Print Roundup: February 2020

Every month, we print hundreds of exciting, creative, well-designed newspapers and put together a roundup of our favourites.

For our first roundup of 2020, we've chosen 12 projects that made us excited to kick off a new year of printing — from the unlikely pairing of matadors with falcons to a zine curated by Polaroid's photo editor to a "print capsule" celebrating a father's life and art. Keep scrolling to see them all.

Folk tales with a twist

Noah MacMillan is an illustrator and designer living in Los Angeles. His clients include The New York Times, Pepsi, Major League Soccer, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He used our digital tabloids to share a recent project that puts a twist on classic folk tales:

"Many Tellings is a project from my first semester of the MFA illustration program at SVA — I submitted the finished newspaper as a final project and will also be using them as a marketing material. The project takes inspiration from 9 conceptual models of parallel universes as described by physicist Brian Greene. My illustrations imagine how classic folk stories might be altered through a different understanding of space and time."

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A portable print portfolio

London-based photographer Dee Ramadan has worked with Adidas, Nike, The Guardian, Esquire and more. In 2018, he was shortlisted for the British Photography Awards. He printed his latest portfolio as a digital mini:

"Making a newspaper was a great way for me to be brutal about my own work — I gave myself strict rules that I could only pick 2 images per project. It was an opportunity to look at my work from a different perspective.

I have found it massively helpful to have this pocket-sized folio on me at all times. I’ve been giving them out in meetings and sending them out to potential clients as well people I've met by chance. I'm going to try and produce a new mini folio every year (as long as I have enough new work to fill it!)"

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Celebrating the life and art of Michael Proudfoot

Archie Proudfoot is a traditional sign painter and gold leaf artist working in London. He used our digital minis to celebrate the life and paintings of his late father, Michael Proudfoot:

"After being given only a year left of life by the doctors, my dad Michael Proudfoot retired from his career in film and TV production and threw himself into his painting. A practice which had always been a hobby, played out on a small scale on holidays and weekends, became much more ambitious and he created a huge body of work in a very short space of time while his health still allowed.

He'd also written lots of blogs, poems, short stories and songs over the course of his life. I paired a selection of this writing with his paintings, alternating between each spread along with photographs of him. The newspaper was designed, printed and delivered in time for the funeral service for attendees to take away as a small print capsule of him, his brush and his voice."

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So long, Christmas trees

For years, designer James Williams has documented what happens to Christmas trees after the holidays. By sharing these images in a digital tabloid he hopes to raise awareness of homelessness and climate change:

"Discarded Christmas trees seem to me a visual metaphor of climate change caused by waste and consumerism, as well as a reflection of the plight of those who are homeless or living on the street. The title of my newspaper, Mis(tree)ted, is a plea to get people to rethink how we treat the natural world and how we might give greater consideration to our fellow human beings.

I love the idea of self-publishing and the feel and smell of print transports me back to my time as a teenage working a Heidelberg press in a small print works in Salcombe—which proved to be the beginning of a career in print, design and communication."

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Advice for "scary f*cking times"

Louise Hardman is a graphic design student at Salford University. Her digital tabloid addresses the fears of students and new graduates hoping to work in the creative industry:

"Scary F*cking Times is a newspaper for creative students thinking about life and career prospects after university. It's filled with advice from Manchester-based creatives who have graduated from creative courses and found work in the industry. There are interviews covering issues like confidence, diversity in the creative industries, mental health and everything in between.

After an overwhelmingly positive response to the newspaper, I'm hoping to continue the publication and share it as resource for students and graduates from Manchester and across the North West."

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Matadors meet falcons

This unlikely pairing of matadors and falcons, printed in a digital tabloid, is the combination of two personal projects by photographer Brooke Frederick:

"Falcons & Matadors is a zine and promotional piece for my photography business. The work is from two separate personal projects: one about a master falconer and another about bullfighting in Mexico. I took the falcon pictures first, and spent months designing a different newspaper solely about that project. Once I had both projects shot, I accidentally paired a portrait of a matador and falcon together and immediately knew that was it.

