were long security lineups, planes packed to capacity and fees for everything; be it bags of pretzels to plastic cups of soda (has much changed, really?). Back then, however, hospitality in the air was glamorous – flight attendants served full-course meals, dressed to the nines and leg room was ample. People could smoke on planes, booze was served like water and a special section of the plane had a bar and bartender.

As it turned out, flying in the 1950s and 1960s was far more democratized than the 1930s and 1940s, where the majority of travelers flew business class and paid an upward of $2,500 for a seat (again, has much changed?). Granted, low-cost or budget airlines didn’t exist back then at all. So airline travel was purely for the affluent, or those with savings, as cost to fly was so inflated that one flight in 1955 from Chicago to Phoenix cost over $1,000, which was roughly one month’s income on a secretary’s salary.

Fly by Design

It carved out a new commercial niche for graphic designers, who used tourism as a gateway to create a retro graphic design movement encouraging commercial travel. “By the 1950s, flying was fun and fashionable,” said the Chicago Center’s owner, Richard Kasvin. “The airlines provided a means for an exciting escape on short notice or a long trip around the world. The ‘Mad Men’ designed posters for the airlines to tempt you into travel to many exciting destinations here in the U.S. and around the world.”

There is also the works of Montana-born designer E. McKnight Kauffer, who worked as one of Europe’s most prolific poster artists during the 1920s and 1930s. He returned to the U.S. to design government posters during the Second World War and worked for American Airlines, where he made a series of modernist style posters. He contributed airline’s retro graphic design by presenting the majestic architecture of cities like Washington D.C. and San Francisco in bold, minimal shapes.

Among the designers and major contributors to this movement in retro graphic design are works by David Klein, a Texas-born designer who created dozens of travel posters during the 1950s and 1960s, promoting major and less-well known cities with flat, graphic posters. “Klein’s use of bright colors depicting famous landmarks in an abstract style defined the state of poster art of the period,” said Kasvin. “These works to this day define the excitement and enthusiasm of the early years of post-war air travel. They defined the jet set style and have become iconic.”

A United (Now Retro Graphic Design) Front

At the time, United Airlines was a major player in the airline business, along with Pan American Airlines. Recognizing their influence, they dedicated efforts to secure some distinctive looks for their designed materials.

Austrian designer Joseph Binder moved to the U.S. in 1934 and worked for United Airlines, bringing his signature style with him. His work was different from other designers at the time for his European flair, his knowledge of art deco and modernist minimalism. “He applied reductive, compositional principles derived from Cubism, focusing on the reductive geometric forms, color contrasts and the psychological imprint of color,” said Kasvin.

From California, Stanley Walter Galli‘s was known also for being a painter, illustrator and printmaker, in addition to being a graphic designer. A recognized artist in his own right, Galli is remembered for his contribution to retro graphic design through his series of which included posters for Hawaii, Los Angeles and southern California as sun-drenched paradises.

Paper Airplanes

But airline posters were just the tip of the iceberg – at least on board. According to Guillaume de Syon, a history professor specializing in aviation history at Albright College, passengers in the 1950s were handed out postcards as they boarded a flight (which was another niche for designers of that time).

“It might have had a picture of the plane or the meal you were going to be served printed on it,” said de Syon. “The tradition at the time was that you would use your in-flight time to write people you knew on the ground, describing your flight. Once you ran out of postcards to write, there wasn’t much to do.”

The post Retro Graphic Design Takes Flight in the Golden Era of Airline Posters appeared first on Print Magazine.

Security printing exports double

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:41:52 +0000

Polish security printing firm, PWPW, has revealed that the value of its total security printing exports has doubled since 2017.

TI Media reveals current market trends

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:41:52 +0000

TI Media, a print and digital publishing house which manages over 40 titles, has released its most recent market trends. The results highlight the value of brand investment and reveals a surge in the women’s weeklies market.

Kodak honours green innovators

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:41:52 +0000

Kodak has handed out a series of awards to customers in celebration of their green achievement over the past year.

Healeys makes the cut with Polar

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 21:41:52 +0000

Ipswich-based Healeys Print has invested in two new Polar guillotines as part of an effort to build on record sales and pursue further growth.

