Design for print.

Design for print.

Here at Apple Print Ltd we spend quite a bit of time making sure the files supplied by our clients are going to produce a quality product. There are challenges that make this difficult but we find that just communicating, from time to time, the kind off issues we face the most can limit the impact of these issues on both the printed product and the timescale of the job.

RGB - The RGB colour model is an additive colour model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colours. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colours, red, green, and blue. Our Apogee Pre-press can convert these colours to CMYK (the standard printing process colours) but these can be washed out by the conversion colour profile used. What’s best is if you are going to have something printed, Digital, Litho or large format, is to double check everything is converted to CMYK in the native programme before PDF’ing or sending to print. With this in mind if you do provide us with collected Indesign or Quark files we can sort these issues for you, it just may add some time to a job as we’d have to re-proof. Other creative programmes have the same issue like Word and Publisher, and we expect in these cases the files won’t be converted because they are not professional design applications, the issue is that if MS programmes are used and then PDF’ed we won’t find the RGB until we rip, again not a great issue but it all adds time to a project.

IMAGES – While making sure images are CMYK another thing that can be quite upsetting in a beautifully designed job is LOW RES IMAGES. Once again if you are not an expert we understand how this happens but unless an image is 300DPI at the size it’s to be used it can end up looking fuzzy. It needs to be understood that if you grab images / logos and bits like that off a web site then more than likely they are going to be 75dpi and whilst they’ll look great on a website they will look beyond awful when printed in hi-res – just contact us, chuck us a file and we’ll check it out for you.

BLEED - Bleed is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming. The bleed is the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper, and design inconsistencies. Bleed ensures that no unprinted edges occur in the final trimmed document. This is very important if you have images / text close to the edge of the sheet and helps us to make sure we don’t have trimming issues and also on digital where we can get small 0.5mm movements when printing.

So just to re-cap here are a few helpful terms:

BLEED - Extended areas that extend beyond the ‘trim’ or the final finished size of the page. Without a bleed, we will find it near impossible to finish a job accurately and white edges may show where the pages are cut.

CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black). Printing requires this colour mode to create superior printing to that using RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Many digital cameras produce RGB JPGs which we will happily convert for you, but you will need to check you are happy with the colour conversion.

DPI - Dots Per Inch refers to the number of dots produced by a printer.

EPS - Encapsulated Postscript. These can easily be re-scaled without loss of detail. JPEG Joint Photo graphics Experts Group. JPEGs compress the file size, which means it is crucial to ensure

images are set at 300dpi or higher.

PDF - Portable Document Format. This is the most popular file type for transferring files between computers, regardless of their systems (ie PC to Mac).

TIFF - Tagged Image File Format. It is cross-platform compatible and retains better image quality than a JPEG.

Vector - These images are defined by mathematical formulae rather than built from pixels. This means they can be reproduced at any size without degeneration in image quality.

You can find this info HERE on our website and you can always call our studio on 01635 521654 if you have any questions.

So we are in full swing preparing for our 25^th Birthday Party on the 11^th of Aug, if you would like to come then please just drop Elle an email and let her know you wish to attend – click HERE for more details.  Also please all check out http://www.projectcolombo.com/ this great idea is being supported by a great client of ours and we hope we can support them with this worthy cause - @StrandUK on Twitter to also learn more about them and their business.

Hummmm cookies!

In a way I love cookies, chocolate chip and may other flavours make their way to my mouth on a regular basis. For most people when you use the word cookies this is the picture they would have in their head. A few years  (many years) ago while working on my rather fast 233mhz Intel Pentium 2 computer and playing on my Dreamcast with built in 56k Modem, I started being asked by the settings on these systems about how I would like to treat my cookies? Silly questions like “would you like to accept cookies?” and such – now before the World Wide Web I would have 100% accepted cookies and maintained my bulk with pride but I started to ask questions about what these little buggers do? For a while I thought they were bad, telling secret men in underground bunkers who worked for the KGB just how much time I was spending on the Spice Girls site or even worse, copying my passwords and sending them to nasty gangs of Nigel Havers style blagards and cads.

It was like this for a long time, there was information to be had to tell us what they did but I think we (me) were much to happy to believe that they were nasty bleeders and needed to be stamped into crumbs.  Are they Spyware...when I run a check so many “Tracking Cookies” were coming up.....why were people out to get me, or was I just paranoid? And just because I was paranoid it did not mean they weren’t. I got over it and with new browsers and systems like the XBOX Live network they became something I no longer cared about. In fact, I realised that when greeted with a big “HEY ANDREW” on sites I been to before there could even be a benefit to them.

Did You Know...

The name cookie derives from UNIX objects called magic cookies. These are tokens that are attached to a user or program and change depending on the areas entered by the user or program. You can use that UBER nerd piece of info at the next party you go too....

