In the UK, the sale of greeting cards is the number one charity fundraiser at Christmas. More funds are raised by the sale of charity cards than by any other individual product.

Where the charity publishes and sells the cards, the gains are high, though like any retail operation there are risks, as it involves up front investment costs to run trading operations. Charities purchase their own-branded cards and sell their range through their own shops, manned by volunteers, through mail order and on-line. Of the hundreds of thousands of charities in the UK, only a very small percentage of the charities have the resources and customer support to run their own shops and/or mail order catalogues.

However the benefits to these Charities are immense, with all profits going to the charity from their trading company (charities are not allowed to be involved in commerce themselves).

Judges and Sampsons has become a leading supplier of Christmas cards to Charities large and small, with the added benefit of offering short run (as little as 50 packs per design!) for smaller Charities. Our designs consistently appear in our customers’ best seller lists, with the only limitations in creating bespoke Christmas cards being your imagination.

Some festive fundraising ideas include:

• Making Christmas decorations or crafts

• Christmas baking

• Carol singing in the local area

• Calendars (of the local community)

Any of these ideas could take place at a Christmas fete that you could organise.

Contact Judges on 01424 420919 to request our current brochure, which includes more fundraising ideas, as well as our 2011 Charity Christmas cards.

“With in house production for over printing pens and pencils, we inevitably get a build up of spares and overs”, says Trevor Wolford Sales Director of Judges, ” We are delighted to be able to put them to such good use”

Pictured – Trevor Wolford Sales Director Judges and Sampsons and Pip Gasson Principle Hillcrest School Hastings.

“ 40 000 pens and pencils – many thanks to Judges for this generous donation! A school or academy can never have too many pens and pencils – we will be sharing them with our partner primary and secondary schools. We are also grateful to Julian Goodliffe, the project manager for our academy building company Kier, who put us in touch with Trevor and Judges. “

“There are simple ways and hard ways to raise money for St Michael’s Hospice. Running Hastings Half Marathon was one of the hard ways, which unfortunately I will probably not do again. Thoughts of throwing myself out of a perfectly safe aircraft with a rucksack full of silk bed linen, is just plain stupid as indeed is walking over hot coals or glass in bare feet!

However, when faced with the offer at a Round Table ‘black tie do’ of losing my hair for £500 for charity, I could hardly say no!

I didn’t really have time to think other than that I wanted the money to go to St Michael’s Hospice. The steady flow of alcohol helped calm my nerves, as I reassured my wife that it would grow back.

“But I have heard that it could grow back curly and ginger!” she said.

“Mick Hucknall hasn’t done too bad,” I replied.

20 minutes later and a wet shave to finish off the look, I was done.

I am pleased to say that I grew fond of my new look, and would often given a knowing nod to fellow baldies when out and about. I realised that it was only my two young children and sympathetic wife who gave me strange looks.

Thankfully my hair did grow back (maybe slightly greyer) but not ginger or curly!”

The Managing Director at Judges has also given talks to groups who have then made donations to the hospice. The Chief Executive of St Michael’s Hospice commented that:

“St Michael’s relies heavily upon voluntary contributions to continue its work in the local community and we are always extremely grateful for any contribution we receive. Once again, thank you for your kind thoughts and continued support over the years.”

Now you see him,…

…now you don’t.

A picture snow scene at night taken around 1909, had a frame put around it to turn it into a Christmas card but, more importantly, Father Christmas added to make it really festive.

Even the disturbed snow around Santa’s feet was provided and Fred Judge didn’t slip up by not forgetting his shadow cast by the street lamp. Unless Fred was out with his camera on Christmas Eve and actually ran into the no.1 man all of the adjustments were made without recourse to modern aids.

So to return to my original question, who needs photoshop? The answer is obviously not everyone as all sorts of tricks and effects were achievable long before the advent of computers.

The next question is what would Fred Judge have thought about it? He obviously regarded photography as an art form in its own right but my feeling is that he would have relished the idea of being able to manipulate his pictures with ease and had he lived in the computer age, would have welcomed and encompassed the opportunities with open arms.

I will leave the final word to Bernard Wolford, who in the book published to celebrate the Centenary of Judges in 2002, in referring to the installation of the new desktop publishing pre-press department said,

“…This allowed the company to become almost self sufficient with its design and creativity. Banks of servers and computer stations were installed with metres of cabling within an air-conditioned environment. Now through this power to re-touch the photograph, the camera, the bedrock of Judges existence, could now be made to lie!”

I am sure Mr Wolford had his tongue firmly in his cheek as he wrote this. The Judge’s cameras have been lying for their 100+ years existence!

• One of the Company’s early achievements was to be awarded the contract by the Post Office for the production of postcards commemorating their Special Issue Stamps. Orders for five to six issues per year, each of which require 1.2 million cards for each issue were printed. During this period the Queen Mother celebrated her 90th Birthday with the issue of four stamps and postcards.

