Our ethos

Every tale starts with a beginning…

2 April 2022 Stuart Nimmo

I’m a pendant for getting the best. I think we all like “the best”. However, race to the bottom and “I want it now” culture, drives a very different mantra of “will do”. It amazes me how some people talk the talk and say one thing and what they actually want is miles off from my benchmark.

My background in repro, better described as the bit before it hits a press in print, was all about, maximising the end result and the quality of what we were going to print. So, what does this actually mean, and why does it make a difference.

Images, best resolution, sharp throughout, in focus and properly taken. I have a background in professional high-end grade scanning, not just looking at the colour balance, but tonal curves and a lot more. Yes, I use pro digital Nikon DSLRs these days for photographs, but also use exceptional scanners to capture art pieces, drawings and historical materials which need digitising with the utmost care and attention. We’ve retouched historical photographs for magazine covers. The supplier/owner of the image has been amazed at the results. With a bit of careful attention, referencing, considering composition, lens characteristics and a lot more whilst re-constructing and enhancing the image to create a sharp, well-balanced end result. We know when we have scanned medium format transparencies and had a reference image of the same location, taken on a good DSLR, the traditional colour transparency held more detail than it’s a digital counterpart. A great example was being able to pick out blades of grass, with some definition.

Logos and technical drawings, scalable artwork is everything. Ensuring the artwork is sharp and the detail is defined is essential. We will re-draw up artwork in a vector format to ensure it meets the needs of reproduction regardless of end size. I started my career artworking in a vector environment every day. It delivered quick results in a fast-moving environment of promotional print. It’s stood me in good grounds for everything I’ve done since.

Typography, in my early years in the trade, whilst I was at College, I was lucky enough to have a placement at Warwickshire Illustrations in Cheylesmore in Coventry. They were a high-end design agency working with clients like Jaguar and Rank among many names. The senior staff in the studio there were meticulous, for the kerning (spacing of characters), ligatures, typeface elements for characters, and fine-tuning of all typography to be effortless for the reader to read with ease. Hence why now, I do like, love and ooze pride when I see proper typography, well-executed on a page.

That work experience placement also taught me a lot about, concept creation, the scamps, visuals and idea development, even before you start to layout the item in any technical format, to artwork the job.

With over 3 decades in print, specifying is so important, getting it right for the job, thinking through what the end-user is going to think as they handle or engage with your piece of print. Materials, the where and how are so important when thinking about the brief, and yes every job should have a brief. Recently I’ve kicked a job back to the client, so we can have a brief that will get the results, he is expecting.

We are so different than other providers, well the online ones anyhow, as we care, want to support you in your project. To get to my position in this trade is through experience, education, and graft. It’s why I proudly describe what I do as artisan, boutique, craft-based print, with the culmination of the aforementioned. Yes, you can have cheap print, when you pay a little bit more, for #properprint with real engagement. No job is ticket number running through our studio, it is all about the customer, the joys of being small and paying attention to detail is at the heart of what we do.

Thinking about others…

26 March 2022 Stuart Nimmo

It’s at the heart of building effective relationships, if the last few years have taught us anything, compassion, consideration and understanding go a long way. However, everyone’s benchmark of expectations vary differently. Inherently these are formed as parts of people’s value sets, which if you understand generational theory are established in the pre-teenage years.

Recently in a drive to grow the business, building connections has been at the heart of many actions around establishing the right meaningful relationships. It’s very apparent some people form bonds, through shared common experiences or backgrounds. This really has come to light in the fact that we’ve seen business come from connections we made 3-4 years ago, and time wasn’t right at that moment, circumstances change, and we’ve developed and click, things start to happen. Talking of business networking, we’re very aware of individuals who seem to be there for the “me, me me” scenario and miss the purpose of building relationships, and short term wins are their only objectives.

Networking happens everywhere and at every opportunity. Fortunately, we don’t just get ourselves out there in b2b environments. A recent event for West Yorkshire Scouts, allowed us to meet, build and form relationships with a whole raft of different people. Common bonds and understanding is something that drives understanding and respect. Sharing ideas and concepts to make life easier is often what builds that special connection with others.

Being ordinary is just enough, and if you’re like us, you’re far from ordinary. We’re pretty passionate about what we do, and geared up to make a difference when people need it. If we can help, we do. A couple of instances in the last fortnight where at short notice people have needed jobs quick, and we’ve gone yes. Thankfully a few customers have flexed to allow us to achieve this, but we like a bit of communication with everyone as it makes it easier. We’re hoping that these new relationships will blossom, into more meaningful long term partnerships. In both cases, the physical meeting and seeing made a huge amount of difference.

