Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

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Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

The staff at Southside Print would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and the very best for the New Year when it finally arrives. Our thanks go to all those who used our design, artwork, printing and print management services during the course of 2018 — all the work has kept us very busy indeed. So, a very big Thank You to one and all!

Christmas & New Year opening times for Southside Print, London SE1Christmas & New Year Opening Times

We close for the Christmas break on Friday 21st December at 3pm, re-opening on Wednesday 2nd January 2019 at 9am. So, if you have anything urgent before we take a break, there is no time to lose and you’ll need to get your orders to us as soon as possible should you need work turned around before Christmas.

Our Online Shop Will be Available 24/7

During our break you can also, of course, order printing online for a whole range of products including business cards, stationery (including letterheads & compliments slips), leaflets, brochures and posters. Click the bold links to take a look at all the options along with our very competitive pricing.

In the mean time, please continue to send through any requests for quotations and we’ll attend to those as soon possible, so that you can hit the ground running when the New Year arrives. You can also call 020 7378 6754 to speak with us during opening hours.

Thanks again and every good wish to you for Christmas, the New Year and beyond.

The Southside Print Team, Tabard Street, London SE1.

The Value of Great Graphic Design

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The value of great graphic design

Never underestimate the power of graphic design. It has the power to either make or break your sales and marketing efforts. Too many people dismiss design as an unnecessary expense but, in reality, it is incredibly important to your bottom line. As such, it deserves an adequate allowance of both time and budget otherwise you risk wasting both those precious commodities entirely. In this post, we’ll explain why skimping on your graphic design budget may represent a fool’s economy. Not convinced? Read on …

Think about it for a moment: what is the single most important thing that world-dominating companies like Apple have at their core? Answer: excellent design. Without that, their products would simply be buried in an ocean that’s littered with hundreds of mediocre products. Excellent design lifts them high above the competition and also makes their products desirable. And once converted, famously few Apple customers ever go back.

It’s the same for printed sales and marketing pieces, adverts and packaging. Looking mediocre is a sure fire way for your promotional efforts to be completely overlooked in the ‘din’ of other mediocre efforts that compete in your marketplace. Excellent design, in contrast, will both attract and entice your potential audience so they notice and desire your product or service, not those of your competitor. Yet so many companies miss this simple opportunity by seeing design as an unnecessary expense rather than the incredibly powerful marketing tool that it is!

Let’s break down the main components of graphic design …

Good Design = Good Communication

Graphic design is about much more than how your sales and marketing pieces look. Good graphic design primarily has great communication at its heart. It’s all very well if your leaflet, brochure, poster or packaging looks attractive, but that’s no good to anyone if they don’t understand, in an instant, what it’s all about and what is on offer. So, one of the first considerations of any good graphic designer is to identify what the core message is and then to communicate that message prominently to the prospective audience. A good graphic designer will also pick out any secondary and subsequent message elements, making sure that each is communicated with the appropriate weighting in the sales or marketing piece. Using this hierarchical approach to the prominence of elements and messages will mean that the prospective customer knows where to look first and thereby learn quickly what is being offered and why.

Good graphic design primarily has great communication at its heart.

Features & Benefits

Once the product or service being offered has been made clear, another job of a good graphic designer is to make sure that the features and benefits of the product or service are also clearly communicated to those taking a closer look. Features are no good alone, of course; the prospect needs to know how those features will benefit them — so don’t forget to include your product or service’s benefits in the printed text.

Looking Good

Then, of course, the printed communication needs to look eye-catching and attractive. The right graphical and typographical styles, photos and/or illustrations need to be presented in such a way that they catch the eye, communicate all the right messages as outlined above, all in a pleasing way. The ‘tone’ of the design also needs to be right. If your product or service is a luxury one, then the design and printed output needs to ooze quality. If your product or service is an inexpensive bargain, then the designer needs to pitch the design just right so that it looks high quality overall but does not look or feel too expensive. This fine balance is all part of the job of a good graphic designer.

