b Store have played host to many a fashion exhibition so if you wander past the Savile Row boutique, you might be wondering why a grid formation of printed notebooks has been meticulously laid out. The notebooks are part of the celebration of StudioThomson's retrospective, to mark five years of designing and art directing various printed materials for the world of fashion, music and art. Tactile print treatments have given clients like Aquascutum, Liberty and Pringle memorable bits of paraphernaila that are on display at the retrospective. We ask Mark and Chris Thomson of StudioThomson to give us their thoughts on the allure of printed matter and their favourite pieces of work.

Dazed Digital: How did you go about putting together your retrospective?
Mark Thomson: We approached Matt and Kirk at the b Store with the idea a few months ago as we thought that the exhibition space within their store was perfect for showing our work and it’s also such a great historically significant location. It was the first time they had considered putting on a retrospective like ours in the store so it was exciting for both of us to try something a bit different. It was important for us to showcase the wide variety of work we had done over the last five years, and to also say thank you to all of our collaborators and clients. We also wanted to create something new for the show, so we produced a limited edition set of notebooks in 40 different colours and made an installation out of them in the window.

DD: How would you describe the StudioThomson art direction/design aesthetic to those not familiar with your work?
Mark Thomson: Our influences and inspirations are very wide and varied, and we love to research, to get out there, and do our homework for each project. We have a love of classic, considered solutions with an attention to detail and a love of tactile print techniques. In our art direction we love unusual locations, unique models, and collaborating with other dynamic creatives which keeps us moving forward. We always strive to produce strong, timeless work with a twist.

DD: Your work really celebrates the power of print - in the way you incorporate textures, different papers etc... how did your love of print develop?
Mark Thomson: We love tactility and to create everything so that it will be cherished rather than thrown away. We always take great care that our print techniques and paper stocks enhance a concept and become an integral part of the final product. We love to experiment and push each job, and trying new things excites us so we do try to vary the processes that we use on each project.

DD: Do you feel we need to celebrate the permanence of print more now that digital/online sphere is so dominant?
Mark Thomson: The digital and online content that is out there at the moment is really exciting and is so accessible for anyone with a computer, but we still think that you can’t beat the human interaction element of holding a tactile bit of print work in your hand for the first time.

DD: What are your favourite/most memorable pieces of print work?
Mark Thomson: I think the Preen invitation that we did for their AW05-6 show is one of my favourites. Their collection that season had a lot of childlike elements in the clothes such as oversized buttons and collars, so we produced an oversized A2 invite with typography inspired by children’s spelling books of the 1970’s. It was a very cheap and simple job to produce but it managed to sum up the themes of the collection, and exist as a simple piece of typography in it’s own right.
Chris Thomson: A favourite of mine is the A Cut Above poster for Liberty. The exhibition was to celebrate the iconic British tailoring of Savile Row. For our research & inspiration we were given a guided tour by the tailor Ray Stowers and shown the unseen backrooms under, behind, and off The Row. The chalk marks, the cutting tools, the most expensive fabric in the world, all helped inspire the colours, illustration and print techniques of the final poster.

StudioThomson: A Retrospective at the b Store, 24a Savile Row, London until December 12.