Progress of sorts...

I decided to drum up some extra advertisers my self and contacted three of my own clients about placing ads. Thankfully they all agreed.

OvenU - Halifax

Sleigh & Story, Brighouse

Refreshing Web Design, Brighouse

As I now had just over half of the required advertisers in place, I put my mind to designing the overall feel of the calendar and to preparing the adverts of the companies so far on board.

Scanning

I had to scan in each of the 13 pictures chosen for use in the calendar. These images were then converted from RGB into CMYK versions and slight colour adjustments made using Adobe Photoshop. Some minor cropping and a little cloning to remove a child's name were also carried out.

Advertisers details...

The next problem was in getting the advertisers in place and sourcing their logos and artwork. Of the 36 spaces available in the calendar, approximately 15 were allocated to advertisers from previous years who had agreed to appear in the 2009 calendar. 

Due to the current difficult economic climate, some of the previous years advertisers had gone out of business whilst others could not afford to place an advert.

The Pride members had decided that the calendar would be given away free and that advertisers would pay £49.00 for a single advert and £90 for a double. Both Sue and I felt that a small cover price - £1.00 or maybe £1.50 - would be acceptable to people and would help to offset the printing costs and provide a modest profit to be used in future Pride projects.

This idea was rejected by the other Pride members who chose that the calendars would be freely given away with people allowed to make a "donation" if they felt like it. Any funds earned through donations would go to a local charity.

I contacted various pride members to ask if any artwork from previous years was available but none of the members had any. They gave me the names of the printers used in 2007 and 2008 for me to chase. I was intrigued as to why they had not used the same printer on each ocassion; was it due to cost each time? Did different pride members handle the calendar each time and not pass on the suppliers details? Was the printing also handled by the previous designer?

Hassle

It proved to be a major hassle in getting artwork for the advertisers from the original printers. The firm that produced the 2008 calendar promised me on 6 ocassions - 3 via email and 3 via phone - that they would send it. But they never did.

The 2007 printers eventually got a disk ready which I collected from them. As this was over 2 years old, many of the original advertisers were no longer involved for 2009 and those that were still on board had newer designs in place. Plus, the 2007 artwork was created in Macromedia Freehand and caused me some time consuming problems as I extracted the few parts that I could use.

Whilst awaiting the disk - which I never really expected to se or to be able to use - I had decided to redraw all the advertisers logos and adverts in Adobe Illustrator and to incorporate the few elements that I might be able to use from the original artwork (if it arrived).

Another problem was obtaining enough advertisers to fill the available spaces. Pride member Gary Blakeley was approaching various business about placing ads, but I then discovered he was to be away for a week on a holiday! This was a huge problem as without the advertisers in place, I could not design their adverts and, therefore, would be unable to get the artwork to the printers in time.

Design begins...

The thumbnails had been shown to the members of Brighouse Pride and they had decided to retain the exact same format and feel as in previous years (main image at the top, with the dates below and the 3 advertisers at the foot of each page).

This left me with no input as to the design of the calendar other than in the choice of fonts, colour etc. Whilst not a major issue to me personally, it would have been nice to be able to add a completely new feel to the calendar both in terms of actual graphic design and in the physical format and appearance of the calendar. The budget dictated the format we chose but the client wanted to retain the previous design. Oh well, the client is always right.

Preparation

I called Alan McKenna (MD of Netherton Cross Printers) to discuss the file types they accept and determine any specific instructions that I would need to observe. It was at this stage that I was told that, due to their existing commitments and work scheduling, I had to get the whole calendar designed and to them within one week.

This was a surprise and did make me wonder what I had got myself into! An already hectic work load, college projects and personal obligations made the new deadline very difficult. And I had agreed to do the design work FOC as well!

The printers advised that they wanted 3mm bleed all round the artwork and that PDF files were acceptable. Nothing different there then.

I was worried about the actual dates for the calendar - where to source an accurate version which included the necessary holiday dates and special occasions. Netherton Cross advised that they had all the dates pre-configured and could very simply add them into my artwork. Given the tight deadline now in place, this was a great bonus to me. All I had to do was advise them of the dimensions of the area that I was leaving for the dates.

I had already made the decision to use Adobe InDesign as this would allow me maximum scope for creativity whilst retaining uniformity across the 13 pages and would allow for the inclusion of different images and logos across each month of the calendar.