Building relationships is around the elements of team building to an extent. The “form, storm, norm and perform” are critical to levelling the understanding between people. The recent process of doing accounts paperwork for on-boarding as a supplier etc, cause a little hiccup when payment terms needed to be agreed, as our approach is very along the lines of the small business commissioners approach of fast to our suppliers, however, it does mean we need or like fast payment to us, to maintain cash flow and operational stuff. It’s worth looking at https://www.smallbusinesscommissioner.gov.uk/ppc/. Being a champion to small businesses is appreciated by us, which shows all of the keywords I mentioned at the head of this blog.

Perhaps I am lucky that my background has always been geared up to thinking about others. Whether as a graphic designer, understanding your audience and how something is going to be used is at the heart of making the brief work. Yes, my scouting experiences do make big difference, compassion and empathy is something which is developed skill. I have realised perhaps my own abilities are somewhat limited, through recent experiences, which have tried and tested me. We do all need to show latitude and understanding in these times, unprecedented, previously unknown experiences are testing us all, so compassion, consideration and understanding. Above all be open, say if you are struggling, say if you are stretched, be open about things, we’re not here to take advantage, good people will support you.

What have we learned from 2021?

5 December 2021 Stuart Nimmo

Calendar years often give us the point to review things, as one year closes and the new year looms, we all ponder and think on how things have worked, what we’ve achieved and importantly start to plan for the year ahead.

So, what has 2021 taught us? The overriding one is facing and meeting the challenge. Trying to evolve in a world of a pandemic has delivered more challenges than any of us would have thought we could have faced. Not just the change in how we do business, the old days of endless face to face are now supplemented with zoom and teams calls, which does have its benefits, but also presents new non-verbal communication messages being missed. Volatility has become almost a norm, with the dynamics of global markets playing out even more in local situations.

We’ve seen positives from 2021, environmental issues have significantly risen on the agenda. Responsibility around what we do is now, is a more profound part of decision making. I know from discussions with potential clients, this does impact decision making processes. This rightly leads on to the first of the hot factors of 2021;

“How” not “what”

We’ve been saying this for some time. The chains of communication have changed a lot, regardless of whether you are solely digital or a true marketing mix, with physicality and digital working side by side. When businesses have used a more carefully crafted approach, they have cut through the marketing noise, which has become more prevalent.

The noise

Not in decibels, but the sheer volume of communications using very similar channels. I accept this blog is within one of those channels and might be read more by bots than actual humans. So where are the decisions made? When digital communications, when so copious in quantity push intelligence as pure data, and decision-makers potentially struggle to harness appropriate knowledge? We come across some intelligent businesses who are riding the wave of innovation to grab attention to actively start building new genuine business relationships.

Relationships matter

This has long been spoken about, how people like people. It is true; however, the new world of 2021 certainly has elevated this to a different meaning. Collaboration, collective working, have evolved to see these as critically developmental for small businesses. Long gone are the days of the customer-supplier relationship, it’s more about working together than being hard-nosed and pushing. Equally the individuals who still pursue this have found their worlds shifting more. Respect is something that works both ways and is earned through behaviours on many levels, in which physical 1-1 relationships are king.

Reality of authenticity

This might seem an odd one, but this in my eyes has developed real credence during 2021. Faking it to make it, is probably dead. Authenticity, reality, being honest, truthful, values-driven create stunning meaningful relationships. I’ve seen a few interesting examples in 2021, first one, who earned serious respect, for wearing his brand values of who he is, what he does, is Lewis Ellis, so much so we asked him to be our guest speaker at our 2021 open house event. Blazon in his delivery, is down to earth, challenging in new refreshing ways, not to everyone’s cup of tea, but serious about cutting to the chase and creating action. Taking a different viewpoint on the reality of authenticity, Thomas McGowan, watching him redevelop his business, utilising time wisely to review, plan and implement has been a beautiful example of delivering true what you see is what you get philosophy, his branding and positioning are now very strong to move him forward with becoming more of the authority and inspiring person he is. So, taking a step back and reviewing how you present your personal brand will be well worth some time spent.

Local matters

This hits on so many different levels. Local is now where things are, the challenges of seeing big names from the high street disappear, made us realise how fragile they were. They were hanging on the brink before the pandemic and it didn’t take much to realign where the world of business sits. I’ve said for 3 plus years, it has been getting highly polar, small niche businesses deliver more in the way of service than any online web megalith of a business. The ethics of environmental factors of buying local and reducing good mileage is also a significant part of this. We now carry ranges of stock, which are British made, where we have minimised the journey of product manufacture into us, and thus onto our customers. Local also matters after discovering how much of the goods we used are reliant on containers moving them around the world. Was 2021 the point where globalisation had its reality check?

This blog is the first part of our review of 2021. We’d be interested to hear your comments and thoughts on what matters to you, if you found this on a social post, please tag comments appropriately. Equally, always open to having a chat.