Making paper

1 Shred scrap paper such as unwanted copy paper, old magazines and newspapers as finely as possible. An old blender gives the best results but the blade can become dulled. Scissors or hand tearing will produce the same result in a longer amount of time.

2 Soak shredded paper in a bucket of warm water to soften the fibers, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Water should completely cover the paper and should continue to soak until the paper has become mushy. If you want to dye the paper with food coloring, add a few drops at this point.

3 Drain the paper mix by straining out the water using a flat sieve and a bowl or sink to catch the water. Allow as much water as possible to drip from the paper mixture. Squeeze out additional moisture by pushing on the paper mix as it rests on the sieve.

4 Take a small amount of the paper mix and place it on a nonporous surface. A couple of handfuls of mix is enough to make one sheet of notepaper size.

5 Push down on the paper mix, molding it into a flatter and uniform rectangular shape. Be sure not to push too hard as you flatten out the paper mush. Small gaps increase as the paper dries and contracts. Use a flat nonporous object such as a spatula, rolling pin or a plastic ruler to make the paper mix as smooth as possible.

6 Add additional novelty to the paper at this time. Leaves or a petal pushed into the corners of the constructed page adds a nice detail.

7 Allow the paper to dry completely before gently peeling it away from the nonporous surface.

Print Visit to Team Impression

Glueless Pencil Packaging

Negative Space in Logo Designs

EcoFont

Fonts is one of things I have to consider while I'm creating my print designs. Different fonts use various amounts of ink. I guess its common knowledge....

If you want to save some ink...don't use Impact in your design, etc etc....

So, the question is which is the 'greenest' font to use?

This is a blog post that i did in the summer holidays : Its a project to see which font out of these popular ones are the best one to use

Use Garamond NOT Impact

Also, there is a font that had been specially designed to be the greenest font there is
its called EcoFont ( the name is pretty self explanatory )


Ecofont

This is what the website says

Sustainable printing using the Ecofont software

The green font with holes

During printing Ecofont ‘shoots’ holes into the letters that you have typed! That is fascinating in itself, and all the more so when you realise that this has no effect on legibility.

But it only really becomes interesting when we tell you that it generally enables you to save up to 25% of ink or toner. Both your wallet and the environment will be grateful to you, because ink and toner are a particularly heavy burden on both.

You work with your customary font and print using its ink-saving Eco variant with a single press of the button. The Ecofont software is very easy to install and use.

Why Ecofont saves more ink than Century Gothic

Why Ecofont saves more ink than Century Gothic
A study by the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, revealed that Century Gothic saves more ink and toner than Ecofont. For Ecofont Vera Sans (the Ecofont version of Vera Sans) this holds true. The university had unfortunately not realised that the Ecofont software can also print in Ecofont Century Gothic (Ecofont version of Century Gothic). Because of the holes, this version of course saves considerably more ink/toner than the regular Century Gothic.

Century Gothic, really the most economical?
When it comes to ink and toner, Century Gothic is justifiably one of the most economical fonts. If we include the amount of paper used however, Century Gothic turns out to be a lot less thrifty. The wide font uses much more paper for the same amount of text than for example Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman.

The best choice
The most optimal solution is clearly to print with the Ecofont software in a narrow font. In this way, you not only save ink and toner, but also paper.

User friendliness
Printing with the Ecofont software is very simple. You can print with the font of your choice using the Ecofont print button from within your trusted programs like Microsoft Word and Outlook.

Fonts used in Printer.com study
Comparison width font in font size 10:



Why was the first Ecofont font based on Vera Sans?
Verdana (and the look-a-like Vera Sans) is one of the most used fonts in the Netherlands. We did not believe that organisations would be quick to switch to a different font. To maximise our reach, we therefore started with the ink-saving version of the most common font.

Environmentally aware printing with Ecofont

See how simply Ecofont works:

1 ) You select the Eco variant(s) or your desired font(s) and the number of computers on which it has been installed. You can choose not only familiar fonts, such as Arial, Verdana, Calibri, etc., but also an Eco variant of your own house-style font (Enterprise Edition). You are not tied to a single font.

2 ) You install Ecofont with a couple of mouse clicks, after which an additional button appears in the Microsoft Word menu bar with the Ecofont logo leaf.

3 ) You type in the easily legible screen font and, as soon as you click on the Ecofont print button, you print out in this font, but with little holes. The saving is a fact – with no detrimental effect on legibility or layout.

4 ) In order to optimise the legibility of the printed text, we have set an Ecoprint range. Only text up to a particular point size – generally 11 points - is printed in the Ecofont font. Larger text is printed in the normal font.

CR: bag that dissolves in water

CR is working with Cyberpac on a range of experimental packaging solutions. Subscribers received our September issue in an envelope that could be re-used as a binder for our Monograph series (see here), while in October we gave subscribers one of six static prints of images from the Photography Annual (see here).

Why do a bag at all? We needed to bag this month's issue on the newsstand because it contains a free CMYK colour guide from Heidelberg. Rather than using a traditional polybag, we tried this. If subscribers would like one of the colour guides, please contact aminah.marshall@centaur.co.uk and we will send you one.

Subscriber issues come in regular, non-dissolvable, packaging this month - next month, though, we have something special for you.

UPDATE
More details from Cyberpac on how it works, also in the comments below: "The hot water is just to show you the biodegradability at speed. You don't need to boil it, just chuck it on the compost heap! We use this to package fish food as it dissolves in the water releasing the bait.

"Harmless-Dissolve is made from a hydro-degradable substrate which is 5 times stronger than normal polythene. It is a readily biodegradable, water soluble polymer which completely biodegrades in a composting environment, in a dishwasher or in a washing machine. It has no harmful residues and will biodegrade into naturally occuring substances - the bugs love it.

"It's non-toxic and is degraded by micro-organisms, moulds and yeasts. These organisms can occur in both artificial environments, such as anaerobic digesters, activated sewage sludge and composts and natural environments such as aquatic systems and soil. The micro-organisms use Harmless-Dissolve as a food source by producing a variety of enzymes that are capable of reacting with it. In the end the bag becomes carbon dioxide, water and biomass."

L'enfer des CD

Although CD and DVD formats will certainly be replaced in the near future, Ossama has addressed the issue in my packaging course. She proposes a classification system that reduces the handling of plastic cases and complex envelopes and gathers all disks in standard size DVD boxes. The material used is made of simple recycled Kraft chipboard and printed in one color. The design allows generous space for the identification and description of content.

Lacoste

In collaboration with Tom Dixon we worked on the packaging and launch graphics for two special edition polo shirts commissioned by Lacoste. Tom's concept was to explore two very different materials and the technology used in the production process of the garment. The most eco-friendly way to package the eco polo was not to print on the packaging at all but use embossing instead. The techno polo is vacuum-packaged in screen-printed foil.

Since the Eco Polo was hand-died in India we work with a group of Bollywood painters for the launch graphics. Based on our research into this particular style we designed 3 collages as templates for the artists. They were then emailed to India, hand painted on a large format canvases and later displayed at Dover Street Market in London.