A printer is chosen...

I forwarded all the costings onto Sue Heginbottom and she relayed them to the Brighouse Pride members.

One of the members suggested that Sue contacted Netherton Cross Printers, a firm just outside Huddersfield. Their price of £1300.00 plus VAT for the 13 page A4 wire-O bound calendar was the best we had obtained and Sue commissioned them for the printing.

On October 7th, the printer advised that I had 2 weeks in which to prepare the artwork. This would allow them sufficient time to print and collate the calendar before passing them to the firm who were to add the wire-O bindings.

Quotes...

I obtained a quote from a printer based locally near Halifax. Although they were less than Siddalls, they still came in too expensive for my client - A4 @ £2895.00 and A3 @ £3900.00.

I trawled through the www in order to locate a cheaper option but was unable to find a company that was cheap enough to be in contention whilst retaining the required quality. Also, I much preferred to be able to meet with the printer and discuss any issues directly with them - this would be impossible with a web based printer.

Eventually, I received a quote from a York based printers, North Wolds Printers.

Their prices for the 13 page, wire-O bound style were: 

A3 £2871.00 plus VAT and carriage.

A4 £1747.00 plus VAT and carriage.

They supplied a quote for "desk" calendars with 13 pages at £1875.00 plus VAT for 2,000.

The project begins...

First contact

I was first approached about the calendar for Brighouse Pride via an email on 2nd September 2008. I was due to take a family holiday between 5th and 22nd September and was only able to have a brief meeting with Sue Heginbottom to discuss the calendar before my departure, with the aim of beginning work on the project when I returned. This delay later led to some minor problems with the printer's deadlines.

I called my usual printer and requested quotations on the calendars based on what my client had previously had. Also, during my holiday, I gave some initial thoughts to how the calendar might appear based on the information Sue had told me about their previous ones.

Beginning work

After I returned from holiday, I prepared some simple thumbnail designs for my client to see. These were based on A4 size – with the option of A3 if the budget would allow – for each of the pages. The thumbnails showed a variety of layout solutions with different sizes of the children’s images and accommodation the necessary information for each month – dates, Brighouse Pride logo, advertiser's details etc.

The thumbnails included portrait and landscape options as I tried different ways of fitting all the information onto each page.

Variations

Additionally, as I spoke with various printers, I looked into other ways of presenting the calendar.

Case The option of having the calendar in a neat CD case with each month able to be displayed in a free-standing acrylic case was very tempting. However, as the size of each page would only be 116mm x 135mm, this was too small to satisfactorily arrange all the details in a clearly visible way.

Also, the costs of these – 2000 units at £1300 plus VAT for full colour on one side – were deemed too high. A smaller version in a 3.5” case was still too costly – 2000 units at £1054 plus VAT – and the pages were even smaller at 89mm x 92mm.

Though very attractive in style and packaging, the CD style calendar was out of the running due to cost and ability to adequately display all the information. This style would be fine for a calendar that did not need to show 3 advertisers logos per page.

Hanging A cost effective version was the “hanging calendar” – 2000 A3 units were only £596 plus VAT. However, as these showed a full year on one page, they would not accommodate all the children’s images or the advertisers logos and were not suitable for the task.

14 months We also considered calendars which showed 14 months – December 2008 through to January 2010. These were available in sizes A5, A4 and A3 in both landscape and portrait versions.

However, the costs were considered too high – ranging from £1395 to £5064 – and also we had insufficient time to produce this version.

Wallplaners These were also suggested as the costs were quite attractive and the sizes of A2 (450mm x 594mm) or Super A1 (891mm x 630mm) would allow all the details to be displayed.

The costs ranged from £604 to £979 plus VAT – a gloss laminate to the face would add approximately £150 to the job.

However, as they were so large and required sufficient wall space to hang them, they were deemed unsuitable for the project.

They were also ruled out as all 13 of the children’s images and each of the advertisers (a total of 36) would be presented on one single page and would appear too “busy”.

Desk The largest format in this style, “Chunky”, was only 3 panels at 210mm x 138mm and, once again, too little space was offered.

I obtained prices on these from several sources, but the sizes and space available for all the information was too small.

