The FreshSpark Creative Blog

We have worked with many companies in the last 3 years and have enjoyed creating logos and brand identities to help these companies move forwards. Our process of progressively developing the brand and identity of a company profile has helped start-ups launch and existing companies expand alike.

We provide a creative service designing and developing logos in a collaborative process with our clients. We immerse ourselves in research about your company name and identity and work closely with you to mature the perfect visual brand.

For small and start up companies we offer a £90 service which involves 3 stages of development to create a series of logos in popular file formats.

For larger companies, we offer a £750 corporate identity package which includes research, sketches, various stages of development and an abundance of choice. The design process will be catalogued to keep everyone involved in the loop and ultimately the mature logo will be supplied in a range of formats with a brand guideline document.

We can then apply that brand to a range of marketing media to give your company or project a profile which commands a professional look and premium prices.

If you require a new logo, require an old logo to be updated or are looking for a complete overhaul of your company’s profile, then please get in touch using our contact page

Google has updated the way it ranks pages of websites in it’s search results, to help prioritise fresher content that is more relevant to certain topics. The new “Freshness” update:

Queries that deserve freshness such as events and discussion are now deemed more important based on the inception of that page or content. If we write a great post about what has been happening this week (such as a specific episode of a tv program), you can forget about it if somebody writes about next week’s episode. Having an RSS feed has become more important, because it includes a time stamp in each post’s meta data.

However now that we have had a couple of months to digest the changes, in practice leading search engine optimisation specialists are saying this latest update is much more subtle than previous updates. In all honestly google has recognised fresher content as better value in search rankings for years. This update merely focuses the importance of content freshness in search queries which are clearly related to events and discussion based on events.

Google fellow Amit Singhal posted examples of the types of content that will be most likely to be affected:

Factors to be aware of are:

We develop all of our websites with search engines in mind and actively encourage our clients to keep their sites up to date and their audiences informed. Our websites are developed using popular content management platforms, giving our clients the tools and opportunity to make the most of web and help keep the on going cost of their website at a minimum.

If you are interested in taking action to improve the visibility of your website on search engines, then please get in touch with us by using our contact page. Alternatively you can network with us on twitter or facebook.

Happy new year to all from FreshSpark creative, we hope you had a sufficiently indulgent holiday and are feeling ready for what 2012 has lined up.

have you been meaning to get that website up and running?

perhaps your business cards or branded stationary need replacing?

maybe it’s time to refresh your company image altogether, to bring it up to date and help get you noticed in 2012?

we have worked tirelessly during 2011 to help illuminate the projects of our clients.

check out our portfolio of work.

You can also get in touch with us by using our contact form.

Over the last 2 & 1/2 Years, FreshSpark creative has provided people from all over the UK with websites, graphic design and marketing materials such as business cards, posters, leaflets and flyers.

Each project is designed and developed uniquely and this can often lead to varied prices for each project we work on.

We have reviewed all of our past projects and worked out the average amount our clients have paid for different types of work.

These prices are provided only as a guideline and a more accurate estimate is provided once we have been informed of the client’s specifications.

Graphic Design & Print Prices

Again the prices of these example websites have been standardised to give an average price, you can expect to pay roughly 25% more or less depending on your requirements.

Web Design & Online Prices

A couple of weeks ago, we organised a shoot for Spring Gardens Shopping Centre, using as much home grown Buxton talent as we could get our hands on. We’re lucky to know Rosie Hardy, a Buxton girl with a keen eye for photography and image manipulation, who has been incredibly successful with her work over the last few years. We have worked with Rosie before, she provided the imagery for the Ciara Janson site and we would seize any opportunity to work with Rosie again in the future.

We organised a day around Buxton’s autumnal Pavillion Gardens, the Slopes and Spring Gardens, taking between 10-12 shots with an emphasis on having fun whilst shopping & the 30 stores under one roof of Spring Gardens.

Spring Gardens were eager to avoid a ‘stock-image’ look and use as many local faces as possible, to compliment some of the upcoming promotions they are currently planning. Previous marketing materials had also relied heavily on individual female models so we brought in 3 males and 3 females for this shoot to help balance things out.

