We have just finished the design, print and copywriting of the latest newsletter for Telford based company, IPS (Independent Parts and Services), who are Europe’s largest supplier of parts and service to the Access Industry. The A4 newsletter is 4 sided and uses the company’s corporate colours of black and yellow throughout.

With a nod to the Olympics taking place in the UK this year, matm graphic designer Neil Dicken used the silhouette of a sprinter on the front cover. The figure appears to be crossing a finishing line away from any visible competition – a representation of IPS’s position in the powered access parts and service market.

matm has designed, written and printed newsletters, often to tight deadlines, for a number of companies – from small local operations through to large international companies.

Get in contact by clicking above on ‘contact us’ and we can discuss how we’ll help you produce a first class newsletter.

International luxury freestanding bath manufacturer Victoria + Albert Baths sells its products worldwide. This means each piece of printed material has to be reproduced for each country in its native language. This is to ensure the V+A brand has a consistent message, tone of voice, and that the complex technical specifications for these luxury products do not get lost in translation.

Consolidating the technical specification sheets resulted in reduced print costs as we combined 5 languages English, German, French, Spanish and Italian into one universal sheet. Icons, technical diagrams & images replaced multiple descriptions, thus gaining valuable space to include the important native descriptions.

Multi language document benefits:

• saving on print costs
• save on setup costs – one set of plates
• unified brand identity across the whole of Europe
• ease of updating across multiple languages
• single file update for European language web site
• reduces carbon footprint – less print runs

The recently completed overhaul of the European materials includes luxury brochures, specification & fitting sheets along with reusable e-shot templates through our bespoke e-shot system called Coffeemail. We are also working on a multilingual price list which includes Russian & Polish along with the 5 other languages above.

Matm can offer a complete translation service – all text is translated by people who speak in the native tongue, right through to recreation of artwork and websites.

Why not contact us today and find out how much you could save on print and artwork cost – Merci, Gracias, Grazie, Danke & Thank you!!

Following recent refurbishments, YHA Coalbrookdale and YHA Coalport, both in Ironbridge, wanted to promote their sites with a joint leaflet giving information on the activities available within the Ironbridge area.

We were asked to produce the leaflets and, with a very quick turnaround for both design and print, supplied 2,000 finished leaflets on time.

Cath Young, YHA Manager Ironbridge, said: “We had a tight budget and an even tighter deadline, but the guys at matm really pulled us out of a hole and provided us with excellent customer service.

“The leaflet looks better than I could ever imagine, and I was really impressed considering the short deadline. The leaflet has received positive feedback from both colleagues and potential customers to our sites.”

This poster was designed by London and Los Angeles based graphic design company, Binary & The Brain, in association with the Louisiana Wildlife Federation to raise awareness of the many critically endangered species which continue to be effected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

38 of the coast’s most at-risk animals, some of which face extinction or have already vanished from the state are used to create the shape of the effected coastline and lettering, all are numbered for identification.

Designer Neil Dicken said: “I really like the illustration in this poster – the way in which the combination of animal silhouettes are used to create the shape of the affected coastline – so as well as being very artistic, the poster is very informative at the same time.”

All profits from the sale of this poster go directly to the Louisiana Wildlife Federation to help protect and conserve the endangered species. Visit lawildlifefed.org to find out more and to show your support for their great work.

The Birds

This poster was designed in association with BirdLife International to raise awareness of the 52 UK birds on the endangered red list.

Again, each of the 52 birds were used to outline the lettering and are numbered for identification.

Produced by Binary and the Brain

Available from www.counter-objects.co.uk


We were delighted to be asked by Children’s Hospice’s UK to design and print raffle ticket books for their forthcoming draw for Phoenix Trading’s Butterfly Tea Party Raffle 2011.

matm has a strong record of working with charities and their partners. Our designer Tom Blockley drew inspiration from Phoenix Trading’s extensive range of cards and gift items to produce the design of the £1 tickets.

The closing date for the draw is 1 August with a top prize of £2,000, and proceeds going Children’s Hospices UK, the national charity that gives voice and support to all children’s hospices services. Visit www.childhospice.org.uk for more information.

Tickets were printed and collated into books of 15 – full colour front and one colour reverse.

Grasshopper Banner - Telford Mind

We designed this little Grasshopper Banner Stand for Telford Mind – these budget banners pack a big wedge of impact for little cost. Give us a call to see our full range of exhibition banners and panels.

Here at matm, we’ve built up significant experience in designing health promotional material for quite a number of clients, honing our skills in a wide range of projects, designs and approaches.

Key elements of this work are creating messaging that is creative and has clarity and impact within clear brand guidelines.

For example, in a recent project for for Telford and Wrekin PCT we created a range of promotional material for the Health Trainer service which provides personal advice to people who want to be healthier and fitter.