I made this new zine in a few hours and I'm really excited about it. I love its simplicity and the large size of the photographs. Hopefully people who receive this promo will want to keep it, and choose their favorite images to pin up on their walls."

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19 Polaroids from 2019

To mark the end of 2019, Polaroid produced an internal magazine, printed as a digital mini, featuring instant photos from photographers Brian Bruno, Harriet Browse, Raymond van Mil, Héctor Pozuelo, Katie Silvester and more:

"Each day at Polaroid, we are sent hundreds of instant photographs from people all around the world: mums, teenagers, artists, and experts. Instead of end-of-year wine or chocolates (although those are appreciated), we wanted to create something the whole team could take home as a memento: a touchable, tactile kind of ‘thank you’ for all the hard work.

Our photo editor Jessica López selected 19 photographs to mark 2019; photographs that brought Polaroid to the world through our campaigns and product launches. It was the perfect analog ending to the year. "

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Stories from a sustainable shaving brand

OUI the People is a body care company focused on sustainable shaving. The ecommerce brand includes a traditional tabloid magazine with orders to keep customers inspired and informed:

"At Oui the People, we want to create a space for people to join the conversation around the language and reconstitution of beauty. No perfecting, flawless, or anti-aging claims. Just efficacious, thoughtful, and damn good products to help you feel amazing in your own skin.

The newspapers are a great accoutrement to our products in mailers that ship to customers. We plan to create one every quarter to highlight and keep our audience engaged and in-the-know about our ingredients, fun interviews, and tips for happy skin and mind."

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Planet-friendly paints up close

Founded in 2019, St. Leo creates eco-friendly paints and finishes that elevate interior spaces. In the oversized pages of a traditional broadsheet—our biggest format—they show the transformational power of their product:

"St. Leo draws upon Scandinavian heritage and craftsmanship to produce contemporary paint and plaster from the finest natural minerals with a focus on sustainability, tactility and understated elegance.

Our debut collection of Dolomite Plaster is the result of a carefully developed recipe that has a minimal impact on the natural environment, whilst transforming the built environment. Eco-friendly, non-toxic and sustainable, Dolomite Plaster is the first product of its kind to receive The Nordic Swan label —the highest sustainability certification in the world."

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Birthday invite with a bang

Happy birthday, Matt Armendariz! The Los Angeles-based photographer turned a digital tabloid into a large-format invitation for his 50th birthday celebration:

"As a former graphic designer and art director, I know the impact a printed piece can have. And as a commercial photographer, I knew that I wanted to mark my 50th birthday with an invitation that stood out!

After receiving samples from Newspaper Club, I knew this was the perfect fit. I spent an afternoon at my studio creating a few images, including one very silly self-portrait, and voila! Sent it off to print, and got back a beautifully printed large tabloid. My guests loved it and since you only turn 50 once, I'm glad I did it with a bang."

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Painting perspectives

Artist Christopher Branson printed a year's worth of paintings as a digital mini designed to be viewed from different angles. 

"Artists and viewers alike struggle to know how to display an abstract work of art. I've seen pieces that I've have sold or gifted being hung upside down or turned onto their sides.

Here I wanted a format and a series of works that were agnostic of this problem and would in fact encourage this behavior. The front and back covers of this catalog have been printed in direct opposition to one another, conveying that the end and beginning are one and the same. Inside, all of the artwork is meant to be viewed from any orientation. It's an invitation for an open orientation of form in relation to geometric abstraction."

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DIY goes digital

Design student Marta Font celebrates DIY culture in a colourful digital tabloid:

"DIY Art Journal is an editorial project created for the Graphic Design postgrad course at EINA in Barcelona. It covers international artists producing objects in a DIY way. I chose a newspaper because it fit with the aesthetic and ethos of the content. I was really impressed with the print quality for digital printing—the ink didn't bleed through the page despite the amount of colour I added!"

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