Global Graphics to introduce online PrintFlat service

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 09:33:33 +0000

PrintFlat - the screening software that mitigates banding in inkjet output - will be unveiled as an online service for press vendors and their customers at the Hunkeler Innovationdays in Switzerland later this month.

UPM supports Plant-for-the-Planet

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 09:33:10 +0000

Logistics company UPM is supporting the academy programme of Plant-for-the-Planet, a charitable foundation set-up to contribute to climate protection. The foundation plants trees and organises children academies to promote sustainable thinking and environmental awareness.

Happy Birthday, Jules Feiffer

Steven Brower — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 04:31:58 +0000

Last month marked the 90th birthday of Jules Feiffer. It reminded me of the impact he has had on me and my generation’s intellectual life and funny bone.

A Voice in the Village (And Beyond)

I discovered Jules Feiffer in the pages of the Village Voice, which my older sister brought home to the Bronx from her sojourns to Greenwich Village. (Later, I’d learn that Feiffer was born in the Bronx.) I would look forward each week to his dancer’s celebrations and political and social commentary. Alongside Mad Magazine, Feiffer introduced me to satire and helped me develop an appreciation of for this careful art.

1969.

A collection of those strips from the Voice: Sick, Sick, Sick: A Guide to Non-Confident Living, was published in 1957. It was syndicated nationally and internationally in 1959 until it ended in 1997.

Then, in 1965, came his tome The Great Comic Book Heroes, a first ever history of the beginnings of the American comic book industry I didn’t know existed. My world was never quite the same when I discovered that Jules Feiffer was also a participant.

More Than Comics

His novel Harry, The Rat With Women was both funny and a cautionary tale, and his Broadway play later turned into the film Little Murders, directed by fellow New Yorker Alan Arkin, ranks right alongside Mel Brook’s canon for laughs per minute. Never had the underbelly of New York living been so funny.

Cover illustration by Saul Lambert

As if this wasn’t enough, Feiffer created and continues to produce myriad graphic novels, beginning with Tantrum, a “novel-in-pictures” in 1979, children’s books, novels, plays, screenplays and a memoir. His screenplay for the animated short “Munro” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961.

He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his political cartoons and a was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004. He is a national treasure, and I wish him a happy birthday for this one and for all of this birthdays to come.

2018. Feiffer’s latest

The post Happy Birthday, Jules Feiffer appeared first on Print Magazine.

1000th HP press sold

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 15:15:05 +0000

HP celebrates a milestone achievement having sold 1000 HP Indigo Series 4 presses to customers in 65 countries.

Print franchise under new ownership

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 15:15:05 +0000

Norwich digital print, design and marketing franchise, Minuteman Press, has been bought by Philip Milburn after 20 years under previous ownership.

Pureprint edges ahead with HP Indigo

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 15:15:05 +0000

Pureprint has become the first printing company in the UK to install three HP Indigo B2 HD digital presses at its production facility.

Clays upgrades with IFS

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 15:15:04 +0000

Book printer Clays has invested in a Petratto Cordoba heavy duty folder gluer from Intelligent Finishing Systems to enhance its bindery service offering.

IMMEDIATE MEDIA DELIVERS STRONG ABC RESULTS

Ashleigh Grady — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 12:05:21 +0000

14 February 2019: Immediate Media Co, the special interest content and platform company, has posted a combined print and digital circulation of 2,244,751 up 27.8% period-on-period, for titles reporting July to December 2018.
•   Immediate’s ABC-audited print circulation is 2,167,231 – up 25.6% period-on-period and
down 3.2% year-on-year
•   Immediate’s ABC-audited digital circulation also continues to rise, reporting a total circulation of 77,520, up 143.2% period-on-period and up 0.4% year-on-year.
•   With a total audience of 1.076 million subscribers, the company remains the leading magazine publishing company for subscriptions. *
Tom Bureau, CEO of Immediate Media, says: “In a tough market, our specialist interest brands continue to perform well, generating over £122m in Retail Sales Value on the newsstand in 2018. In addition to strong performances in print, our digital portfolio continues to break digital records. The Radio Times and BBCGoodFood brands have cemented their positions as having the highest total brand reach of all weekly and monthly magazines brands in the UK**. Whilst BBC History magazine and our Youth and Children portfolio have performed phenomenally well growing market share and reach.

Elsewhere we continue to transform our business model to offer our highly engaged and growing audience content, products and services focused on their special interest passions, through print, digital, ecommerce, and now with our recent acquisition of Upper Street, in live events.”

