Sri Lanka Travels.

Simon travelled to Sri Lanka recently, heading into the heart of the country where much of the food is produced. He spent a fair amount of time wandering around farms and talking to the locals about the farming industry.

There was a very strong community feeling here and groups of friends would labour on each others plots of land as necessary, depending on the state of the harvest. For example you might see a whole group of ladies hand picking out the weeds along the raised carrot beds and the following day they would be carefully planting rows of leeks in their neighbours field. Please click here if you would like to see more.

Rangemoors gets cooking.

Rangemoors have begun to focus on marketing their extensive range of cookers. The range cooker featured in this advertisement that appeared in Devon Life, is an Italian Steel Cuisine. We tracked this image down from Italy and apparently it was shot in a beautiful Tuscan villa. Wish we could have been!

Rangemoors Cookery day.

Following the success of last year’s event, Rangemoors hosted another Children’s Cookery Demonstration. The emphasis was on fresh local produce and healthy eating. The children prepared locally grown vegetables to make a nourishing Vegetable Soup. This was followed by Mini-Pizzas, providing fun for the kids in rolling out the dough and creating their own favourite toppings. To satisfy that child’s love of sweet things they also mixed and baked a Carrot Cake topped with white icing, mad simple biscuits that they had fun decorating and Scotch Pancakes to be fast-cooked on the top of the range cooker and eaten with lemon and sugar.

Having enjoyed cooking these simple but delicious recipes, the children sat down to a lunch that they prepared themselves. Each child received a special “goody bag” before leaving for home.

Rangemoors. Building awareness with the trade.

Following on from the success of the retail campaign, we are now looking to further strengthen the companies trade business. We've produced a campaign which is aimed at builders and developers and is appearing in the trade press. The advertisements are half pages and have to work very hard in a media which is highly subscribed and extremely busy. Using well known song titles and a strong 'industrial' typeface the messages need to be clear and straight to the point. Rangemoors are also backing up the campaign with a folded leaflet giving more information on the products. So far the response has been excellent.

Getting the Bernaville message.

Bernaville Nurseries have cut back on advertising in the press this year, deciding to target customers directly. It's a cost effective way of reminding customers of the huge range of products available at the nursery and enticing them with great value for money offers. The design of the leaflets had to be as eye catching as possible whilst at the same time reflecting the nurseries values.

Summer at Ashgrove Kitchens.

To coincide with the Devon County Show and what we hope to be a glorious summer, we developed a new sales leaflet and offer for Ashgrove Kitchens. Customers not only get a discount over a certain period but also receive a free summer hamper from John Lewis. The design of the leaflet is light and uplifting and maintains the core brand elements of quality associated with the company. The leaflet will also be used at various country shows that Ashgrove will be exhibiting at during the summer months.

Wilkinson Grant & Company. Naughty but nice!

Roger Wilkinson of Wilkinson Grant and Company recently briefed us on creating some 'stimulating' advertising to advertise the companies rapidly growing Lettings business. We've been helping Wilkinson Grant & Co for a number of years and it was great to be given free reign to come up with some new ideas for this part of the business. The advertisements feature possibly every landlords (and tenants) worse nightmare scenarios. The campaign had to be adaptable to a number of different sizes so as to work within the companies display advertising as well as one-offs in the local press.

New kittens join SMGDC Limited.

In an effort to bring in fresh new talent to the company we have taken on two new kittens. They're currently undergoing intensive design training and refining their draftsmanship skills. Whilst neither of them show a natural aptitude towards using the Apple Mac, we feel confident that their enthusiasm in the studio will soon pay dividends. Unfortunately they aren't quite ready for client visits but should you visit the studio we'd be more than happy to introduce you to them.

Tractors, the farmers best friend.

Living in Mid Devon you're never very far away from a Tractor. In fact you usually end up following one when late for a meeting. They are mighty bits of machinery and I love to watch them crawling up impossible slopes or carving up the red soil.

A good friend of mine who was once a farmer, told me about the unique and wholesome smell you get in the cab of a tractor when ploughing a field. Tractors themselves have a distinctive smell too, earth, oil and grease.

I decided last year to start taking some shots with a view to making a collection of tractors in their working environment. Below are a couple from France and one from India where the Tractor had almost god like status. More to follow!

And finally...

Simon will be taking part in the Dartmoor Classic cycle ride at the end of June and is currently in training. It's a little over 100 miles with loads of hills and with it being Dartmoor, no doubt a head wind all the way around. If you call the mobile and hear heavy breathing over the next few weeks, this may explain the reason why. Pictures soon.

Any comments please make contact...