Towering above Vancouver’s high-end Coal Harbour neighborhood, the multimillion-dollar luxury apartment building Fifteen Fifteen provides its residents vast floor-to-ceiling windows and large outdoor spaces that give their owners the impression that they have only to reach out their hands to touch the trees of nearby Stanley Park.
To convey the nearness of this natural beauty, design legends Pentagram NY https://www.pentagram.com/ worked closely with our friends at both Metropolitan Fine Printers ( https://metprinters.com/) and Bindtech Roswell (https://roswellbookbinding.com/) to craft this enormous volume, which packages lavish photographs of the building’s 202 residences in a case that never lets you forget one of the property’s biggest draws: trees!
The exterior of the case is tastefully low key with the name of the property and its designer, renowned architect Ole Scheeren, hot foil stamped in matte Silver on the front cover and spine. The pattern of the Winter & Company 100 gsm (68 lb.) Wibalin Flute Mahogany cover material adds both a touch of visual sophistication and a finger-pleasing texture to the presentation.
Opening the piece reveals it to be a clamshell case, with the inside cover and spine seamlessly lined with a gorgeous, detailed photograph of a tree beautifully offset printed on 80 lb. Mohawk Superfine Text Eggshell.
What instantly impresses even more than the rich, vivid imagery is the precise way everything fits together here when the clamshell is closed. (The spine, in particular, has been well-thought-out, showing no signs of cracking despite repeated openings.)
Tight fits continue with the large book resting snuggly in the tray opposite the inside front cover, a color-coordinated ribbon laying across it to aid in its removal – always a welcome touch.
One strong tug later I’m face to face with a huge, 216-page Smyth-sewn volume featuring the same Matte Silver hot foil stamping as that found on the box. This time, though, the cover is Winter & Company’s imitation leather-like 80 lb. Cover Ecorel Matte Chevo Touch of Gray, which looks and feels like fine goatskin.
Going the extra mile, another tree image has been added to the front cover in the form of 3 horizontal debossed tip-ons stacked together, calling to mind the cantilevered nature of the Fifteen Fifteen tower this kit is meant to celebrate. (And while the book still rests in its tray, the cover photos look like the right side of the tree pictured on the inside of the clamshell opposite!)
Inside, large, sumptuous photographs bring the Fifteen Fifteen living experience, as well as its Vancouver surroundings, to life.
Printed CMYK + Custom Grey + Custom Brown + Dull Varnish on 100 lb. Text Mohawk Superfine Eggshell, these pages are broken into sections exploring the architecture and more using foil-stamped short-page tabs on 80 lb. Cover Superfine.
Tucked inside a grotto at the center of the tray that held the book is another, smaller volume that can be removed by tugging on another ribbon. (The same tree photo is so seamlessly reproduced across the frame and the cavity holding the book, you can barely see the step between the two – another example of just how tightly everything fits together here.)
Also Smyth-sewn, this little softcover, printed on 80 lb. Cover Mohawk Superfine Eggshell, is all business, laying out the individual floorplans for the various apartments in the Fifteen Fifteen building.
Sabine Lenz is the founder of PaperSpecs.com, the first online paper database and community specifically designed for paper specifiers.
Growing up in Germany, Sabine started her design career in Frankfurt, before moving to Australia and then the United States. She has worked on design projects ranging from corporate identities to major road shows and product launches. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, her list of clients included Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG.
Seeing designers struggle worldwide to stay current with new papers and paper trends inspired Sabine to create PaperSpecs, an independent and comprehensive Web-based paper database and weekly e-newsletter. She is also a speaker on paper issues and the paper industry. Some refer to her lovingly as the "paper queen" who combines her passion for this wonderful substrate called paper with a hands-on approach to sharing her knowledge.