Highlights for the ABC period July-December 2018:
• Radio Times remains the UK’s biggest-selling quality magazine, with a weekly ABC of 580,709, up 0.6% period-on-period. It retains its position as the most valuable magazine title on the UK newsstand, generating £50.4m in RSV in 2018, a 32.7% share of the total TV listings market RSV at newsstand.

Radio Times is also the UK’s biggest weekly subscription brand, with 253,504 weekly subscribers. RadioTimes.com continues to attract new readers to the brand, with a record-breaking 15.6 million unique visitors in January 2019, up 34% year-on-year.

• BBC Good Food, retains its position as the nation’s number one food media brand, reporting a combined ABC of 192,692, up 13.7% period-on-period.
Following Immediate’s acquisition of BBC Good Food in September 2018, the brand goes from strength-to-strength across multiple platforms, bbcgoodfood.com had a record-breaking December, securing a staggering 86 million global page views, an increase of 29% year-on-year, and over 25.5 million unique global users.
Immediate’s Food Portfolio, including BBC Good Food, Easy Cook and Home Cooking Series, alongside olive, continues to dominate the UK’s Food Publishing market, accounting for 75.3% share of the core market, outperforming the market in terms of both volume and value.

• BBC History Magazine remains Britain’s biggest-selling history brand delivering a combined print and digital ABC of 94,628, up 0.05% year-on-year.
Elsewhere, the brand’s portfolio of multi-platform products continues to serve a highly valuable, growing audience, including the launch of The Library, its digital subscribers zone offering a wealth of additional content, and a hugely successful podcast which recently celebrated its 500th episode and receives over 1million downloads a month.

• BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine delivered a combined ABC of 170,174 – cementing its position as the gardening market leader, accounting for 46.1% of the entire volume of sales in the market. The brand has also recorded an 8.4% growth in RSV in 2018 to £3.7million.

•   Immediate continues to be the number one publisher in the Children’s market, reflecting the strength of its titles and breadth of portfolio, with a combined ABC circulation of 751,791 up 4.65% year-on-year and 9.78% period-on-period. Highlights include:
–   CBeebies posting an ABC of 56,201 up 11.4% period-on-period and up 4.8% year-on-year.
–   Toybox up 15.0% period-on-period and up 11.8% year-on-year to 32,341
–   Andy’s Amazing Adventures recording a 3.2% increase period-on-period and a 5.5% increase year-on-year to 41,720.

-Ends-

* Includes print and digital editions of Immediate Media Co brands, Lonely Planet and BBC Top Gear Magazine, published under contract for BBC Studios, plus titles not audited in this period.

** PAMCo December 2018

BPIF survey shows printers pragmatic over Q1 2019

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 10:33:54 +0000

The latest Printing Outlook survey from the BPIF shows 53% of printers increased output levels in the fourth quarter of 2018. 34% held output steady whilst 13% saw a decline. The resulting balance (the difference between the ups and the downs) was +40; a significant add-on to the boost that started in Q3 and marginally above the Q4 forecast of +37. However, the BPIF said numerous comments from survey respondents referred to turmoil, uncertainty and unpredictability, and that whilst a number of companies have traded well there are common perceptions that they are “bucking the trend”. Fewer printers are expecting to see their activity levels increase in Q1.

The Design Of Genocide

Steven Heller — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 05:10:15 +0000

The artifacts of horror, terror and murder were all designed by someone. In this first of three volume, A Glimpse of Evil by Norbert Podlesny and Daniel de Vareness is a collection (pages and examples below) of more never-seen-before evidence of Holocaust imagery and the actual “designing” it required to carry out the malice of war against the Jews. In addition to the branding and brands of genocide is the photographic evidence of how it was carried out throughout Poland. As well as the propaganda that flowed throughout Nazi Germany. Much has been revealed in dozens (even hundreds) of other books, but much of these is unknown even to me.

Zazous stars represented French anti-Nazi and anti-Vichy youth who wore these stars as protest.

Rationing coupons for foodstuffs issued and used in the Warsaw Ghetto.

This sign (similar to the “Whites Only” labels in the American South said “Only For Germans.”

Badge worn by Zagreb, Croation Jews (Zidov) starting in May 1941.

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