You might be launching a new business or revitalising an established one. You might want to engage your target audience more effectively, or produce literature that truly reflects your brand values. You might have a product to sell or a story to tell. More than creating something that simply looks good, design of course needs to be functional and accountable. Being creative is fun but it’s a serious business. I will ask you many questions, some of them challenging, some seemingly incongruous, but it’s only when I can completely understand your own unique aspirations and the current barriers to your achieving them that a worthy design brief can be written in response. Then it’s headlong into the fun stuff.
I have been working with ink on paper for over 20 years, managing print for brands such as PepsiCo, Calvin Klein, Nike, John Lewis, Waitrose and Bath Rugby. I still get excited about it and when you’ve poured your soul into the creative process you don’t hand over the job to any Tom, Dick or Harry with a printing press. The subtle, tactile qualities of print can make good design great. It can make something incredibly simple suddenly strikingly effective and if it means that your message stays in the hand and lingers on the mind then it’s a job well done.
It’s amazing what good photography can achieve. Your customers are making up their minds about who you are and what you stand for without even realising it, and quite often before they’ve read a single word. My photographers immerse themselves in the same creative brief that over-arcs the design process. The result is an engaging, emotive set of images that articulate a specific, coherent message and common goal.
With empathy for a client’s desired outcome and an innate understanding of their brand’s personality, advertising can tell a story, strike a chord, raise a smile or maybe an eyebrow. Whatever the response, it needs to work and an advertisement that works goes beyond a great looking ad simply being noticed. Put bluntly, it’s about bums on seats and cash in the till.
I write copy for advertising campaigns, corporate literature, marketing materials, online news items, school prospectuses, optimised web content, newsletters, product packaging and press releases. Copywriting forms an essential part of the creative journey. It stems from the same thorough understanding of the client’s objectives and a respect for their audience. The result is a wide-ranging style applying an always unique tone of voice.
Our left-brain creative types get together with the right-brain techy types and together we make something beautiful. Websites of style and substance, form and function. Technical support in way of hosting and email account set-up is provided as is ongoing maintenance, content updates and SEO consultancy. The performance of your website is measured and regular detailed reports provided. The results are discussed and responded to accordingly throughout the year.
Having studied Business and Sociology I spent a short time working with the John Lewis Partnership and then Ted Baker in Soho, London. I went on to enjoy 8 years in the print industry and a further 10 years running design and marketing agencies in London and the South West before forming Glen Cheyne Ltd in 2010. I live and work in Sherborne, Dorset with my wife, two sons and a wirehaired vizsla named Jeff.