Feeling Good

Part of that balance is, of course, the paper, card and print processes used in the final printing. Some printed items look better on textured papers and cards, others work better on uncoated stock and still others might look best on standard paper with, say, a matt lamination. There are many paper options and many finishing options to choose from, so good graphic designers will also be able to advise on what might work best for your particular product or service — and production budget. The optimum result will be a printed item that both looks and feels good, without breaking the bank.

It’s All a Waste without a CTA

Once all of the above has been considered, then you’re well on your way to ‘converting’ your prospect’s interest into an actual sale. However, there’s one more thing that needs to be included. Remember to Read more

Restored Artwork for Restorative Justice

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Restored Artwork for Restorative Justice

Sometimes even a supposedly simple piece of design and artwork can meet with unforeseen complications, which can then make printing seemingly impossible. That’s exactly what happened with some business cards for our local client Why Me? recently, when their original artwork went completely missing. They’d had some fairly straight forward business cards produced in the past, but couldn’t locate the original artwork files. That’s where Southside Print’s Matt Potter came to the rescue. Matt is Southside Print’s resident graphic designer. He simply used some of the last few remaining cards as visual reference and, based on those, managed to rebuild the artwork entirely from scratch. He successfully matched fonts, colours, the layout and the design and, in no time at all, the ‘new’ business cards had been printed and supplied to the client — a great outcome for everyone.

Lost your Artwork? Need it Restored?

No problem at all. As with the business cards above, we can usually match fonts or find something very similar if an exact match is not possible. We can also match colours, design layouts and often we can even reproduce or substitute missing graphics. While some graphics are easier to replace than others, our talented design and artwork team can usually save the day and rescue the situation in virtually every case. That’s true whether it’s for business cards, leaflets, brochures or something larger like a poster or display panel. We can supply a free quotation before proceeding, of course, so you’ve nothing to lose by asking us for potential help.

About ‘Why Me?’

Why Me? is a national charity that primarily helps victims of crime to attain some kind of restorative justice. As part of this, the charity’s Restorative Justice Service helps offenders to understand the true impact of their crimes which, in turn, can often help to stop them re-offending in the future. Indeed, this is exactly how the charity started life …

The charity was started by Will Riley, himself a victim of crime. Back in 2002 when Will was a London businessman, a burglar gained entry to his house. Will confronted the burglar, a struggle ensued and Will eventually managed to hand the burglar over to the police. It turned out that the burglar was a career criminal named Peter Woolf. Woolf was sent to prison for the crime but the two men later met again voluntarily at a ‘Restorative Justice’ meeting at Pentonville Prison.

“Imagine the person who has caused you harm is sitting opposite… What would you say?”

Will, the victim, was able to explain the impact of the burglary directly to the offender in question and to obtain answers to some challenging questions. This process turned out to be a healing one and represented quite a turning point for both men. Will Riley subsequently felt that he was no longer fearful of opening his front door and Peter Woolf stopped offending completely, going ‘straight’ after many years of crime. Not only did both men directly benefit but also it meant that potentially hundreds of additional people did not become victims of the burglar once he left prison. Such is the power and potential of Restorative Justice.

The video below explains more and features both Will and Peter, who both now Read more

Printing for The Riverside Bookshop, Tooley Street, London SE1

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Printing for the Riverside Bookshop, London SE1

Southside Print is very happy to count The Riverside Bookshop amongst its many loyal customers. For some time we have been printing their Little Red Card. It’s a small but effective piece of marketing and measures just 110mm x 85mm, so is about twice the size of a standard business card. To keep costs low for the client, we ‘gang up’ several copies, printing them together before trimming them down to their final size. We use SRA2 card (240gsm ‘Papago’ stock) during the early production stages. This card is just one small printing example amongst an amazing variety of items that we print for customers throughout the London Bridge/SE1 region and beyond.