So there are web cookies, session cookies (they expire when you leave the site) and persistent cookies (used by analytics to identify your return to a site) and more but I have only had so much time to research. Analytics is an important topic when discussing cookies because people pour over their figures without wondering: are some of these visits from the 25% of people who clear out the cookies once a week? How many came to my site with cookies turned off? And with the new EU Directive (back off Brussels) on the privacy of communications where you will have to approve and accept cookies as you browse it could really affect your results, will this really affect people’s use of Free analytics software? I would imagine it could because right now by default visitors are not notified when cookies are collected.

I dont image this is the end of the world (wide web) but it will create new challenges and a new opportunities – we are more than happy to advise in this area so shout if you have any questions.

To sum up, good cookies are cool cookies – safe surfing and being careful on-line is really easy and we’d all love to know how many people are taking an interest in our businesses and I hope we can continue to collect this harmless information.

Update on Apple Print.

So we have had another great sales month, over target by 11% - beginning to think I need to up the targets J - we are all looking forward to our “Open House” 80’s themed 25^th Birthday party on the 11^th of August here at Apple Print’s offices Starting at 3pm, feel free to come along and have a Babycham with us.

I will sign off with a wave goodbye to one of Mankind’s greatest engineering feats “Space Shuttle” its final mission comes to and end and I think it a shame to say farewell, this Iconic vessel will live on in the hearts of many a middle aged little boy! John Morgan was just telling me about the great system of cooling the Ship employs, using its own fuel to cool the surface of the exhaust nozzles....learn more here and it’s worth a read if only as a final sign off to a great machine.

Have fun and good luck!

Your printer should be your best friend

I asked a great client if he would write a post for my blog on any subject......I am proud to give you Neil, MD of Blink Creative.

Your printer should be your best friend

Printers are some of my best friends. I just made that up. I mean they are, but they’re obviously not, not in the way best friends are. Truth be know my two best friends would have to be the one who is an undertaker and the other who is an estate agent. Bit odd I know but they are my social best friends, the ones who give me hearty slaps on the back, call me names in jest, encourage me to knock back a few too many Guinness with Vodka depthcharges and who a couple of hours later will draw all over my face with indelible ink whilst I am unconscious. They are the ones who still jump at the chance to give me a wedgie if the opportunity arises. Those are my best friends. Thinking about it now, I should maybe start reconsidering their status. However, printers do indeed fall into the ‘best friend’ category on a professional level because I need them to work with me, to listen, react and respond, to be there for me. I need them to figure out some technical issues for me, deal with tight deadlines, do me the odd favour and give me a few days extra to pay them.

It’s here where the problems start though. By fate, I tend to work with an international client base. So I need to get production for clients in their home country, Europe, Middle east… You get the picture. Now in an ideal world, I would prefer no overseas clients. There is no glamour. Sounds like there is but believe me, there really isn’t. No, in an ideal world, all my clients would live in the same street as me and the printer would live on the other side of the park, maybe a five or ten minute walk away. That would save me the horrendous phone bill, the absurd time differences, the language problems, the EasyJet check in desk and importantly, the various overseas printers I have to sort out and deal with.

On a rudimentary level I am asking for just one simple thing, take some ink and stick it on a bit of paper. My son does it all the time, like the potato printing kits of my youth only nowadays they have sponge shapes. He dips it into the ink and stamps it onto his paper, then when I am not looking, he prints it onto the table, the chair, the wall, his sister… It’s at that point the screaming starts and I am made aware of things and need to clean the mess before the good lady comes in and I got chewed to bits. But you get my drift. It’s not rocket science just ink onto paper. Yet until you get the right printer you are always nervous the door will open and the mess will be seen.

My first printer in Dubai printed 15,000 leaflets in blue onto white card when we asked for green onto cream paper. A printer in Spain once printed a 2000 booklets, 30 odd pages, and delivered them to the clients office in Portugal instead of the Barcelona office they should have been going to and then tried to bill me for the courier costs. And it wasn’t a language issue that caused it. In Dubai they speak a lot of English and I speak Spanish.

Thankfully, those days seem long ago, distant memories. Nowadays the problem has moved on, nowadays the problems sit firmly at my feet and the feet of those wonderful clients of mine. Let me explain. I am the one asking for spot Pantone metallic over four process colour, I’m the one who decides I’d like a half accordian fold or a gate fold with a pop-up, It’s me who suggests blind embossing and a UV finish. I set the benchmark. The client then wants it all flashy with fizz, they want to write the equivalent of the Bible but within an A5 8 page booklet, they want it for next to nothing and of course, they want it yesterday or sooner if possible, and don’t consider Saturday or Sunday days of rest. All the printer has to do, like I said, is put the ink onto the paper, finish it off and put it in a box and deliver it for me. So you find yourself a printer who can make sure all the problems get solved, who sits and thinks about what you’ve asked and suggests the best way to achieve them and you have your ‘best friend’.

