I don’t have a clue how to explain my 9-5 life. Recently I’ve noticed, when trying, I either play-down the creativity (and freedom) I have in my job or fail to mention it at all. I think I’m a graphic designer, but I’m not really sure… the deal is I work for a small family-run (not my family) print/design place in Edinburgh (Leith to be exact). We’re a busy, happy bunch, the company is very much established and our customers are all sorts- from nice nobodies looking for a one-off poster print for someone’s birthday, to the ‘clients’ who are mainly architects or local businesses who don’t have in-house designers (a flyer here, a brochure there- mainly business cards) then there’s the advertising agencies or PR firms who need rush print jobs or print finishing and then we have the nobodies who think there somebodies who don’t want to spend any money, but want it now – miserable rich bastards, Edinburgh’s full of them.

The happiest crowd, in my opinion, are the Agency people. And we’re happy to have them. Usually polite or at least honestly blunt, they storm in full of enthusiasm (or *sniff* whatever) and instantly have an understanding of what is doable, what it will cost, how long it will take (and most importantly) how much to over-pay us for the pleasure. They’re great because they know what they want. Bless people who know what they want.

To attract these rewarding clients we decided to do some ads that were a little more than a simple list of services. We ditched my boss’ favourite marketing device- the bullet point and went for big ideas. With the help of a talented chappy (Conrad, where you been?) who now works for The Leith Agency, we sat down with my moleskine and, after a few espressos, got think-about-ing. Yes, we wanted to mock the 80’s, irony was a go-er, a cheesy blurb would be nice- but something relevant to the outside world as well as the advertising-savvy crowd, my boss was very wary.

I don’t know if we found what we were looking for, as ‘Print & Copy’ is in the title of the business Conrad believed playing up the other services was a good target. ‘Print Print’ was the title of the first ad, and it was amazing. A blank canvas, the words print repeated. Print & Copy: Print Print. Genius, worth every penny that lad.

The second ad is for the back-page of a local glossy magazine, so its a big visual gag. Photocopy-ING. But I hope its more than that- it was my initial idea, and to be honest, I didn’t have a lot of time to think about this one so technically it is wanting, get a ruler out and you’ll see why. Thematically I think its a fairly nice bridge- its big and balsy but it simply highlights our main service- photocopying. Perhaps its not ‘in the vein’ of the previous ad. Which was hella’ classy (before the rest of the office got they’re say and I added a gradient of print-print-prints-s). Conrad had this to say about that:

What can I say? For me, the gradient ruins the ad – no exageration. The essence of the ad came from the simplicity of the double ‘print’. You may have grown tired of seeing it, but remember no-one else has seen it. I’ve run it past a few folk here, and they all love it. But, as you say, it’s your call.

He’s right. I think we panicked. Its happening with the latest ad “-ING”, we’re talking about adding a short bullet point list in place of the blurb. Urgh. But I think that sums up my position at an established local company with real need to branch out in a single direction, no new product launch, no gimmicks… we produce work for clients who do amazing stuff and like the homely spirit of the place. Ironically, when I first showed my boss the new ad, he slammed it as ‘very 80s’, ouch, full circle.