• Many contacts have been made with famous organisations including a challenge mounted by BBC South to see how quickly Judges could produce a postcard. Their reporter Beverley Thompson took a photograph of Hastings Castle at 8:00am and five hours later watched the first cards roll off the press!

• In 1997 a range of shaped cards, which were coated with encapsulated odours and known as “Scent in the Post” was launched at the International Spring Fair in Birmingham.

• Pudsey Bear visited Judges in October 1998 and watched the postcards being printed that Judges had donated to the BBC appeal.

• A highlight in the Company’s Centenary Year in 2002, and a further feather in its cap, was to secure the contract for the printing of the special postcards for the Manchester Commonwealth Games. The photographs taken during the opening ceremony were sent via computer link to Judges factory, where postcards were designed and printed and transported overnight for sale on the following morning.

Over 10 million postcards, with the distinctive Judges Wig logo on the reverse, leave the factory each year, destined for the UK market and many places abroad. In recent years the volume of business has further increased as the Company have established strong relationships with other national publishers and print on their behalf. Products are supplied for many tourist attractions and Charitable Trusts. Close association has been developed to supply their own brand designs to such as The County Federations of the Women’s Institute, English Heritage, Leeds Castle, The Madame Tussaud’s Group, The National Trust, The Royal Academy, Warwick Castle and our great Cathedrals.

“Lighting a candle to help hospices is such a simple thing, but it is also symbolic and means others who are facing the end of life will be helped.

I will be lighting a candle for my Mother and remembering a happy life with her and my father.”

Michael Parkinson

“I am giving my support to Light up a Life this Christmas because it is so important to remember loved ones. I will be lighting a candle for my friend Andrew Moore and looking back at the laughter and fun that we shared.”

Denise Welch

Light up a Life and Lights of Love are a series of very special events that take place all across the country in the weeks running up to Christmas that allow us to remember the lives of friends and family. The services are organised by local hospices and are open to anyone, whether their loved one was cared for by a hospice or not.

Every Light up a Life and Lights of Love event is different, but most include readings and music. A vital part is the opportunity to dedicate a message in memory of a loved one, whether by lighting a candle, hanging a message on a tree, recording the name of someone special in a book of remembrance or reading it aloud.

For most hospices, Light up a Life is one of their best-loved and most meaningful events, attracting hundreds of local people year after year. It represents a time to be comforted and to share hope with others.

This is also an event where hospices raise important funds, so that they can continue offering their services free to those who need it most.

Judges have designed a range of calmative cards for Hospices to send to the friends and families of those they have cared for, as well as products for supporters to purchase in memory of their loved ones.

Bespoke cards are available in minimum quantities of only 500 per design, including your branding on the back page of the cards in colour.

Our most popular product has been the candle tube. The tube is designed to your specific requirements and contains 5 red scented tea lights.

The minimum quantity is only 200 tubes.

These are featured on page 32 of our 2011 Charity Brochure.

For more information, prices or samples, please contact one of our Customer Services Representatives on 01424 420919 or email sales@judges.co.uk

1. Product – State clearly the item you require when contacting us or sending us your product brief.

2. Layout – Please supply a rough layout of where you would like the images and text, bearing in mind the areas that the product offers for your design.

3. Copyright – If you are supplying the image(s) to be used please check that you have suitable permissions for use if you are not the owner of the image(s). You must seek this permission and Judges do not accept any responsibility for unlawful use of supplied images. 2. Images – Please supply a suitable image for use if you have it. You will find more details on image requirements on this page. If you require us to find or source imagery for you then please give us instructions so that we may find what you are looking for.

4. Image adaptation – We can offer some colour control, so if you wish your supplied image to be richer in colour, brighter or darker please let us know. Also if areas of the image are to be ignored then please instruct us clearly as to what areas are to be cropped.

5. Logos and wording – If you require specific wording or placement of logos or graphics then please supply the logo or graphic suitable for scanning. Alternatively you can supply the logo or graphic digitally as a high resolution image (tiff, jpeg, pdf, eps, .ai). Please supply the text to be used and instruct us of any specific style to be used if you have a preference.

6. Colour – where possible indicate colour preferences for those used in your layout. Quoting CMYK (Cyon, Magenta, Yellow and Black) values or pantone references is the best aid to this but please note that achieving accurate matches is not always possible due to the colour model used (CMYK) and the consideration we give to controlling the overall colours used in your imagery.

7. Final special specifications – If you have specific requirements regarding packaging or the application of a bar code, other than those offered as standard, then please indicate these in your instructions so that we can best advise on feasibility and costs.

Your Camera

• For quality re-production the camera should ideally be a 6 (or at least 4) million + pixels.

• When taking pictures that you hope to print out, select the option that stores fewer pictures, but larger in file size.

