The Mo Bros here at RJ are breathing a sigh of relief today, their faces are less itchy, but more chilly, as Movember has drawn to an end and we bid farewell to their menacing moustaches and grisly goatees.

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our Mo Bros’ campaign, you contributed £138 to help raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancers, and ultimately save lives.

The eagerly-awaited who’s who of the design industry has been revealed by Design Week, the magazine of choice for over 35,000 design professionals and marketers.

Derbyshire-based RJ Design Associates are celebrating 47 reasons to be cheerful after polling some impressive debut stats:

5th highest new entry, 8th place in the most bullish top 100 groups for predicted growth and 47th overall on the Top 100 design consultancy list.

Bearings manufacturer INA FAG (a part of the Schaeffler Group) came to RJDA for some ideas for a direct mail campaign. The objective being to raise awareness  to Maintenance Personnel and Financial Directors that preventative maintenance is worthy of investment to avoid catastrophic down time in the event of machinery breaking down.

The chosen concept was based around prevention is better than cure and took on a medical approach to the visual style. The direct mail was sent out in a prescription bag, which also contained a doctors surgery styled appointment card with a call to action to meet the Schaeffler Team on stand at the Maintec exhibition at the NEC.

Along with direct mail piece an e- shot was also designed and delivered, a dedicated micro-site created and hosted, trade advertising produced and animation developed which was used on both the micro-site and on the stand.

INA FAG got a very positive reaction from this marketing collateral, leaving them in rude health at the end of the exhibition.

View the INA FAG web case study

View all web case studies

The combination of careful planning, and the launch of a new range of tactile marketing collateral has given Stancliffe an edge within the stone industry, something which Marketing and Communications Manager, Beverley Hill reflects on with a great deal of positivity.

“Working closely with RJDA’s creative team our Box of Stone branding was born”

“Packaging and distributing natural stone samples can present its own unique challenges. RJDA’s creative team, through their expertise and sheer perseverance delivered a winning formula.

The box of stone brand is both practical and versatile and has proved an overwhelming success.”

The internet as we know it may have a myriad of uses but one fact remains certain, little over 20 years ago the World Wide Web exploded from an unknown entity to one which now pervades every aspect of our digital lives.

“What should they call this new browser. The Mine of Information? The Information Mesh? When a name was settled on in May 1990, it was to be called the WorldWideWeb…and so the worlds first web page was sprung”

Matt Underwood, Web Development Manager at RJDA and Web Designer Kat Wesley, who together boast an impressive 16 years combined web experience between them, are well placed to reflect on just how far the web has moved on from its humble inception in 1989. Fast forward over 2 decades and who could have predicted there would be…

240 million – registered domain names
2 billion – hits a day for the webs most popular site www.google.com
$16.5 million – the value of the worlds most expensive domain www.insure.com
166 – different web browsers

Accurate as of May 2010 netcraft.com

“As web designers we keep up to date with the latest trends and technologies so we can build flexible and future proof websites. We constantly strive to push the boundaries of creative design whilst complying to web standards and accessibility guidelines”

“We’ll take time to examine visitor trends and map out a typical journey through each website we create to maximise usability and enhance visitor interaction.”

RJDA are at the forefront of the very latest web trends offering fully integrated web solutions such as web video, search engine optimisation, digital marketing as well as e-commerce systems, content management solutions and secure off-site hosting.

RJDA’s multimedia team have recently completed the following web sites and are ready and awaiting their next challenge!

Click here to view our web case studies

Profile, personalise and profit.

Personalised content can significantly boost customer loyalty, sales conversions and return on investment. Your customers like it, your competitors are probably already doing it and your kids are definitely buying into it…in short personalisation works.

Personal by definition describes how relevant, connected, or applicable something is to a given matter and RJDA are perfectly geared up to respond to these same exacting requirements.

If you are looking to drive business and profit through the following channels, Web to print, DM, Personalised URL’s, E shots or Digital print make sure you speak to an RJDA Account Manager today – 01159 445 428.

3 months FREE trial offer

Ask about our 3 months trial offer for Marketing IP, THE next generation web to print portal that everyone is talking about.

Fortunately for RJDA their latest creative brief for Derbyshire County Council, entitled Smart Rider, did not end with the infamous Norman Tebbit colloquialism ‘On your bike!’.

Instead DCC’s Road Safety Team were a lot more glowing in their assessment of RJDA’s creative delivery, which featured a brand identity and hand drawn illustrations with a digital twist.

Improving road safety is a top priority for DCC and RJDA have certainly played an important role by project managing the design and digital print of a new suite of training literature to help shape the future of cycle proficiency in Derbyshire.

If you would like RJDA to review your company branding, illustration requirements, or simply explore print management opportunities why not get in touch with our creatives. Email studio@rj-da.co.uk

If you would like to find out more about Smart Rider email roadsafety@derbyshire.gov.uk or click on www.derbyshire.gov.uk

Luxury salon The Hairdressers proprietor Billie Ragosta approached RJDA to look for ideas of how to launch her new Beauty Salon.

When the builders started work on the premises on Castle Boulevard two boxes of letters were found under the floor boards. The correspondence dated back to the 1870′s and many were in Russian, and seemed to indicate a love affair that crossed between Nottingham, France and Russia. The letters and envelopes had an lovely aged patina to them and the handwriting was immaculate.

RJDA used visual elements from letters and rippled this across the new corporate branding to give a sophisticated and bespoke feel to all the marketing elements.

RJDA designed and printed a beautiful brochure with some special finishing techniques employed to give it very high quality feel, along with a new website, photography, copywriting and eshot campaigns.

View The Hairdressers & Beauty Salon website

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.

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

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!

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!

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!

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”

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”.

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.