rocket-print

Ooooh! 3 posts in one day...

2011-11-07T22:19:00.003Z

We have decided that Karla is officially very trendy...

At 1.30 last Friday a new virus was discovered, and at 2.30 Karla just had to have it. So new they hadn't even named it ... It only took a rebuild to fix- c'est la vie!

And yet another new Face...

2011-11-07T22:17:00.002Z

The artist known as Neil has come on board as a coder, taking up some of the slack from Keiran (in particular) and myself (the old git). He's only been here for a few weeks but is picking up our methodologies really well.

There's a new kid in town...

2011-11-07T22:15:00.002Z

We have a new business development person in the shape of Emma Williams. Emma has had a broad experience in business development, but hasn't worked in our field before - so we've bombarded her with information over the last month. She seems to be handling it well and is coming very quickly up to speed.

Watch this space...

Change in the air...

2011-09-17T23:44:00.001+01:00

Well, we survived the first week without Lynne, who has gone on to bigger and better things at Johnston Carmichael's marketing department. Definitely a quiet place without her

Maaj is still on secondment for her professional quals, and is going travelling for a few months next year, after her stint with GE is finished.

However, 'plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose' and we are re-organising to accommodate our new team members -names to follow soon.

watch out for the new site..

2011-01-28T22:43:00.002Z

We realised that, one problem with keeping prices constant for 4 years is that we haven't been pushed to change the site. However, with a number of small changes happening at the moment, we will have to address the new site.

This on top of everthing else that's going on work-wise - ah well....

Ain't work great....

2011-01-22T14:51:00.002Z

Hmmm... maybe not. I seem to be suffering from the January blues. I've been back to work for just days, and I feel like another holiday.

Question... can I get another job in a sunny climate?

Offers, on a postcard, to Dave @ Rocket Print

chinese curse...?

2010-10-17T00:36:00.000+01:00

The one I'm thinking on is 'may you live in interesting times' .

We've just spent a bomb on upgrading servers, new gear in the form of workstations and screens, tablets etc. So what happens?

We've just had a couple of weeks of technology problems. Super duper (hideously)expensive printer decides to throw a wobbly, our new servers didn't want to talk to each other and lastly, our broadband went down with the outage last weekend that hit 500 or so companies all over the UK. So we reconfigured our router, then discovered that the local area workgroups (3 of them) had also lost their settings. Ahh the joys..

All fixed now however, and no clients affected.... but we are looking at a dedicated leased line...

Forgot to say...

2010-09-30T23:07:00.002+01:00

We have finally taken over unit 17 Cotton Street. It's small but really necessary for us to spread out....

Serving the nation ..?

2010-09-30T22:54:00.002+01:00

Totally misleading title, that one! Just a short one to tell you about the installation of more servers at our studio (running Lucid Lynx as per usual). We decided to stick with HP Compaq technology a while ago, using G5 & G6 servers with dual Xeons, and seem to have made the right choice.

In addition, we are swapping out our old custom-built workstations with end-of-line HP XW workstations. Ooooh.. fast...

thanks for all the fish...

2010-09-30T22:42:00.002+01:00

Seriously, many thanks to the many applicants for the graphics assistants job. Sorry to tell you but this position is now filled. We are currently trialling Ross Fraser in this position for a couple of months.

However, we are expanding, so watch this space...

time for a new view...

2010-09-06T00:17:00.004+01:00

We are looking for a graphics assistant and we have had experienced people apply for what is really a minimum wage job for a starter.

Why? The colleges are hugely over-producing media and design students.

Some of them are also coming out of college with egos that are really scary. I've had people tell me that I was doing things wrongly, when they have had days worth of experience. Time for the colleges to give students a sense of perspective of where they are in the scheme of things.

student reactions...

2010-06-26T23:18:00.004+01:00

Well, we've just passed that time of year again. Student art cards... I think we've got the pricing and the formula right, because the students were flocking in for biz cards and flyers. We did more than twice as many this year as last, maybe due to a direct competitor letting some students down... really surprising, as this is the most important time for the students, and the last thing they need is to have an unreliable supplier...