The issue then is about finding said ‘best friend’.  I must say I have spent years, possibly the best part of a decade, closer to two actually, working with various printers. Some good, many bad. And what I have learnt is that good ones are worth taking care of. I’ve found a  Spanish printer who never returns my calls once we are in print production, never keeps me updated, ever. Yet always delivers on time and never have we had a quality problem. I’ve learnt to always specify stock or else everything comes back to me printed on photocopy paper but apart from that, he is my Spanish best friend. In the states I have found a printer who charges me upfront for everything on my credit card, emails me his useless, uninformative newsletter with military regularity yet delivers anywhere in the country for 30 bucks extra and emails me the delivery note within ten minutes of the arrival of the print. And again, I’ve never had a quality issue. So I forgive him everything, he is after all, my best friend.

In France I have a printer who was probably around when Caxton first set his presses running, his press certainly was manufactured around that time for sure, he speaks English as good as I speak Japanese and email is a bit too modern for him. However, never has he let me down, never has he given me cause for complaint and never have I needed to reconsider my ‘man in Switzerland’ options.

And so the list goes. Like the randy sailor metaphor, I have one in every port, a printer that is. Unlike a Sailor though, they know each other exists, would probably all get along swimmingly well and, touch wood, we are all very happy and hoping to stay together for a long time to come.

In the UK the story continues. Apple Print, the only company I know of who has yet to be sued by that computer company for daring to have the same name as them. Possibly they should take the initiative and sue them instead, I think Apple Print started before them anyways. But that’s besides the point. Apple and I began working together before the arrival of DTP and desktop systems. At that time, artwork was cut and paste, not ‘control C’ and ‘Control V’, I mean the typesetter gave us bromide galley sheets to our specification (column width, font face, font size, leading, kerning and all that..) we then had to physically cut the sheet up and glue it onto board to create the layout then overlay that with print instructions on an onion skin. You who were born with Quark and Photoshop on the shelf have nothing to complain about regarding artwork, ever!

Well that just about puts a date stamp on the relationship for you, basically, a long long time. The friendship went as most relationships do. Other printers charmed me and I had a bit of a fling, we had the odd argument, we lost touch every now and again. But somehow, years later, I found myself based in Spain and firmly cemented to Apple Print thanks to the support they give me for my UK clients. It’s symbiotic. They are a part of the reason a client stays with me, or they can be the reason I lose a client. They are the final element in a series of events that cannot ever go wrong. If it does, we both lose.

Being in Spain and basically being lazy means I have to put all my trust into Apple Print. I can’t go jumping on a plane to check the colours on 250 business cards, I have to trust them to do the job, trust them to give me the best prices and trust them to respect my client relationships. I expect them to look after the quality side of things, the delivery side of things, expect them to keep me informed and expect them to do my Christmas cards for free each year in lieu of the mandatory bottle of wine when the festive season kicks in.

What can I say. They do all of the above and more. When a client changes things at the last minute, it’s accepted without name calling or the “Mmmm, well that is going to ramp the price up a fair bit” type comments my local electrician keeps landing on me. Have I ever lost a client through late delivery, poor quality, poaching or pricing. Nope.

I have even got them to tackle a few extremely critical, complicated projects for clients in Spain, Dubai and Switzerland, that needed extra special care, so critical that even my local contacts had to be abandoned. Bar a few issues at border control over importation documents, delivery was made, delivery was on time, the budget was hit and the client was happier than Billy Bunter getting locked in the tuck shop overnight.

Have I ever had to sit down with them and have a few words about some issues. Once or twice maybe. But we made up and moved on. As best friends go, so long as they don’t even begin to consider how funny it would be to give me a wedgie or write ‘I fear change’ in black pen on my forehead, they stand shoulder to shoulder with my undertaker and estate agent.

http://www.blinkcreative.biz/

A New Month.

It has been a good couple of weeks here at Apple Print, after beating our sales targets by 16% in April we continued the good form and hit a 9% over target in May, June is also looking good so I hope the rest of the summer follows suit. All this with a lack of marketing, we have been active on the Social Networking but our traditional marketing got stalled because of the amount of work we have coming in.

With this in mind we have put resources in place and created our next 6 months marketing plan, this will include an update to our Brand (watch this space), website re-design and a bringing together of our printed materials under one common banner design. The Creative team will be presenting this to our sales and marketing team tomorrow at an offsite at Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre, we are all very excited and look forward to posting the visuals and our Plan. Rebecca and Michelle have just come back from a Web Design course with loads of fresh ideas so if you would like to know more then bung them an email.

