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December 1st, 2011Communicate your ideas with a clear graphic design brief
November 16th, 2011As graphic design and print specialists, we pride ourselves on listening to our clients needs and specific requirements on every project we undertake.
Creating the perfect logo or designing a stunning brochure can only be achieved by listening and understanding, which is why it is important for the customer to have a good understanding of what they require too! If you approach a designer with a woolly idea about what you want to achieve, a number of inevitable factors will occur:
- You will be disappointed (maybe even frustrated!) when the designer returns concepts that don’t fit your remit.
- You will need to evaluate your requirements so as not to extrapolate the project any further
- You will have to spend more time (explaining yourself more comprehensibly), and spend more money with the design agency recreating the concept stage to achieve what you initially set out for.
Now, we understand that not every customer can prepare themselves or will truly understand what they require, which is why the responsibility for success also lays on the shoulder of the designer. They must extrapolate the best information possible in the initial consultation period.
A typical Proactive logo design project may commence like this:
- The client approaches company and usually emails or verbally indicates a required service and what they want to achieve. e.g “I want to design a logo for my new company and also need some stationery designed and printed we make paper clips… how much?”
- We will assign a member of staff to have an initial verbal conversation on the phone with the client and ascertain whether we need to visit the client in-house or whether the project can be conducted over the phone / Skype / email etc. (Time and budgets are so tight in the UK at the moment (2011) that many of our clients are happy to conduct projects over the phone and trust us to keep costs to a minimum and only charge for the time we spend on their work.)
- A typical consultation will involve an interview of sorts, we want to understand the following points about your business and understand your mission:
- “What services/products you offer. Are you unique in what you do?”
- “Who are your key customers. Who do you mainly sell to, trade or public?”
- “Who are your closest competitors. Should we look at these companies to have a broader understanding of your sector?”
- “What do you expect from your logo identity. Do you think your identity needs an icon. Have you seen existing logos that you like (Not McDonalds Coca Cola or Apple) “
- “Tell us your story, why you’re in business, your passions etc”
- The next obvious question (and the most avoided) is always “what is your budget?”. Price sensitive customers will always shy away when asked this question. This is a typical human nature reaction, they expect us to give them their best price based on their requirements and not to just ramp up the quote to the top end of their budget. We don’t work like this, our approach is to explain the benefits of identifying what they have to spend, and to manage their expectations about what they can afford. “You can’t make a silk purse from a pigs ear” as the saying goes, but we will have a bloody good go for the budget you have.
We deal with mainly small to medium businesses so, we can offer a range of design packages that help us to maintain full transparency with our clients. When a project becomes bespoke and outside the constraints of our design packages then it is absolutely imperative that a client lets us know what their spend is so we can manage their expectations about the level of work they can expect to receive. This is always appreciated by the client – a level of trust has been established. - So, budget ascertained, brief taken, questions asked, nothing left to do except get creative!
Time is such a commodity these days and is valued by everyone. Time is also costly, especially when married to a design budget and no one likes being charged a different price to what they have been quoted. The way to ensure you get the best value for money is to do some homework and take a good look at your business, work out what you want to achieve from the project and it will make a big difference in the way your graphic designer interprets your needs.
Designers love to listen, so give them something constructive to think about and you will reap the rewards.
A printed Christmas dinner? I’d rather have a card that has been printed rather than a turkey square!
November 4th, 2011There are constant leaps forward in the world of print, we humans have over the eras strived to improve the way we get information and images onto hard copy - we impressed onto clay, then block printing was used by the Chinese as early as the year 220. In the late 18th century lithography printing was introduced which changed everything, and more recently the digital era has made it possible for everyone to put type on a screen and ‘click print’. These huge leaps forward (and YouTube videos of printers made from Lego) make you think anything is possible, but someone told me today you can even print food. Stop. Food? Please, that surely is a piece of fiction, but in fact the BBC has been reporting on 3D food printers and reckons that one day we’ll be swapping our pans for our food printer…
The scientists behind the project argue it’ll change the whole notion of food and how we eat.
“Imagine being able to essentially ‘grow’, ‘cook’ or prepare foods without the negative industrial impact – everything from fertilizers to sauté pans and even packaging,” he says.
