News
United Nations International Year of Co-ops
January 2012
Co-operatives have a billion members globally, and employ 100 million people. On 12 January they held events all over the world to celebrate the start of UN Year.
Happy Handmade Christmas
December 2011
We went back to basics and sent out a home-made rubber-stamped Christmas card to our friends and clients this year. Hopefully it made a change from emails bearing animated singing elves.
We'll send out our next email news update in early-January. Subscribe here if you want to receive it.
... and Happy New Year everyone.
Our new name and look
November 2011
It's been a few years since we last spruced-up our logo. This time we've decided to tweak our name as well. We've decided to call ourselves simply graphics.coop
We didn't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so it's a refinement of our registered name, The Graphics Company Ltd. Hopefully you'll still recognise us.
By using our dot-coop domain name, we are emphasising our identity as a co-operative. These domains only available to co-operatives and co-op support organisations. (If you represent a co-operative and you don't yet have one, you can get a dot-coop domain free for the first year.)
Prize draw winner
October 2011
We were delighted to call in at Stonewall Scotland, to present them with their prize from our draw at The Gathering – a lightweight recyclable display.
The winner, Heather Noller, took delivery of the display from our Michelle and Steve. (Michelle cunningly stayed behind the camera.)
Stonewall Scotland had their own designs ready to be printed on the double-sided display. It features their public services Good Practice Programme branding on one side and the iconic Some people are gay. Get over it! poster on the other (but not the even cooler gaelic version).
We're really chuffed to have been able to support Stonewall Scotland in their work and we're sure they'll make good use of the banner.
Office space available
October 2011
Looking for a nice place to work in central Edinburgh? Our ground floor office will be available for rent soon. It has built-in desk space for three people, bings of storage, fast broadband and comes with shared use of our kitchen and meeting room. (Also free parking, if you're into that sort of thing.)
For more pics of the space, see our facebook album. Give us a bell if you want to talk about it and arrange a viewing.
Two Little Ducks
September 2011
It's our birthday. The Graphics Company has been going for an incredible 22 years!
Three young designers excitedly opened the doors for our official start of trading in September 1989.
A lot of things have changed since then – not least the World Wide Web arrived and now we're a web design company too.
Some things haven't changed though:
- We're still a co-operative and proud of it.
- We're still on a mission to provide the best value design for Scotland's Third Sector.
To celebrate being 22, we're offering a box of chocolate ducks to whoever comes up with the best names for our two little pals in the picture.
Update October 2011: Eileen Dickie got quacking and won with the names 'Eider' and 'Down'. Enjoy your chocolate Eileen!
Co-operatives Fortnight petition
June 2011
Co-operatives across the UK (including us) are gearing up for the second Co-operatives Fortnight, from 25 June to 9 July 2011.
With the theme Yours To Share, it aims to show how co-operatives help to build a better world by giving everyone a share of the profits and an equal say.
This year's activities are centred around a petition calling for government action to narrow the gap between rich and poor in the UK through action to share ownership and wealth in a co-operative way.
Inequality in the UK has been increasing at an alarming rate and is at its highest since records began: The bottom half of the population now owns just 1% of the wealth. A generation ago, they had 12%.
You can sign the petition here.
Training you to keep your website fresh
May 2011
When we deliver a new website for a client, we provide a written guide and on-site training in how to keep it updated. The training covers how to use the Content Management System (CMS) whilst maintaining the website's all-important accessibility and Google rankings.
Recently, we've realised that there's a wider demand for training from people who have been landed with the task of maintaining their organisation's website. Maybe you took over in post from the person who originally did the job, and you don't feel that you're fully getting to grips with it?
Well, we're here to help. We can deliver a one-to-one training session at your desk to show you how to get the best results from your website. We can also train groups of up to four people, either at your office or at our studio.
As well as content updating, accessibility and search-engine optimisation (SEO) training, we offer specific sessions on Wordpress – the top blogging platform which also happens to be the world's most popular CMS.
If you're interested, get in touch and ask for Chris.
The other Big Wedding
April 2011
Ross got married!
Yes, Ross McLeod, our senior designer with nearly 20 years service, has tied the knot with Katy. It was a fabulous day and quite a few old faces from the history of The Graphics Company were in attendance.
Ross and Katy's romance bloomed through design. They met over a publication for Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association where Katy previously worked. Obviously, she was wowed by Ross's fabulous design skills (nothing to do with his warm character and good looks).
We can't promise quite such stellar results with our work in future, but give us a try and we'll do our best to impress.
And the winner is...
March 2011
Heather Noller from Stonewall Scotland was the lucky entrant of our prize draw at The Gathering (see February news).
Our oldest co-op member, Web Projects Manager Chris Booth, picked Heather's entry out of the bowl. (We made sure that he gave them a good stir and didn't peek.)
One of our designers will soon be working with Stonewall Scotland to create their fabulous free display. Watch this space, we'll show you when it's finished.
Mineral oils in food packaging
March 2011
This problem with toxic mineral oils has hit the news recently and is a reminder that recycling and recyclability choices require some joined-up thinking.
You're probably aware that we have long advocated printing on recycled paper, but did you know that we also recommend the use of vegetable-based inks?
You can't choose what your old printed leaflets and reports will be made into when they are eventually recycled — inevitably some will end up as cardboard for food packaging. Choosing vegetable inks instead of mineral oil inks reduces the problem downstream.
Did you see us at The Gathering?
February 2011
Our trade stand at The Gathering really made a visual impact with our wall-to-wall branded space. Our design theme was Cutting costs (not corners). We spoke to loads of people (hello again if you were one of them) which we found very useful to gauge the state of the voluntary sector.
Our prize draw this year was for the design and production of a recyclable display stand. Sixty people filled in our cut-off-corner-style entry slips. We'll announce the lucky winner soon — watch this space.
New team member
January 2011
We'd like to introduce our new graphic designer, Michelle Lile (right), who has just become part of our team. With over a decade of experience in the design industry, Michelle has hit the ground running in the new job and is already making her mark with our clients.
Michelle replaces Dan, who moved on in October.