The promotional campaign, called “My Health Trainer”, sought to highlight the highly personal one-to-one support the health trainers give their clients.

Collateral included a four-page leaflet, a suite of posters (pictured below) were designed and printed as well as a number of promotional items such as printed water bottles, stress balls and pens.

New pizza restaurant Peepo Pizza turned to Shropshire marketing and graphic design agency matm to create their new menus.

Simple, elegant design makes the menu easy to read and sets the Peepo Pizza brand apart in a market sector with plenty of competitors.

The design is being used in table mat menus in the Bridgnorth restaurant as well as a handy takeaway menu being distributed to homes via the Royal Mail Door-2-Door service.

matm organised the printing of the menus too. That’s a tasty take on design. And the pizza is great too!

Making a marketing impact in a cluttered and fast-moving world can be a bit of a challenge.

Which got us here at matm thinking, how many adverts are we exposed to every day?

It appears from a huge amount of in-depth research – well okay, about 10 minutes on Google – that the answer is not clear.

In 2007, the New York Times quotes 5,000 (up from 2,000 in 1977). Then again, that is for the USA where they would tattoo an advertisement on the inside of your eyelids if you let them.

Another textbook figure that pops up a lot is 3,000. A blog has even been created solely to explore the phenomenon.

In Australia, one intrepid blogger, Matt Granfield, set out to actually count how many adverts he saw in 24 hours – that IS dedication for you. He got to 91 in the first hour and concluded it wasn’t looking good for the 3,000 figure.

Some experts break the figures down a little. A recent study, again in the USA, found that 34% of all ads targeting children or teens were for sweets and snacks – and that tweens were the most heavily targeted, seeing more than 20 food ads a day.

And at the conservative end of the scale, some put the total number of ads viewed at 300.

Okay. Whatever the case, we get to see a lot of adverts – and more now than we used to.

That’s why it is so important to make your message stand out from the crowd.

We recently helped Douglas Macmillan Hospice in Stoke on Trent do this by designing a promotional money collecting box for them. When every penny generously donated really counts, it’s important to get things right.

So here’s our top tips for designing promotional material:

• Know what your key message is. It might not be profound – but it always has to get right to the nub of the matter, and fast.
• Be clear about what and who you are promoting. You have a blink of an eye to achieve a connection and trigger a reaction.
• Use bold, contrasting colours – which always reflect your brand. Contrasting colours help the whole design stand out.
• And in that cluttered world mentioned earlier, less is always more. Keep it simple!

We hope that when you see a Douglas Macmillan Hospice collecting box, you’ll put a few coins in. It’s one of the hundreds – or is it thousands? – of ‘adverts’ you will see in a day that is really worth succumbing to.

Here at matm we were proud to sponsor the recent Ironbridge Christmas Market in Ironbridge, Shropshire. We supported the event by designing the Gorge Year information sheet detailing events across this UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.

As keen supporters of the Ironbridge Gorge community, we take great interest in the work of Ironbridge Regeneration Partnership. It has been great to see real events taking place in the gorge, so it was not a hard decision to make when asked if we can support the event.

Stuart Bickerton, Director of matm, the marketing, design, web and PR agency based at Jackfield near Telford, Shropshire, said: “The Ironbridge Gorge clearly has a proud history and the work of the Ironbridge Regeneration Partnership captures the mix of heritage and modern business thinking perfectly – it has a ‘Can Do’ spirit that supports enterprise across the area.

“I enjoyed the inaugural Victorian Christmas Market this year – I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. There was a great turn out from local businesses, traders, shoppers and local families.”

With plenty of events planned – it looks like being an industrious year in the Gorge – but given it’s history, what else would you expect!

Here’s a list of just a few of the events coming up during 2011:

Farmers Market – Held every third Saturday of each month,
beginning in March (except November)

Daffodil Ride – Bike ride for all ages and abilities, The Bicycle Hub

Queens Victoria’s Birthday Weekend – 28th to 30th May
Blists Hill Victorian Town

Brass Band Festival – The Museum of Iron 16th and 17th of July

Coracle Regatta – Dale End Park

PS…Here’s just some of the traders who supported this year’s event.

Bertelin Farmhouse Cheese: www.bertelinfarmhousecheese.co.uk
Little Round Cake Company: www.thelittleroundcakecompany.co.uk
Shropshire Spice Co: www.shropshirespice.co.uk
Sweetooth Liquorice: john@pinches14.wanadoo.co.uk
Absolute Heart: www.absoluteheart.co.uk
Fairlady Fabrics: irmina.krzak@btinternet.com
Derek Houghton Images: www.shropshire-images.com
Jane Murphy Glass: www.jane-murphy.blogspot.com
Kim Rodgers: www.kimrodgers.co.uk