TFI Friday                                                                         


Ever had one of those weeks when you just go yes its the weekend, well we've had a few months like that and I think everyone here is saying the immortal words TFI Friday

But where did this come from originally, we had a scout around and the only thing we could come up with was the TV show hosted by Chris Evans on Channel 4, can the Ginger Whinger really be responsible for this saying, if you know more about the source then let us know.


Happy Friday everyone

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Fresh Invest In New Polar Mohr Guillotine -
A Cut Above The Rest

As part of our continued growth and investment we have invested in a new guillotine. 


Its a state of the art Polar Mohr, which is a high quality programmatic machine with airbed and digital positioning.

We strive to improve our quality and this is another piece that will help give you a perfect job

Ian Swannell from Fresh stated, ' We're always looking to improve our quality and this will not only help improve our quality but speed up production as well, we're working 6 day weeks now and we need a good, reliable, quality machine that can handle our sort of workload.'

Here are some images of if being installed - it was quite big!!

If you want to find out how Fresh can help your business then call us on 01296 489998 or on 01442 345088 or email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or visit us at www.freshdps.co.uk


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Fresh Sponsor Tour de Vale for the 2nd Year


For the 2nd year running Fresh are sponsoring the The Tour de Vale Bike Ride. Over the past few months we have been helping produce and promote this years event to help make it a success.

We having been producing the entry forms, bike numbers, vinyl banners, florescent boards, pop up banners and posters.

Andy Gerlack said ' Its been great to be involved again for this years event , its a very special year for all of us in this country and we do all we can to help make the bike ride a success and to help Wheelpower get lots of money in donations.


If you want to find out how to enter then visit www.tourdevale.com or call them on 01296 395995

If you want to find out how Fresh can help your business then call us on Aylesbury 01296 489998 or at Hemel on 01442 345088 or email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or visit us at www.freshdps.co.uk


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Happy St Georges Day     






Yes today is the day to celebrate our great country, I think we all forget how good this place is and what we have achieved, so be proud today that we gave the world football and cricket, and we invented the first suspension bridge and the train as well as the Sunday Roast Dinner and Fish 'n' chips.


We are a nation that gave the world the television, The 1st light bulb was built by Humphry Davy (an Englishman) in 1809 and the first flushing toilet ( Sir Thomas Crapper )and also gave the world Jedward and TOWIE.

Through our history we have legends such as Winston Churchill, Henry V and Robin Hood. We are a country of entrepeneurs that are unmatched. So lets celebrate whats good about England and  stand up and sing 'Jerusalem' all day long.


Happy St Georges Day

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Garlic-fed cows combat global warming

Sometimes its nice to bring you a story thats not related to print but we still like to bring you news on how to help the environment, so here's one for you.

Reducing farm animals’ wind by adding garlic to feed could substantially reduce greenhouse emissions, according to research by West Wales’ scientists featured by Euronews.

An organosulphur compound obtained from garlic kills off methane-producing bacterium in the digestive system of cows, according to Professor Jamie Newbold, who heads up a €5 million-research programme at Aberystwyth University.

Cows eating feed enriched with the garlic compound — called Allicin – release 40% less gas without interference to their normal digestive fermentation, according to the research.
Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and agricultural emissions constitute approximately 18% of global greenhouse gas production, Kenton Hart of Aberystwyth University told Euronews.

The scientists said cutting methane emissions by cows by 40% would substantially curtail global warming.

David Williams from Neem Biotech – which manufactures Allicin – said that supplying a quarter of the UK’s cattle herd would require five-and-a-half thousand tons of garlic a year, which he told the channel could be “very, very big business”.

The only negative is that Allicin appears to taint the taste of milk and other dairy products. So the researchers – who are also experimenting with sheep and other livestock – are looking at other kinds of garlic metabolites which would achieve the same effect, without the downside.


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Cheap Printing - really?!!

Theres an old saying you get what you pay for and when it comes to printing this is usually the case. On the radio lately there are 2 separate global printers, one which is online and the other has a number of outlets throughout the world that can produce business cards for less than £3.00 same day and the other one does it for free.

So with interest I thought I would check out to see what you actually got for your money, The first one I went into was the  outlet and  I enquired about the business cards. I got a lot of erms and arghs from the assistant who didnt know to much about the offer, so I explained that I had heard on the radio that you were doing same day business cards for less than £3.00 and it said to come on in - so here I am.

