Inventive company D8 has collaborated with James Cropper to launch Coloursource, its new vary of fifty colored papers. Working intently with its in-house advertising and marketing group, D8 aimed to seize the wonder and integrity of a conventional craft that has endured for practically 180 years.
They invited photographer Susan Castillo to construct a putting set of marketing campaign photos utilizing nothing greater than paper, fishing wire and extraordinary persistence. No AI. No CGI. Each curve and shadow was meticulously created in a studio utilizing a digicam, primary tools and specialised lighting.
Susan is famend for her daring, graphic imagery and was the pure alternative for the job. In addition to being a photographer, she can also be a set designer, stylist, and prop maker, a artistic course of that has turn out to be a defining facet of her work. The ensuing pictures showcases the Coloursource vary like by no means earlier than…


For Inventive Increase, our movies take you contained in the paper-making course of, with a 20-minute mill-tour and a sequence of enjoyable reels for our social media channels. In fact, we had been more than pleased to assist James Cropper’s mission to maintain British paper-making alive, having lengthy liked its merchandise. It is due to this fact encouraging to see so many individuals partaking with our content material and sharing it with their artistic pals.
However Coloursource is greater than a product launch. It is an invite. The title displays a perception that color belongs to everybody. James Cropper has been pioneering color since 1856, when it created the world’s first colored paper utilizing artificial dyes. From its mill on the River Kent within the Lake District Nationwide Park, the group continues to push the science of color ahead – not as gatekeepers, however as enablers of creativity.
The brand new vary showcases 50 trusted heritage shades, constructed on over 50 years of experience. Designed, formulated and crafted solely within the UK, every color is precision-engineered by a devoted group of artisans. And it does not cease there. Bespoke formulations may be co-created within the mill’s world-class color lab, opening up a ton of alternatives to your initiatives.




Forward of launch, D8 labored intently with James Cropper’s Advertising Communications Supervisor, Jordan Scott, to refine the vary’s id and messaging. And that was primarily based on its core values. “Provenance, heritage, craft and the dedication of the maker… even the water supply is an important factor within the completed product’s high quality and authenticity,” says D8 co-founder Adrian Carroll. “Once you need the unique, go to the supply.”
My very own go to to the Burneside mill, captured on digicam, revealed the quiet drama behind each sheet: pigment mixing, huge vats of colored pulp and the thunder of large equipment. However past all that, what makes Cropper notably particular is its individuals. They’re good eggs. They welcome you in and share their secrets and techniques. Their mantra, “What’s ours is yours”, says all of it.
In the event you did not already know, James Cropper is the final true maker of colored paper in Britain. By supporting them, you are not simply making a design alternative; you are championing British manufacturing, decreasing your environmental impression and backing the very individuals who hold this wonderful trade alive.
Do you know you’ll be able to go to the mill your self? E-mail [email protected] to rearrange a tour and see how colored paper is made first-hand. It is an unforgettable expertise and a reminder of what we threat shedding if we do not assist homegrown manufacturing. And, by the way in which, in case you want any paper, remember you could now order it straight from James Cropper.
That leaves me to say… In the event you care about individuals and the planet as a lot as we do, the place you supply your paper issues. James Cropper is the place to start – on the supply of color itself. We love their sentiment: ‘What’s ours is yours’. It feels very Inventive Increase.