Warning: more design porn
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We recently reported on Arjowiggins’ enormous new sample book. Rival paper company G.F Smith has now launched The Collection, a 403-page brick-sized compendium of its own paper ranges
Designed by G.F Smith’s regular collaborators Made Thought, The Collection measures 188mm by 119mm by 100mm and weighs over 1.5 kilos. It includes samples of 45 paper ranges.
Every paper is presented as a full sheet rather than just a sample chip. Each sheet includes details of not only its practical specifications, but the story behind it, including its provenance and heritage.
“The primary concern was to create an ‘everyday’ working tool for the creative,” says Ben Parker of Made Thought. “The spine is bright orange so its easy to find in a busy studio; the thumb tabs aid quick navigation to the five collection categories, and the papers are sequenced from light to dark to make colour comparison easier.”
Both Arjowiggins’ Paper Book and The Collection are beautiful objects. They are the kind of thing that brings designers out in goose bumps. More importantly, as branding devices, they set both companies apart from the rather more dowdy offerings of their rivals and demonstrate an understanding of their audience. But if this trend toward ever heftier sample books is going to carry on, there wil be a lot of designers out there neeeding new – or a least reinforced – desks pretty soon.