I got passed over to somebody else who then informed that I had to go online and look at the catalogue of logos I could use and then type my information where relevant and then send to print which emailed them to print it. So I did, I went home and after an hour fiddling with my new design I emailed it to them.

I then returned to the outlet in anticpation 2 hours later that it would be there waiting for me. The assistant then informed me that their server was a bit slow and they hadnt received the email yet  so I was told to give it 5 minutes, 20 minutes later and still nothing. 30 minutes, 40 minutes, he then checked his junk mail and found it in there - great.

He then proceeded to make my card fit several times on a sheet which took an eternity to get right and then printed them on a colour copier which when they came out felt like they had been printed on toilet paper they were that thin, so I put this question to him and said what weight is this on as its a bit flimsy and he barked back 'its a business card board that everyone has - its a 200gsm', I kept my knowledge to myself at this point as I was nearly laughing at him and wanted to scream at him as well and just replied OK.

He then went off to cut them out and when they came back they were about as straight as a banana.

I went to pay for my £3.00 business cards thinking - is this really the future, because if it is I want out, there was No service, No Knowledge, No Quality, and definately NO satisfaction.

So if you really want cheap printing, thats has no quality about it and will represent you or your business then email me and i'll give you their phone number gladly.


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Winners

http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/#winners


Just found out  we won Best Blog Design 2011 at the Blogger Choice Awards, so would just like to thank everyone who voted for us and to everyone who enjoys reading our posts.

We try and keep it informative and relevant to you all but if you have any suggestions for articles then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk


Thank you all once again

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What the F!!!?

We recently had to produce some copying for a client and couldnt help notice that it was a presentation to a very large corporate client, and the title was somewhat explicit but abbreviated to WTF which we were all flabbergasted by.

We then read the pitching document and was even more astonished that it carried on the inside as well. Call us old fashioned but how on earth do they think they are going to impress people with this sort of rhetoric. Yes, we are all for designers being creative and pushing barriers but this just seemed irresponsible to even let it get this far to be in front of their prospective client.

I havent heard if they won their pitch but perhaps they were going for 'The pitch that would be remembered the most vote'. Im sure they got that award but hopefully not the business otherwise we are going to have to rethink our pitching techniques.

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ULTRA-FRESH - ULTRA SAFE     

We are not renowned for being a carton or a box printer, but over the last few months we have been producing the boxes for a company called Ultralife whose products can be found in all the major supermarkets.

We thought we would showcase what we have been doing as its not often that something unusual comes along and we can tell you how we produce it.

For all the boxes you can see in the pictures there is a lot of processes involved to get it to the client.

From the moment the artwork arrives it gets flightchecked to make sure all the fonts and pictures are as they should be, the customer will then receive a digital press proof to ensure they are happy with how the print will look.

Once approved, the plates are made for the press and  on the press  they all get checked to see that the printed carton matches the press proof the customer has already seen.

Once off the press and  we have allowed the ink to dry for 24 hours the cartons are then what we call die-cut with a specific machine. This is where a tool is made to the exact specifications of the carton and how it is to be cut out and is checked that it correctly goes together and the image of the box is still as the customer has seen.

After it is cut out, it then goes to a silver foil blocker who then adds his magic touch to enhance the look of the box where another specific machine sticks and cuts the foil to the box and is checked again to make sure it meets the customers requirements.

After this process the cartons are then put on a glueing line where the tabs are glued and the box ready to be made up into what it is designed for.

The last part of its journey is for one more final quality check before its gets lovingly put into its own box ready to be delivered to the client.

Who would have thought a simple box would have so much attention to detail and work gone into it, so next time your picking up something from the supermarket shelves have a little thought of what went into it to look the way it does.

If you want to find out how Fresh can help your business then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088

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That Friday Feeling

Theres always a great satisfaction at the end of the week that it has been a good one and you can sit back and try and relax on friday afternoon.

I recently read an article on how much business is done on a friday afternoon and it came out that it came second to a wednesday morning.

Now I for one agree with this because I feel more relaxed on a friday afternoon so I expect my clients do to, therefore they have more time to spend chatting to you and are more welcoming.

I suppose its not rocket science really but its worth noting this small detail when you are next following up on quotes or wanting to talk to a client.

So Happy Friday Afternoon Everyone, lets do some work.

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definition of urgent

usually rushed, great emergency, need today - thats a clients perspective


unorganised, rarely generates enough new trade - thats a suppliers perspective

In our industry there is always that urgent job to do and we do our best to meet your deadlines, but next time you have a project give yourself plenty of time to plan, prepare, budget, and to execute your plans concisely otherwise theres only one way it will end and that is failure. So dont blame us if this is what happens, we know how long things take to deliver and we'll tell you at the outset, it is down to you give us the time to make sure your project looks its best.


