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.”

After a lengthy tendering process RJ Design Associates were chosen as the preferred multimedia agency for The Acclaim Housing Group, which consists of Dales Housing and Seven Locks Housing Associations.

The Groups decision was based on a number of design based criteria notably the need to create three new websites for Acclaim Housing Group, Dales Housing and Seven Locks Housing.

Commenting on the recent appointment Jenny Bedford, Business Improvement Manager for Acclaim Housing Group explained how the groups decision came about “The opportunity to work with like minded creatives, backed up by a technically sound team of web developers was precisely what we were looking for – the fact RJDA have the capacity to host all 3 of our sites at a fraction of our previous cost made the decision that much easier”

Following on from initial market research RJDA proposed a competent web strategy to the AHG board and delivered the final projects on budget, on schedule and even pushed the boundaries of their own brief – adding an interactive calendar, online customer feedback survey and jobs section at the 11th hour!

“I would have no hesitation in using RJDA for any future web based projects. Based on our experience we found them to be organised, competent and reliable in all aspects of their work and I am genuinely excited by the prospect of how the new sites will benefit our business.” enthused Bedford.

Speaking of his vision for Acclaim Housing Group’s web strategy Matt Underwood, Web Development Manager for RJDA went on to say “Over the last couple of years video has become a staple of the internet. Computers have become more powerful and equipped to handle video images in line with ever increasing broadband speeds. As such our vision was to concentrate multimedia as a focal hub for all 3 sites. The opportunity to distribute maintenance updates via their respective websites should see a radical change in how each business currently operates making them more customer focused”

Click here to visit www.acclaim-group.co.uk

Click here to visit www.sevenlockshousing.co.uk

Click here to visit www.daleshousing.co.uk

RJDA have again demonstrated their expertise in delivering high end, high quality marketing collateral by recently completing another tender document for Balfour Beatty Derby, their 3rd in as many months.

“Working to incredibly demanding deadlines the studio have now successfully delivered 2 folders and a 108 page perfect bound booklet – the latter completed in 3 1/2 days design and print start to finish which must be an RJDA record!” explained Chris Reynolds, Studio Manager.

Personally thanking Chris and his team for their recent efforts Mike Brown – Fleet Services Director at Balfour Beatty said “RJDA’s studio have produced tender documents that are exciting, professional and of the highest quality. Their capacity to fulfill our production requirements is excellent and I am confident this can only improve on our winning business strategy”

www.up2utv.co.uk

Burton College has this week launched a bespoke website to guide and advise potential students. Aimed at 14-16 year olds providing them with options on career paths and qualifications open to them. It also details the training required and where and how they can attain these qualifications.

The brief was to develop a site that would be engaging, inspirational and fun for users but with a subtle career-based twist!

Our web team created an interactive Skillzbuilder with career links and guidance to give the users all the information they need in one place. This is blended with educational related videos, two custom-built careers based flash games and a fun interface to help the students choose the right career path. Skillzbuilder will also throw up ideas and career path options that students may not have even considered before.

Teenagers can join up2utv.co.uk by first creating a profile that then gives them access to all the information they need. The database is purpose built to data capture specific user information enabling the college to send relevant useful information to the students in a variety of ways including e-shots and direct mail pieces, using RJ Design’s inhouse personalisation software.

The launch will be promoted in the next few weeks with a bus tour around 21 Derbyshire schools, a competition, various large format posters and promotional items, produced in-house and a bluetooth ad-pod.

This website also has the potential to be rolled-out nationwide.

VISIT www.up2utv.co.uk

6-colour HP Indigo press 3050

A 6-colour HP Indigo press 3050 has just been installed at Nottingham-based RJ Design Associates (RJDA) to develop dynamic, innovative products for the high-end corporate market. RJDA foresees the new digital press attracting high-end corporate clients that want short run, high quality, on-demand & personalised print.

“Our decision to invest in a digital press was born out of the increased demand for real personalisation of print and direct mail pieces in particular, without sacrificing any of the quality associated with traditional litho printing”, explained RJDA managing director, Rob Walker, “The HP Indigo 3050 Digital Press will give our clients more flexibility than ever before and will empower our in-house design team to create increasingly more dynamic direct mail pieces and short run digital print projects.”

The Indigo 3050 digital press joins an impressive print facility at RJDA that also includes a Komori litho press, a fleet of large format digital printers from HP and Seiko and a newly installed Magnus II CTP device.

The HP Indigo press 3050 is a versatile press, ideal for a wide gamut of fully personalised, high-quality on-demand marketing collateral. Producing vibrant, high-definition impressions in up to 7-colours, the press can accurately match up to 97 percent of PANTONE® Colours. The press offers maximum substrate flexibility ensuring printers can meet the widest range of customer requirements.

Walker continues; “The growing pressure for corporate buyers to cut costs and be clever with their print buying has meant a need for quick turnaround high quality results and this new Indigo digital press will allow RJDA to meet these needs head-on”.

RJ Design Studio

Not many companies are able to say ‘we’re waiting for this credit crunch people are talking about’. In the last twelve months marketing communications agency R J Design Associates have had numerous amounts of change and upheaval; all for the good. They have appointed new production staff, hired two new Account Managers and moved to premises three times the size of the previous building. So where is it?

From small and start-up businesses to large corporate and brand business, RJ Design Associates offers a vast amount of integrated marketing solutions and have recently taken on two extra Account Managers.

Paul Lebeter is no stranger to RJDA as he was there at the start when two designers were working from one rented room. He has since worked for agencies in the UK and Europe on both graphic design and marketing communication levels and re-joined RJDA four weeks ago with a wealth of experience to hand.

Matt Trapnell also joins the company with an extensive background in marketing and events management. Being a previous client of RJDA, Matt is also able to view a client’s requirements with an objective eye from both sides of the desk!

Rob Walker, Managing Director of RJDA explains, “Both new managers are bringing their own vision to the company and will add quality to the relationships we build with our clients. It isn’t just a matter of satisfying demand in increased workload, Matt and Paul are a fresh pair of eyes to help us meet the customer’s challenges!”

For more information contact RJDA on 0115 9445 428