We are bringing you some refreshment ideas to brighten up these long, hot, lock down summer days. Mulberries were brought here by the Romans, but a wave of planting by King James I sparked subsequent plantings in the grounds of large houses. There are 3 types of Mulberry: black, red and white. Black mulberries are the most widely available as plants and tend to have excellent fruit.

Mulberries’ flavour is difficult to define, but if you imagine a deeper, winier, juicier blackberry with hints of blackcurrant, raspberry and a gentle sherbertiness you will be in the right ballpark. They really are delicious and if you are one of the many yet to try them then we urge you to do so.

We have brought you 2 recipes that we think you will love and they are simple to make and don’t need too many ingredients.

Best wishes,

Mulberry Design Studio Ltd.

We all know that Businesses are struggling right now due to the massive impact Coronavirus has had on us all both financially and emotionally. We can help you “connect virtually” to your customers by either getting you online or updating your current online presence. This helps entice your customers both new and old to visit your website, encouraging them to reach out to either contact you or come and do business.

The “New Norm” in these troubled times gives you the perfect opportunity to give your Business, no matter how large or how small, a fresh start and a new lease of life.

All those little things you’ve been putting off because you were always too busy can now be given the love and attention they deserve. Whether you have a website already but its ancient or looking a bit tatty round the edges. Whether you’ve never got round to having one developed because you haven’t known where to start or been overwhelmed by the technical aspects of it. We Can Help!

We will work with you to develop your brand new website and host it, and here’s the good news to help you get back on your feet:

– We will require NO Payment for the first 3 months of your website going live.

– Over the following 3 months, payment of the website will be split into 3 equal monthly payments, all interest free.

– Effectively giving you a total of 6 months to pay for your website.

Contact us now  Quoting Reference 3FM2020

Be well and stay safe,

Mulberry Design Studio Ltd.

As per Government guidance, we should all be staying 2m away from people outside our household at all times. Businesses can help people follow this rule in a number of different ways; from implementing a one-way system, to limiting the number of people on their premises. All these will need communicating with clear signage!

Protecting the welfare of their team should be important to any business wanting to stay open. Help your company implement new hygiene protocols with these print products.

With many high street shops and businesses having to close at the beginning of lockdown measures, you can bet you’ll want to shout about your re-opening date. Use a range of marketing and promotional tools to make sure you get the attention you deserve.

The surge in businesses taking up online ordering solutions has been phenomenal – especially in the restaurant sector thanks to relaxed government rules on starting takeaway businesses. We can help you with all the print resources you need to make this transformation.

Kit your business out quickly and easily with print bundles. Search our range for solutions to suit all budgets and industries.

Scenario: You are the proud owner of your very own business and you’ve poured love and blood, sweat and tears into building it up. You want customers to contact you so you’ve had business cards (we do these too!) printed up with your company name, phone number and your email address which says something like joe.bloggs@btinternet.com or jane.doe@hotmail.co.uk.

Professional?………………………Not really.

Not only does it look unprofessional but you are also unwittingly providing free advertising services for BT or Hotmail or Gmail instead of advertising your own business.

It is very easy and inexpensive to have your own custom email address and not only does it look good but the only thing you are promoting is yourself and your business name.

For this example we will use our company name to show you what we mean.

We are called Mulberry Design Studio and we could have had an email address that says for example hello.mulberry_123@gmail.com Instead, we have bought our own domain name and set up the email address hello@mulberrydesignstudio.co.uk.

Which looks more professional to you?………………………Exactly.

Especially as once you have bought your own domain name, your website address will match your email address. In this instance our website address is www.mulberrydesignstudio.co.uk and our email address is hello@mulberrydesignstudio.co.uk

Get in touch to see if a name that you want for your company is available and we will check for you and advise further. We can also set up your email accounts, host them and also build and host your website. All you need to do is tell us what you’re called.

Best wishes,

Mulberry Design Studio

Mulberry Design Studio are proud to announce our Sponsorship with Crewe Town Football Club, of the Under 10’s team “The Dragons”. We kitted out the team and their coaches with Rain Jackets, Hats and Gloves, all with our logo, their own initials and the Club badge. It feels great to add our support and help the Club out, especially as they are on our doorstep.

