The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

Octink is privileged to have helped the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust with the creation of London’s latest co-working space for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses.

Today officially marks the start of National Apprenticeship Week 2018. From Monday 5th March through to Friday 9th, employers and apprentices from across England are expected to come together to celebrate the success of apprenticeships. Be it marketing apprenticeships or signage apprenticeships (sounds great, if you ask us) – the intention is clear, to encourage young people to choose apprenticeships as a pathway to a career!

Here at Octink we have unrivalled knowledge of signage – including outdoor signage, advertising hoardings, and building wraps. As an event organiser you already know you have plenty to do. Signage might be relatively low on your to-do list – but it really shouldn’t be! Let’s talk through why, and as an added bonus you’ll learn some great tips and tricks from our events team that will benefit your event hugely! In creating our event signage ideas for 2019, our extensive experience tells us that the standard of signage used to promote your brand or business can significantly impact on your company. The simple fact is that great signage attracts attention!

The huge site hoardings you see running around new developments present us with a perfect opportunity for demonstrating the power of great large format digital design and print, as long as the hoarding structure is well-prepared and built to last. At Octink we have, over the last 10 years, worked on many of the stand-out retail and residential hoarding schemes created in London, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.Octink has developed a hoarding specification which hoarding contractors should aim towards (available upon request). These specifications provide the necessary ingredients for a perfect canvas on which to display a successful advertising campaign. There is however a structural hurdle to overcome before starting a hoarding project. New developments often take place in exposed, and sometimes remote, locations and the resulting implications from wind damage are huge, including structural damage and loss, with possible injuries to members of the public. Periodic maintenance addressing structural integrity, as well as cosmetic appearance, is, therefore, a vital for any company seeking to achieve creative impact in the safest and most responsible way. Sites are expected to run all prospective advertising hoarding details past the temporary works engineer to ensure that the final specification matches the location.Advertising hoardings will potentially be on display for months with thousands of prospective clients passing by and the power of a great hoarding design complementing a scheme is not to be underestimated. It is worth spending time when designing a site hoarding as this is normally the largest piece of marketing material you will produce during a campaign. Your audience will not stand and read a long essay about the site or advert, so short snappy copy broken up with great attention-grabbing imagery is much more effective than copy heavy designs. Large images or illustrations are a great way of drawing attention to the site as are the introduction of inventive lighting using LEDs, used increasingly to add a extra sparkle.We can help with any aspect of advertising hoardings from planning, through design and printing, to installation.

We see signage every single day – they’re an essential part of life. Drive down the street and you’ll be confronted with road signs indicating which speed to drive at or directions to the nearest town. In the workplace, you’ll discover health and safety signs littered here, there and everywhere. Pop to town for groceries and you’ll notice that shop signage is plentiful, detailing opening hours plus displays of discounts and deals. In fact, even the infamous golden arches of McDonalds can be considered signage!

Professionalism, quality, risk management, compliance and care. Each one of these is more than a word to us at Octink, because each one is at the heart of everything we do. Whether it is producing and installing hundreds of meters of advertising hoarding around a construction site or delivering a giant building wrap, we are continually striving to professionalise everything we do.

Hosting a Prime Minister for a tour of your business is an privileged opportunity, so to host two in less than six years is pretty special! Octink welcomed David Cameron back in 2011* and on Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May visited us.

The start of July saw a successful ‘New Designers’ exhibition take place at the Business Design Centre in London. A stage for all the budding entrepreneurs on the leading design courses in the country to come together and show what they’re made of. Featuring a special place in Octink’s heart were the students from Kingston University: as part of the community work we are involved in, the design department – in this case product and furniture design – works closely with us to help bring their ideas to life. ‘Thinking Through Making’ was prepared by the students and Octink assisted with product branding with some free issue signage.

It’s no secret that having an highly engaged workforce is the secret to organisational success. Employee satisfaction comes from creating an atmosphere that has employees feeling valued, respected, and more importantly part of the bigger picture.

This is the first of a series of blogs by long term employee Mike Bains, focussing on his role and experiences at Octink from when he first started in the business 15 years ago as a green apprentice, right up to his current role as Build Site Manager about to embark on an apprenticeship in construction operations management.