Our New Website


After 3 years we decided to revamp our website and add some new features, we wanted to keep it looking fresh and relevant and easy to navigate and show what we could do while keeping the technical jargon out of it.

Our online ordering system will be up and running shortly as we are putting it through its paces at the moment in testing, but you can now upload files to us with ease.

Take a browse through and let us know what you think as your comments are always welcome.

Our website address is www.freshdps.co.uk

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New Fresh Website


We are revamping our website at the moment and is in its final stages so below is link to a sneak preview to it



www.freshdps.co.uk/new_website

let us know your comments

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Introducing Anita Wickham   


We'd like to introduce you to our latest member of staff, Anita Wickham.

Anita will be heading up our digital suite and will be your first point of call. She comes with a great pedigree and has been in the industry for over 20 years and compliments our brand completely.

Im sure you'll all be be wishing her the best of luck in her new role within Fresh.

If you want to contact Anita then call her on 01296 489998 or 01442 345088 or email her at anita@freshdps.co.uk

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A Diamond Jewel In Our Crown  



As part of the Queens Diamond Jubilee Celebrations we were asked to print a Commemorative Booklet and some other marketing collateral on behalf of Dacorum Borough Council.






It was a memorable piece of design and print that had different elements to it. It consisted of being a 24 page full colour booklet that had to be individually numbered as there was a prize draw for the winning programme and then gloss laminated to seal it all in with a quantity of 5000.

The finished result was a beautiful piece of marketing that captured the occasion, Andy Gerlack said of it. ' The design of the programme is what made it, and then the print was easy, there was the challenge of individually numbering them all and then laminating after but it all turned out really well and I was really pleased with the result, Im sure Her Majesty would be very pleased with it.'

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

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Introducing Mr Gary Derbyshire


We have exciting news to share with everyone, our newest member of staff is going to be the first of some big big storys to come out of Fresh in the next few months.

Gary is our new Commercial Manager to help our business grow and to service our existing clients as well, he is highly experienced and brings a wealth of knowledge with him as well.

I have no doubt that Mr Gary Derbyshire will be visiting you soon to say hello, we wish him all the best and I am sure you all do too.

If you want to contact Gary then call him on his mobile which is  07532 178142   or catch him on 01296 489998 or 01442 435088 or email him at gary@freshdps.co.uk

100th Blog - Not Out              

Today we are celebrating our 100th Blog post since we started, thank you all for your comments and feedback about the blog and more importantly voting for us as well at the Blogger Awards in which we won Best Blog Design which makes it all worthwhile.

So after careful thought of what we should write about in this epic moment we thought why not about our favourite subject, which is blogs.

Blogs have taken over from the diary to a certain extent but still have the same purpose and that is to express a view that your thinking at the time or to share something that might come in useful.

There are so many out there so how do you follow a good one and what should you look out for.

Well for starters the blogs you follow, you must  have to have an interest in, but it doesnt stop there, the best blogs are the ones where the viewpoint is an original idea or concept, it must also be kept up to date and relevant with the world as it is now as well.

It must inform and share knowledge and not dictate, and most of all not go on and on like a chapter of war and peace. So on that note I am going to sign off but please keep reading and keep blogging, after all in a 100 years somebody might find this in an internet archive somewhere and think wow Im glad someone took the trouble to record this, just saying.

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The QR Code Garden - Chelsea

Its always great to see the natural world and the technical world come together and stretch the boundaries and this week showed what it could look like, At the RHS Chelsea show there was a garden that encompassed the 21st century technology of QR Codes and the natural landscape of a garden.

The results are breathtaking and just goes to show that they can both work in harmony with each other, to see the garden visit http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/RHS-Chelsea-Flower-Show/2012/Gardens/Garden-directory/The-QR-Code-Garden


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Fresh Help Comic Book Event To Be A Success            


Always the one to help local creative talent, we jumped at the chance to be involved with Ian Hines Dead Universe Comic Book Event.  What it did was showcase local comic book illustrators to a wider audience while raising money for Japan Comic Aid.

Our part in all of this was to digitally print various comics for the event  and how spectacular they  looked, what it hightlighted was not just the illustrative creative artistry within the comic but the quality and the tones of the print using our Xerox 700 digital press.

If ever a job was made for this machine this was it, as the colours lept off the page as you can see below.

Andy Gerlack from Fresh summed it up. ' What a great event, Ive known Ian for years as we grew up together and I am really proud of what he has done here today and that we could help in our own little way. I was blown away by the exceptional quality of the illustrations and then what we did was the icing on the cake to showcase it, what a fantastic result.'




Ian Hine from Dead Universe Comics said, ' Andy and Fresh were fantastic, we wanted to use somebody local and when Andy showed me what they produce I had no hesitation in choosing them, the print quality is exceptional and worthy of what we were trying to achieve, they handled everything so smoothly, a great bunch to work with and will do again.




If you  want to visit Ian's store then pay them a visit in Friars Square Shopping Centre where they not only do comics but trading cards and memorablia as well. Or visit their facebook page on   http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dead-Universe-Comics/411695270458?ref=ts

or visit there website which you can have a sneak preview at http://gu-7084-ng.shopfactory.com/index.html
















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


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May 4th be with you       

Sorry we couldnt help ourselves, We think this should be a National Holiday for all the Star Wars fans out there - ahem like me.


Happy May 4th

May the force be with you

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Happy Mayday                      


We know how you like to know where things come from so for this one we thought instead of the usual Mayday celebrations we would bring where the rescue call sign Mayday Mayday comes from.


Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me".

It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by mariners and aviators, but in some countries local organisations such as police forces, firefighters, and transportation organizations also use the term. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual Mayday call from a message about a Mayday call.

Mayday calls can be made on any frequency, and when a mayday call is made no other radio traffic is permitted except to assist in the emergency. A mayday call may only be made when life or craft is in imminent danger of death or destruction. Mayday calls are made by radio, such as a ship or aircraft's VHF radio. Although a mayday call will be understood regardless of the radio frequency on which it is broadcast, first-line response organisations, such as coast guard and air traffic control, monitor designated channels: marine MF on 2182 kHz; marine VHF radio channel 16 (156.8 MHz); and airband frequencies of 121.5 MHz and 243.0 MHz.

A mayday call is roughly equivalent of a Morse code SOS, or a telephone call to the emergency services. When they receive a mayday call the coast guard may launch lifeboats and helicopters to assist the ship that is in trouble. Other ships that are nearby may divert course to assist the vessel broadcasting the mayday.

Making a hoax mayday call is a criminal act in many countries because of the danger to the rescuers' lives that a search-and-rescue operation can create, the potential for real emergencies elsewhere, as well as the very high costs of such rescue efforts. For example, making a false distress call in the United States is a federal crime carrying sanctions of up to six years imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000.The coast guard can be contacted in situations that are not emergencies (out of fuel, etc.) by calling "Coastguard, Coastguard, Coastguard, this is (name of vessel)", on VHF channel 16. In many countries special training and a licence are required to use a mobile radio transmitter legally, although anyone may legally use one to summon help in a real emergency.


Happy Mayday Everybody

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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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