We love to design... an elegant new brochure for a bridal accessories company

I think it's time I updated you with what we've been up to in the design studio this month!

We've recently completed a project for fabulous bridal accessories company, Crystal Bridal Accessories. Crystal is owned and run by the very driven and focused Amy Karim. 

Amy clearly has her finger on the pulse when it comes to ideas for accessorising your wedding outfit and I love the way that she's approached her business as a fashion advice resource. Often it can be difficult for people to visualise what should go together or how to create a particular look but Amy has made this easy for her customers, with lots of advice, imagery and a blog. I particularly love the vintage-style accessories and looks, evoking art deco imagery.

Amy was keen to bring a selection of her products and inspiration together into an elegant brochure which customers could purchase as a handy guide to creating their perfect wedding outfit. 

Amy was fantastic to work with, providing a clear vision of how she wanted her brochure to look but allowing us to have our creative input and responding to advice in a way that allowed us to add real value to the project.

Amy opted for a square format with silk inner pages and a matt laminated cover, which adds to the elegance and finesse of the finished brochure. We were given beautiful, professional photos to work with (half the battle won in a product brochure!) and Amy provided visuals of where we were heading. It was then up to us to realise her vision. Amy had this fantastic feedback for us:

"I am ecstatic with the results of the style guide brochure – it is professional, high quality and very well-designed. The design process itself was stress-free and I was impressed with the way all our ideas, thoughts, likes, dislikes were discussed so that the end product reflected our image perfectly! We were given detailed information about paper types, styles and finishes which helped us to make the right decision about the look of our final brochure. Thanks for an excellent service and a beautiful brochure. We will definitely be recommending you to all our colleagues in the industry."

Thank you Amy! It was great to work with you and we are equally pleased with the results!

Check out Amy's site (www.crystalbridalaccessories.co.uk) and tell your friends about her, especially if they're planning their wedding or have a special occasion coming up. And order your own Bridal Accessories Style Guide before they sell out!

Inspiration and direction

A simple cover using elegant typography

Clear instructions on how to order

Eye-catching headlines that categorise the range

Magazine style spreads that offer fashion advice

Individual styling for each page

Clear contact details to drive website traffic

 

We love to design... another wild success!

We love a project that we can get our teeth into and one of our latest design projects for Aim 4 Africa provided just that.

Aim 4 Africa is a fantastic Sheffield-based company run by Nancy Cutinha. Nancy organises high quality, tailor-made holidays to the heart of Africa. Nancy is clearly passionate about what Africa has to offer and this comes across whenever we speak to her. Our briefing meetings are always fascinating since we get an insight into the sort of holidays she organises... animal safaris in the Maasai Mara... relaxing on the beaches of Zanzibar... gorilla treks in Rwanda... and so many beautiful images to accompany the stories.

And so it goes without saying that the opportunity to create a company brochure for Aim 4 Africa was well received!

Nancy's holidays are not 'run of the mill'. They are those special holidays that will stay with you forever and for many people, they are honeymoons. So it was important that the brochure portrayed the quality and individuality of these experiences. It needed to be eye-catching and compelling to the reader. Nancy also attends exhibitions and shows and therefore she needed something that was cost-effective enough to hand out and handy enough to pop into a handbag without becoming lost. I believe that the objectives of the project have been achieved and it would seem that Nancy agrees:

"We would highly recommend printing.com in Sheffield for their excellent design services. We've recently had our company brochure designed and printed (30 page booklet) with Spot UV colour and the result is simply amazing. Joe and Oliver, from the initial meeting to discuss the brief, have been incredibly helpful with lots of  practical suggestions and advice particularly on improving our image to a more "cleaner" yet professional layout. Oliver, with his great flair for design took the project from our inital concept and developed the booklet  through various forms of artwork design through to proofing. The outcome is a professional booklet that we are very proud of.  I am sure our clients will be equally captivated by our booklets and entice them to book a holiday with us!"

You can visit Aim 4 Africa at www.aim4africa.com and follow them on Twitter @aim4africa.

If you're looking for a professional company brochure that will sell your products and services, why not give us a call to arrange a free consultation to discuss the possibilities - remember... there's more to us than printing!

Until next time,

Sarah

We love to design... a logo revamp and shiny new brochure for StairSteady

I first saw Ruth Amos of StairSteady (www.stairsteady.net) present at an E3 Event a couple of years ago and was blown away by her. 

Coupled with her fascinating story of how she'd got into business, having invented her product at 16 as part of a GCSE project, she also has an impressive demeanor - intelligent, driven and a true ambassador for entrepreneurialism. Having won the prestigious 'Young Engineer for Great Britain' award for her invention, her abilities speak for themselves.

Without getting too gushy, I was therefore extremely chuffed to be approached by Ruth to design her brochure. 

Testament to the power of Twitter, Ruth had been encouraged to contact me by some of my Twitter followers, who are also clients and friends.

Ruth was very focused about what she wanted from her brochure, what it needed to do for the company, who it was targeted at and what values it needed to communicate. This worked well alongside her willingness to take our advice and input and we were able to run with the project.

Oliver began with a simple re-vamp of the existing logo, which we were concerned looked dated and therefore not representative of her innovative product:

Next, I took Ruth's supplied text and spent some time re-working it into compelling copy which focused on the company's core values and USP's. We were able to pull out key phrases which would create 'buy-in' from Ruth's market, and focus on these throughout the design. Ruth supplied us with some great images to work with and Oliver put these to good use to create a visual story of the product:

"I found working with printing.com to be a stress free and very pleasant experience. All the staff were helpful and went out of their way to make sure that we ended up with something that we are very proud of. It has given us a leaflet that embodies the company at this time and a logo that has given our brand a whole new feel. We are so happy with the work they have done and will be using them again as they went above and beyond what was expected of them." Ruth Amos, StairSteady Ltd

You can probably tell that this is yet another project that we've really enjoyed being involved in and we're looking forward to watching Ruth's business prosper.

Finally, if you're interested in networking with my colleagues and I, there will be an E3 Event at Sheffield College on 2nd November - 'Future Faces: The Future for Entrepreneurs'.

And guess what.... I'm one of the panel members sharing my stories, theories and opinions so please come along to support me and you may even meet some great new contacts into the bargain! You can book at: www.wearee3.com

See you there!

Sarah