Happy 30th birthday to us!

19th Sep 2016

This year we celebrate being in business for 30 years – where has the time gone? Looking back over all these years of printing got us thinking about something else that is in its 30^th year, and which has changed the industry in which we work forever. Desktop publishing arrived in the mid-1980’s, just as Ashley House was starting out, and it has revolutionised the way we work ever since. We have always been committed to innovation, but there’s also something of the ‘old-school’ craft and dedication to the art of printing that we’re determined to keep at the heart of what we do.

Back in the late 70’s, when Rob was starting out in the industry, most page-setting was done with Letraset. While it seems like an incredibly long-winded process now, at the time Letraset was the cutting edge! A design could take hours to set out, painstakingly transferring the letters from the sheets onto the paper stock. With the very best of efforts you could still work on a project for hours, only to find the finished piece a little different to what you had intended at the start! There was something very unique and special, though, about the Letraset aesthetic and method. There was a great feeling of accomplishment on finishing a printing project.

It was around 30 years ago, in the mid-1980s, that ‘Desktop publishing’ arrived and our industry changed forever. Hardware and software were introduced by industry leaders such as Adobe and Apple, combining technologies to enable in-house typesetting for the first time, leading the way for quicker and easier pre-production. Design layouts that might have taken days to prepare with manual page-setting suddenly became possible within an hour or two. The limited typefaces available from Letraset became an almost limitless choice of digital fonts.

While the technology has changed beyond recognition, at Ashley House we believe that the craft of printing is as important as ever. In an age where the life-expectancy of a piece of digital content is often counted in a few seconds, we know that great quality print can make an impression that lasts, and, more importantly, moves people to action.

As we celebrate our 30^th year in business and think back over the massive changes that have moved design and print over that time, we are more focused than ever to keep doing what we love to do; craft stunning print using the latest technology and guided with a focus on keeping our clients happy.