RJDA are delighted to announce their recent success in a 3 way creative pitch to Warrington based Environmental Protection Group (EPG) for a new logo, corporate ID and content managed website.

The combination of a clean design, classic typeface, revitalised colour palette and a bit of web WOW formed the basis of RJDA’s pitch winning proposition. EPG’s corporate rebrand will be finalised with the launch of their new look website www.epg-ltd.co.uk, which goes live later this month complete with a content managed news section.

The pitch marks the second success in as many months for RJDA, following the East Midlands Agencies appointment to manage the marketing and PR activity for Carbon Composites Manufacturer Atlas Composites.

Following the hugely successful launch of www.idealheating.com earlier in the year who else would Hull based Ideal Commercial turn to redevelop their B2B website rebrand than RJDA – particularly after the aforementioned website ranked no 1 with Google after months of Organic Search Engine Optimisation (Organic SEO) by the RJ-DA team.

The start of August heralds a new beginning for www.idealcommercialheating.com.

The SEO friendly site has been redeveloped with a CMS system, database driven product search tool and social media widgets.

The Ability to register warranty and request project quotation online adds to the browsing experience and there are further plans to include a servicing and training DVD over the coming months.

“It’s not everyday we finish such a big project with such lavish praise”, enthused Web Development Manager Matt Underwood, referring to the thumbs up received from Tom Anderton, Marketing & Product Manager for Ideal Commercial.

“Thanks so much for all your hard work on our new website. RJDA’s technical expertise was only superseded by their friendliness, openness and willingness to make all the amends needed. I truly believe this is one of the best websites of it’s type in the B2B sector and I’m extremely proud to be associated with it.” enthused Tom.

Click here to view the new www.idealcommercialheating.com website.

Click here to find out more about RJDA’s web design services.

Minimising your carbon footprint with www.rjdisplay.co.uk

LARGE FORMAT PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS

Following the appointment of Damon Piall as Visual Communications Director RJDA are delighted to announce the launch of www.rjdisplay.co.uk – a product driven website to help maximise your large format print output whilst minimising your carbon footprint.

“With environmental print and green printing very much to the fore www.rjdisplay.co.uk represents a perfect combination for clients as RJ-DA’s marketing experts are perfectly placed to ensure campaigns achieve maximum impact from concept through to print. Add into the mix exhibition print, vehicle graphics, vehicle wrapping, portable displays and rolla banners and the brand new RJ Display.co.uk site delivers a powerful blend of eco friendly solutions for large format print in Derby, Nottingham and the East Midlands.” enthused Damon.

If you have been tasked with improving the sustainability of your large format print make sure you visit www.rjdisplay.co.uk.

Alternatively pop in and check out our new environmentally friendly product range, we are located just off junction 25 of the M1 near Derby and Nottingham.

View our range of Green Products

View our range of Niche Products

View our range of Standard Products

View our Green Machines

Sunday 25th July at 15:26 signalled the end of a tantalising wait for RJDA’s skydiving quintet.

The moment had come for Andy, Ben, Chris, Lee & Ross to finally climb aboard Langar Airways, a true no frills airline, destination 13,000 feet with no seats or landing card!

It was time to put up or shut up and it seems most of the team, notably Rocket Renner, did just that. With barely a word spoken the in flight entertainment was severely lacking and the required altitude was reached all too quickly.

A tap of the shoulder and with rolla shutter doors up there was no backing out now…awaiting our Guys in the Skies the first part of their jump, a 45 sec, 120 mph adrenaline fuelled freefall. Gasping for breath, pulses racing and with ice particles in their beards from a band of thick grey cloud (well Ross at least!) the first 7,000 feet was negotiated with dignity mostly still intact.

With parachutes safely deployed things got a little more sedate and the majority of the team (sorry Renner you did look to be suffering there) could savour the remainder of the experience as they wound their way down over the Nottinghamshire countryside.