Jerry Mcguire once said help me, help you, simple to the point.

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Who says that there is a recession?


The start of a New Year has begun with us all full of hope and optimism, here at Fresh we have had our best January in our history of the company with sales exceeding expectations and new clients coming on board every day.

At our Hemel branch there is a 38% growth compared to last January as it continues to go from strength to strength and we have just finished a major campaign in Oxford for a blue chip client as well which we will showcase in the near future.

We are now actively looking for more staff as our growth continues and are looking for full and part time customer sales support people to work in our Aylesbury branch, as well as mac operators, printers and print finishers, so if you feel that you fit one of these roles then email your cv to: hello@freshdps.co.uk and we'll be in touch.

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And The Winner Is.......        




With the Oscar season nearly here, as your watching the TV here are some interesting facts you can impress your friends with

The shortest Oscar ceremony ever was the first, held in 1929; it lasted only about 15 minutes as all the winners had been announced three months earlier.

The longest Oscar awards ceremony was in 2000, running for 4 hours and 16 minutes – beating a previous record by 16 minutes.

Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars 18 times; Billy Crystal is in second place with 8 times.

Tom Hanks is the youngest recipient of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2002 at age 45.

Kate Winslet is the only actress to receive four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 30.

Gone with the Wind, at 3 hours and 56 minutes, was the longest film to have won a Best Picture Oscar; it was also the first film in color to win Best Picture.

Henry Fonda was first nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 1941 for his role in The Grapes of Wrath but had to wait 41 years before he finally achieved a win in 1982 for his role in On Golden Pond. At 76, he is the oldest actor yet to have received the Best Actor award.

The oldest actress to win an Oscar is Jessica Tandy – at 81 she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1990 for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy.

Anthony Quinn’s performance as painter Paul Gaugin in Lust for Life (1956) is the shortest ever to win a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, his second Oscar. He was on screen for only 8 minutes. (He won a similar award in 1952 playing opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata!)

The shortest-ever winning performance for Best Supporting Actress belongs to Beatrice Straight, who won an Oscar in 1976 for her 5 minutes 40 seconds appearance as devastated wife Louise Schumacher in Network.

Dame Judi Dench won an Oscar in 1998 for less than 8 minutes of screen time playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

The shortest-ever Best Actor Oscar-winning performance was awarded to David Niven in 1958, having appeared for only 15 minutes and 38 seconds in Separate Tables.

The second-shortest winning appearance was made by Anthony Hopkins in 1992, for less than 16 minutes of screen time as Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.

The fewest lines spoken by an Oscar-winning actress won Patty Duke a Best Actress in a Supporting Role portraying the deaf and blind Helen Keller in the 1962 film The Miracle Worker. In the role she speaks only one word in the last scene: “Wah-wah” (for “water”).

The films with the most Oscar wins are Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, each winning 11 Oscars from 12, 14 and 11 nominations respectively.


William Wyler has directed more actors to Academy Award success than any other, with 34 nominations and 14 wins.

Jack Nicholson leads the Best Actor Academy Award category with wins from 11 nominations.

Meryl Streep had more Best Actress nominations than any other actress.

Shirley Temple is the youngest performer to receive an Academy Award; in 1934 she received a Special Award when she was only five years old.

Groucho Marx was the oldest Academy Award winner – in 1973 he received a Honorary Award at the age of 83.

Mutiny on The Bounty (1935) was the only film to have had three nominees for Best Actor Oscars (Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone) but won only the Best Picture award.

The first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, in 1991. The award went to Silence of the Lambs but Beauty and the Beast won 2 Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”


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George David - Fresh - A Winning Partnership

George David Estate Agents, have truly shown how to win business in a recession, we all know that the property market has taken a hit, but Andy Evans from George David refused to be beaten and saw it as an opportunity.

Instead of sitting and waiting to see what happens and hibernate, they have been very pro-active in their strategy by marketing themslves even harder.

At Fresh we have been producing 40,000 postcards every 6 weeks for them to help them drive home the message that they really are Aylesburys Leading Estate Agency.

With this intense marketing results happen, and Andy Evans said ' The more people we target, the luckier we get, we want to be Aylesburys number one agent and the results we have been having, go back to the amount of hard work we put into our marketing strategy. Fresh have played their part in this and long may our partnership with them continue.'

