On an industrial estate in West Yorkshire stands an imposing grey building. Behind a tall perimeter fence and a security cabin at the gate, 50 shades of grey it most certainly isn’t. Although you might find a copy of it behind those walls. Because inside that inconspicuously monotone building lies 373 miles of shelving that […]
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“We thought we had one box left, but we’ve run out! How quickly can you get us some more?” That’s how the urgent call usually goes. Now, ordinarily, we’re only talking about a few thousand Invoices or Letterheads – and we can get these run off in a day or two and out for despatch. […]
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Just in time for Remembrance Sunday, I finished a wonderful book called “The Searchers”: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War. By November 1918, the whereabouts of over half a million British soldiers remained unknown, and the book details some of the extraordinary searches for the missing which go on to this […]
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Cast your eye over a map of the London Underground today and you see a thing of pure beauty. It’s simplicity personified with clear lines, well-defined colour coding, and easy to read text. In an instant, travellers quickly know how to get from point A to point to point B with the minimum of fuss. […]
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Now, I’m as partial to a glass of fizz as anyone – but English sparkling? Delicious though it is, it’s got a few too many zeros on the end for me. Although if a generous host happens to press a glass or two on me, I’m not refusing! So, when a catalogue dropped through the […]
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All I had to do was put up some fencing around a Scots Pine tree … And I’d made a bit of a Horlicks of it. If a fencing contractor has seen it, they’d have probably burst out laughing. But that’s without reckoning on Tenzing Norgay – also known as my better three-quarter’s goat which, […]
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The human brain can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words … A point worth bearing in mind next time you’re updating a web page or printed material because a well-curated image library is worth its weight in gold. No, your images don’t have to look like a Hello magazine photo-shoot – just well thought out […]
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Campaigning for any election is a bloody hard job. Late nights, early mornings, and all day out on the stump. Harangued by unfriendly voters and snappy dogs, and there’s always a dribbling baby or two for an unenviable photo op. Yup, it’s hard graft all right but with the tantalising prospect of winning a seat […]
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How many of us haven’t railed against lockdown recently? For a very lucky few it may have been a blessed relief but for many, it has been pure mental torture. For the most part, at least we’ve been able to venture outdoors for a little exercise and freedom from our temporary imprisonment. But for some […]
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Throughout 2020 debate raged about face masks. Some love them but many loathe them. Some experts said they were essential whilst others said they didn’t do any good at all. In any event, they were a new experience for many of us working outside the medical and research fields. Considering how long they’ve been in […]
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It’s an astonishing thought that the summit of Mount Everest is made of Limestone. Which means that around 450 million years ago it once formed part of the seafloor. With the summit now standing at 29,032 feet, that seafloor has moved an awful long way over those mega-anna (*) and continues to do so at […]
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Last week we talked about the cost of being invisible in the marketplace. Whether you are using Google Ads, SEO, Leaflet Drops or whatever, getting your message out there doesn’t come on the cheap. Sure, if you’ve got a big budget and are prepared to fire money at the problem like it was going out […]
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In the rich tapestry of our royal rogues and rascals poor old Queen Anne seems to have been a bit of a dull old thing. But who could have guessed her obsession with candles would have such a profound influence on our retail landscape? For those living on a shoestring in the early 1700s, tallow […]
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