With feet firmly back on solid ground the Guys in the Skies would like to say a massive thank you to all of you who have pledged your support and we hope the pictures were worth it.

We’re all agreed Skydiving was an awesome experience but we still have a way to go to hit our sponsorship target of £2,000.

If you haven’t already it’s not too late to sponsor the team…

http://www.justgiving.com/RJDAskydive

RJ Design Associates offer a wide range of fully integrated web design solutions.

Whether we’re working with a brand new start-up company or a well-established multi-million pound business, we build websites with a unique look and feel that really stand out from the competition whilst being fully tailored to the client’s brand and budget.

Our recent projects have pushed the boundaries of creative design, incorporating web video, search engine optimisation, digital marketing, online brochures and e-shot campaigns.

As more and more business is conducted online, having the right search engine optimisation strategy has become increasingly important. Our search engine optimisation packages are designed to boost your website’s visibility in all major search engines.

Web video and multimedia applications are something of a speciality for us and can significantly enhance the overall impact of your website, whether you are looking for a simple yet stylish animation to give an extra depth to your web pages, or a visually impressive database-driven application to sit at the heart of your interactive content.

Digital magazines, or e-brochures, are an exciting new way to put brochures and documents online. Fully interactive, they can be used as teasers prior to running a print feature, for internal, B2B and B2C use, or to promote products and services.

Promotional e-shots are a highly cost-effective way for businesses to enhance relations with their customers and boost sales. Our e-shot campaigns include immediate trackable response reports so you can act on leads straight away.

We also offer custom-built content management systems, secure e-commerce capabilities, ultra-reliable web hosting and more.

Click here to take a look at our fantastic web portfolio and discover what RJ Design Associates can do for you.

ECS (Nottingham) Ltd are global manufacturers and distributors for high quality water based and UV coatings, certificated pressroom chemicals, fountain solutions and sundry products.

When they came to RJDA a few months ago it was to sell us their products…

…they were so impressed with our set up they left the building full of design inspiration and a vision for a new brochure.

We soon had the new brochure underway and ECS were so pleased with the progress they asked us to re-design and host a website for them. We have subsequently rolled out business cards, leaflets, roller banners, pop up exhibition stands and they have an ongoing wish list for design and print!

Oh ……..and for the record we did purchase ink supplies!

…that was the team at RJDA last week when they hit the race track for an unforgettable go kart racing experience!

Fast karts, hairpin bends and super speeds were the order of the evening as the five teams battled for pole position.

The Green Team kicked off and Digi operator Phil ‘Schumacher’ performed an excellent overtaking maneuver totally taking out Rocket Renner from the Blue Team, leaving Renner in a top class temper which brought the first crash of the night followed by the first black flag of the evening!

But it was game on and the track roared as Ross sped round in the fastest time of the day, an impressive 24.4 seconds.

Guess who won??

The Boss and his team mates Luke, John & Zac!

RJDA never do anything by halves and on 8^th June we celebrated our 10^th birthday with the biggest all day party we’ve ever hosted.

Clients large and small, old and new, potential clients, local businesses, DNCC members, marketing Derby bond holders, suppliers, friends and the team at Rj joined the party to celebrate a DECADE IN DESIGN.

We kicked off bright & early at 8am by hosting a DNCC breakfast meeting. Visitors were given a tour of the print & production facilities, followed by barbequed bacon & sausage cobs out on our balcony overlooking the golf course. Luckily it’s a covered area so we were protected from the onslaught of the summer rain!

Visitors poured in all day long to join the celebrations, taste the delights from the BBQ and join in the fun, games and competitions in true party style. The skalextric racing challenge with a top gear style leader board was the most popular and a remote controlled car delivery challenge tested the driving skills of our visitors. But it was the old photographs of our team at 10 years of age that provided the best entertainment!

Our welcome plasma screen in reception showcased video footage from our recently launched Creative Sauce Competition and a team building Go Karting evening from last week with commentary by Murray Walker!

Everyone left the party with their own little black party bag filled with goodies and we were left to toast Rob and eat cake!