Andy Gerlack from Fresh said ' Its great to see a like minded company wanting to be the best they can, we adopt the same attitude at Fresh that we wont sit on our laurels and will always try and improve and the results are in testimonials like this.'


If your looking for an estate agency in Aylesbury then we would thoroughly recommend George David, email them at info@georgedavid.co.uk or call them on 01296 393393.


If you want to find out how Fresh can help your business then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call 01296 489998 or 01442 345088

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2012 - The Year for hard work and optimism

Happy New Year to you all, I hope you all prosper, get what you want and have some fun while getting there this year.

There are many things this year that we can all do to keep positive, there are the Olympics for starters followed by the Paralympics to inspire us, the Diamond Jubilee of our beloved Queen, not to mention great sporting occasions like the boat race, the national, the FA Cup, Wimbledon, and a great summer of Cricket.

We have so much in this country to be proud of and even locally here as I sit looking out of my window looking at the Chiltern Hills and the historic Hartwell House in the forefront. I think sometimes we all take for granted how great this country is and yes the last 3 years have been very difficult but it is up to each and everyone of us to do our own very small part to make it great again.

Here at Fresh we are planning our year on how we are going to do our bit and as a business we can do a lot, each year we have a dedicated charity we look after and give them as much printed literature as we can to help them promote themselves.

We also help out schools with free paper and we advertise in local parish magazines so as they put the money to good use in their community. Every year we look at what we can do locally to make a difference, we like to champion local business in our shop and on our blogs and website. So I think its about time everybody took a look to see what you could do just to make a small difference to helping our local economys, after all it will be our small businesses that will get us out of this recession and push the economy into a growth statistic.

Goog luck this year, my fellow entrepreneurs, hard work and optimism go a very long way.

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A Hot and Spicy New Image         

When it comes to creating a new image for a brand new Mexican restaurant in the Aylesbury Town Centre where else do people come to and have the confidence that it will be delivered on time and to their requirements.

This was the case for Bandidos Mexican Restaurant. They came to us looking for a complete image brand and what we came up with, they were absolutely thrilled by.

Kevin Brook said ' We needed to come up with an exciting contemporary image to get Bandidos noticed and I feel we achieved what we set out to do, the restaurant is always packed so we must have succeeded, we have an extremely creative team that always come up with the goods'.  

So if you feel your image could do with some tweaking or perhaps a little refresh to get you noticed more then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088

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Be Distinct or Be Extinct        

Exactly as the title says, its not just about how your products or service looks, its about how your sales people perform, how your customer service department handle your customers, how quickly you can deliver, how the quality of your product stands up and how your price compares with the next person.

All of these have to be right to achieve success in a tough marketplace, you need to be distinct enough to stand out from the rest of your competition as there will always be someone else ready to step into your shoes.

So what does make the difference in todays market-place?

Its always  been said 'dont judge a book by its cover' but when your pitching for that new contract or sending out that brochure with your quote then the first impression is always the only one you will get, so its important to get it right with your company branding.

Take a look at your company, make a list of the plus points and the minus then give us a call and let us do the same to your company and see if we agree with your points or disagree.

Our job at Fresh is to give honest advice on your image and how to improve it, you might not like what we have to say but we will give you the helpful advice on how to make your company get that first impression right.

So give us a call on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088 or email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk

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School Student Planners      


After another successful summer producing student planners, prospectus' and other school material, we thought we would showcase what we have been doing, every year more schools come on board to our way of thinking that print does not need to be boring and that we can offer so much variety and personalization to any document.

When we started looking at the market for schools and student planners we found out that we could produce a planner completely unique to that school and be more cost effective than their current supplier.

So what we have been doing each year is slowly increasing our capacity of who we offer the service to without compromising on the quality as well and what we have now in place is a unique system to produce large volume student planners  from a short deadline, so there is no need for schools to worry about getting planners and prospectus signed off by early March and they can now change policys, staff lists right up until the end of the summer term.


Georgina Harwood from Adeyfield School declared. ' I was astonished by the new look of our student planner and our teacher planners as well, what Andy and his team at Fresh have given us, is something that the students and teachers love and that can evolve and be changed so easily. I am so glad Andy came to see me.'

Andy Gerlack from Fresh said ' We have a proven system that works for schools and everytime we show a school what they could have, they jump at the chance, we have the nice problem of that we cannot offer it to everyone as we will be swamped so which is why we only increase our capacity of 5 schools per year so we dont let anybody down and that way we learn how to cope with the demand and everybody is happy with the results.'