We also sponsored the end-of-year show at Aberdeen College again this year. Someone asked why we didn't have banners etc up telling the world, to which we replied that we were doing it to support the students... not our business...

Killer Karla at Karting...

2010-06-26T15:52:00.005+01:00

Karla, Maaj and Lyyne were renamed Killer Karla, Mad Maaj and Loony Lynne after last nights' kart-racing at KartStart.

All 3 showed a killer instinct on the track, and backed up by Nutty Nikki and GoGo Jo, had Ian, Keiran and myself scared senseless on the track.

Then it was off to the Old School House for a few pints to refresh...

All really good fun though. Who says females are delicate....

plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose...

2010-06-03T19:19:00.001+01:00

For those who don't speak french, basically it means - always change, but always things remain the same... I understood how wise the French were to come up with that saying when I realised, during a week off last week, that myself and the whole team are working flat out, and have been for several years now.

So to cheer them up, I'm a) looking for some new people and b) taking them karting in a few weeks (this is before their sky-dive for charity)...

Should be fun...

busy, busy....

2010-04-17T12:40:00.004+01:00

Well, the news of no price increases has gone down well with the business community. We've been inundated with work on all sides, from loads of print and design for print for Rocket through to our sister company Paradox being snowed under with branding, websites, advertising work etc (see paradoxsolved.blogspot) .

Apart from starting to attract the interest of the Oil industry, work we've never particularly gone after, we've had a number of senior businesses suddenly expressing an interest in using our services.

It could be due to the AIFF work Paradox completed a couple of weeks ago (We were asked by a consortium of senior Aberdeen businessmen to rebrand the Aberdeen International Football Festival (one of the older ones in the world) and create a new ideolect and website.) . This high-profile job has been amazingly well received and is shooting up the rankings in Google.

Whatever it is, I'm not complaining...

new services...

2010-04-04T18:20:00.002+01:00

We're in the process of adding new products and services, which along with our new e-commerce site (finally) will make our lives ever more interesting. With the advent of our club flyer service (which seems to be much liked) the pubs and clubs are coming on board in their droves.

New York, New York...

2010-03-18T18:22:00.001Z

Karla is off to New York today for a tour round the sights. Knowing her, she'll come back with some prime contacts in the design world....

another fiscal year...

2010-03-18T18:10:00.005Z

We have been sitting down and figuring out our new print prices.

That was quite easy... no changes to most prices.

1000 business cards full colour 2 sides on 400gsm card are still £39 inc VAT
1000 A6 flyers full colour 2 sides on 400gsm card are still £59

The only price to rise in four years is 1000 letterheads & compliment slips, up from £178 to £198, and that's only because we are now printing on a very high quality 120 gsm bond paper.

Unlike some other online and discount printers, what you see is what you get.... no need to entice with spurious special print deals (which never turn out to be real) on the front page of our website, instead just totally transparent pricing for genuine premium quality cut-price print, which our clients seem to like...

btw..

2010-02-20T00:04:00.001Z

Amazingly well done, rocketprint girls... already up to 85% of their target for the skydive.

See more at www.justgiving.com/rocketprintgirls.

I can see they're going to smash the figure,,,

stupid is as stupid does...

2010-02-19T23:45:00.002Z

A favourite Forrest Gump saying... it really applies to certain situations. I recently (today) managed to do an amazingly silly one.

We are in the midst of sorting out servers. Why? With the hundreds of fast-moving and high-traffic client sites we are currently hosting across a number of servers, we decided a bit of file-keeping was in order. Though we don't host any sites created by others, one of our own sites (rocket-print.co.uk) is testing for e-commerce at the mo'. I decided to swap servers, forgetting that I would have to create the space then switch it off till it went live. The end result was a very quiet day in the rocket print studio as no emails came in.

To clients out there, apologies, but normal service is resumed as of 4pm.

duhhhh...

aha skidiving....

2010-02-04T12:32:00.002Z

Three of our staff, Maaj, Karla and Lynne, are intending doing a skydive for charity this year and have put a blog up on www.justgiving.com/rocketprintgirls. They're trying to raise £1500 for McMillan Cancer Support. If you want to help them raise some money, go to the link above and pledge some cash - any amount is good....