With the Social Media and stuff we are going to try and promote a Site / Business in each blog, this week because they were shameless in asking for blog plugs J - I give you Light Stalking, from their web site I understand Light Stalking is a site about beautiful photography and much more.

“We appreciate beautiful photography and our intent is to spread the word about the awesome photographers who produce it. We want to put great photographers in front of an audience so they get the recognition they deserve. We also try to impart a little knowledge about the techniques behind the art. Most importantly, we try not to take ourselves too seriously and endeavor to keep this whole project fun.”

Design and print always needs quality photography and it’s a shame to see so many jobs supplied with low res pictures when there is such a great wealth of quality photography our there. Check our their showcase and give them a tweet.

This month will be very busy with print, it’s the time of year we start producing School Homework Diaries, does not make us that popular with the Students but it’s great work to get our teeth in to, we also have up to eight editions of Classic Illustrated comics to produce, these are great quality products that make great gifts, they sell in book shops and online at their website. Jon Brooks, Director at Classic Comic Store, had this to say when I asked him for a few words:

“Classics Illustrated are a great way to introduce kids to the great works of literature and to encourage them to take up reading as a true hobby - an achievement every parent would like to see”

Check them out if you get a chance. Classic Comic Store.

Our continual growth has a lot to do with the success of print on demand, this week has seen another Quality Estate Agent come on board, Jones Robinson join Davis Tate using the system and also ESA who have a similar requirement to the Estate Agent market....great businesses and we are really pleased to be working with them. I also had an email from Richard at ECEX yesterday about something he wants to do, this may also suit the technology behind our POD system. Mark is also now working on a new backend we are calling PIPS (Personalised Interactive Print System), this will enable the user to get real time updates on the progress of their jobs, check proofs and see tracking numbers for delivery. Mark is also working on a Generic POD demo so you can all see the benefits.

I have 2 weeks to go for the London To Brighton bicycle ride and this coming weekend I will be doing 60/70 miles as a final preparation – I am ready for it and I will post my times once I have them, should be quite easy as I have been throwing myself at the training. Maybe it’s time to start a work based competition for bike riding?

Have fun and contact me if there is anything you’d like to discuss from my blog or in general.

Skipped a week......

Last week it seemed that Blogger was down so I got to skip a week which was great as things were flat out and it was hard to pin my team down for some time to discuss their working week. The studio got a boost this week with the start of our new intern Elle, coming to us from Norwich University where she is doing a degree in Graphic communication. We have lots of projects for her to work on and we can already see she’ll fit right in. I am thinking of asking El to write her own blog about her time here.....I will let you all know where to look.

After the joke of a working month that was April we were looking forward to getting back to normal, while we only really had two and a half working weeks we still managed to be 15% over our sales target, we are pleased but it does make you wonder what we could have done with a full month. The big wins are from both new business generated by traditional sales and account management and from web and social media – we are seeing a very good steady growth in our “Social” network and it’s pleasing to see that this also includes some of our existing clients. We are on target for sales in May and I hope we can really step it up for the rest of the year.

When we talk about our sales success I can help but feel it’s massively helped by our design talent, Rebecca, Michelle and Louise now also being helped by El. We are winning projects we could not have hoped to a few years ago, across many industry sectors and both large and small clients. The design team are also thrilled to be working with the prestigious Corn Exchange over the coming month to design and develop their 150th Anniversary campaign. The initial ideas will be presented next week to General Manager Joanne Windsor and Marketing Manager Ian Wilmot with the intention that the design will be used on various mediums. Rebecca added, 'The Corn Exchange have some exciting ideas to celebrate this distinguished anniversary - so keep your eyes peeled for more details this summer!!'   this, our work with the Watermill, Newbury Spring Festival and many others really help us get our name and credentials out there.

Our 5 colour has continued to run at hi-speed this week, as some of you may be aware this machine can run at speeds up to 16000 sheets per hour, printing at 2400dpi – it’s a constant battle to keep it filled but it’s one we have been winning so far this year, with its automated make ready features and our direct to plate system our prices on high volume printing have come down massively and our capacity grown to match – give us a shout if you would like me to have a look at any printing projects for both shout digital printing or the longer run projects.

This week at Apple it’s Mark’s Birthday and we have rewarded him by having loads of web / POD projects on the go, both Mark and Matt have been very busy and the fruits of their labours will come clear in the next few weeks. All that remains to say is the London to Brighton Bike ride is rushing up on us....I think I am ready and may even take the stabilisers off my bike this week.....if anyone fancies picking me up in Brighton and running me back to Newbury then just drop me a line.

Early post.......

I know it's a bit early but I am off to Blackpool for a few days and thought I would sum up the week so far........it was short.

