Greystones Printing

Nearing the end of another month…..

And still no signs of summer! We are in the silly season, where sometimes we think the phone lines are broken! No lack of orders though: which is partly why I haven’t updated lately. I currently have two weddings in progress, for which the stationery of both is going to be quite stunning! Obviously, I can’t go into too many details, but gerberas are involved in one of them: I am having a hundred gerbera shapes laser cut by a company in Scotland which will end up being the place cards at the tables. Dr Tait has just ordered a reprint of his book ‘Letters to Jack Tait’ which are now at the print finishers being bound, and I have a couple of clients for whom I am producing prints of their original water colour paintings, which is quite a challenging job. Meanwhile, stationery for a client in Saskatchewan is winging its way over the Atlantic. Toodlepip!

The art of proofreading

and it is an art! Sod’s Law dictates that if the client does not check the artwork and typesetting, but just tells you to print, what can go wrong will! I remember a few years back, I had taken a piece of masonic gubbins to be engraved, and the engraver spelled one of the words wrong. “Well, it’s done now” he said. I was quite philosophical about this, after all, it could not be undone. Today, I collected a fleece jacket as a sample for the bowling club of which I am a member. So I could claim it as a legitimate business expense, I asked for one of my websites to be woven onto the garment, it turned out to be “morgpix.com” instead of “mogpix.com”

Well, life is too short to get uptight about this, so I have simply got a new website now: www.morgpix.com

Keep your eye out for this new site when it is launched!

another holiday?

‘fraid so! Thank you all for keeping me so busy lately. I am away though, from Wednesday 7th July until Tuesday 13th, my son James and I are off to Classic Le Mans. Will be busy for you until then though, I won’t even be playing golf on Thursday!

having a day off?

Yes, sometimes we need to! I am closed for business Thursday 10th June, to get my fingers greened up by visiting Harlow Carr, the RHS gardens, near Harrogate. A nice relaxing day out, with someone else doing the driving: in this particular case, the coach driver, who is taking a bunch of like-minded folks from the St Luke’s Hospice Lottery ‘club’ for want of a better word. Martin Rickers, former manager of the St Luke’s Lottery, organises coach excursions throughout the year, as a fund raiser to help Sheffield’s only hospice. I will let you know what sort of day out we had.

Junk phone calls

Jeez, they get on my nerves! Just in case there are any call centres out there who trawl web sites like mine to get their contacts, none of my machinery needs PAT testing, No-one deals with health and safety issues here, I do not want to save money on my phone calls, I do not want to contract hire a car, I do not want debt collection services, I need, please, only clients! Thank you. Click brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

More than just ‘thank you’

I can’t think of one single client who hasn’t said ‘thank you’ for the service they have received from Greystones, but an e mail received yesterday was so sweet, I thought it worthy of being posted here. It relates to the wedding stationery for Neil and Jan. I hope they have a very long and happy time together.

<<Hi Richard,
Just to say a big thank you for all your hard work! Everything looks
fantastic. Neil and my mum are over the moon. I will make sure that you get
some wedding cake, as long as you share it with your wife.
Thank you
Jan >>

Makes my job so much better!

piggin phone charges!

I have just received the monthly phone bill from Unicom: they want to charge me £1 for receiving my bill on paper! This is a smack in the face for we in the printing business: whatever next: phone calls by thought transfer or something equally ridiculous?

Pah!

BT is getting my custom back now, following a painless 0800 call. Meanwhile Unicom are leving messages on my answerphone to call them back on an 0161 number. Some chance!

the downside of advertising!

I have, for a number of years, advertised in a local publication, as I am a firm believer in supporting the local business community. Unfortunately, I do not print this particular publication, and I am confident that should I ever have the opportunity to, the quality would increase! I think though, as  the only printer  mentioned within the pages, readers may wrongly assume that the print quality is representative of my print quality! Of course I will continue to advertise as I get a lot of support from the local community. It’s just a pity that the printer of this journal isn’t mentioned as being responsible. This isn’t, I must emphasise, a case of sour grapes, as there’s a lot of work out there, and quite a few printers in this area!

keeping up with the times

When I started with computers some years back, I used a graphics programme called CorelDraw, version 7. I have now upgraded it to X5, which I reckon to be 15, and am getting to grips with the new facilities it offers. Working smarter, not harder, is one of my adages, and this version has a crop button which is so useful. With previous versions, one had to copy and paste into Photopaint, not a tough task, but which added a few minutes to the job. Latest jobs, btw: rallyplaques for a new client in San Fransisco, and some A2 prints of sandwiches: these are not ordinary sandwiches, they are M&S sandwiches!

“what’s your minimum print run?”…….

I am often asked. “One”, is the answer! And to prove it, a lady from Nottingham phoned me yesterday, wanting just one certificate to be presented to a girl who it seemed had excelled at reading in her church.

So, one certificate is now winging its way there, printed with a Sikh crest and border in orange, with the text printed in black, on a really nice parchment-type paper.

Ok, so I won’t be able to buy a new pair of shoes out of the profits of this single job, but a few like this in a week will certainly help.