A recent visit to Sign UK in Birmingham turned out to be more of a shopping spree for RJDA
and this week back at HQ we installed the UK’s first HP FX600 Latex machine which has caused quite a stir!

Walk up close, and the first thing that will strike you is the outstanding image quality and the
rich, saturated colors. The print is every bit as durable and light-fast as you get from low solvent printers.

The second thing you’ll notice is that the prints have no odor. At least nothing beyond whatever faint
smell is inherent to the media. That’s because the prints emit extremely low levels of Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOC’s).

This is especially important for our clients that have signage where odor might be a concern such as food stores, restaurants, medical facilities, fitness centers etc.

The third fabulous fact is that HP Latex inks are water-based. They are free of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP’s) and require no special ventilation system to deal with printing emissions.

Furthermore, no cleaning fluids are required to maintain the printer and the waste from the printer is
also considered non-hazardous, plus it has recyclable consumables and components

This printer can produce signage for a diverse range of indoor and outdoor applications on a wide selection of flexible media. And has outdoor display permanence up to 3 years unlaminated

“We always strive to stay ahead of the game and as a company we are striving to be increasingly environmentally conscious so this machine is a perfect match for us and for our customers” said Rob Walker MD at RJDA, after taking delivery of the machine from Doug Gilbertson of City & West End Solutions.

Fostering good relationships with clients is paramount to RJDA’s success and especially so in the case of Derbyshire County Council.

We recently helped DCC with a FOSTER CARE fortnight, a national campaign aimed at promoting the care of children in ‘private fostering’ arrangements aptly named ‘Someone Else’s Child’.

The brief was to assist the council in raising awareness of the fact they were on hand to provide advice on how to meet the child’s needs and support the carers at the same time and their campaign included TV, newspaper and radio adverts as well as a big stagecoach bus which was a huge moving advert that toured the county for the full fortnight.

RJDA designed and printed leaflets, posters, roller banners, and exhibition stands to support the campaign.
It was hailed as a huge success by the organisers and the stage coach will continue to be used throughout the year….

so keep your eyes open for the big black bus!

From left to right: Chris Reynolds, Katie Leedham, Sarah Adams, Leanne Leitch, Ryan Benniston, Lee Day

Four winning finalists came over to the RJDA studio to receive their certificates and ‘sauce bottle’ trophy’s on Friday 21st May and Ryan took centre stage as the overall winner of RJDA’s FIRST EVER Creative Sauce Competition. to receive his 21 inch Mac, the ultimate prize for a graphic design student!

The winning students are all in their second year at Derby University studying Graphic Design and were thrilled to be with us as well as a little overwhelmed by their own success!

The students had a tour of the busy print and production facilities we have on site and around our design studio first off, followed by a session with the Company Director Lee Day and Studio Manager Chris Reynolds for a portfiolio appraisal.

This was a fabulous opportunity for students to show their work to professionals who have worked in the industry for years, and to use their knowledge to help  understand what it is future employers will be looking for in a portfolio and how best to present their work.

We also gave each student a dedicated invaluable weeks work placement in our design studio over the summer so as they can get a feel for what its like working on live briefs for clients and to deadlines, an opportunity which will stand them in good stead for the future.

Ryan Benniston receiving his brand new iMac

“All four of the winners entries were very strong and could have worked for the charity Brake as a campaign piece in their own right. The reason that Ryan’s entry had the edge was the fact that he had taken the brief and thought about it that little bit deeper. It was graphically well put together, it was hard hitting, neat and strong visually with an excellent use of typography.  They were all very good visually, but Ryans was that bit stronger. He was a deserved winner”

All in all it was a relaxed, informative and fun afternoon for all of us at RJDA as much as for the winners of the very first Creative Sauce Competition.

After over half a year of sheer dedication RJDA are both proud and thrilled to finally get their hands on a finished copy of the first edition of Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services Product Catalogue.