Call me old fashioned but surely growing your food means caring for your seedlings, nurturing your crop and feeling proud when you harvest the fruits of your labour. I thought, ok, I’ll take on board the claim that food miles would be reduced, but then I read the recipe for printing cookies, as below…
Printable Christmas Cookies
Ingredients: 220g of unsalted butter; 110g icing sugar; 3 egg yolks; and 330g of flour
Vital kit: 3D food printer, cooker, freezer
Time: 30 minutes
Method
• Mix the butter until fluffy.
• Slowly add icing sugar in batches of no more than 20g (0.7oz)
• Add egg yolks one at a time
• Add flavour and colour additives as desired
• Add flour in 6.6g (0.23oz) batches until desired consistency is reached
• Print cookies using a Fab@Home 3D printer in desired shape
• Freeze for one hour for dough to firm up before baking
• Initially bake at 200C (400 Farenheit) to allow the cookies to set; once they start to brown, shift to 175C (350F) until golden
• Store extra dough in moisture tight container to maintain print-ability.
… Surely it is a whole lot easier to put ingredients into a bowl, stir, and bake? (And I bet the clean up would be simpler too!) What really intrigues me here though is this – how is packaging reduced if you need all those ingredients anyway? As far as I can tell the only environmental change is that you are losing the packaging of cookies and swapping it for a plastic container. Although all of this is subject to debate, what you won’t get from a 3D printer is the fun of using a cookie cutter, all those childhood memories of cutting around the burnt bits, and covering up the mistakes with icing – they simply wouldn’t exist.
When reading this article, for me, I just thought the scientists have lost sight of what we do as people, and why we do it…
“3D printing will do for food what e-mail and instant messaging did for communication,” says Mr Cantu.
“What if you could have mom’s homemade apple pie sent via e-mail and printed up at home? Her apple pie becomes as close as an instant message on Facebook.”
But why do you love that apple pie…because when you were little you grew up with that taste, you grew up with that smell, the idea it was a real treat, the fact that it was your mum that made it, it was comforting and familiar, it was only made on special occasions and brought your family together. You may have an excellent dish served in front of you, but nothing has that emotional connection as that apple pie. The scientist appears to think all the love and effort which went into making “Mom’s homemade apple pie” isn’t an important factor, that an emailed recipe and a printer is the alternative; hmm I know what I would prefer.
I try to embrace new technology, but surely there’s a limit. Maybe I just like growing my own, and cooking for that matter, and this whole concept goes against all of that. In fact both my mum and grandmother often claim they’d rather have a food ‘pill’ so they can throw out the pots and pans, so maybe after 30 years I’ll see their point of view, and I will be anticipating the day I buy a food printer. Or maybe I’ll be saying you have the pill (or printed square), and I’ll have the pots instead!
All I know is, today, in 2011, I’m talking to our clients about all the ways we can be creative in print to promote their businesses in the lead up to Christmas, and that suits me fine. As it stands right now, I would rather be thinking about printing Christmas cards rather than thinking about what I’ll print for Christmas dinner.
Source: BBC NEWS – TECHNOLOGY
Sunny? Great! But that’s for now, Christmas 2011 is around the corner so put down the shades and get your skates on!
October 3rd, 2011With the advances of the digital age it is easy to be swept up into thinking we only communicate with one another in spaces like this – a blog, or a post, not forgetting our old friend – email. However, when it comes to Christmas there’s nothing quite like receiving an actual ‘real’ Christmas card. 
Maybe because it shows a bit more effort, it comes across as more heart-felt, ask anyone what they’d prefer, an e-card or a posted Christmas card and I bet the e-card doesn’t come out on top!
In fact at this time every year, Royal Mail increases its staff by around 14% – this year they are hiring an extra 18,000 people* to help all that Christmas post get on the right path. It really is the time of year when people want to show they are thinking of you, and as a business it is crucial you do the same.
At Proactive, we encourage our clients to start thinking about Christmas early, and although the weather recently has been all sunshine, there really isn’t that long to plan for your Christmas marketing. In the office, we are already edging to decorate and get Mariah Carey playing on the speakers**, so we thought we’d give you a bit of a helping hand to get into the Christmas spirit too…therefore this month our most popular Christmas product, silk Christmas cards, are half price as our offer of the month – see, now you’re feeling that festive spirit, we all love a seasonal bargain!
