Halcyon Gallery Stardust

Founded in 1982, Halcyon Gallery specialises in modern and contemporary art working closely with emerging and established international artists.  From its inception, Halcyon Gallery has championed painters and sculptors who display exceptional talent, technical skill and intrinsic creativity and with whom they have worked to produce world-class art exhibitions that translate to a global audience.

Fascinated by the power of light, Italian artist Stefano Curto uses thousands of hand-crafted crystal gems to produce a unique and mesmerising body of work, his first major solo exhibition in the UK is entitled ‘Stardust’.

The Challenge

Stardust is a clear depiction of Curto’s meticulous attention to detail.  His works contain an average of 60,000 individually placed bespoke crystals, which capture and reflect light, instantly captivating the viewer and drawing them in to his magical world.

We were asked to work with the Halcyon gallery alongside Stefano, to ‘raise the bar’ from his previous exhibition catalogues, he wanted to create a book as a true sales piece.

Our Solution

We suggested 3 different sets of paper stocks and provided 3 white paper dummies.  The CEO of the Halcyon Gallery signed off on the suggested paper stock and we then machine scatterproofed the images, in order to assess which screen would give the best reproduction on the chosen paper.
A conventional 200# screen was used on the uncoated sections and a Stochastic screen, specially developed for coated materials, together with our coated stock plate profiles and hard drying inks were chosen.

We increased the density of the inks on press to amplify the contrast, so blacks are black and colours are as bright as possible.  The gallery and Stephano reviewed the scatterproof and wanted to add silver to the pics to increase luminosity.  We suggested that adding silver would darken and possibly dull the pictures, and suggested to improve the luminosity, our Senior Retoucher from our PrePress department met with the gallery to discuss options.

Images were retouched and it was agreed that varnishes would be used to create maximum impact.

Images on the gloss stock had a spot gloss varnish applied and the white pages on gloss stock were treated with a male/female fitted background seal, so that the gloss white appears silk and gloss images stand out.

Adhering to ISO 12647-2 (2013) colour standard, we accurately matched the signed-off proofs while the customer passed the first section on press.  Ink density was turned up to the max on press to produce the densest blacks and ensure very good colour consistency.  However lots of ink equals lots of spray powder, so the entire job was put back through press to de-dust to remove excess spray powder.

Print production and folding were completed in-house, while a representative of our production department supervised the outworker for the case.

The Results

• Our creative advice and high production values have helped the Halcyon Gallery and Stephano to achieve a truly vibrant sales tool
• Enhanced retouching to improve luminosity
• Accurate reproduction of the original artworks with excellent lift and retention of detail
• Excellent use of additional varnishes so images really jump out from the page
• Maximum ink capacity on press to produce the densest blacks and very good colour consistency
• Accurate folding and case binding

This catalogue has been shortlisted as a finalist in the PrintWeek Awards

To discuss your publication please contact Alison Branch on: a.branch@parkcom.co.uk

@ParkCommLondon #PrintedByPark