Quotations

It quickly became apparent that the style previously used by the Pride (13 pages, wire-O bound at the top) would be most suitable. It only remained to get competitive quotes and choose between A4 and A3 size.

My usual printer (Siddall Colour of Cleckheaton) emailed some costs. Even passing on my discount of 10% to the client, these proved much higher than I had anticipated;

CALENDARS. 13 leaf. 4/0.

13 leaves printed FULL colour 1 side only. Leaf 1 on 280gsm, rest on 170gsm art. 500 mic Greyboard back. Wire-O bound at head with calendar hanger. Supplied with board backed envelopes.

Subject to sight of artwork supplied. Price includes 10% discount.

A4 2,000 at a net price of: £4,970.00

A3 2,000 at a net price of: £7,880.00

I returned to my printer and requested they try again and bring the costs down as low as possible. They managed a small reduction;

A4 2,000 at a net price of: £4,473.00

A3 2,000 at a net price of: £7,093.00

These costs were style far too high for my client to afford. I looked elsewhere and contacted other printers – about 6 in total – of whom some did not even bother to return with a quote.

Thumbnails...

A few thumbail sketches of variations on the design of the calendar.

These are based on A4 or A3 size with "wiro" binding to the top of the calendar.

Brief...

Client:

Brighouse Pride – a voluntary organisation whose aim is to promote the town of Brighouse as a great place for businesses, families and as a shopping centre and place for people to visit and enjoy.

Pride members are comprised of local business owners and citizens who wish to see Brighouse recognised as a successful town. The members actively pursue projects to achieve this aim.

The group is currently planning a bid to get local authority recognition which will allow the Pride to be eligible to apply for grants and funding. The group hold monthly meetings (1st Monday of each month) to discuss the progress of each project.

Brighouse Pride has been in existence for several years.

Funding is minimal at present. Funds are currently raised through advertising revenue from various projects currently in progress and by member donations.

The project:

The Pride has previously produced a calendar (A4 size, 13 pages) for the years 2007 and 2008. They want to continue the success of these calendars by producing another for 2009.

The members had already decided to use pictures drawn by children from a local school as the artwork for each month Children from Year 6 of Baliffe Bridge Junior & Infant school – approximately 1.5 miles from Brighouse town centre - have been invited to draw pictures of local landmarks and buildings for consideration as artwork for the calendar. The winning pictures have been chosen – 13 in total – and the relevant months for each picture have been decided.

The calendar must be of a high quality, both design wise and in production values.

A printer must be chosen to produce the calendar. Careful consideration must be given to printing costs, production values and a guaranteed delivery date of December 1st must be obtained to allow for distribution of the finished product in sufficient time for a pre-Christmas completion of the project.

Advertisers are sought for each month. The advert size is to be decided upon and costs calculated to determine the number of advertisers required throughout the calendar to ensure that the production costs are met by advertising revenue.

The calendar for 2008 was delivered late (in early January) owing to design and production delays. The Pride demands that this does not occur this time.

The calendar:

Both previous calendars, 2007 and 2008, have been 13 pages and in A4 portrait format, “wiro” bound with card back board. The pages are single sided, full colour and comprise an image, advertisers details and each month dates.

Both these calendars have been very similar in layout and colour scheme (blue). The Pride would like to consider other sizes and formats available. However, cost is a major consideration and must be a low as possible whilst ensuring a high quality final product.

The Brighouse Pride logo is to be displayed throughout the calendar. Each page has to contain one picture along with the child’s name, advertiser logos and details and space for each month’s dates with room for “notes” to be written.

The design should be visually attractive and reflect the style of the children’s pictures.
Careful consideration must be given to the size and positioning of the various elements to ensure that the images are prominently displayed and that the adverts are clearly visible.

Considerations:

The artwork must be produced quickly within a very brief period to allow sufficient production time before the 1st December delivery date. – see previous note.

Investigate different formats and/or sizes of calendar.

Obtain competitive printing costs.

Establish guaranteed delivery dates.

Attract advertisers and determine numbers required and what costs to charge to allow the calendar to be “self funding” if possible.

Should the calendar be given away, with a suggested donation, or a fixed charge made.

Ensure that each child will be thrilled to see their artwork displayed!

Feasibility Study...

Budget Proposal

Checklist

Schedule