Whether you are looking to design your cards from scratch, want us to do that for you or you just want to pick from our popular designs that’s fine – contact us online or call us on 0800 412 5333 and we’ll do everything we can to help!
So if that’s whetted your appetite, check out our Christmas website dedicated to the all the festive products we offer. You’ll find a range of cards, calendars, and even scratch card advent calendars! If Royal Mail has taught you nothing else, take home the thought that everyone else will be sending those Christmas cards and making the most of her majesty’s service in December, including your competitors no doubt! So, don’t delay, pretend there’s snow outside and you’re hot from a crackling fire rather than the Autumn heat wave, and have a browse through some ideas that’ll show your clients/your customers/your valued partners in business that your company values them, and cares enough to send them a little Christmas cheer.
*Source: BBC NEWS, 19 September 2011.
Should I design artwork for commercial print in microsoft publisher? – No! No! No!
September 20th, 2011Stop wasting your time and your money!
We get lots of calls from new clients asking for a print quote, saying they are able to provide a print-ready file. Further down the line, when we’re ready to jump to action and they’ve left it until the last minute to send their artwork, we hear the dreaded words “I’ve designed my project in Microsoft Publisher, is that ok?”
If you fall into this category, please bear in mind the following:
- Our first tip for those of you wishing to produce artwork in Publisher – don’t. We can’t edit your files, we can’t fix any of the problems that might be associated with it and invariably our graphic design team end up starting from scratch to re-create artwork in a format we can work with.
- We have never seen an example of good design from a client that sent us artwork in Publisher. Ever. If you’re using Publisher, you are probably not a graphic designer. Ask a professional.
- Graphic design costs money. It needn’t break the bank, but please allow for design costs in your budget. This way, you’ll avoid the frustration of reaching the end of your project, sending your Publisher file to your printer to find that they can’t use it and you’ll incur additional costs. This makes you feel cheated, and your printer feel bad.
- If you’ve left your printing until the last minute, you’re in good company. Lots of people do, and that’s fine – turning things around quickly from good artwork is no problem. If you’ve left it until the last minute and you’ve got a Publisher file, you’re just adding to your own pressure. Your deadline is looming and now you don’t have any artwork. That’s really what designing in Publisher means – you don’t have any artwork. Someone’s is going to need to take your files and re-create them, which takes time and costs money.
- If you’re working in Publisher I’m willing to bet that you’ve committed one of the following sins: created a file in RGB, used images from the internet, used low resolution images, used weird fonts, not embedded the fonts, used clipart images, used low resolution logos, run text right at the edge of the document, not included bleed, set the document up at the wrong size or not included crop marks. If you’ve done any of these things there are two possible results:
i. Your file can’t be printed as it is. Someone will need to fix it. Fixing it in Publisher is going to be difficult, so someone will probably need to re-create this for you. Make sure you allow some money for this.
ii. Your file can be printed, but the results cannot be guaranteed. Worst case? Your file gets printed and it looks awful. The money you saved by doing your own graphic design is probably not enough to cover the cost of re-printing (and by now you’ve missed your deadline / trade show / exhibition anyway).
For those of you that are still intent on supplying your own graphic design and you want to work in Publisher please refer to this guide. Download it, print it out, keep it next to your pc. Refer to it often. Hopefully it will help keep you on the right path…
Best of luck!
It’s more than ink on paper…
August 29th, 2011It’s Bank Holiday Monday and I’m part way through a press pass on behalf of one of our clients. As requested we quoted the job based on receiving a print-ready file. At first glance their artwork looks great – our client’s in-house graphic designer has added some really nice touches and there is undoubtedly a natural progression in the style of their publication since last year.
On closer inspection however there are some fundamental ‘designing for production’ errors… somehow (and I’ve no idea how) their black text was made from twelve Pantone colours. If you’re new to designing for print – that’s a bad idea. Some of their text is less than 2mm from the trim lines. That’s also a bad idea. One of the right hand pages has an ad which runs right in to the spine. This is a perfect-bound job which means they’ll lose the left-hand side of the ad. To be fair, I think that ad was foisted on them by an agency who wouldn’t budge on style – but the end result will be the same…
These are easy mistakes to make, and as with all things there’s a learning curve to getting it right – graphic design for print is so much more than making the pages look nice. Getting the best results from the production process often requires an awareness of how the different elements of the finished product are put together.
