Marketing, Communication & Publishing

THE BIG IDEAS COLLECTIVE

Intelligent creativity for you.
Delivering over 40 years’ combined experience to create beautiful brands, books, content and websites. Inspiring and engaging with the technical expertise to match.

Small, medium and large wise owls

 Work with Friendly, knowledgeable and award-winning folks.
Why? Because we deliver… 

 Bespoke projects to suit your budget and ambition, 

Brand Identity

Ensuring you always look the business, because you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Content Creation

We’ll help you find your voice and your customers with words and images to inform, move and motivate.

Web Development

You’ll stand out from the crowd with bold and beautiful websites that attract and engage.

Search Engine Optimisation

Supercharging your website, you’ll gain organic reach and be found.

Publishing Design

Your access to experienced professional publishing advice, support and resources. Together we’ll give your writing the book it deserves.

Hosting & Maintenance

You can rely on secure, reliable and fast websites and support because our websites are GT Metrix A rated.

small and owner-run, work directly with the experts.

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“What an amazing, truly authentic book for startups…”

How to Be in Business  Jacky Fitt FRSA

Your practical guide to starting out and staying sane.

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The Big Blogs

John Gielgud at 90

Work with Nick Hern Books grew rapidly. The play scripts coming through regularly, usually requiring a very quick turn around, had an added complication of needing to balance the time it took to print the scripts, against how the scripts may change during the rehearsal process. As many of the scripts also included cast details, they also served as show programmes.
In early summer I had a call from Nick, he said, “I’ve got something a bit different for you and you have some time on this one” I was intrigued, “I want you to come and meet the editor.”

Anarchy and Invention: cartoons, exhibitions and a fine dinner out

From a tender age I have loved cartoons. From Top Cat to The Flintstones, Roobarb and Custard to Asterix, I loved the anarchy and the invention. I have already written about my work with Ed McClachlan and, during my time at Sphere Books I went on to draw a number of cartoons for covers and company Christmas cards for Sphere and some of our suppliers. One morning I got a message to see Barbara Boote, Sphere’s Head of Editorial; with no idea what was in the wind, off I trod…

Design, Running ‘the Board’, the Gauntlet and the power of Healing Ash

My 20 months at Slatter-Anderson were a blur… Learning a lot in a short space of time, I worked on a truly diverse range of design jobs

Give to Get

I was speaking to an MD of a successful firm recently at a networking event and she was telling me about what a turbulent time they had had in the business – leaders had left and the remaining team were working out how to find their feet and their new voice.

Another scandal, another book, same Prime Minister.

Although the impact of this particular story has faded over time, it was, on publication, a highly controversial and political title. Illuminating the “Westland affair” of 1985-86 the book exposed cabinet in-fighting and Thatcher’s autocratic style to public scrutiny. Following hot on the heels of the Miners’ strike and coming just before the “Poll Tax” controversy, this was, arguably, the first of the internal disagreements to reveal the widening fissures in the Conservative party over the UK’s position in Europe. Written by Magnus Linklater the Managing Editor, and David Leigh the Chief Investigative Reporter, at The Observer, the research behind the book came with the highest of investigative credentials. 

New World, Old Friends

Towards the end of 1988 the announcement was made that Chatto, Jonathan Cape, Chatto Poetry and The Hogarth Press were to become part of Random House Group. This would also mean a move from Chatto’s lovely Georgian offices in Bedford Square to Random House HQ that occupied a modern building in Chandos Place, Covent Garden. The ground was shifting under my feet and as publishing world began to change it was a worrying time.

Is There Anybody There? Know your customer and get your marketing mix right

A key aim of a good marketing team should be to take the guess work out of your marketing mix

Great BIG guide to effective SEO

SEO or search engine optimisation is the art of getting noticed for what you do by search engine spiders and here’s our great BIG guide to effective SEO. For the best results well written, unique, quality content needs to go hand in hand with good SEO practices. 

80s Gaming: paper heroes, tight kerning and silver foil

Back in the late 80s the Falcon Game Book Series was highly innovative; the reader was the hero, taking a story path of their own choosing. Today, this is laughably tame and laborious, compared with our easily accessible digital escapism, role playing on our smart phones across time zones and continents. But, remember, this was all before Alan Sugar introduced the Amstrad home computer, complete with its 3.5” floppy discs. Internet for all was in its infancy and Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was THE ‘gaming’ experience.

15 Things every Indie author needs to do…

Of course, there are far more than 15 steps to making all this work and each indie author will need to make their own path to publication. There is a huge amount of professional help available and often the whole process is easier when you have someone project managing the production process so it takes the pressure of the writer.