G.F Smith Collection Launch

The smell, feel, look and the emotion of being able to physically hold something of quality is something that will never leave me even though I spend my working life working primarily on websites and digital products.

Back in the day when I first started out designing for clients, I was a junior print designer based just outside of Manchester. Those times seem like so long ago now, but the lessons I learned and the valuable experience that I gained back in the early 2000's has stuck with me since then. To this day, I will still take on certain print based design projects and for these projects, I always hope that I can get the chance to use good paper stock.

The problem these days is the cost for litho over digital printing is massively different, and the ability to justify printing on a beautiful stock is generally overshadowed by the cost factor. I know this for a fact as I still keep in touch with some of my original lithographic printers. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with them again at the G.F.Smith launch and It's funny how quickly old memories of projects previously completed can come back to you.

The Collection

If you're familiar with G.F Smith, you'll more that likely already understand and potentially have experienced the delight of seeing the marketing that they release. In total honesty, i can't really think of ever seeing anything other than perfection from them on this front? Setting aside the amazing presentation and brilliant design of the actual "swatch" book, the new Colorplan range is next level and the Specialist range is growing into something of desire.

Sometime in the near future, I'm hoping that I can get the chance to use some of this new stock for a client or maybe even a personal project. I just need to figure out what.If you can get hold of a swatch book from any paper company, whether that's Fedrigoni, Robert Horne or G.F Smith; I would strongly recommend that you do so. So much inspiration purely from the feel of a paper, it's incredible.