The Little Red Card

The Little Red Card, printed by Southside Print, London Bridge, SE1The Little Red Card, as it’s officially known, is exactly that; a little red card. What is does for customers, though, is quite special as it saves them money at the bookshop. For every £10 a customer spends in store, they get an ink stamp inside the card. Once they have six stamps, they can present their card with their next purchase and it allows them to get £5 off their bill. So it’s simple, but ingenious! Ingenious not only for customers, of course; after all, it keeps customers coming back to the shop so could, alternatively, have been called a loyalty card. But we too prefer Little Red Card — it sounds so much more friendly, just like the staff in fact!

The Riverside Bookshop

The Riverside Bookshop, Tooley Street, London SE1The Riverside Bookshop is based in Tooley Street, London SE1 and has been selling books there for over 25 years. Along with literally thousands of books, they also sell National Book Tokens, greetings cards, gift wrap, notebooks and very occasionally a few toys. As well as stocking around 10,000 book titles in store, they can order in anything from a list of several hundred thousand additional books. Such special orders usually take just a couple of days to arrive and cost no extra. The bookshop also regularly stocks signed copies of books including many by major authors and household names — these would make very special gifts. Their website is well worth a look and is jam-packed full of fascinating information, reviews, book news and even has sections on Read more

Digital & Litho Printing for London Heating & Plumbing Company

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Printing & artwork for The Little Red Heating Company, London

We believe this is the first time we’ve featured a heating and plumbing company on the blog, so welcome to our post all about The Little Red Heating Company. Here we’ll tell you all about them, but first we’ll discuss a few of the design, artwork and printing jobs that we’ve been doing for them in recent times. If you have any similar needs, do get in touch.

Printed NCR pads, labels, postcards & business cards

All design, layout and artwork is supplied by Southside Print London Bridge for this particular client. We supply simple, straight forward ‘business’ type printing for them including:

  • A4 invoice pads, which are printed on NCR (No Carbon Required) stock with white, pink and blue copies automatically being produced when the client writes on the top sheet. They are litho printed in 3 spot colours as well as being sequentially crash numbered then typically made into 4 pads of 50 invoice sets. NCR sets are a very convenient way of generating multi-copy invoices or orders the ‘traditional’ way (with a pen), particularly while out and about visiting customers;
  • business cards which have, until recently, been litho printed onto 400gsm “Extra White” uncoated stock using 3 spot colours. However, our digital printing machines are now so advanced that we may well swap over to digital printing for the business cards for future print runs, without any loss of quality;
  • postcards, which are litho printed litho onto 250gsm Silk card, in the same 3 spot colours. As with the business cards above, we will probably also swap to digitally printing these in future, for the same reason;
  • boiler labels, which represent a convenient reminder to home owners as well as being a great marketing tool for the company concerned. These are digitally printed on “Crack Back” label stock. As the name suggests, this type of label stock has linear cracks in the peel-off backing. These are present too allow the labels to simply be bent a little to expand the crack, thereby making removal of the backing sheet quick and easy.

About The Little Red Heating Company

The Little Red Heating Company, LondonThe Little Red Heating Company is London based and specialises in central heating and hot water system installation, maintenance and repair. Boiler repair or replacement, bathroom design/installation and general plumbing are all part of the service along with upgrades and replacements for pumps, thermostats, timers and valves. The company also supplies landlord certification and, of course, heating engineers are all Corgi registered.

The Little Red Heating Company also offers under floor heating, which is quick and inexpensive to install and provides both a fast method of heating rooms and a real feeling of luxury underfoot. That’s not the only benefit though; those with under floor heating will also experience a significant reduction in dust mites, so this particular heating method is also excellent for asthma sufferers.

Another great service from the company is the supply and installation of solar heating, through the use of solar panels, for the provision of domestic hot water. With temperatures in the UK gradually rising as they are, solar energy is now an extremely viable way to generate a cheap, sustainable energy source for homes. So, long-term savings can be made as well as helping the environment — a true win-win!