We can’t fix the right-hand ad issue, but we’re doing our best to resolve the other issues their artwork is causing. We’re working within minimal tolerances because their artwork doesn’t allow for even the slightest movement in folding or trimming.
This is the second year our client has produced this publication. When they came back to us a few months ago, they thought they just needed to find someone to put ink on paper. As well as managing the print production for them, we have:
- guided them through the paper choice to arrive at a fantastic uncoated paper that looks and feels amazing (I’ve just seen the first sheets come off the press and I just know the client will be delighted).
- helped them to rule out some production techniques / finishes that would have pushed way above the budget constraints for the project.
- steered them towards laminating the cover for durability and protection.
- offered advice on changing the pagination of their book to make the best use of the paper and reduce production costs.
- sent the artwork back to the client to get them to move some of their text away from the fore edge of the book. If we hadn’t, the chances are that the edges of their text (the tail of the letter ‘p’ for example) would have been trimmed off during production.
- checked the URLs in a couple of their advertisers’ content and advised of ‘Page not found’ errors.
- checked QR codes to ensure they link to the right pages.
- converted their 12 colour text to process, and made sure there are no registration issues (where text looks blurred because plates are fractionally mis-aligned).
- compensated for the thickess of the paper within each section to minimise the potential problems which would have arised at the trimming stage.
Our client is buying so much more than ink on paper – and I don’t just mean the graphic design advice or the additional work we’ve done to give the best end results possible. They’re buying reassurance, peace of mind, and absolute confidence in the fact that the first of their books will be delivered to them on the 1st September. They are also buying the opportuntity to increase their advertising rates next year, and to continue building this part of their business. After their first year their advertisers LOVED the publication and were happy to pay higher fees in return for space in this year’s book. I’d be very surprised if this year’s book doesn’t catapult our client into a higher league again next year.
If our client had chosen a run-of-the-mill “ink on paper” supplier this year their future could have been markedly different… but as it is, I’m confident of two things: (1) we’ve given them the best advice to ensure that they got the most out of their budget and (2) that we’ll be working together in their third year. And for these reasons I’m happy to be sat here on August Bank holiday… our client definitely got more than ink on paper.
Proactive Design & Printing Brochure 2011
August 2nd, 2011
Just a quick post to let you know you can now view our latest company brochure online. The brochure describes our Graphic Design and Printing services and shows some of the quality printing and design projects we have completed for our customers.
Take a sneeky peek here, and if you want to discuss any future projects you may have then simply call us FREE on 0800 412 5333.
Scratch card printing sees rise in 2011
May 27th, 2011At Proactive, our scratch card range has seen a surge in popularity this year, and is fast becoming a marketing trend for companies across the board from charities to large corporate organisations.
Since they were introduced, scratch cards have come a long way. Their past image has certainly been re-vamped over the years and they are now seen as a stylish way of rewarding customers with fun competitions.
The Guardian stated that ‘sales of scratch cards were up 6% in 2010′* and based on what we’ve seen we’re sure the trend will continue to rise for the rest of this year.
So why choose scratch cards? Many of our clients tell us they want to stand out. Although marketing material such as leaflets will always be useful to them, they also want something else to engage their prospect clients, whilst promoting their company.
For charities, it is a fantastic way to raise money for a good cause and get their message out there. A charity we have worked with recently wanted to raise awareness in young people and felt this was an ideal way to do so. Companies we work with believe it is an innovative way to promote offers and give away branded products. After their scratch card campaigns, many of our clients feel their investment has been returned and as a result several clients are already planning their next scratch card project.
So check out our scratch cards, we’ve got something for everyone with our cost-effective ‘super’ and ‘regular’ range, as well as our bespoke options. We can offer you advice on scratch card regulations and guide you every step of the way. Also, if you need us to design your cards, our studio is very experienced with these products. So get in touch and we’ll happily provide you with a quote and don’t forget we’ll send you some free samples, just call 0800 412 5333!