If you want to find out what we can do for your school then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088.

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Xmas Card Catalogues out now

Yes, its that time of year again when you should say thank you to your clients and send them a Christmas Card. Its always something so small and personal that goes a long way and now more than ever you should be saying a big thank you and looking after them.

We will encourage you with an offer of 10% off your order, so come on, theres no excuse, treat your customers this xmas with a little note to them.

Catalogues are out now so call the numbers below to get your free copy.

To get your catalogues and 10% off your order then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us at 01296 489998 or
01442 345088

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A Piece of Cake                        

  


We thought we would show you some of the exhibition banners we produce, this one in particular came to us with just the frame and we had to reproduce the replacement banners.

The results as you can see are fantastic and look great as the centre piece of any exhibition stand, we have become specialists at this type of work now and can produce all different shapes and sizes even if you have an existing stand we can replace all the graphics to cost effectively.

If you have an existing stand that you need the graphics replacing or you need some ideas for your stand then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088.

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Fresh Blog

Nominated For Award           

We have been nominated for an award for our blog and we need your votes, we are in the category of Best Corporate Blog and are running 2nd for the Blogger Choice Awards. If you like what we write about then please take the time to vote, it takes about 2 minutes and we have detailed simple instructions below for you all to make it easier as well. We will be eternally grateful to you for this.

Follow the link below, but print out these instructions first to make it simpler.


http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/100088

 Then click sign up


Add all your details


You will then get an email in your inbox confirming your email address in this link, click on this


Go to Best Corporate Blog on the sidebar and we should be on Page 1 then click vote.


Many Thanks in advance for helping us


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Now we are 3!!

Yes I know the year goes quick, we thought so too, we've achieved an historic milestone given the fact that we started up at the start of the recession and are now 3 years old, we would just like to thank all our clients and suppliers for all of their support and warmest wishes, we could not have done it without you and we appreciate it a lot.

As for the coming year, Fresh would not be Fresh if we didnt have some exciting news to come, there are some big developments to come in the New Year and some exciting news to happen next month as well.

We thank you all once again for your support and comments and look forward to seeing you all for the coming year.


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STEVE JOBS 1955-2011                                                          

Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of our time. Just as the light bulb changed the way we looked at things so did the innovations that Steve imagined and produced. He was of the world's greatest marketers. We will miss him.


In his own words he expresses his philosophy of death elegantly:


“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs


The world has lost one of the great visionaries in history. Yet he continues on as in inspiration to all of us that seek innovation, perfection and success.
 
 
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Adeyfield School -

Staff and students look forward to new website launch           

It has taken 6 months to build but we can now unveil Adeyfields new website, we built the site from scratch and gave it a whole new look making it look fresher, more contemporary and easy to navigate.


http://www.adeyfieldschool.org/


It was a project that came about when we started talking to the school about the student planners and what their goals for the year would be and the website was a priority, so we jumped at the chance to be included in the brief and we managed to secure the project and 6 months on we are launching the site in time for
the new term.

Andy Gerlack said ' The website looks stunning and our designers have to take most of the credit for it as they have done the creative work but I also have to thank Adeyfield Scool as well for giving us this opportunity and the staff in particular as they gave us a very good site map to begin with.

If you think your website needs a bit of tweaking or a bit of a re-vamp then give us a call on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088 or email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk

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100 days till xmas!!


We may be the first to mention it, but did you know that it is only 100 days till Christmas, so perhaps its time to take a look at what your company will be doing from now right through to the New Year.

It is an important time for marketing and getting it right for the coming of the year, with this in mind we are here to help and advise what sort of marketing you should be doing.

If its a pop up banner to promote an offer or a leaflet drop to spread the word or some calendars to make sure your companys name is sitting on the desk for the new year then we can help with all of this.We would like to help by offering 20% off our print from now until the November 30th to help you get noticed. Just mention where you saw this discount to qualify.

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Piatto Bianco - Fast Food Branding

Delivering their expectations

With only 10 days before they were due to open, the owners of Piatto Bianco, an Italian Fine Dining Restaurant at Verney Junction called Fresh to see if we could help, the problem they had was they had no look, logo, or more importanly no marketing material.

So what happened in 1 week was that we came up with the logo, the look, the brand, and menus for lunch and evening, comment cards, 13,000 leaflets, business cards, vinyl banners, bill receipt, invoice holders, kitchen orders as well as signage for the exterior.