The title? a typo on the rocketprintgirls blog ....

so 2 months later...

2009-10-24T18:31:00.004+01:00

I finally manage to find some time to write something. We've had killer few months with the amount of new business coming in. Coupled with the new printer going in etc.... that degree of chaos attained!

In order to get the new CPP550 printer in, we had to clear out our back room, move several tons of gear and boxes into the studio and public area, have pallet racking installed, change the electrics, get the new printer installed and networked, and move everything back into the back area onto the new shelves.... arrggghhh!

Making life even more interesting was the busiest period we've ever had coupled with both Ian and myself taking some holidays (shed painting type) and also changing our accountancy systems to accommodate our growth. (10 out of 10 to Fyfe Moir Associates for steering us through this interesting period)

This month is quieter (as October is always is for us), but not that quiet... still on extended days and weekends....

ps forgot to say that the new printer isn't a 1/4 tonne, but 1/2 tonne and can hold 6000 SRA3 sheets at a time in it's bulk feeder..... details you really didn't want to know...

trying (or should that be tiring) times ...

2009-08-27T18:31:00.002+01:00

In the run-up to our new light production machine coming in, we needed to get some changes made to our electrics. So the sparkie was called in (one of the better ones in Aberdeen) and the extra ring-thing was added with the increased amperage. While he was doing this, he accidentally tripped a circuit which provides for the servers. At this point we discovered that of all the UPS' we have, only one has a problem.. you've guessed it... the main one. Four hours later and we have finally reset all the various servers and got things running again. Technology, you 've got to love it ... ?

On a brighter note, we're expanding and taking over the unit next door for a meeting / chill room.

space - our current frontier....

2009-08-17T18:58:00.002+01:00

We've ordered a new light production machine for the print side, all super -duper and weighing in at a cool 1/4 ton. Problem is the size... it's the size of a very small car, requiring special electrics and much-needed space.

On the bright side, there is a unit coming up for lease which may just suit our needs for more space.

Watch this space (sic transit) ......

Another name to remember...

2009-08-17T18:54:00.002+01:00

It's been a while since I've had time to update the blog, so there will be a few in quick succession...

New face onboard ...Craig! He's a young lad who came here for a work placement and everyone liked him. We have been getting busier and busier on Saturdays (even though we're officially closed) so we asked him to come in to help man the phones, clean out computers etc. He's been doing it for over a month now and gets on really well....

students, students everywhere and .......

2009-06-20T16:55:00.003+01:00

Incredibly busy period with the end-of-year shows (we even sponsored a local one) . The feedback we got from students all over the country was brilliant - loads of very positive comments about the quality of the print and the speed of service.

We made a point of offering a 24 hour standby service for end-of-year assessments with digital printed cards - for the students that forgot to get stuff ordered on time (even with our fast 2-3 day service).

Many thanks to all the students who wrote, emailed and called to thank us for their cards, posters and perf'd artcards - it's great to get such positive feedback.

power of the web.....

2009-05-26T23:58:00.003+01:00

It's been a busy few weeks, yet again. We have had some time to look at various aspects of the business and our clients. It appears that, while our existing client base is growing, we have started to appeal to a lot of students. If it had been purely local I could have understood this, but we're getting students from far and wide. Makes you realise the power of the web..... and we haven't even done anything to enhance our SEO......

the things you see at Morrisons Supermarket..

2009-05-26T23:46:00.002+01:00

I had to include this one. Spotted at our local Morrisons it's a fair size of a propellor. Amazing what gets carted around the country......

Or is it a new line they're taking in.......

new tech people

2009-05-17T12:17:00.002+01:00

We've started using a new tech person called Mark McKie. Very switched on and up to speed with the latest developments. He's just started in business for himself so, if you need someone, give us a shout for his contact details.

He's currently reading up on Unison to get our new exchange server up and running. As per everything that goes on with us, it'll be yet another learning curve...

Holidays....

2009-05-17T11:49:00.002+01:00

I've been putting off having a real holiday with the thought, that, it'll happen at the end of this glut of work. I was rudely awakened to the reality by a recent event...