*Printed on p3 of the G2 section of the Guardian on Thursday 24 February 2011
Ryan Air feels the pain after scratch card error
May 3rd, 2011Michael O’Leary was in PR over-drive recently when three passengers won a car each on a flight from Milan to Madrid.
A printing error resulted in an unknown number of cards being released which entitled the holder of the 2 Euro card to a star prize of a 13,000 Euro Fiat 500. We sympathize with the company that produced those cards… it’s not easy to produce good quality scratch cards anyway, never mind managing the insertion and distribution of valuable prizes.
Thankfully, this is not something we’ve ever had to deal with. Our Errors and Omissions insurance covers us (and our clients) up to 1 million Euros for any similar errors… and because we have that insurance in place we have industry-leading processes in place which ensure that we have NEVER needed to claim against that insurance.
In true O’Leary style, the Ryan Air boss teasingly adds to his comment that he has no idea how many other car-winning cards were distributed, so let’s hope that they can turn a genuine mistake into a win:win (no pun intended) and sell lots of cards over the next couple of months while their passengers try and scoop up any remaining prizes.
If you’re considering a scratch card campaign for your business and you intend to offer valuable prizes – what would be the impact if (for example) your scratch card printer distributed 1,000 star prize cards instead of 1 as agreed? Who would bear the cost of that mistake? If it’s you, how do you handle that? Do you take a PR disaster on the chin and fail to honour the prizes? Or do you stump up the cash and cover the cost of the prizes? How long would the legal wrangling between you and your printer last? How much extra money should you set aside for legal fees?
Alternatively, make sure your scratch card printer has adequate insurance to cover your campaign and spend your time and energy on something more constructive!
Need advice? Call 0800 412 5333 and we’ll be happy to provide a free initial telephone consultation to ensure you get the most from your printed scratch cards.
The least customer-focused company in the UK?
March 26th, 2011I’m sure you all have lots of contenders for this award (I’ve got quite a few myself) but here’s one of my personal favourites…
I received a letter in the post from Santander just before Christmas (ok. It’s taken a while for me to write this post). “Your balance transfer rate” it proudly announced, “is 0% for 6 months. This balance transfer rate is available until 5th January”.
Once Christmas was over, I picked up the letter and read on:
Well, if that’s all there is to it this should only take a minute… and there is a balance on that other card. I could pay that off over six months instead of trying to clear it all straight after Christmas.
So I rang Santander. And opened Pandora’s box.
If customer service is about opening doors and making life easier for the people that pay your wages, dealing with Santander was like breaking into Fort Knox – where an easy life for customers is the most closely guarded prize and under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to come anywhere close to a positive customer experience without a lot of hard work and bloody-minded determination.
Hurdle Number One.
Me: Can I make a balance transfer please?
Santander: Absolutely.
Me: Before we go ahead can I just check what the rate would be?
Santander: Sure, it’s 29.9%
Me: Oh sorry, I should have said that I have a letter here with a promotional offer.
[on hold for a few minutes]
Santander: No – there’s no offer open to you at the moment.
Me: Really? This letter says the offer is valid until 5th January.
[on hold again]
Santander: No – you had an offer which expired before Christmas. There’s only our standard rate available to you.
Me: Hmmm. Ok. Well I have a letter here, from you. What can we do about that?
Santander: We have no record of sending you that letter.
That’s reassuring. And people trust you to look after their money?
Me: Well I’m definitely holding a letter. And it’s definitely from you.
[on hold while Leoni goes to check with her manager]
Santander: You’ll need to send us a copy of the letter.
Me: The letter you sent to me?
Santander: Yes.
Me: You want me to send you a copy of the letter you sent me because you don’t know that you sent me the letter?
Santander: Yes.
Me: That’s ridiculous. Ok I’ll scan it now and email it to you.
Santander: No, you’ll need to post it.
Me: What?
Santander: We don’t have email.
Me: I’m still struggling to believe that there’s a whole department / building with no access to email. Do you have the internet?
Santander: Yes.
Me: Well I could set up an email account for you, call you with the username and password and then you could log-in and see the email that I’ve sent you.
Santander: I’m sorry – you’ll have to send the letter.
Me: So I’ve got to make a copy and go to the post office?
Santander: Or you could go to a branch.
Me: And do what?
Santander: They’ll verify that you have the letter and inform us.
Me: So you don’t believe that I’ve received this letter from you?
