Help...i need an idea!!

We've all been there... sat at our computer/tablet/pad and not known where on earth to start a project. It may be that the project is simply so large that all you need is a project plan to break down the chunks. Sorted.

But what if that's not it...? What if you purely have creative block and feel that all of your brightest ideas have been used in recent projects? Tight deadlines are always a common cause for 'the block', but these are inevitable. You need inspiration and you need it FAST.

Thankfully there are exercises and checklists to help you through this frustrating time. Even if the outcome doesn't directly lead you to the perfect idea...they will start you thinking and, in turn, drag you out of the pit of despair!!

Here are my top six tips for getting back your creative mojo:

1) Check you have all of the relevant information.

Now this may sound obvious, but sometimes the information presented to you by a client/colleague may not be enough to work with. You can try... but if you need to know more or you're finding it difficult to visualise what the project's even about - then its time to pop the cluedo hat on and ask as many questions as necessary. It will also help you out in the long-run as misinterpreting briefs can be catastrophic.

2) Communication is key.

You've come up with some ideas...but you're convinced they are going in the wrong direction. Don't sit on them and ponder, this wastes time and digs you further and further into 'the block'. Use internal staff to bounce these ideas off. You may find that they actually ARE hitting the brief or the staff may present thoughts and opinions you hadn't yet considered. Even the most well-rounded ideas can benefit from an outsider's perspective before being committed to.

3) Create a good balance between isolation and outside influences.

You may be distracted from conversations surrounding you or the office music playlist just doesn't float your boat. Either way... take some time out. Stick on the headphones...listen to your own choice of music...sometimes even the process of putting on headphones without any sounds helps me zone-out and focus. If you're lucky enough to be able to work in a different room for a period of time - do it.

It goes without saying that this also works in reverse. If you've been sat working alone or isolated under those headphones for too long... be sociable. Something you overhear from the conversation the other side of the room may just spark some inspiration!

4) Use creative flash cards.

You could make your own or even just flick through magazines letting your eyes pick out random words. Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt created a pack of cards in the 70s called 'Oblique Strategies'. I cannot recommend these enough!! They were originally produced to alleviate musicians block...but work just as well in any form of creative role. They are a series of words and sentences designed to relieve times of pressure by making you think another way or about something else. They also look pretty cool and something all creatives should own!!

www.enoshop.co.uk

5) Be a sponge.

For an immediate cure... get out and about. If 'the block' is definitely not laziness and you've tried all of the above you need to take a break and let your mind have some fresh air. Talking a walk will not only calm you down in general, but it will also open up your senses to what's going on in the world (opposed to just your screen and desk). Take in your surroundings and really look at things. Did you even know there was that bakery round the corner??

For good practice, and a more long-term solution...you need to keep interested. Go to galleries and gigs, read magazines, watch bizarre documentaries. This will keep your mind active and open to new ideas.

6) Speak to other professionals

Here at Apple Print and Creative we are always happy to help with creative consultations or even project brainstorming sessions. If you're stuck with a campaign idea to launch that latest product or would like to bounce off advertising plans with a member of our experienced team then just give us a call. We will happily visit you or you can pop into The Orchard for a cup of tea, cake and a natter. Often the best ideas come from collaboration.

If you need help with a project or would just like to chat an idea through then drop us a line www.appleprint.co.uk  

Five Things We Love About Living at The Orchard

After almost three decades, Apple Print and Creative finally has a home of its very own. It is now 3 months since the move to our new premises, The Orchard.

Having settled in, here are some of the things our staff loves the most about our new location in Abex Road:

1. More space – the sales team are very happy there is now room for clients to visit us without having to practically sit on our laps! We also have a great boardroom for formal presentations to clients, or just to have an informal chat about your needs. Our managing directors Jane and Andrew even have their own spacious offices.
2. The improved arrangement of space – all of our offices are now upstairs, whilst all of production takes place downstairs. No more getting lost, as often happened in our maze of a previous building, with this new layout! It has also been a great chance to reorganise ourselves – a new start gave us the opportunity to really think through the best way to make the space work for our needs, and the needs of our clients … which have changed hugely over the last 27 years.
3. The amount of natural light – we’re spoilt for windows here at The Orchard! The studio and managing director Andrew’s office even enjoy dual aspect views.
4. Plenty of car parking – no more shuffling cars around, so no more excuses for being late to client appointments! There are parking spaces reserved especially for visitors if you come to see us.
5. A great central location by the canal off Bone Lane, well located for deliveries to clients in the Newbury area, and for clients to call in and see us.

Most of all, we love having a place to call ours, and a secure long-term future for Apple Print and Creative… we’ll be here for many years to come!

So drop in for a cuppa if you haven’t already seen our new home for yourself … we look forward to many more clients calling in!

Mondi, Premier Paper and UK printer, Apple Print, collaborate for the Digital Printer Awards

Vienna, Aug 22nd, 2012 ─ International paper and packaging producer Mondi is working together with Apple Print & Creative of Newbury and The Premier Paper Group, the UK’s leading independent paper distributor, on a submission for the prestigious Digital Printer Awards. Organised by Whitmar Publishing, the Digital Printer Awards recognise innovation, creativity and excellence in digital print.

Apple Print is a well-established business offering a full printing service including lithographic, digital and large format with a fantastic creative studio on-site.

