Print and design seem to be flying

When I come to write this blog I often cant believe a week has flown by, I am so pleased I started out with once a week in mind because I just don’t know where the time is going – I have managed to get the testimonials mentioned last week live and even record one more, Una Carr Marketing Manager of Newbury College has said some very nice things about us....live on the You tube channel asap (maybe when I am in over the weekend). This week we have enjoyed working with Stryker on their external Training Manuals which was a great Digital Print project and will continue for the rest of the year, more design and posters for Mission Hair and Beauty, Info Brochures design and printed for Baxter Healthcare and loads of POD (Print on demand) orders and updates.

We have more new clients come onboard this week, Elizabeth Fitzroy Support - A national charity providing practical, tailored support for adults with learning and physical disabilities, Purple lettuce a fantastic Agency based in Aldermaston and the English Provender Company – purveyors of all things utterly delicious to accompany and enhance the taste of your food. We look forward to long and fruitful relationships with them all. We have also supplied the first set of samples to Mason Zimbler using a Thermo Chromic Varnish (Disappears when heated up) so I hope they like it.

We are hoping to kick a few new web projects of next week, a re-vamp of Auto Link Executive Cars, solve some technical data base issues for another client and some emarketing projects for Assist Ltd. Still working on various POD projects but we may even extend that to our own site for simple jobs like letterheads and Business cards. You can see the updated Business cards offer now by clicking here........

Whilst we are watching our spending at the moment horrible suppliers keep offering us bargains....the excellent service and price from Vivid on a Matrix high volume laminator was just too good to pass up, from start to finish these guys were a pleasure to work with. So today.....I was walking past the Orange Phone shop when I spotted a Poster.......what did it say I hear you ask? It said “iPads 3g £99.00” now forgive me I have some willpower but that suckered me in, I ended up with the 32g version on contract but still only had £150 outlay.......get them while they are hot...........one thing, does anyone know what I can use it to do?

Well until next week....when I post from my iPad (should only take me three hours to type it) which I will know inside out.

Fan-dabi-dozi week

It was a busy and exciting week at Apple Print - New clients coming on board, projects getting signed off and fresh ones starting. The first thing I should say is a very big thank you to Craig Leslie from Newbury Building Society, Alan Smith from The International Award for Livable Communities and Stephen Fowler of Micro Focus for the very kind Video testimonials they have done for us this week, Stephen's is live and the others will be going live on our YouTube channel in the coming week.

We are also very pleased to welcome a few new Clients this week, Creative Memories who we have a long relationship with are going to be using us for their quarterly mailings, The British Astronomical Association have some great projects we are looking at and a fantastic marketing agency called Mason Zimbler have come on board, these guys are super to work with and have some great idea's - I look forward to keeping you all up to date with these projects as they develop.

Our web projects are all going well - Matt is putting the final touches on the Classic Comic Store updates and then hopes to get Acres of Fun's site finished and launched. Lots of POD updates to complete - watch this space.

Rebecca had a great time this week as she had the chance of a VIP visit to the Brits, she managed to wangle the day off by muttering something about the Creative inspiration and opportunity this offered to Apple print, she had a fantastic time and loved every minute of it.....we'll see if we can get some pictures for next blog.

On Friday I met with Kelly Caulfield, Marketing Manager at Greenspace to discuss our further involvement with Love Parks, this will be a great project to be involved with and once again I will let you all know what we are up to. I would like to thank all of our clients for helping us have such a good start to 2011 and hope we continue to work together for year to come......until next week..........

Flying past

The weeks seem to be flying past - next thing I know there is a blog post due. Incoming sales are doing ok but we are having a re-shape of our sales activity and looking to up our game when it comes to offering a more rounded service - the problem we are finding is that when Print was the major part of our business the projects took a week or so to complete, now with marketing and design projects it's a few weeks or more - learning curve time really.....still every day is a school day and I will just have to keep prodding the hard working account management team, myself, James and Barbra, more often so I am sure they'll look forward to that.

I am pleased to inform you all that we have posted some updated designs to our website - this time for a fantastic local business called Mission Hair & Beauty, Michelle has done a fantastic job working with the Managing Director of the Salons, Sarah Riggott, to produce a design that both reflect missions style and keep the beauty aspect in the forefront - check them here http://tinyurl.com/4qdd8wo - we have Russell Downing from Sheepdrove in later today to see the first draft of his new wedding Brochure - I hope he likes it.

We have posted a position to our web site for a Web programmer / developer - once again tell anyone you know to give me a shout if you feel they fit in or make nice tea?

I will sign off with some exciting news that along with Arlington Arts and Newbury Weekly News that we are looking to run an event in October to help our clients and businesses from all over the southeast understand the idea of the "Big Society" and what it could mean to us as businesses - we'll have some great speakers and workshops - I will keep you all posted as it takes shape....look out for the “Shaping the Future Show”.

Still Green in 2011?

Around about 2 years ago we pushed our business as green as possible ( http://tinyurl.com/6jx3oso - http://tinyurl.com/64n8l37 ) - removed and replaced equipment that used chemicals or that needed special handling, updated computers, screens, added various power saving options to larger machines, added the FSC and PEFC standards to our business and had a massive push to reduce waste and convince our clients to do the same.

Two years on and the figures are looking good. Our wastage is down, our costs on consumables is down while our business continues to grow. We discussed with our staff and clients about only printing what was needed, not printing more because of a cheaper unit cost and binning the items 6 months later - this has been helped by our investment in digital printing where the lower quantities no longer punish the customer, this is across the board, letterheads, business cards, brochures, booklet, training manuals and much more - 10's rather than 1000's can be cost effective.

If this is an area that interests or concerns you then please give me a call and we can discuss reducing the cost of your print along with the environmental impact.

Take a breath....

........so, as I was saying on Friday it has been a very busy week. Seems it must be the time for wedding brochures as we have just finished Basildon Parks, are about to show Sheepdrove the 1st draft of theirs and are in discussion with another hotel about theirs (more news there is we win it). Also, as mentioned below is the fact that we have won a great order for Print off Newbury Racecourse, they are great to deal with and have really helped us understand their goals. The print room has been busy finishing off the Classic Comics novel's we are producing and have had quite a bit of print for ESA, 16 types of building flyer and business cards for all their staff.

We have started interviews for the account manager post and will also have some next week for the 5 Colour B2 minder - we have, however, still not seen a great deal of response for the Junior Design / HTML position, so don’t forget to tell everyone we have this position also.

The coming week seems all about Print On Demand - we have 5 systems in development at the moment and it's great to get a chance to build such flexibility into each one. I will have case studies of each one as we go. We will also be sorting out our sponsorship with The Watermill and The Newbury Spring Festival a great Venue and great event.....our town is very lucky when it comes to the Arts!

Did anyone notice it is February already?

What a week!

It has been flat out this week - the new design team is flying, sign off on a new brochure for Basildon Park http://tinyurl.com/6bc7jtk and also today we have been working with Newbury Racecourse, The Watermill and Red Prosper Marketing on print related projects.

I will have a full re-cap on this weeks events on Sunday.