People thought us mad, but we know something they do not – Chesterfield is nowhere near as backward as people would like to believe.

Firstly, this town has secured a huge pot of money, pre credit crunch, from the European Union for development. Secondly, it is a perfect location commercially. We can be with clients in London in the morning and back at our desks in the afternoon. In addition to capital clients, we are in easy reach of our customers in Nottingham, Sheffield and Derby. Thirdly, there is more going on in Chesterfield because of this EU money that any other equivilant town.

Destination Chesterfield, the modern town with beautiful old buildings and a stunning peak district setting.

Good move Crush!

Operting in England’s post credit crunch economy is very….interesting, though I am just about old enough to remember the post dotcom lull.
The big difference this time around is how uncertain Brits are and for how long.
Whilst unpleasent design agencies can prosper. As always there is a real challenge in finding good clients, but the other big issue is dealing with even shorter (often ridiculous) deadlines as clients put off spending until the very last moment.

Our virtual agency model is working a treat. Crush Design is a tight team of business owners which we will happily work every hour of the day. For large projects we partner with tried and trusted partners, who also tend to be business owners willling to sacrifice their time for the success of their own business.
I fear for mid and larger sized agencies who can not easily scale down. Staff do not get paid enough, nor can they see or get the long term benefits of today’s hard slog. They have put up with it so far, but for another two years?

So if you are a client be careful who you choose, but rejoice! Value for money is at an all time high – pick the right agency and you will never have got so much design talent and strategic advice for every pound you spend.

Based at the old Templehof airport in Berlin it a collection of many of the coolest brands in world. From Adidas to Levi’s to Lacoste they are all there.

Wrangler (gawd bless ‘em) bring around 40 models every year just to roam around and look gorgeous. Trying to work at the show can be very distracting!






This year we helped out our friends at Merc by designing their stand.

This feels a little like a confession but; I haven’t update my blog for 35 days now. Flail me!

And its my failure that gets to the absolute crux of social media, to work it has to be done religiously, passionately and that all means time and energy.

Be half hearted about your blog and people will be half hearted in their readership. Design an average looking Facebook page and people will think you are average.

I love hearing about people who have made their fortune through social media. It can and does work, but more rarely than you might think. For every popular blog, Twitter, Facebook page and forum there are hundreds of failures – no visitors, no subscribers, no followers and no business.

To make it work you have to be a good and interesting writer and have ceaseless energy in promoting your content. There are 50,000,0000 blogs out there – why should I read yours?

I have a big thank you to the fifty or so people who made the trip to Castle Donnington on what was a rather grim morning.

The feedback I got was really positive, which was great to hear and for those that asked for a copy of the presentation here it is: Follow this link to download a copy.

I would ask that if you were one of the attendees, please could you feedback using this blog as I would really appreciate your comments. Quite alot of efforts goes into these presentations.

They must have at least 3 years industry experience
Primarily print design and artwork experience – large format and spatial experience an advantage
Interest and experience with web/digital an advantage

Specifics:
Excellent English grammar skills – must be able to proof read own work
Must be able to artwork for print
Able to manage own responsibilities and excellent time planning
Excellent commercial awareness

Creative and passionate about design and marketing
Pro-active and enthusiastic
Quick and accurate

This will be a very exciting and challenging role. Our client work is varied, diverse and demanding at times. We will be relying on the quality and delivery of work and whoever step into the role will need to cope with that level of responsibility.

Please note! Before any candidates are taken forward for interview will be given a task to complete!

Full time or part time (pro rata). You have to be easily commutable to Chesterfield.

Send your portfolio, CV and salary expectation to natalie@crush-design.co.uk

Too busy to comment right now

By gosh we are busy! We have decided that we need help and are looking to hire a new junior graphic designer (Chesterfield based).

Pros – we have enough work to keep them busy, we could get a lot more done, we could make more money, it would allow the senior team more time to improve client service and we could help develop a local young talent.

Cons – the first month or so will be time consuming, it is a cost to the business, are we truly out of recession and can we find the right person.

If you think you might be the person to join us then please send us details. Before you do, please please read this profile and only apply if appropriate.

Junior graphic designer Chesterfield.

We need you to have at least one year experience (sorry to the newly qualified but we just don’t have the time to support you from scratch), you need to be handy at photoshop and artworking, we would much prefer to take on someone part-time to start and you must be no more than 10 miles from our offices in Chesterfield.

If you can say yes to all this then please feel free to get in touch jonathan@crush-design.co.uk.

Strictly no agencies please

Their exhibition stand at the NEC show was a HUGE hit with the punters and the celebrities.

(*coughs* That could be the exhibition stand that we designed).

Clearly the reason behind their success was the design of the stand and website, and had nothing to do with that Augmented Reality wizardry that they were weaving.

Call us for exhibition stand design. Chesterfield is where you’ll find us, and its beautiful.

But then we were asked to design a website for Pimento Vision. They are the leaders in providing augmented reality to the commericial world in the UK.

The best way to check out their work is to visit their exhibition stand at the Gadget Show in the NEC. Alternatively you can check out their amazing new website (that *cough* we might have designed and built for them ).

It is early days for Augmented Reality but I think it has HUGE potential for the future.

As for website design. Chesterfield is where you will find us. Away from the hustle, bustle and bloated prices.