It is a wholeheartedly worthwhile cause and all the Club Personnel donate their time 100% voluntarily. Crewe Town FC is a Community Football Club that launched 24th March 2018 and serves the local community. The Club is ultimately a local football club. They enjoy their moments of success, however, they do not base their coaching style and player involvement on winning alone.

You can read all about “The Yellow Army” by visiting their website here and follow their journey via their Facebook Page here.

“We are trying to promote community citizenship, good sportsmanship and physical development through healthy organised training, competition and team work for 4-12 years. There are no restrictions due to race, religion gender or ability. To date we have 122 players CTFC Tots, U7s, U8s x2, U9s, U10s x2 and U12s age group leagues within the Cheshire area. We also have a Adults Team who play under Crewe Town FC as the Jaguars who play in the Crewe and District League. We currently have 9 Managers, 16 Coaches and a Committee of 9 who all work voluntarily. All the Management Team are CRC checked and Level 1 FA First Aid trained, with Safeguarding Certificates in place.”

Mark Owen Chairman, Mark Vodrey Vice Chairman

The team are pictured below sporting their new clothing and saying a warm and dry thank you.

We have found something nice to do with our used and empty printer cartridges. Instead of throwing them away or sticking them in the recycle bin we now donate them to a charity that we select from the website The Recycling Factory.

It costs us nothing, it helps others, it makes us feel that little bit better inside and we even benefit from a stroll to the post box on a regular basis.

They collect over 8 million inkjet and toner cartridges each year whilst upholding their commitment to zero landfill, which ensures that products are disposed of in an ethical and environmentally friendly way.

They offer you the opportunity to donate the value of your cartridge(s) to one of their beloved charity partners. Since formation, they pride themselves on the dedication and passion that it takes for them to grow their extensive list of charity partners. You can help support any one of their partners simply by recycling your old inkjet cartridges for donation. Through their recycling scheme for charities, they have raised over £4 million to date.

It’s not just charities they help though, you can be an individual, a business or a school. Go and take a peek at their website to see what works best for you.

In our world today, we are rapidly gaining clarity of what’s reality. We don’t mean Love Island or what some celebrity Z-lister had for breakfast. We mean the important things, the bigger picture, the things that really matter. We need to make positive change, not wait for it to happen. From the seed of a thought grows a tree of ideas; with enough of these they can become a thriving forest of change.

After a brainstorming session and an alarming amount of tea consumption (ethically sourced), we have come to present to you our promise to sow some seeds of our own.

We promise to donate 5% of the value of any design work that you give to us, to an ethical Charity or Good Cause of your choosing. So for every £ that you spend with us on Graphic Design, Web Design, Branding Design or Packaging Design projects, you will have the added “feel good factor” that a cause that needs it will also be benefiting.

It’s not because we are trying to look worthy or impressive. It’s not because we are posturing or full of empty promises. It’s because we believe it is the Right Thing To Do.

If you can’t think of a cause you’d like us to donate to, try one from your local community. If you still can’t decide, or genuinely don’t have a preference, then allow us to donate it to one local to us in Cheshire East. And of course, we will send you confirmation of their receipt of the donation.

We hope you are happy to be involved; lets sow some seeds and make a positive change.

Best wishes,

Mulberry Design Studio Ltd.

The Facebook Cover Photo is the large panoramic image space at the top of the timeline. It’s also sometimes called the banner image or the header photo. We recommend that you use an image that’s 820px wide by 360px tall. If you want better quality however, use an image that’s at least 1640 pixels wide by 720 pixels tall.

Note that the image is displayed differently depending on what device its being viewed on. Some devices will crop your image so be aware of the safe zone. For example on a desktop browser, the entire width of the image is displayed but the top and the bottom are trimmed by 24 pixels each. On the mobile app the height is displayed fully but this time the sides are trimmed by 90 pixels each.

What this means is that there is a safe zone in the middle of the image. Anything that isn’t in the safe zone won’t be visible to at least some users for some of the time. Don’t include vital information like text or part of a logo outside of the safe area if you don’t want it to be cropped.

Here’s a visualization of what we mean. The original image below is set with each band of colour representing 25 pixels wide.

Displayed in a web browser it looks like this with the image cropped at the top and bottom.

When you are viewing it in the Facebook app on the mobile it crops like this.

To avoid this, make sure any important visual information is away from the edges of the image, at least 24 pixels from the top or bottom and at least 90 pixels from each side, sticking within the green area of this.

