Sell! Sell! creates hand-printed Fentimans campaign

Consultancy Sell! Sell! has designed the ‘Efficacious Bouquet’  campaign for Fentimans Rose Lemonade, created using hand-printed type and illustrations.

The final print ad
The final print ad

Sell! Sell! has worked with the independent drinks company for around six years, though this is the first time it has used hand-printing techniques on a project.

Inking up the plates by hand
Inking up the plates by hand

The consultancy used a vintage Farley proofing press to create the work. Victorian and Edwardian typefaces and a vintage illustration of a rose were chosen, and Sell! Sell! created a block set to the type height of the Farley press.

The printing press
The printing press

The prints were then scanned, and the consultancy arranged the elements digitally to create the final layout.

The prints
The prints

Sell! Sell! creative director Vic Polkinghorne says, ‘We’ve been using the turn-of-the-century-style for a while, but we were doing it digitally.

‘We’ve been trying to get as much authenticity into how we do things as possible, so we got in our own proofing press. The plan is to build up a library of letterpress alphabets’.

Text for the ads
Text for the ads, showing the difference between digital and hand-printed lettering

For the project, the consultancy experimented with different levels of inking, papers and pressure to achieve varied results in terms of sharpness, ink density and texture.

A rose illustration
A rose illustration

The consultancy says, ‘We got some lovely results (after a little scanning and tweaking for good measure), although it didn’t seem such a great idea when it came to copy changes and correcting typos – certainly made us realise how much we take InDesign for granted.’

Working towards the final image
Working towards the final image

The ad will appear in Private Eye magazine this week, and Sell! Sell! will also hand print ads the rest of the Fentimans press ads for the coming year.

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