Honestly, it was not that short as by the time I go home I would have done 25 Hours in two days - we still have loads on press and are running double day shifts to catch up.....it's all good as I love the sound of production. The print room is now well on top of their work and it has been going well, the cross section of work has been amazing as it has been Letterheads, Brochures, Price Lists, Books and loads more besides - this kind of work is lapped up by our two high production presses and backed up by our digital printing solution, we really can manage such a variety of work but I am beginning to think our prices must be to low :) - While we have not had many sales days for a couple of weeks the work is still rolling in, I think this has to do with the fact that while we can service the UK businesses for their print needs we really have made an impact in our local market and I hope we can continue offering this all round quality service for years to come.

Here at Apple Print this month through social media, our local Newspaper and on our website we are going on the hunt to grow our Internet service offering, we have had meetings about what this is and feel the just an honest business approach to be the way forward - too often we are approached to produce a website when the client has not considered the business plan behind the decision, with over 25 years combined experience in this market coupled with a successful business model, Matthew and Mark working with a project manager can really add value to any web project. If you just wanted to have a chat about your options then please drop us a line for a meeting.....you will find that we are easy to deal with and talk plain English, even Mark! Projects we hope to get sign off this week include Crescent Signs (old site here) and the 1st design of a new site for ECEX a great business and good friend of Apple Print, Richards business offers such a great range of services and can be a help to most of us.....check his current site here. http://www.ecex.co.uk/

We are also in the debt of Magneticrc this week for finding us such a great freelance designer at such short notice, Marie came in and did a great job and was an instant hit with the studio so thanks Clare - hope we can do it again soon. Also coming up soon is an event by MD2MD, also our business Coach - see this link for more -I have attended these events before and can really say you walk away with real benefits. Apple Print can, as a sponsor of this event, offer our Guests a special price so drop me a line if you would like to attend.

As it is Star Wars day (May the 4th be with you) I will sign off with this super secret still from the proposed next movie - special effects like you've never seen!

A Royal Crafty week of design and print.

To start this week everyone here at Apple Print would like to wish all the best to the Royal Couple and that we were really pleased the event went off so well without any issues.

As April drew to a close I was surprised to learn that we had managed to hit our incoming sales targets, if fact we beat it by a massive 3%, joking aside I was pleased as the short working month could have had a much bigger impact on our sales figures.  I am going to imagine that invoiced sales may be down as we run out of production time to get the work out to clients but I still think we’ll do ok.

As I said at the end of March we had a visit from the Newbury Sound Apprentice, you can now see and hear how he got on by clicking here – It was a real pleasure for everyone here at Apple Print to have Chris in with our design team and we hope we hope we can get him back at some point to try another of our departments.

We still have a huge amount of work in progress and one of our big areas of concern is the amount of Print Finishing we have right now, we have had almost 5 full time staff working for the last two weeks trying to stay on top of this issue. As I mentioned last week we have also had some issues with planning for the +200 jobs we have as we grow, one solution we are looking at is an upgrade to our current MIS to Tharstern Primo and I will be looking at the print forums out there to see what people think. We feel the time for investment in this issue is now and will let you know what we find out.

Next week we are back to full strength in our design and web teams which I hope will enable us to step our marketing up a little bit more, our social networking is doing really well, Facebook, Twitter and getting lots of hits, LinkedIn is doing ok but I am still not sure about the best use of this service. We are going to be hitting the direct mail trail over the next few weeks and will also be suggesting people start thinking about their Summer/Autumn promotions both traditional and electronic. Our web based competition will be coming to an end tomorrow and will be replaced with a competition to win two tickets to a top show at the Watermill Theatre so watch out for how to enter for a chance to win – I have decided that I will have a competition every month until the end of the year.

Before I sign off and jump on my bike for the ride home I thought I would offer one last reminder about the Crafty Craft event in Victoria Park tomorrow – over 40 teams will be making their way from Hungerford to Newbury on their home made craft......8.30am in Hungerford with Jo Brand there to film for a show she is making for Dave and then events start in Victoria Park at 10am onwards......take lots on pictures and send them to me for the web gallery.

How many working days left in April?

Been a tough ol week trying to fit 7 days work into 4 but I think everybody here is ready for the Bank Holiday weekend....we still have quite a bit of work to go over  and are a little worried about the very short working week coming up but as always we’ll find a way. So little time to enter our fabulous iPod competition – have a go as you never know, we are also looking for a Prize for next month’s competition so if you have a service or product you’d like to cross promote then give me a shout.

We have been playing and looking at some new software this week, for planning and sharing ideas and for a Web to Print solution as well, I have signed up for Hubspot’s service to see how this could help our business and also am looking at other ways to improve our web position for the long term. We know what we ought to be doing but spend so much time doing it for clients we leave our own site to last. The planning issue is becoming a “need to sort” issue for us, our current systems worked fine for us while we were doing around 200 orders a month but now we are running at 400 we really need something more robust for design, web and print production. I also wanted a system that could take over our older job costing system for better reporting.