Lee Day, RJDA’s director who manages the Balfour Beatty account, is celebrating this momentous moment with a proud smile and admits a to small sigh of relief!

“A product catalogue can test the resources of any creative agency. With 308 pages covering 15 separate facets of the Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services business it has been a monumental effort from everybody involved and a good testimony of RJDA’s design, print and production capabilities. The job has taken nearly seven months to come to fruition and the finished article is something Designers Chris Reynolds, Andy Gilmore and the rest of the team can be very proud of.”

For Lynne Shacklock, Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services Head of Marketing and Communications, it’s an immense achievement.

“We always knew that this was going to be a huge assignment and would take some time and determined focus to create and produce. We were literally starting from scratch with a blank canvas, so were able to work very closely with RJDA on images, text and overall layout. Chris and the team have spent hours going through page after page with the finest attention to detail to ensure that everything is just as it should be. I would like to thank everyone at RJDA who has been involved for their help and support over the months. RJDA can be very proud of the final product, we certainly are and the catalogue is already proving an invaluable tool for our customers”

When a client came to us recently we were (well mainly the females here) just cooing over the content!

Hush is a brand new baby photographic company who are about to launch in the Midlands. The clients came to us after a quick internet search for graphic designers in the area.

They wanted a clean, contemporary look that presented the images in the best way possible and that encouraged families to embrace their new relationships and capture the very special times in their young babies lives.

They also wanted SEO to maximize their new business on the web, which is an area our multi media team specilaise in, so they will be looking to grow organically rather than paying per click.

We love the results, as do the owners of Hush Photography!

This week we helped Ross to celebrate his birthday – with a drum roll and a cake!

Ross is a designer in our studio of 10 creative’s and has been with RJDA since leaving Derby University 4 years ago.

His lively personality and imaginative flair make him popular with both clients and work colleagues alike and he frequently uses the drum kit in the corner of the studio to help let off steam after pursuing tight studio deadlines!

Happy Birthday Ross!

The publication of a new Tenants Handbook for Matlock based Dales Housing provided Creative Agency RJDA with the perfect opportunity to substantiate the timely adjective ‘out with the old in with the new…’

A fresh, new 218 page Tenants Handbook was the collaboration and culmination of several months design, print, production and mail fulfillment.

In preference to the previous PVC, ring bound style folders, a paper over board format with magnetic fasteners was chosen – in doing so offering a more eco friendly, modern and contemporary solution – finished to a standard which Tenant Participation Co-Ordinator, Beverley Crowther was delighted with.

“The delivery of the new Tenants Handbook ensures up to date information can be provided to all of Dales Housing’s 3,100 plus tenants on a range of services covering repairs and maintenance to rights, responsibilities and obligations.”

Trusted to deliver just so happens to be the trademark for Babcock International Group and RJDA have taken another step to achieving precisely that with the recent delivery of a range of eye catching exhibition collateral for the Annesley based Networks Division.

Babcock is sponsoring the Technology Zone at the B2B Spring 10 exhibition at Norwich City Football Club as part of their strategy to bring broadband connectivity and internet enabled solutions to towns and rural environments, such as Norfolk.  Babcock has been working with Norwich and Norfolk based digital services application and solution providers to develop new opportunities and services for the business community as well as looking to enhance tourism, retail and local community services through web based hand held devices.

“The first stage of this next generation network is scheduled to be live in summer and will be the first step in ensuring that Norwich is at the forefront of Digital Britain.” commented Chris Turner Executive Director for Strategy and Business Development.

Commenting on RJDA’s involvement Marketing & Communications Manager Emma Attwood added “”RJDA completed the design and print of Babcock’s B2B exhibition collateral well within the timescale agreed and were extremely efficient in responding to last minute changes.  The finished designs were exactly as desired and the quality of the collateral produced was of the usual high standards.  Myself and the Next Generation Networks team are delighted with the end products and would like to thank the RJDA team for their continued efforts”.

That was the cry from ACDC UK – and of course we have done!