It’s refreshing to learn that Read more

Looking for Graphic Designers in London Bridge, SE1 & Borough?

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Graphic designers in London Bridge, SE1

If you’re looking for graphic designers in London Bridge, Borough or the SE1 area of South London, we have a great solution for you. Otherwise, if you’re searching without some kind of personal recommendation, you can end up in a bit of a maze. Ideally, you need someone talented, creative, affordable and trustworthy for your creative design project and also someone who knows their trade from a technical standpoint. Better still, a designer with great customer testimonials and ratings is worth their weight in gold. After all, what use is a great design if rookie artwork mistakes lead to poor or unexpected printing results?

Introducing our own in-house graphic designers

graphic design services in Borough, South LondonThe good news is that, at Southside Print London Bridge, our in-house graphic designers tick every box. And, what’s more, as designers working within a printing company, they really know how to design in order to get the very best from each print job. So, whether you need a design for a business card, brochure, booklet, catalogue, newsletter, direct mail piece or something larger like a poster or exhibition display, our graphics team knows how to make it look eye-catching and well-designed. So, your service, product, event or marketing message will be communicated in just the right way — and will look totally professional. As an added bonus, you’ll usually find that our in-house graphic designers are generally cheaper to commission than standalone design consultancy designers too. That’s because we’re commercial printers and, as such, tend to already keep them fairly busy with day-to-day work for our print clients, for example, assisting with artwork production, updates and client alterations. So, in a way, our printing services and print profits subsidise our graphic design services — and you can benefit from that. And, of course, should you need printing too, their design and artwork will be set up in just the right way for maximum quality on our presses, hand in hand with maximum economy.

“Re the new flyers you did last month….. people have commented on how good they look! Thank you!!”
Tranquility Pilates Centre

Graphic Design for London Bridge, Borough, SE1 & South London

Southside Print London Bridge is based in Tabard Street in London’s SE1 region. So, we’re literally a stone’s throw from Borough High Street tube and just a few minutes’ walk from London Bridge Station and The Shard. We have many clients in the area who come back time and time again for both our graphic design and commercial printing skills. Take a look at our news blog for many examples.

“So grateful for the very quick and excellent job you have just completed, as usual great service.”
Danny Merrison, Angel Human Resources Ltd, London SE1 1SZ.

Our graphic designers can help you with: Read more

Letterhead Update for G Worrall & Son, London SE1

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Letterhead printing & artwork for G Worralls

Southside Print London Bridge recently undertook a very straight forward letterhead update for G Worrall & Son, the Master Locksmith just a few blocks away in Great Suffolk Street, SE1. The update was needed following the launch of their new website at www.gworralls.com and the idea was simply to update their existing letterhead in order to use the same font on both items – and to re-make the artwork in the process.

About G Worrall & Son

G WorrallsG Worralls are a well-established, highly professional locksmith. Founded way back in 1896, they provide first class lock repair and replacement, key cutting and call-out services throughout London. So, whether you’ve lost your keys and are locked out, need a G Worrall & Son shop, London SE1security update for your property or simply need duplicate keys cut, G Worralls are there to help, whatever type of key or lock you have. They stock all the major brands as well as many specialist varieties including restricted key locks, master key systems, digital locks and code locks. Find out more about their services at www.gworralls.com or call 0207 407 8498 to get through to the friendly team at their SE1 shop.

An in-house artwork service

Going back to the printing, the letterhead for G Worralls is an example of where Southside Print’s in-house artwork department can be very convenient, because the original letterhead artwork was not available in this case. So, we simply replicated the existing letterhead layout, updated a few minor details as requested and, of course, changed the company name at the top so it used the same font family as featured on the new website (the font is Ubuntu, in case you were wondering). Once approved this allowed us to print off 2000 new letterheads, on 100gsm white ‘Navigator’ paper, using our litho printing press — simple!