The results were incredible and was all done to perfection and in a day before the opening.

Andy Gerlack fro Fresh stated, ' We drew on all our experience on this one as it was very, very tight, but this is why so many companies choose us, it is because we deliver their expectations, where else or who else could do what we do.'


If you want to find out about Piatto Bianco - Italian Fine Dining then book a table there and call 01296 715209.

If you think your image needs updating or tweaking a bit then why not pop us an email at hello@freshdps.co.uk or give us a call on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088

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Fresh new programmes

for Aylesbury United FC

Fresh have become a new sponsor for Aylesbury United Football Club for the coming season.

With high quality quick turnaround needed  for Aylesbury Utd's programmes they turned to us to assist.

Kevin Brook for fresh said ' With the digital

and litho equipment we have we are in an ideal situation to provide this type of service.

We are quick and have the quality to go with it.'

With the new season just starting lets hope the Ducks have a successful season.

If you want to find out how Fresh can help your business then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk or call us at 01296 489998 or 01442 345088

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Positive News alert!!

With so much bad news about at the moment, you have to look really hard to find the good shoots of growth coming through so we thought we would relay some good news stories to try and combat some of the doom gloom out there and to show that there is light at the end of the tunnel, if you feel like us there are good stories out there, then email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk and we will publish them on your behalf.

Activity in the UK's service sector expanded in July at its fastest rate for four months, an industry survey has suggested.


The Markit/Cips services purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 55.4 in July from 53.9 in June. A figure above 50 indicates growth.


The figure surprised analysts who had expected a slowdown in activity.


However, the survey also indicated that the service sector cut jobs despite the increased activity.


Employment in the sector had increased slightly during the previous two months.


Increases in the cost of goods bought by firms slowed, but costs remained relatively high as a result of energy price increases and supply chain constraints.


Despite this, stiff competition meant that inflation in the cost of goods bought from service companies was at its lowest rate for 10 months.

The strongest increase in activity in services was seen in the Business Services and IT and Computing sectors.


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Food For Thought



We all get emails that do the rounds with jokes and pictures, but I thought I would share this one with you all.

If you are ever bored and need inspiration from design or your creative juices just are not flowing then take a minute to look at the pictures below.

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Don't be anti-social.

5 reasons to embrace social media.



1. Social media is an important SEO tool. Links from social media are playing an increasingly important role in your site's search position. Since 80% of consumer purchases start with search, this reason alone is a good argument for embracing social media.

2. Your customers expect you to be social. 60% of UK citizens spend time on a social network at least once a week. YouTube reaches 36% of all business decision makers. 93% of business buyers believe all companies should have a social media presence.

3. Social media provides important marketing data and consumer feedback. You don't need surveys to find out what your prospects are thinking. The buyers in your market are telling you this now in social media. But you have to listen.


4. Social media is the new PR. Journalists increasingly rely on social media to research story ideas, sources and trends. A PR program that relies on phone, online wire services, and mail is no longer effective.


5. Social media produces very high conversion on leads. Leads from social focus on quality not quantity. Prospects that engage with you on social networks are more likely to look favorably on your company and brand, and its offerings.


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The changing face of print

- across all communications.


There was a time when a printing company was a - lets face it a printing company, but over the last few years print has evolved so much, that sometimes it is unrecognisable.

A printing company has now evolved into a communications media portal, very Star Wars!!

It has become an integral part of a business' primary outlet to the outside world.

When we talk with clients now we talk about the whole marketing strategy, from their brand awareness, to email marketing, to their own website, to their social networking, to their on-hold message, to text message communication, SEO, QR Codes, Radio advertsing, Signage and then finally getting round to hard printed matter.

What the new digital era has given us is an insight on how and what we will be using to get our business recognised instead of relying on print on paper.

The future for us as printers has never been more exciting and we for one as a company embrace the new technology and look forward to how it will all develop, we have seen in the past new technology coming into print ie the fax machine, internet but with the digital presses giving us the speed and quality there is no need to have huge quantitys of printed material anymore and the steep curve of smartphone technology it has opened up whole new avenues of business.

So if you were just about to start out on a business venture what would be on your shopping list to make your business launch a success, so for businesses we have come up with our future starter package which we would like your feedback on how much you would be willing to pay for this sort of package and if you feel there should be other items on the list.

Website x 3 pages
1 months radio advertising
1 x e-marketing campaign
3 social network sites
business cards x 250 x 1 name


email us at hello@freshdps.co.uk


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