Spicers and Block reach out to "extreme" designers

It has established "The Spicers Guild of Extreme Printing and Finishing" to tempt professional designers away from standard prints and designs. The tongue-in-cheek "institution" takes popular techniques such as embossing and foiling and adds a heavy macho element.

Over the next four weeks, it will devise extreme ways to print, emboss, and die cut paper. Everything from chainsaws to tanks will be used to create new and untested impressions against stacks of Spicers paper. The best of these will be used to create 3000 calendars.

The Block is also creating spoof reality television videos, featuring three "extreme" designers. The campaign teaser video is available here.

Melita Masters, copywriter and designer at Block, says the target audience includes actual designers, who have become "vulnerable" to foppish haircuts, and hipster fashion sense.

“As a creative who also has a lot of friends and colleagues fitting the descriptions of the designers we’re spoofing, I’m finding this campaign a fun way to celebrate my industry whilst satirising it at the same time,” she said. “Pre-production has been a hilarious process. We put out a call on Facebook for anyone who owned a tank, and within an hour we’d sourced four."

Spicers has a goal to actively engage designers over time, so Block says it has taken every cliché from the macho reality TV genre in an effort to launch a quirky calendar that will extend from print to online and social media.