Santander: It’s not that, it’s just that…
Me: OK, I’m not very happy about any of this. Could you please ask your manager to give me a call?
Santander: Yes. They’ll do so within 24 hours.
Naturally, I didn’t receive a call back.
So I rang them again.
And fell deeper into the rabbit hole.
Hurdle Number Two.
29/12/10
Karen (Santander): There are no notes on your account.
Me: So you have no record of my conversation with Leoni yesterday.
Santander: No.
Me: Fantastic.
[explained again]
[on hold for a few minutes]
Santander: ok I’ve found a way you can email a scan to us. You need to send your email to complaints@santander.co.uk and ask them to forward it to us/
Me: How will they do that?
Santander: What do you mean?
Me: How will they forward the email to you?
Santander? I’m not sure I understand.
Me: You don’t have an email address. How will they forward the email to you?
[no answer]
Santander: Could you please send the email to complaints@santander.co.uk?
I sent the email.
Hurdle Number Three.
And waited three days.
No reply.
I called Santander Complaints Dept – 0845 600 6014.
Apparently emails to the complaints dept take 3-5 working days to get a response. As it’s now New Year’s Eve, by the time working 5 days have passed the offer which Santander don’t know about will have expired.
The lady I was speaking to (Tejal) said that she was very sorry but there’s “nothing we can do”.
If ever there was a phrase that should NEVER be used in customer service I think this is it. “There’s nothing we can do.” Really? You’re one of the biggest banks in Europe and if I’m honest I’m past caring about the balance transfer – now all I want is some common sense.
Tejal explained that the credit card dept don’t send out letters. The customer retention team do. Would I like to be put through to them?
You’ll like this bit.
“No – what I’d like is for someone to take responsibility for this and do something constructive to help resolve the situation. If that’s not going to happen I’ll talk to the retention team.”
“Hold on, I’ll put you through”
Timeless. Do you know anyone in your organisation who’s prepared to grab this by the reigns, apply some common sense and offer some customer service? No.
Hurdle Number 4.
“Hold on, I’ll put you through”
[pause while on hold for another minute or two]
“Sorry, that department’s closed today”
This gets better and better.
[on hold while Tejal checks with Supervisor]
“The only thing you can do is go to a branch”.
So, there’s nothing that anyone in the whole of Santander can do to put this right. The only person that can fix this is me. The customer. And to fix their mess I need to go to a branch.
I didn’t do that.
I got on with my life, went away for a few days. Celebrated New Year. Went back to work. The closing date for the balance transfer came and went.
No contact from anyone at Santander. Until this point, nobody from Santander has made any attempt to contact me.
So on 9th January (a couple of weeks after this all started) I called again to complain about the lack of response. Not even the courtesy of a reply to my email.
I spoke to Shimlan.
Apparently a new offer was added to my account a couple of days ago. Why hasn’t anyone told me about this? Santander don’t send emails (and it seems their phones don’t work either)..
Instead, they wrote to me on 7th January.
Hurdle Number Five.
Why hasn’t their letter arrived yet?
Because they sent it to my old address (I’ve been in my new address for almost 18 months and I’ve told them half a dozen times that I’ve moved, but my mail is still being re-directed by Royal Mail).
Why haven’t Santander updated their records?
Because they won’t update their records over the phone. I can make balance transfers, borrow (or pay off) thousands of pounds by making a phone call – but they don’t believe I’m me enough to change my address.
How can I change my address?
The only way Santander will let a customer change their address is to take photo ID into a branch.
Holy moly.
A few days later my re-directed mail turned up, and there’s a new 0% offer valid until 2nd March.
Nobody has replied to my email, no-one has bothered to contact me. They’ve ignored all my requests and it’s taken so long another offer has come around. The new letter isn’t an acknowledgment of anything that went before – it’s just a new offer.
I’ve changed my mind about the balance transfer now, so purely for fun, I called again on 24/01 and spoke to Sarah.
Hurdle Number Six.
Me: “Hi, can you tell me what the balance transfer rate is on my account please”
Santander: “Sure – just let me check”
[on hold]
Sandtander: “Hi, yes – it’s 29.9%”
Beautiful.
Thank you Santander. Keep it up… Read the rest of this entry »
