The recent NSW PICAs, (Printing Industry Craftsmanship Awards), saw a small Sydney North Shore ‘digital print and stuff’ business – Mercury Creative, scoop a Gold, a Silver and two Bronze accolades for its advertising and promotional work.
Like the eponymous Roman deity it is named after, Mercury Creative is fast and efficient at delivering commercial messages on behalf of its clients. Mercury was also god of trade and commerce, a fitting analogy since the majority of Mercury Creative’s work is for retailers and brand custodians.
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| Sam Lane with his Seal | Sam Lane with the ICE examples | The shop front with Sam and Skye |
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| Sam with his Roland VS-640 printer | The Print room | The Design area |
Established in 2000 by Sam Lane and his father, the Pymble, NSW shop is literally a ‘shop’ – with a brilliantly dressed frontage onto the busy Pacific Highway. Sam is director for print while Skye Lund (B Des.) is director for design.
Inside and ‘out the back,’ every square metre is used for the creation, production and distribution of wide-format promotional graphics up to 1620mm wide using Roland DG equipment, and A4/A3 cut-sheet flyers, booklets and brochures on a Fujixerox 700 digital press.
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| The multiple awards have yet to find a permanant place |
Sam Lane notes; “We’ve been here for 2 years and will need to upsize again soon. We have only four permanent staff plus casuals but our output is national, distributed to retail chains and franchises and often personalized for each store.”
With its origins as an inhouse design and print department for a major jewelry buying group, Mercury Creative struck out on its own and yet still retains close ties with buying groups and franchises. Major brands such as Nestlé, Caltex, Movenpick, Laing + Simmons and Abbott Medical Optics have been added to its client list of around 500.
Shortly before taking out the PICA awards, Mercury Creative was crowned ‘Best Small Business’ nationally in the GIO/Mybusiness Awards. This significant achievement is understandably emblazoned across the Pacific Highway frontage for all to see. What is Mercury Creative’s secret to such outstanding success?
PREFERRED SUPPLIERS ARE KEY
“We recognized long ago, the need for top-level agency style custom print and design for smaller retailers and buying groups. Such point-of-sale, promotional and outdoor advertising production had previously only been available to major retailers. We add targeting to specific areas and markets and ensure quality all the way with choice of materials and production methods,” says Lane.
He adds: “We also use the services of business coaches through ActionCoach but of paramount importance is our relationship with suppliers such as Roland DG for our wide format printers, Fujixerox and Starleaton for materials.”
Sam Lane is particularly appreciative of the performance of Starleaton’s Neschen brand Solvoprint self-adhesive (SAV) polymeric vinyl; “We use a lot of SAV and, while there are many cheap monomeric vinyls available, we can’t risk our clients’ brand images on inferior materials. The Neschen SAV prints exceptionally well and renders colours faithfully, adhering superbly to whatever we stick it to. The PICA awards speak for themselves. We have also begun using Neschen Easy Dot removable clear and white vinyl which is great for windows and displays. Our protective lamination is all Seal/Neschen using a 62 inch Seal Ultra laminator.”
While Mercury Creative is an all-digital shop with three Mac design stations, three Roland DG printers including a new VersaCamm VS-640 and the Fujixerox DC700; offset services are also provided through its relationship with leading offset trade printers who share Mercury’s high standards. Print-ready files are designed using Adobe’s Creative Suite applications and sent via the internet for offset production of longer runs.
Most of Mercury Creative’s new business comes in by referral, which is a glowing testament to any business’s reputation. Its whimsical slogan: ‘Shortrundigitalprintandstuff’ provides a breezy understatement to the complexities of variable and personalized digital design and print.
With strong corporate branding of its own – including a personalized packet of Jaffas shipped with each order – Mercury Creative’s star is certainly rising and who knows how high?
When you are passionate about short run digital printing ‘and stuff’, refusing to compromise on quality and customer service; it’s like having wings on your heels!
Mercury Creative
www.mercurycreative.com.au
Starleaton Digtal Solutions
www.starleaton.com.au
Fuji Xerox