Remember if you are using an image with the higher resolution, you’ll obviously want to double all of those dimensions.

The Profile Picture is to the left of the cover photo in the web browser display. It used to be a square, but it’s now a circle on the desktop version while still a square in the mobile app.

When selecting a photo to add as your profile picture, you’ll get the option to move the focus around and you’ll also be able to zoom in and out if it exceeds the minimum resolution.

Whatever shape the image you upload is, it will be cropped to a circle and in a web browser displays at 172 pixels diameter  and smaller again in the mobile app.

Tip: If you find that your profile picture once set is blurry then try uploading an image twice the size of the downsized image (344px by 344px). In many instances this can give a much sharper result.

A thumbnail is generated automatically when you upload an image to the timeline. The image is sized within a box that is 500px wide and up to 750px tall. So if you want to use the maximum space available, upload an image in portrait orientation (vertical) using the ratio of 3:2. This is an example of using the maximum available space:

If you upload a landscape (horizontal) image, it gets scaled to 500px wide and retains its shape. The full area of the image appears without any cropping.

This is another rectangle in landscape orientation but it’s a much narrower aspect ratio like a banner or panorama. The width is again 500px and the image is scaled so that the entire image area appears.

If you upload that same image rotated 90 degrees, so that it’s tall rather than wide, it will be cropped to the maximum available area of 500px by 750px and if you upload a square, the whole image will be displayed, with the width and height both at 500px.

When you upload multiple photos at once to your timeline, they’re displayed depending on how many images you’re uploading and the orientation of what we will refer to as the primary image.

The primary image is what we’re calling the image that displays first in the uploading popup and it also displays as a larger image in some of the layouts.

As well as displaying first, the primary image has another important role. It determines the layout you get. If you upload 3 images with a square primary image you’ll end up with a different layout than if you upload 3 images with a rectangular primary image.

The easiest way to select which image serves as the primary image is to drag it to the left in the upload dialog box.

Here’s some examples of what we mean. In this one we’ll replicate uploading two images, a purple square which will be the primary image and a grey vertical rectangle.

It posts like this: As you can see, the grey rectangle gets cropped to a square.

Uploading exactly the same two images but reversing them, so that the vertical rectangle is first like this:

displays like this: You can see now that the rectangle being the primary image, crops the square into a rectangle now.

The same principle applies if you’re uploading two, three, or four images, the layout will always take its cue from the primary image.

Have a play around with uploading different numbers of photos and different primary image layouts to get a better understanding of how Facebook sizes and positions them once uploaded. There are so many different variants but you can always choose your primary photo easily by dragging if you recall.

You can also mix and match the orientations of the non-primary images as they’ll still display the same.

One thing to note if you upload 5 images or more, it will only display the first 4 images but will add an overlay to the bottom right thumbnail with the number of images that are not displayed eg. +2 or +4, etc.

No matter what shape image you upload as a header image for an event post, it’ll be cropped to an aspect ratio of 16:9. For best results upload an image that’s 1920 by 1080 pixels. Something to watch out for though is that in the main event view the image is scaled down quite a lot, so don’t use fonts that are too small. Although people can click on the image to open a larger version not everyone is going to think to do that.

When it’s displayed on the main event page it’s scaled to 500 by 262 pixels, like this.

Something to be aware of is that Facebook compresses some images pretty aggressively when you upload and display them. Naturally, they want to speed page loads and reduce bandwidth by applying as much compression as they can get away with. How noticeable it is depends on things like the range of colours in your image and amount of detail in your photo. It also seems to depend on what kind of image you’re displaying. Photo gallery images seem to have less compression applied in displaying than do design elements like the cover photo and profile picture.

There are some things you can do in prepping the images before upload that can help reduce the chances that your image will come out looking pixelated.

1) Upload images that are 99KB or less in filesize. Facebook should leave images less than that untouched, which gives you control over how the compression is applied.

2 ) Upload images that don’t already have a lot of compression applied. For example with JPGS, try keeping the quality setting at 80 or above as Facebook is only going to compress it again anyway. If you’re using software that factors in colourspace (like Lightroom or Photoshop), use sRGB colourspace and uploading images that are already resized to close to or at the end display size and not overly sharpened seems to work well.