We were approached, along with a few other Aberdeen businesses, and asked to pitch for a well-known Oil Company's requirements for the next few years. Both Ian and myself were startled to realise that we were way too busy to accommodate even the pitch, let alone the actual work if we were to actually get it, and we are constantly evolving with new methodologies and staff, which is not a good mix for a large injection of work.

So a fresh look is called for. Our growth has always been organic with, in particular, Uni's and SME's (along with a few big players) being particularly attracted to our no-nonsense prices and attitudes to delivery etc. We've now decided to try to set targets and have a salesperson coming onboard in a bid to steer our growth. Only problem with this is that we have hugely beaten our last 2 years' targets and grown in an exponential manner.

I have had a wake-up call with this, and have decided to start planning holidays, irrespective of projects and jobs to be finished. Time for personal change.

one of those days...

2009-04-24T21:59:00.002+01:00

It wasn't actually, it was a really productive one. From a satisfying meeting with a favourite client through to a quick phone call to a good mate in London, it really felt like I had achieved something today. I also launched www.laws-tyres.com , a site that has been sitting in the wings for a week or two, awaiting technical content.

The team had a good day as well, getting everything up to date for the weekend (nice feeling) installing Karla's new super-duper monitor, getting Lynne's one up and running as well, and Lynne even managed to get the buyer personas done for our new service.

So what is our new service? It's no great secret, just package deals for clubs and organisers so they can save even more money using our print service.

great technology.......

2009-04-08T21:33:00.000+01:00

We've been considering a CAC for ages, and we finally bought one, a Verevide Colour Assessment Cabinet. What a great piece of technology! Transmissive and reflective work can be assessed as a comparison on the box or cabinet. That combined with our Pantone Two reader means that our colour reproduction accuracy is going to be higher than ever, and our artist clients in particular will be happy bunnies.

Another new service we're offering is a 4000 dpi scan up to 6 x 7 transparencies on a Super Nikon scanner.

Time to start looking for our next premises at this rate :)

not much to say....

2009-04-02T21:16:00.001+01:00

It's been a really busy few weeks with the working hours really racking up. However, we're keeping up with the work (just). Some of the new projects coming on board are some full rebrands for established Scottish companies. So a nice mix of print, web and app development. Always fun...

wow....

2009-03-25T00:18:00.003Z

I'm amazed. Having been so busy for the last couple of years, I haven't been doing some of the things I keep meaning to. So the other week, I added Google Analytics to a few of our sites as an experiment. One of these was this blog.

Amazing insight into who reads this. So hello to readers from Sale & Shenzen, Rochdale, Stanwell, California, Washington, Fareham, Canterbury, Poplar, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Blantyre, Leeds, Rawtenstall, Rotherham, Leeds and Lillehammer, Barnstaple, Maidstone, Ipswich, Norwich, Stafford, Birmingham, Bristol, Hydrabad and Alesund to name but a few of the locations, and a big hello to all the other readers in places too numerous too mention.

Hope it's not too boring......

hold that thought..

2009-03-10T20:30:00.002Z

Well, we decided to hold off buying the Canon production machine for the moment, having got wind of a new machine due on-market in the next couple of months. However, the new software etc goes in over the next couple of weeks.

forgot to say...

2009-03-08T17:19:00.003Z

A few other things have been happening.

We've just ordered a new Canon light production digital print station to go into Cotton Street. It arrives this week for a 2 week trial, but we think it will work well if the reports are anything to go by.

Also, we have the installation and trialling of our new bespoke workflow software to handle enquiries / orders through production to delivery. I think it will be a learning curve.

Having been given a bum steer re accountacy software (MYOB Professional) thanks to someone who's opinion I respected, we have been advised by our accountants to move to Sage, which is happening soon.

We have also looked at production layout software from Metrix, an Australian company, which gives you automatic layout for print, but we're not sure as our requirements are becoming ever more sophisticated and possibly a fast designer will make more sense of it than software.

Sore head time again...

2009-03-08T17:02:00.004Z

Friday night came round, and what a night. We went out, ostensibly to say farewell to Lynne, a student placement from RGU. However, we had decided to offer her a part-time job with Rocket and Paradox, as she had done really good work, and the rest of the team think she's great. So we just went for a drink anyway.... Five, Korova and 99 ending up home early morning with beer vision, and can Lynne drink... kept up with the rest of the team...