May I say the above issues are very nice to have, these growing pains I can deal with....it’s the panic that I feel if the phones don’t ring or the emails don’t ping that makes me struggle. Our sales team is doing well, Michael is bedding in fine and James seems to have too much going on sometimes, they are both selling the POD systems really well and Michael has some great ideas for an expanded version – I am now working to create a version as a demo and will keep you all posted. We had record sales last week on the back of a great month so things are looking really good, we are being realistic that this extended period of time off will affect our sales but we think we can bounce back week after next.

The design / web team.......where do I start, they make my head hurt with their acronyms and tech speak, it’s like an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation when we have a meeting but they are doing some great things with our clients sites, we have quite a few projects that I hope are about to come off and so much POD stuff it could last the year. We may be expanding our design and web team some more (wage bill permitting) so they may get a chance to get our own traditional marketing back on track, you know...old stuff like emails and Direct Mail. We are of course still getting help from Lucy Venables with our emergency marketing for which I thank her very much....John Hampson from the Newbury Weekly News has started asking me to get copy over “Before” deadlines and without Lucy’s help we’d be in trouble.

I would like to thank Newbury Round Table for the invite to their AGM 2 this week, was a great evening where I met some great guys, John O Brian MD of Dovetail, Adrian Butler from Abbeyfield and Maurice Franks from MD-Technology – I hope we can continue to work together and also help make the Crafty Craft a great success this year. Also my warmest congratulations go out to Russell Downing who has a new job as Newbury BID Manager....we wish him all the best and look forward to working with him in the new role. Tonight I am hitting Newbury with another great client and looking forward to a great meal at Indigo Bay (also clients), taking my dancing shoe’s just in case.

So that’s about it.....the analytic s I see for my blog tell me a few people are reading it but as yet I have no comments – someone this week should be the 1^st......anything you’d like to know or anything I should know would be a good start. Have a great Easter weekend!

A week in design and print.........

.......seems like a long time. I have been very naughty and let the level of work get in the way of my blog for a week. I shall not let it happen again (*cough*).

As I have said we have been very successful, once again, for the last few weeks and have seen unprecedented levels of work coming in, we have the next 7 days fully booked for 16 hours a day on our presses, our studio has two freelancers extra for the next few weeks and the sales team are having some really great results. All in all we are very happy if not a little tired – it also looks like things could continue like this for a little while.

What have we done to see this level of growth in our sales? Well we thought it would be worth looking at to make sure it can continue:

·         Team targets and Weekly sales meeting to discuss the weeks issues and upcoming results

·         Keeping our name out there – you name the media (don’t say TV) and we are using it for marketing, sponsorship, Newspaper, Email, Social Media, Direct mail and face to face meeting

·         Updating our website with new info (may even be a new design coming)

·         Making sure we offer the best service we can and keep our quality standard to high levels

·         Consistent contact with all our clients to make sure we are in their thought when it come to Print and Design

The POD (print on demand) is still going very well – we have a system going live for Jones Robinson this week and hope that Cognito’s will be ready early next week, we also have ESA’s just about there but with some font tweaks required. If anyone wanted to see a demo please just drop me a line as it can make massive savings on print and artwork and we provide the systems for free.

We have also updated the FTP / File transfer system on our website to a new system provided by Yousendit – this new system adds virus checking to the transfer for protection for all parties. There are some new news stories and we have finished the Crafty Craft’s new site – let us know what you think. A fantastic testimonial came in from Marcus Franks, an organiser of the crafty craft

 " I wanted to let you know that Mark Slade’s work on the website is above and beyond the call of duty and I hope you pass on our thanks. As you know Crafty Craft is run by volunteers who all have other day jobs so most of the work is done in the evenings and weekends. Mark  was replying to emails at nearly midnight on Saturday and Sunday afternoon allowing us to get info out quickly and make decisions that normally would take a couple of days."  So well done to Mark.

We have also updated our Business cards offer and have added a competition to win an ipod Touch...so have a look; it’s free and easy (ish) to enter the draw.

We are also very pleased that after a great interview that El Neal will be joining us for the summer for work experience, El, a self proclaimed design nerd is currently doing a degree in Design communication in Norwich. I think she’ll have a great time here and we’ll all learn something from each other.

End of the 1st Quarter and all is well.......

Here we are a quarter into the year...the sun has been out and the nights are lighter. We are beginning to feel very pleased with the way things have been going, a small blip in sales mid Feb gave us the kick we needed to start blowing our sales targets out of the water. The first real 3 months of social media for our business has also paid massive dividends, couple this with traditional direct mail using QR codes, emailers and good old face to face sales we are on for 20% Growth in 2011.

