Online Printers Reviews – VistaPrint

Henry — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:44:14 +0000

This is hopefully the first in a series of reviews of online print companies. These will be reviews from our own experience of ordering print online.

First up Vistaprint:
These are obviously one of the big boys and our impression it shows! Not in a good way I hasten to add.

Cost
Drawn in by low cost you feel you can’t ignore you will soon realise there are an array of hidden costs. Uploading your own artwork will cost you extra per side; for instance a folded business card counts as 4 uploads which means 4 extra costs. If you want anything like a normal turn around time you pay extra, suddenly that low cost mounts up!

Online Design/Upload Feature
In our trial we were uploading the artwork for a folded business card. I’d like to say it was easy but… as you’ve guessed it wasn’t, the preview you get doesn’t explain wether it includes bleed or not, the move and scaling is awkward to say the least. If you have accurate artwork you simply don’t trust the system put in front of you.

Customer service
From our experience albeit a one off experience the ethos is the usual we’ve got 13 million happy customers! so why shouldn’t you be. We experienced problems with the online artwork unloader and requested that we just send the artwork directly, after waiting 8 days for a response we had to ring again – not good!!.

Print Quality
At time of writing we were still waiting for the items to arrive.

Conclusion
This seems like a service for people that want cheap templated design, great for your local plumber and DIY handyman.

Happy Christmas

Henry — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:29:58 +0000

We’d just like to take this opportunity to thank all of our amazing clients for the work they have given us over the year. Like over eager kids at Christmas we can’t wait for the next year as we have some fantastic projects coming up along with some very exciting tenders.

BBC’s Article on Googles search engine changes

Henry — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:22:50 +0000

Google has recently announced changes to the way it’s search algorithm works, the BBC’s article points to some of the key changes and how it will affect users.

We will be reviewing these changes over the next few weeks to see how this affects our existing clients and working with them to get the best from their sites.

Software Reviews – BrightBooks Accounting

Henry — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:43:26 +0000

This our first venture into software reviews, so bear with us!

It’s always great finding well written and well designed interfaces. Often as a graphic designer we pick other peoples work to pieces. Sometimes with genuine reason, sometimes dare I say, out of jealousy.

Brightbooks is something that we have started to use and shows how an alien subject such as accounting can be made to look human! much like the way Apple developed an operating system that just – works!

The Software Reviews itself?

First of all Brightbooks is FREE, yes free! mmmm. How does that work? Well it looks like that once the software has enough users additional features will be available for the end user to purchase. Things like further customisation of the invoice etc. Which sounds great, if it can sustain the period without revenue.

What font is it?

Henry — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 08:18:00 +0000

One of the problems being a graphic designer nowadays is the sheer volume of fonts available. Often a client will come to us without a decent copy of their logo, so a re-draw is required. Trying to find the font used can be a nightmare but once again some bright spark has developed online software that identifies them for you. Having used the tool on a number of occasions I have to say it’s pretty impressive. Okay it obviously won’t pick up customized fonts or some of the more obscure ones but it gives it a pretty good go.

So when years of experience and font knowledge let you down, myfonts – what the font tool is invaluable.

New business cards – finally

Henry — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:24:05 +0000

Our new business cards came today which has come as a relief. A design agency always leaves their own stuff until last and we for one haven’t broken that tradition!

Stoneplan website in development

Henry — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:45:35 +0000

We are working with York based garden design company Stoneplan to develop their new website. Designs are approved and we’re on the home straight now – just content, content, content.

Lorna to do the Leeds 10K

Henry — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:55:13 +0000

Lorna our company secretary/designer has committed to doing the 10k in Leeds on Sunday 19 June 2011. Currently in vigorous training whilst pushing various prams, she has yet to do the full 10k – We’ll keep you posted. Anyway it’s great to see such a fantastic event doing so well! The website if anyone is interested is http://runforall.com/events/leeds-10k/

Are we too late!

Henry — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:42:35 +0000

We’ve finally had time to get our own Facebook page up and running – but are we too late? is there anyone out there? I’m sure there is so you’re more than welcome to be our ‘friend’.

Tin Eye

Henry — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:58:05 +0000

Occasionally you find something that really amazes you! or makes you wonder how on earth someone could develop something that does something so complicated. Tin Eye anyone! – its an online tool that lets you upload an image to see where it came from originally.

So if you’re wondering which image library an image came from look no further.