There were no shortage of smiles on the day as we all know each other fairly well, Rosie has a great attitude, helping models relax and getting the right shot. The weather held out to stay dry and the light was pretty much perfect for what we were after. Rosie has loads of shots online, she has some of her best work & self portraits available on RosieHardy.com & has loads more on her Flickr Account.

Credit: Rosie Hardy

It was image manipulation that got me into becoming a graphic designer as a career choice. Unfortunately though I left a lot of my image manipulation work on stand still back in 2006, when I discovered how hard it would be to try and market the type of design work which I most enjoyed.

Credit: David Bowyer

Check out a few of my other works on my Flickr Page.

We’re also going to be giving out rewards for any referral of work which is successfully converted into a sale. Some of the goodies we will be giving out, ranges from TeaPigs Bio-Degradable tea temples, vouchers for shops around Buxton & even money if its a big job. So make clear with us that you have sent someone our way and expect your reward! If you have any feedback, let us know using twitter or facebook.

It’s that time of year again, autumn is taking hold, the kids are back at school and the 3 month count down to Christmas is about to begin. How much time have you spent planning your marketing & festive promotions? Business tends to drop off a little at this time of year as consumers begin to save for Christmas Gifts, which gives the business owner a chance to think about how they will be approaching Christmas 2011.

From what I have personally read, the majority of consumers polled that they would be spending the same or less than what they spent on gifts for Christmas 2010. It’s important for every business owner to try to pull in the crowds and get their share of the money spent on gifts at Christmas. Here’s a couple of ways which we can help.

Cheap Leaflets – If you want to spread the word about your products and services, we provide a design service printed on thin, glossy, full colour leaflets. This would be best suited for getting the word around locally in abundance.

Flyers – Similar to leaflets, our flyers are printed on slightly thicker paper and have a little bit more impact than the Leaflets.

Christmas Cards – These can be a great way to subtly remind those that you prefer to keep closer than the general public. A personal image & message with your contact details can give those around you a gentle reminder about your project.

Web Graphics – Perhaps you want some eye catching graphics for an e-mail newsletter or a banner for your website in the Christmas theme?

FreshSpark Creative are here to help and we would love to work with you in creating a special Christmas message. Get in touch with us using our Contact Page or sign up to our newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page.

Well the chances of a late ‘Indian Summer’ look less likely than a lottery win. It is miserable in Buxton today, foggy, soggy and most of us are feeling disappointed about the summer that never happened. Do you feel like you need a little something to take you through the next couple of months? Well here are a couple of suggestions to reinvigorate yourself in the run up to Christmas.

We’re excited to announce that we have our first CubeCart 5 site in development & we are thrilled with the results so far. The system is much easier to modify and supports some great features using JQuery which helps bring the website to life with regards to the customer’s user experience. For those of you not in the loop, CubeCart is an E-Commerce platform to help you sell your digital & tangible goods to customers regardless of their geographic location. You add your products and tag them in different categories to help potential customers browse, search, compare and most importantly pay for goods with a secure payment gateway.

Our latest E-Commerce project is for ‘The Home Boutique’, who specialise in Home Decor & Ornaments to help make your Home feel unique. It is important that the images do the talking for this website, so we have suggested some ‘Roll Over’ features to help a user focus on products which take their attention without leaving the gallery which they are browsing through.

For past examples of our CubeCart systems, check our E-Commerce Services Page. If you would like any further details then please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will run you through our services.

Another bit of excitement comes in the form of Lime Cube Marketing’s “A Twist of Lime”, a service designed to route the path between your current position and where you want to take your business. The service includes a consultation to realise your unique strengths and weaknesses, Live assisstance throughout the week to help you get unstuck, a “living” marketing plan created in collaboration with Lime Cube and a weekly task list to help you make the most out of your business. If you aren’t convinced then give the 10 day free trial a go (And mention FreshSpark pointed you in their direction!)

Well thanks for reading and I hope you find this information useful. If you would like to keep in touch with FreshSpark and receive our updates in the future, you can sign up to our newsletter by submitting your name and e-mail address in the form below. Cheers!