In our other lives, Jim and I (Josie) perform as the band, Milton Hide. We were very excited in the spring of 2018 to release the first recordings of our own songs. Recording the tracks (with the help of our son, Charlie Tipler, a recording genius) took a long time, but we were finally ready to duplicate the CDs (via www.duplicationcentre.co.uk) so our design skills came to the fore. One of the tracks is called Little Fish, the title of the album, so it seemed appropriate to use one of my paintings of fish as the cover artwork. We liked the idea of packaging the CDs in recycled / recyclable materials so decide to make just 100 with limited edition hand finished packaging. Our logo features a lino cut style image of a nightingale (Milton Hide is an area of Wilmington Forest, well know for nightingales) so I created a new lino cut of a nightingale and fish which we hand printed onto the inside of the plain cardboard CD cases. The painting of the fish was repeat printed onto sheets which we cut out and stuck on as labels and we printed lyric sheets to go inside the package. To protect the unfinished card, we wrapped to whole thing in corn starch pouches (sourced from eco-craft.co.uk)
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that helped us get this first recording out and to the wonderful Elizabeth Doak for the brilliant band photo shoot in nearby sunflowers. We’re planning to record our full album very soon. You can buy the EP (not the limited edition, they are all sold out) from the Milton Hide online shop.
Our dreams of running our own festival started to come true when we were successful in a bid for lottery funding in 2017. Summer Trifle was born. A 2 week mini arts festival in our own grounds in Wilmington, East Sussex, which we repeated in August 2018.
Part of the bid was for publicity, something we know to be a major part of any event, having been involved in the Hailsham Festival of Arts and Culture for many years. To attract sufficient numbers of visitors, you need to get the word out about your event. We designed and printed fliers, posters, leaflets, maps and programmes and created advertisements for various printed and digital publications and social media campaigns. Having learned lessons about our audience (here comes that word…) demographic in 2017, we were able to target our advertising more effectively. By far the most successful piece of the advertising campaign was the printed programme.
Our festival programmes (folded leaflets) are distributed widely to all sorts of different venues: galleries, shops, music venues, pubs, Tourist Information Centres, libraries, campsites, local attractions, hotels, cafes, waiting rooms and fast food outlets. They either go on display on tables or in leaflet dispensers, often alongside many other brochures and leaflets, so the important elements need to be eye catching and visible.
Tips:
One third A4 size is a good standard size which fits into most dispensers and doesn’t slip down behind other leaflets. Ours are A3 double sided, folded to 1/3 A4.
A really distinctive cover image draws the eye and increases the chance of your leaflet being picked up.
Consistency in colour and style in all of your publicity helps to build your brand, making your event easily recognisable and memorable.
In October 2016 we decided to leave our offices in Hailsham High Street and work from a home office. One year on and we are still very much in evidence on the High Street. You can’t turn a corner in the town without seeing something that we have designed or printed.
Once again we were very happy to be on the committee for the annual Hailsham Festival of Arts & Culture and were involved with several of the events. The pop-up-shop in the middle of the High Street had posters, banners, leaflets and programmes, many of which were designed by us. We promoted the Dicker Players productions at Hailsham Pavilion (OK, yes, we performed too!) and helped to organise the 3 Minute Flix movie competition, again at the Hailsham Pavilion.
Some of our local clients include Highcroft Veterinary Group, Hailsham Jewellers, Hailsham Town Council, CMA Karate, What’s On in Hailsham, ESAB, Smythe and Barrie, Ross & Co, Quinnel House, Marlow Ropes, MFC Supplies, Hook & Sons, Hailsham FM, Howdens Joinery, Millies, Firefly Tattoo Company, Experience Holidays, Rare Repro and the Arlington Bluebell Walk, amongst many other small and large businesses, local and national.
So, even though we are working in a small studio surrounded by the trees of Arlington, we are still very much in evidence in the town of Hailsham.