I have published a comment to the previous post. I don't usually, but I thought this one quite funny, especially as we almost doubled our print trade in February, and have just had an enquiry in from a major brewers (an existing client) to design and supply 1600 bound menus to some of their pubs. I think it may be from a competitor:) but who knows... they didn't have the nerve to leave their name.

busier and busier....

2009-02-19T10:14:00.002Z

We thought we were coming back to a quieter January, after the rush up to Christmas. Needless to say, we were totally wrong with this January being almost 3 times busier than last January.

February hasn't been any different, so far, with everyone running around like busy bee's. Amongst the many projects on the go are a Pizza Home Delivery website, a video site for a Dance company, websites for flowers, an innovative new golf product also being launched in Japan, a site for a charity in India, and many others.

So for March....in like a lion, out like a lamb? don't think so......

sore heads...

2009-02-19T09:26:00.002Z

Almost at the end of the week and we are still 1 short after Karla's birthday bash at the weekend. Much drink was consumed (Karla's bad influence, don't you know:)) and everyone was suffering for a few days. Main victim was Karla however, who claims it's a bad cold/flu :)

The event was at the Tunnels with Dead Rabbit playing and DJ after. Excellent!

Images to follow, if I have time....

race to the end of the year

2009-01-04T22:23:00.003Z

A bit belated, this one. We finally got all our gear including the big printers, down to the new place. So what now? Well we're starting the year on a high note with tons of work, so much so that I was in on the 2nd doing a website for a client in a rush.

The week before, I was in installing new workstations for the extra people coming on in late January. After the G5 servers were such a success, we went with HP workstations with the new Triple Phenom processors. Wow! HP Compaq has really put the boot into the competition with that combination of processor and GPU in their new workstations. Opening a file that used to take 90 seconds ( a big one) takes 15 seconds on the new machine. Well worth the cost.

Art of noise?

2008-12-06T18:11:00.002Z

Tenuous, to put it mildly:) Just a short note to say that we have some Mike Cairncross pieces in our new Cotton St. studio if anyone wants to have a gander. Mike is the sculptor and artist known for the Leddach Chair, and the steel sharks. (big things:)

another day older....

2008-12-05T14:08:00.003Z

Sitting here working on a Friday night, I thought to myself.... sad git. Way too much work, not enough time. We've launched 6 websites this month including 3 CMS's and 1 database. Time doesn't stand still etc.

So that's me off to the flicks.... tata!

Well I never ....

2008-10-12T13:37:00.002+01:00

So the Fiery thing went well, but we still don't have our big printers down here. The large format ones are still to come in. We were amazed to see the delivery of the new Aficio 4500 machine and finisher though. Ever seen one of those stair crawlers? Quarter of a ton of machine lifted by one man, up a corner set of stairs. Amazing bits of kit!

We're looking at one of the medium level OCE machines to add to our existing digital printers. Might well go for it!

Sarah (ex-accountant) was saying she's bored with the new job. Can we hope she ends up in Aberdeen? Her and Maaj would make a formidable organizational team. Especially when combined with the new work-flow software system that we are having commissioned. Meeting after meeting for the sole pupose of getting down on paper what we want it to do. Ah well..... give it time...

Very Fiery .....

2008-09-08T12:14:00.003+01:00

So we finally did it. On top of our set of new G5 servers running Linux (Har de Har), we have also just taken delivery of our brand-new super-duper EFI (Canon) RIP and print server. For such a beast of a thing, it's tiny..... you feel you could put it in a pocket :) Ok, not quite!

It's a bit of a step away from our existing Best RIP technology, even though we recently spent a bomb in upgrading to the very latest version (they're not scared to charge, these big software companies). We thought it was time to go the hardware route as it's more stable and doesn't cost £600 a time when we need a colour profile.

Watch this space for progress reports....

Sea change .....