Print Outs

• If you intend to submit prints, then these should be on photo quality paper. They should be printed from the same image file that is to be supplied. Minimum size is approx. 6” x 4” to a maximum of A4

• Remember— Pictures should be clear, and sharp. If you can see the dots (pixels), then these will be exaggerated when reproduced. Even if you intend to supply the image electronically (see below) a good print out is always useful for us to see how the picture might look. All pictures look different on every screen.

Supplying the image electronically

• These can be saved onto a CD. If an image is at a useable size it will not fit onto a floppy disk. Don’t forget to send a print out of the image too.

• Images can also be emailed directly to Judges for assessment. Send to sales@judges.co.uk

• Images should be at least 300dpi (or pixels per inch) and should always be saved at the size at which they will be used. Never try to make the image larger through software – the image should always be as large or larger than required as it is on the camera file.

• It is preferred that the images be tiffs (not compressed), jpegs, or eps files. They can either be Mac or PC files.

• Most images are photographed in RGB (Red, Green Blue, which are screen colours). It is a necessary step for any commercial printer that RGB images be changed to CMYK (Cyon, Magenta, Yellow and Black) images. You should convert the image before sending, saving or printing them out as this does alter the colour slightly and allow you to see the result before sending them to us..

Photo-manipulation

• It is best that we have your original files and not ones that have been retouched. If you do need to enhance or alter an image (e.g. remove a telegraph wire) then please duplicate your original file and amend the copy. Some graphic programs reduce the quality of the image when retouching is carried out, and whilst they look fine on screen, there is a loss of print quality. Please send both images to us.

Further Help

Should this all seem rather daunting, then please contact us on the number below and ask for someone in the customer care team who handles your account, who will either endeavour to help you directly or indeed pass you over to one of our technical designers.

t. 01424 420919 e. sales@judges.co.uk

Regardless of what business you are in, customer service is always the most important element, whether you provide postcard printing or calendar printing services like Judges, or if you are a charity selling products for your fundraising events – you must make your customer feel great about their purchase. With that in mind – we hand over to Jonathan.

By Jonathan Winchester | First Published: September , 2010

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”–Maya Angelou

Whilst driving into work this morning, I was trying to sum up my holiday experiences and that ever-present factor, customer service. In Cornwall, Spain and France over the past few months I have encountered some very interesting characters in the service industry, as we all do on a daily basis.

On occasions I left a store, hotel, market or restaurant feeling satisfied. On several occasions I left feeling good.

On one or two occasions I left feeling totally incensed. And on one occasion I left feeling REALLY happy. Other than the tangible factors that we can all measure, such as cleanliness, availability of products, speed of service and politeness, what is it about some experiences that make them GREAT?

Surely the answer is in how you make your customers FEEL? Only those clever people in the customer service industry are able to ‘step outside their own lives and step into the shoes of each individual customer’. A rare gift, and one quality not easily taught in an average training session.

Will your customers remember the 20% discount you had on offer or the fact that your produce was all labelled correctly? Will they remember that you used their name or said goodbye?

No, but it is all of those little details that add up when the customer thinks back on how the experience MADE THEM FEEL.

How do you make your customers feel? When they leave your store do they feel like they were valued?

Feelings – reactions, emotions – are not created through the offer of the week but rather through the relationships we build, the trust we earn and the time we spend with each customer.

How do your customers feel today? Do you engage your customers at an emotional level?

However, the Club faces its biggest challenge yet. With the new development along Bexhill seafront, the boathouse has been demolished and a shell has been re-built. It is now down to the Club to raise funds to finance the internal work and fittings of the new boathouse, which will cost approximately £70,000.

On Friday 19th August 2011 Bexhill Rowing Club are to hold an Auction of Promises at the De La Warr Pavilion to raise funds for the new boathouse. Club members have managed to obtain sixty different lots to auction off on the night, which include some truly unique items and services kindly donated by local individuals and businesses. Judges have offered its support to the Club by printing all of the auction booklets, flyers and posters that will be distributed around the local area to promote the event.

Judges have played an active role in the planning and organization of the auction. The managing director and design team have been in continuous contact with the club members to ensure that the final version of the booklets, advertisements and products are of an optimum standard to attract as much awareness of the event as possible.

Club members have worked extremely hard to make the auction successful. To achieve this aim, Judges has taken a consultative role and has given its advice as to how the Club can seek to maximize the amount of donations that it receives as a consequence of the event and the publicity surrounding it.

Judges hope that by providing its expertise on design, merchandise and sales, that Bexhill Rowing Club can raise the money that they require, not only from the auction but also from future fundraising events and for their annual calendar printing needs.

Judges, like Bexhill Rowing Club, prides itself in its long heritage and both Judges and the Club want to draw on its strength of the past yet they are both ready to develop for the future.

“Bexhill Rowing Club is extremely grateful to Judges for providing its support to this event. Such gestures are key to the continuing existence of the Club, which is home to over 100 members of all ages.” Bexhill Rowing Club Member

[PICTURES OF THE EVENT TO BE ADDED]

Find out more about Bexhill Rowing Club.