Saturday, July 30, 2011

Broad Spectrum / Issue 1 / 1962 / Simpson Lee Paper


Back in 1962 Simpson Lee Paper launched a lovely looking sampler designed by Gollin, Bright & Zolotow (Norm Gollin was famous for his Claude Monet Seasons & Moments poster for the Los Angeles County Museum). The brochure only had eight pages plus cover and it promoted Simpson’s Broad Spectrum line of papers.
    What makes this little brochure rather fascinating was the printing. The stock was a very light blue and part of the design had eight black and white Polaroids over four pages. To do this successfully required two passes through the press of white ink to create a solid white Polaroid shape on the page. The next complication was printing the photos with a three hundred screen on the white ink. Finally, to create a notebook effect process blue lines were printed.
    The other four pages with a fish, some netting and sea shells again had two whites, black, brown and process blue inks. The photos were printed as duotones and the center spread, with a piece of netting, was a challenge because the notebook lines (in blue) all had stop and start for the netting.  Overall, a real challenge for any printer even today and this paper sample was printed in 1962.  This first sampler in the series got off to a cracking start.
    I’ve always loved this little brochure because of the simplicity of the design but it all becomes more intriguing when the printing problems are explained. Included with the brochure was a single typewritten sheet about the printing.


 







   
  

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