2008-09-08T12:07:00.003+01:00

I was going to be sarky with that title, but changed my mind. We had another staff night out on Saturday, but this time it was to say goodbye to Sarah our accountant. She's off to work with the hush-hush men in gaberdines in the South-East. She's going to be sorely missed around here, both as a colleague, and as a friend. We wish her the absolute best in her new job. (but hope she changes her mind and comes back):)

Starting in Soul for food, we progressed through the city becoming ever more erratic until we were horizontal in The Wild Boar, where we met up with Lauren, who was out celebrating her birthday (forgot to say Happy Birthday, Lauren). Good night out, with photos (hopefully) to follow.

Maaj, our new accountant, starts later this week at our new studios at Cotton Street. Hopefully we won't scare her too much :)

BT or not BT? ...........

2008-07-31T23:17:00.003+01:00

Well, I had heard the rumours about how difficult BT are to deal with. ...and yes, it's true. Moving into our new premises has ground to a halt. Having been scheduled for this week, the move has had to be put off till next month, due to BT's inability to take a simple instruction. So for the moment, we have 4 main lines. Interesting huh? Still best to call on the 63 and 64 numbers though, for the next month, especially as half the team are on their hols.

However, on a better note, new director Matt has been down in London and has spotted a possible site for our new office. With an eye for a bargain, he hunted down a 2 story office space in the City, just yards from Liverpool St. Will it be ours? Time will tell.

another night out....

2008-07-05T23:28:00.004+01:00

It started innocently enough. A few of us were attending the launch of the Red Bus Art Co., one of our clients, and it was a couple of glasses of champagne....... (that's Karla tucking in to the champagne ... she's always the first to suss out where the booze is). Then we ended up back in the city, and it was all downhill from there....... Here's the image of a couple of drunken reprobates leaning to support each other outside the pub... (one doesn't want to be identified)

the saga continues ......

2008-07-03T22:51:00.002+01:00

That's almost 3 months since we decided to bite the bullet with the new premises. Finally we have a date for moving ..... and it's going to be soon.

Has this stopped Ian on his quest for his perfect screen? of course not ... the latest one is an HP 24" with HDMI and all the rest. This is saving on bulbs in the studio, illuminating every corner

I have to say I'm not jealous (:), so the next aquisition is a Lacie monitor with BlueEye for me to match the new workstation on order. BUT delivered to the new place , along with the new desks, chairs, gear etc .... It's going to be fun!

a bit of fun .........

2008-06-30T00:14:00.003+01:00

We've had our eyes opened at the number of people who read our blogs.....
It started off as a bit of getting it of our chests, and has turned into a really busy point of contact. Now we're wondering how busy.

So for the next month, if you're ordering print, we're going to give you a 10% discount on your order if you say the words "show me the discount" when you phone or email us.

Only for July though, so don't try it on August the 1st (well we might give in).

hardy har .....

2008-06-08T16:21:00.002+01:00

Sound like a pirate, methinks! We've started the programme to replace all our servers with Linux Ubuntu running Apache, Samba etc. The first one is in but it's a sharp learning curve for me... I'm the one actually doing it. So in addition to Windows Xp, Server 2003, Mac OS 9 and 10, I'm also learning about Linux, oh so fast. Server 1 has just been swapped out, and 2,3 & 4 will be replaced in the next couple of months.

Don't worry though! The client-side uploading etc, won't be affected. Tons of testing will happen before we swap that out.

need an 18 foot ladder?......

2008-06-01T12:11:00.002+01:00

The story of the move goes on..... and on..... Amazing the things you don't think about e.g. the 18 foot ladder that our decorator has left sitting in our entrance hall. We've phoned and texted leaving messages to say that we need this thing gone before the move of the big gear. Can we get a response? Yeah, right......

Reminds me of someone that I used to work with who was always saying 'I'm on it' and took years to finish every project, if he did. Me? I prefer to get stuff out of the way asap. Makes me sound like Mr Perfect, doesn't it? Wish I was.....

a little celebration ......

2008-05-24T16:40:00.008+01:00

we decided to go for a night out ... everyone apart from lauren who was working at a theatre thing. So Blackfriars for food (and drink), Five, Siberia, Stadia, and many others.....they gave up at 3.30 in the morning, I had given up hours before... this a shot of Keiran, Karla and Sarah P., and one each of Sarah R and Ian ...I'm not in there ..I'm not stupid :) Several sore heads were reported this morning ..mine being one of them. I really shouldn't drink shots..

changed my mind .......