Please all understand that the tools we are using, the joint up marketing ideas and the passion for customer service really can move your business up a level – we love talking about the commercial gain (ROI) for money or time spent. One of our clients who we are helping improve their web site has embraced these ideas and we are all very excited by the developments – I will very much keep you all up to date as things change and move forward. You can find their current site here and on twitter as Mrecex.

I started the week meeting the new Director of the Corn Exchange, Katy Griffiths – I was really pleased to hear the new ideas she has and look forward to a continued relationship with them throughout 2011, the evening also included a modern twist on Romeo & Juliet which was a fast paced passion filled experience and I can recommend the Pilot Theatre Group if you get a chance to see them. We wish Katy the best of luck in her new role and also to Ruth who has now left on maternity leave. On Tuesday we had a visit from the Newbury Sound Apprentice, Chris Wright, who came in to spend some time with our design team.....you can hear all about it on air next week or on their web site soon.

As you may be aware Mark joined our web team last week and has been flat out this week working on updates to many sites such as Auto Link and our own http://www.appleprint.co.uk/ , starting new projects and generally being run ragged, Matt has also been tapping the keys rather quickly all week on POD projects, Micro Focus has been completed, Davis Tate has some updates after a meeting I had this week and Cognito’s demo will be ready by the end of today.

The whole team have worked very hard this week to make sure we got the work out on time and met some very challenging deadlines – we have two new starters next week, Michael Hanks, Area Sales Director (East) joins us with a wealth of experience in print and design...a genuinely nice fellow with a real eye for detail and a passion for service, email him to say hello and remember he does not like to be called Mitch J Also starting on a freelance basis is Louise Ryan, Louise Trained as a graphic designer with Diploma in graphic design from The Gordon Institute - Geelong, Australia we really look forward to the skills she will add to the already tip top team.

This was also the last week for a work experience placement Alec, he worked very hard for both weeks and was a pleasure to have working with us – the whole team have said what a great lad he is and an asset to his school, well done Alec. (see him below happy at his mac)

The Start of spring

It has been a great week not only because the work has continued to roll in but also because it seems spring is here, everyone seems to have extra energy and also seem to be happier and more active when the sun is out. The week started well with a great meeting with Sarah from RES Software to discuss an e-marketing campaign....we are tasked with designing templates for use in ongoing campaigns. I also had  a nice trip up to London to meet with Emma from Stand Marketing, Stand have acquired one of my clients and we hope we’ll be able to continue to work with them on their projects, the meeting went very well and I am very positive we’ll be able to help them out.

Print on demand is growing in its pace and uptake, we are working on a demo for Cognito, Newbury Building Society, Jones Robinson and making final updates to Micro Focus...which is being used already. We are very pleased with the level of work Davis Tate are giving us and I am looking forward to an update meeting there next week.

This week there was a great event at Sheepdrove on behalf of the WBEBP – “The S Word” encourages young people to enjoy cooking with local, seasonal produce. Over 150 student from across West Berkshire have taken part in this year’s competition and the standard of cooking was exceptional – I got to catch up with lots of clients and meet a few new ones – I would really recommend to anyone interested in helping our young people get a head start to engage with the EBP ....tell them I told you.

On Thursday with had our FSC and PEFC environmental standard audit.....it went very well and was completed in a few short hours....mainly due to the efforts and time put into this by Andreen....a very well done to her and all the team for helping us continue with these great standards.

Today saw 15 students from Newbury college paying us a visit, these guys are studying interactive media and wanted to see the entire print production process, they got to see everything from initial design, Plate making, Print both Litho and digital and then how the jobs are finished – they were a great bunch and I hope they enjoyed their time here – This afternoon I am giving a talk with Andrew Hooper from Newbury College at the Basingstoke Keeping Business Local Expo – this will be about Google Analytics, how to use it and what it can do for your businesses. If this is something you’d like to see then pop along or give me a shout for a one to one session.

7 Days a week ;D

Yep...Friday already I hear you gasp – it’s the weekend and it’s time to decide if I’ll work Saturday or Sunday......or both?  Last weekend was rugby packed with a great performance from England Under 21’s on Friday night and a win for England on Sunday (not much more to say about that). This weekend may see England complete the grand slam so let’s keep our fingers crossed that they play a little better than last week. On Tuesday I spent the day training on Social media and business, I got a couple of good tips and will be updating our own website while offering advice to my clients. I also went to the Watermill Theatre on Wednesday night to see Relatively Speaking which was a very funny play, great cast of only four with super word play and delivery....keep an eye out for upcoming shows as this is a fantastic venue and the quality of production is second to none.