In-house graphic design services

It goes without saying, of course, that we are also more than happy to supply totally new graphic design. So if you are looking for a complete makeover for your printed graphics, our in-house design team are ready and waiting to help. We can Read more

Say it loud with a Banner

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Printed banners

Printing and production of banners is another natural application of our large format printing service so, for our next post we thought we’d show you a couple of different banners that we recently produced for local client The Dragon Café, in Borough High Street, London SE1 and The Green Street Green Society, which is over in Orpington, Kent.

Roller banner for Green StreetRoller Banners

Roller banners are a great way to present your brand, service, product or message in a near instant. What’s more, they ‘say it loud’ due to their large scale — options start from 850mm wide by approximately 2m high. Roller banners take literally seconds to erect and, after use, seconds to dismantle again, with the display graphics rolling down into a compact cassette that’s easy to transport and store in the supplied storage case, ready to be re-used at any time.

Southside Print London Bridge‘s roller banners are suitable for indoor use and are ideal for use in situations like office presentations, receptions, showrooms, trade fairs, events and shopping malls, to name just a few. Whether you’re using one or several, they’re an excellent way to make a splash with the minimum of time and effort. Many models are even robust enough to be used semi-permanently if required. All our roller banners use robust 400gsm ‘SoFlat’ material, for true lay-flat properties. They also have a matte finish to the front and a grey backing coat to the reverse. This combination helps to present the printed graphics in the best possible way, without any show-through from behind even when backlit. The surface is scuff and scratch resistant and is printed in fade-proof UV-based inks.

We offer various sizes and various different models, from economy grade right through to luxury. We can usually even replace the graphics in the future, should you need such a change. For more details, quotations and artwork specifications, contact us and we’d be delighted to help. We can even provide the design and artwork if you like.

Hanging Banners

Hanging banner for The Dragon Café, London SE1Hanging banners are great when you need to catch the eye of the public and let them know your message, or draw attention to an event, all in an instant. The best thing is that they can be used just about anywhere and are available in just about any size you can think of.

Our outdoor banners are printed on a flame-resistant, light-fast PVC, most commonly using a 440gsm weight/thickness although lots of other options are also available. These include Read more

News from The Dragon Café, Borough

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News from The Dragon Café, Borough SE1

A year ago, we wrote about one of our most regular customers, The Dragon Café, which is based around the corner in the Crypt of St George the Martyr Church, opposite the tube station in Borough High Street, SE1. Here we re-visit the Café for an update.

Sarah WheelerFirstly, though, we bring you the very sad news of the recent passing of our friend Sarah Wheeler. Sarah had been a long-term guiding light at both The Dragon Café and Mental Fight Club, both representing just a part of her incredible legacy. Sarah’s inspiration will continue to help to guide the organisation into the future and to continue her wonderful work. Southside Print London Bridge would like to dedicate this post to the memory of Sarah. More information about her can be found at www.dragoncafe.co.uk.

The Dragon Café

The Dragon Café is the flagship project from Mental Fight Club, an organisation that explores mental health through creativity. The Café hosts a whole range of well-being and creative activities and is open on Mondays from noon to 8.30pm. It is open to all – just turn up and can get involved, as much or as little as you want to, whether alone or in a group.

“… new thinking about how mental health services can be more human, more healing and more creative for everyone”

RE-CREATE FlyerMay at The Dragon Café has been ‘RE:CREATE Psychiatry‘ month, which is an initiative “to inspire new thinking about how mental health services can be more human, more healing and more creative for everyone“. It applies to both those who use mental health services and those working within them. The initiative creates safe and creative spaces, through workshops and evening events, for the sharing of views and experiences relating to challenges within the current mental health system. Join The Dragon Café this coming Bank Holiday Monday (30th May) for the last RE:CREATE Psychiatry day of the month. This includes a yoga-inspired workshop and the Café’s last Shrink Radio dialogue.

More information about RE:CREATE Psychiatry can be found by clicking the flyer image (right) or learn more about The Dragon Café on their website. Read more