2008-05-14T19:42:00.003+01:00

We've decided to hold off the e-commerce on the site till we're settled in to the new place, (waaayyy too busy even without this) plus we're seriously thinking about keeping on the exisitng studio purely to deal with the fine art printing.....

So the Castlegate Studio will be open for a few more months to see how it goes, plus that will take the pressure off of the move of some of the big gear to Cotton Street.... well that's the theory .....

what do you think? ......

2008-05-12T19:11:00.003+01:00

We're currently looking at buying a new Fuji flatbed vacuum printer with RIP. Loadsamoney, but supposed to be one of the best. Any artists / designers out there, what's your thoughts? Feedback would be hugely appreciated on this one..... contact me on dave@paradoxsolved.com ..... thanks!

thanks for the response....

2008-05-11T13:05:00.003+01:00

Many thanks to everyone who responded to the post about Sarah leaving. We will be in touch with everyone who applied for the job.

eh? what's that?

2008-04-25T18:54:00.000+01:00

You know how it is - more haste, less speed - I stepped out of the shower this morning in a rush to get to my first meeting, had some water in my ear, so decided to remove it with a Q-tip ...... you guessed it! The Q-tip stayed inside the ear!

So off to A & E I went to get it removed, feeling like a small child who's stuck a bead up his nose. There the confused triage nurse thought I was saying I had a cue tip in my ear (a la snooker) and was busy trying to convince me my ear was too small and that it was all in my head .... which of course it was.....

If you're phoning in the next day or two, and you get myself (Dave) apologies in advance if I appear a bit deaf ....

Anyway, I'm not too deaf to hear what the clients wanted today. So another three websites are now in the pipeline, along with a pile more folders...What's happening with these? are people eating them? We've printed 1,000's of different folders recently. Must be our special prices for bespoke printing :)

it's all change ....

2008-04-22T13:45:00.000+01:00

Sarah, our accountant and company secretary, has been lured to the deep south with a the offer of a most 'hush-hush' job. It will take the men in trenchcoats a few months to check her out. In the meantime, we have the less than easy job of finding a replacement for this invaluable member of staff, and colleague.

We need someone who can fill her shoes, and who can take the pace without too much hassle.

Interested? Email myself or Ian on info@rocket-print.co.uk to enquire more about this. We are willing to accept someone who can only work odd hours, or has small humans to pick up or whatever, providing you can have a laugh and fit in with the rest of the team.....

communications breakdown ......

2008-04-21T12:54:00.000+01:00

We work in a communications industry ...or do we? Genius here just heard our designer Karla answer the phone and say that our new developer Keiran didn't work here..... Why? The genius had forgotten to inform anyone else on the staff that someone new had started ..... so whoever phoned up ...go on...phone back, but on another day, as it's a local holiday here ........ duh!

welcome to .....

2008-04-19T14:14:00.000+01:00

Kieran - our new database developer. He doesn't know what he's let himself in for .....

we're moving ......

2008-04-03T22:27:00.000+01:00

So it's finally pinned down. We're moving into the art gallery on Cotton Street in Aberdeen at the end of May. Tons to do, including getting the place wired up, and a full network installed. Also happening then is the move over to ecommerce on the sites, and the start of another new designer.

Add to this the fun of doing a large multi-media and content management project for Empire HR ( I think that's the month for 11,000 cds being delivered and handled by our new content and digital management company, and it will be a bit mad.

it's not rocket science ........

2008-03-16T13:17:00.000Z

Due to the unexpected number of readers of my own blog, we've decided to make this one purely about Rocket-Print. Anyone who still wants to access my one can do it by clicking on paradoxsolved.

Well, what's new? Apart from our new content management service aimed, mainly, at the professional market, we've also started using only Fuji and Hahnemuhle papers for our large format service. So aprt from being one of the cheapest large format services in the UK, we are also unique (we think) in using heavyweight photo paper for ALL of our posters.

Apart from that, our online payment and upload is coming soon.