It’s been a little hectic here over the last week but we are pleased that Mark Slade will be joining our web team on Monday and that we have managed to secure (almost) a great Sales / Account manager as well. I am sure that most of you must be seeing a boost in sales as the markets seem very buoyant right now and it looks like we could be in for a super few months – the sales push here is still going well, we are hitting targets every week and are pleased with the progress. It’s been good that we have been adding new clients every week and that a lot of new business is coming by way of word of mouth and recommendations. We have more work in from Basildon Park, Thermo Fisher, Mission Hair, JETS, Benchmark and many more, these cover web, print and design. We are also working on costs for a new Client using more Thermo Chromic varnish ideas; I will fill you in once we are on the case.

Don’t forget you can see pictures of our team on both our Face Book page and our website and with this in mind I will do two things for Comic Relief – the first thing is if our Facebook page gets 100 fans before the end of April I will send £250.00 to Comic Relief........and the next thing?

We have over the last week or so been banging on about QR codes, these great items can be used to hold quite a bit of info and to show how easy they are to make I have attached one below – in this QR is a number, if you get a QR reader for you phone scan it...email me the number, I will then send £1 to comic relief – don’t tell too many people because my limit will be £250 and that is £1 per email address J

Looking forward to hearing from you .......have fun and be lucky.

Good Luck to England and Scotland.......

This weekend (tonight) Newbury Rugby Club is host to the England V Scotland under 20’s rugby game – the good and the great of Newbury should turn out in the thousands to see this game and I’d imagine it’s going to be a good one. I myself am then off to Twickenham on Sunday to watch the RBS Six Nations England V Scotland game......I hope we win as it would be a great set up for the Ireland game next week. Newbury is lucky to have such a great facility for Rugby which is a great place to host any event. On another sporty note two teams from Apple Print entered the Newbury Pancake Race – One team managed a second place finish while the other finished last....they did have a 74 year old running who looked as good as someone half her age, much more training before next years....and if anyone wants to help us then drop me a line.

After last week’s slow down on litho print this week has been flat out for both Litho and digital – the digital has been running nearly 11 hours a day every day and the litho almost the same, the pre-press team have had their work cut out as supplying such productive machines is a constant battle and it’s a must we avoid downtime. We have been working on print for many businesses such as Wagtech, Mary Hare, Thermo Fisher, Swift, ECEX and many more – we also produced some posters for Mondale, an events company which utilised the latest in QR code technology.....a great way to show integrated digital media from your traditional print.

Web and design work is flying as per last week – We are hoping to pick up two major projects next week so fingers crossed. We have just finished off and have had sign off on a new design for the Newbury and district Agriculture Society’s newsletter, I showed Swift their final folder design this afternoon and have had sign off and there are loads more early next week. To help with the increase in business we have a new starter in the Shape of a web programmer/ developer joining us in a week’s time, he has a massive back ground in technical web development giving a solid grounding in both .asp and PHP. We are really pleased as this will be a massive boost to our ability to react to our clients needs.

And finally, we have arranged to be the Main sponsor for this year’s Crafty Craft race...you can see the current website here but can expect to see this updated in the next two weeks. We are very pleased and hope to be having a craft entered ourselves. Until next week....have fun.

The week of web...

A few people have had some fun at my expense this week (you know who you are) – I get an iPad and Apple announces a new one a few days later. Still not to worry as it’s a super device which after a week of playing I can recommend, it’s a handy business tool which is great for Twitter, face book, email and web. I have used it this week to show clients soft copies of their designs and emailers and show off a little bit. The creative team have told me I need to get a few more.....maybe when the iPad 2 comes out I can pass the original on J

Print wise this week it has got a bit slower than in recent weeks, gives time for well needed maintenance and cleaning – Never seen the print room so tidy.....you could ride a bike through it. The guys have been catching up on training and development of our less experienced members of the team – digital print has still been flat out thanks to Stryker, ESA, Davis Tate and many more – we have had the sign off on the Micro Focus POD to test in beta today so that should be up and running in the next week with a great split of Litho and Digital.

It’s been great for web this week (just need more staff now) with the go ahead from Auto Link Executive Cars for their update – a great meeting with Richard from ECEX about updating their web site, new layout and SEO with a marketing campaign, Jon from Classic Comic Store would like some updates to his admin so we are working on this as well. I really believe the customer service we give on Web projects keeps people coming back, it’s so important to us you are happy and get what you need from your site.

Last but not least Rebecca, Michelle and Matt have been working on finishing up some design projects and starting new ones. The Sheepdrove wedding brochure had a few tweaks and the Ad for the Wedding Magazine was signed off.....a new Conference style was created and I will have them posted to our news section early next week, Michelle has had quite a few designs for Baxter to finish off and BT have a few brochure we are working on...more on this next week.

Right now me and my team, John, Nathan and Jack are off to Micro Focus to take down some banners we are replacing.(They are a top team)

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?