Andrew Watts, Joint Managing Director of Apple Print, commented: “We are delighted to be invited to participate in this exciting initiative with Premier Paper and Mondi.  We are a highly talented team with over 20 years of experience within the design and marketing industry and welcome the opportunity to have our success recognised through the Digital Printer Awards 2012.”

 “Working together with The Premier Paper Group and Apple Print, who has expertise both in creative design and digital printing is an exciting opportunity. This collaboration combined with Apple Print’s in-house creative team will bring out the best in paper and print technology and innovative design,” said Johannes Klumpp, Marketing and Sales Director for Mondi Uncoated Fine Paper.

The winners of this year’s Digital Printer Awards will be announced in November 2012.

Why We Like Working With Apple Print

Here at Jokers' Masquerade we have been working with Apple Print on various hard copy offline marketing initiatives for the last few years. We're also based in Newbury so the fact that Apple are local was an important attribute for us. We wanted to work with a local company so we would be able to receive and review the proofs quickly and also support another business located within the same area.

One of our first projects that was honestly handled with tact and probably just the right amount of urgency was a magazine style brochure called Visage that we added to all orders that were placed on our website. We have since worked with Apple Print to produce header cards for products as well as various fancy dress themed leaflets and flyers.

Apple Print and Creative Celebrates 25 Years of Print

Thursday August 11^th was the date of the big 80s themed fancy dress celebration to mark 25 years of the business successfully creating and crafting printed materials. Apple very kindly invited Kate and Donna to attend. Both wore our Space Invader fancy dress costume to the event held at the Faraday Road studio. Both received various requests to walk sideways in homage to the computer game.

Apple Print actually launched their new website at the event, which is a nice new modern look. In composing this blog post I actually asked Nigel, our resident graphic designer how he feels about using the Apple website to which I received an unusually concise response saying “It certainly conveys their services clearly, you can find your way around the site easily. I also think their friendliness comes across through the site” What a nice chap. Kate, who was no longer wearing the Space Invader costume at the time of being quizzed shared that “Its very quick and simple to upload artwork to their client area”. That certainly sounds like two very positive reviews of the new website.

Here's a photo from the celebration:

We've worked previously with both Andrew Watts and Barbra Frost and both were very helpful, they provided a personal and professional touch and make us feel very confident that they are on top of things. That personal touch and the willingness to go just  a little further is why we like working with Apple.

This was a guest post by Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress, where they are currently fighting over which is the best new Halloween costume.

Must Blog more.........

So I was just walking back from lunch with the Graphics team and I bumped into a friend who suggested I was not blogging enough so I promised I would write an update today....and true to my word here it is.

Since the start of April sales have been very tough, we have been slightly under target and really working hard for all we can get in...that seems to have been turned around now as the amount of sales incoming is back up to great levels – this is a relief to the sales team and means we should finish the year on target. We do need more though as I realise my board are going to be looking for continued growth in 2012/2013, so if you know of any great sales professionals that want to work for a growing business please send the my way.

We have had a great couple of weeks with new clients, finished off some really big design and marketing projects and started some real fun jobs – we have an intern called Naomi who has joined us for the summer and is doing really well as well as Emily who is on work experience for a few days. We are looking for a new designer at the moment to help us expand the team as well as a marketing assistant ........I also need a PA and will be starting to look to fill that role over the next month.

The production team are also doing well...our machines have been flat out and we have just confirmed delivery of our new digital press, exciting stuff all in all and more to come with our news that we will be moving to a new building we have just exchanged contracts on....which this space for updates on when and what will be happening there.

It’s been a great day over all and as I started by saying we all popped off to McDonalds for lunch and our work experience girl Emily seemed to eat the most...that’s her below – have a great weekend and watch out for my post next week.

Be mobile.....deliver content for my phone....Please

I use my phone a lot - I am not kidding it spends more time in my hand than almost  anything else. In some ways I miss the days when I could not be contacted 24/7 but to be fair I have had a mobile since I was 18 so that would have only avoided my mum calling me home for a bath and hair wash! I do everything you can think of with my phone, but there is one thing I don't do with it....can you guess? No? OK then...I will not use websites that cant deliver it's content optimised for my device.....come on webmasters it's only a bloody style sheet, you could do it quicker than finding a funny Michael Mcintyre joke, which to be fair could take quite a while but I am sure you get my point.


Even though modern Britain has a semi decent mobile network (Unless you are on o2 anywhere North or South of Newbury) your website graphics should be scaled down for the slower network speeds, the content delivered should match what user experience you client base craves or should expect. Would it surprise you to learn that now almost 50% of UK web users used their mobiles to surf, browse,  ride the tide of the world wide web? Without looking at the Analytic's it's hard to tell what these Mobile web users think of your Non-Mobile friendly web content but some figures suggest an 85% Bounce rate for this kind of user experience - that's right be afraid....you ARE losing business or even the chance for business.  CALL TO ACTION - give me a call or an email and I can explain where to start.....go on...you know you want to.


I like to buy online for things I cant get in the high street, I can get very busy at work so I look up directions when I am on the move, I want to book tickets when I see a Poster for a show I want to go to - business is tough and hard work demands more on all of our leisure time so make it easy for us to have fun, spend or even just find a Phone Number - I have an unnecessary love of talking so have someone there when I ring.....Blah, I can go on and on......Be Mobile...even my blog is! I am also doing a workshop that touches on this subject next week at a BMG event in Reading ....you can learn more here http://www.bmgevents.co.uk/