Help for Heroes raises funds for the wounded in Britains current conflicts……….

“It’s about the blokes, our men and women of the Armed Forces. It’s about Derek, a rugby player who has lost both his legs, it’s about Carl whose jaw is wired up so he has been drinking through a straw. It’s about Richard who was handed a mobile phone as he lay on the stretcher so he could say goodbye to his wife. It’s about Ben, it’s about Steven and Andy and Mark, it’s about them all. They are just blokes but they are our blokes; they are our heroes. We want to help our heroes.”

And so do we – which is why RJDA have designed and printed all of the leaflets, flyers and outdoor banners required to advertise this great event free of charge and wish everyone involved good luck in their fundraising event. If you would like to donate to this wonderful charity you can do at www.helpforheroes.org.uk/donations.html

February 18th saw Nottingham’s East Midlands Conference Centre play host to Balfour Beatty Rail Safety Challenge Awards 2010.

The annual awards ceremony is a key date in the calendar for Balfour Beatty Rail Operating Companies in recognising and rewarding innovative and creative safety applications across its businesses. The Safety Challenge Awards form an integral part of a group wide goal to make safety personal and achieve Zero Harm by 2012 – values which are now firmly rooted in the mind of RJDA Director Lee Day.

Safety Challenge Awards Event Organisers Sue Sawyer & John Tidyman commented “RJDA have earned a much deserved reputation within Balfour Beatty Rail companies for delivering quality Zero Harm marketing collateral on time, every time, and perhaps more importantly by taking the time to understand the importance of our initiative and the valuable positive impact it is having on all Balfour Beatty stakeholders. RJDA’s work ethic is very much a combination of going the extra mile, taking the time in making things personal which is why RJDA continue to secure referrals and repeat business from key decision makers within Balfour Beatty Rail.”

“On behalf of Balfour Beatty Rail we would both like to say thank you to RJDA for all of their help, ideas, effort and support over the Safety Challenge Awards planning and preparation period. The attendees were extremely impressed with the Zero Harm pillars and overall branding of the conference and I would have no hesitation recommending RJDA.”

Fast forward a few months and a select few dare devils amongst the RJDA team will be free falling at 120 mph, 10,000 feet above the Nottinghamshire countryside.

Lee Day, Chris Reynolds, Andy Gilmore, Ross Ballinger and Ben Edwards are our high flyers that have chosen to stand at the edge of an open doorway in an aircraft flying at 10,000 feet with the noise of the wind and the engines ringing in their ears with only the outline of distant fields below. They will then lean forward out of that doorway and fall forwards into the peace and quiet of the clouds, diving down through the air free falling at over 120 miles per hour. Their canopies will then open and they will begin their descent steering themselves back down to the ground below ………. Well, that’s the plan!

For the guys to head to the skies we need your help! Our aim is to raise £2,000 for the national road safety charity BRAKE that campaigns for zero deaths on our roads.

Every week 49 people are killed on Uk roads. Traffic is the biggest killer of 15-24 year-olds, and the third biggest killer of children aged 5-14, after cancer and diseases of the nervous system.

Please help us to help this worthwhile charity. Its very quick and easy to do – Just log onto http://www.justgiving.com/RJDAskydive - your donation will be very gratefully received.

Thanks!

RJDA teamed up with Globalkey Translations for a day with a difference at Loughborough University’s Holywell Park Conference Centre recently.

Russia Day was organised and hosted by East Midlands UK Trade and Investment (uktiem) to showcase Russian culture, business trends and openings and provided the perfect opportunity for companies hoping to tap into one of the worlds fastest growing markets.

A wealth of industry experts and guest speakers were on hand to deliver workshops and advice to companies across many sectors such as transport, energy, engineering, automotive, media and pharmaceutical.

Working in partnership with a linguistic professional certainly broadens RJDA’s offer and Russia Day delegates were impressed by the fact that RJDA can now combine translation with marketing collateral and web solutions to provide multilingual localised marketing material.