Customer Stories: Solopress Design serves Chris a winner!

Chris Phillips used Solopress Design to help smash his fundraising target as he raised money for mental health charities.

After enduring an his 11-hour tennis match, Chris raised an incredible £14,000 for the mental health charity, MIND.

With Wimbledon underway, Chris was inspired by the historic longest tennis match ever, played on the grass court in 2010, between Nicolas Mahut and John Isner. It was played over three days with a final score of 6-4,3-6,6-7,7-6,70-68.

Break-point

For this challenge, he wanted some print to propel his event and acknowledge his sponsors.

However, without any experience in creating artwork for print, Chris got in touch with our Solopress Design team to get him onto a winner.

Chris said: “I had no idea about the design for our Banner or Leaflets. All I knew was that we needed a Banner with our sponsors on it.

“I explained what my print was for and what we needed, then I sent Glenn some photos for him to do the rest.”

Great service

Chris worked through his artwork with our talented in-house designer, Glenn. The process was simple.

Firstly, he went online to Solopress Design and filled out the online form. Then, he uploaded any relevant files he had to help Glenn start the design.

With the design process underway, Glenn and Chris developed their ideas over email However, customers can request to speak with a designer over the phone too if that is their preference.

Chris said: “I had a logo for the event and logos from all my sponsors which I passed through the Solopress Design. The turnaround to receive my Banner was so quick.”

Creating artwork through Solopress Design gives you access to our dedicated in-house team. Chris worked closely with Glenn to create something that would really elevate his fundraiser.

Glenn added: “Chris was incredibly easy to deal with. I asked him a few questions to clarify what he wanted and to make sure we were on the same page.

“We designed Chris’ Banner and Leaflets completely from scratch. I asked about his goals and vision of the end products and worked from there.

“He completely trusted our service and loved the first draft so much that he got it printed!”

Solopress Design has five tiers of support to get your artwork print ready. The five tiers are:

• Amendments: You have your design and require small changes.
• Layout: You know what you want but need help producing it.
• Recreate: Our design team will recreate what you’ve lost.
• Design: Advise us on your design needs, and we’ll do the rest.
• Design Plus: An inclusive design service from concept to print.

Glenn added: “Solopress Design can help customers in a vast number of ways.

“For example, if a customer chooses Design Plus, all we would need from them is a broad goal of the end product and then we would start the design from scratch. That option allows customers to provide a basic idea of what they want and what it’s for and then we would go from there.”

Stroke of brilliance

Chris had pitched to his sponsors that their brand would receive TV coverage on ITV, press coverage through the Southend Echo and further exposure via social media.

This meant the Banner had to broadcast the sponsors clearly so they could be seen throughout the big day.

As a reporter for the Southend Echo, Chris knew that scheduling the match before both Wimbledon and the football season would be great timing.

Chris was able to gather names such as Kevin Maher, Neil Harris and Steve Tilson to step onto the court in the name of mental health.

Switching partners every 30 minutes, Chris relied on the generosity of many volunteers to get over the line.

How did Solopress Design boost Chris’ fundraiser?

Leaflets and Banners are sure to help make your fundraising campaign a winner, but Chris’ print really helped keep the ball rolling.

With the tennis season already in full swing, Chris attended Wimbledon’s sister events, Queen’s and the Eastbourne Open, to help build support.

Chris added: “Our Leaflet was fantastic, it allowed us to give people information in their hands so they could see what we were doing.

“We got a fantastic raffle prize off the back of my Leaflet at the Eastbourne Open. One of the vendors offered a prize of any racquet on his website, which was quite expensive!”

The unmissable, Banner received such a reception on court that it will be performing an encore!

Chris said: “Even though my Banner was created purely for this one-off event, it received so many compliments from people that it’s going back up on the court.”

Overall, Chris’ print proved to be a match-winner.

He added: “My print helped the fundraiser so much. The Leaflets we could leave out on the day and the QR codes we had on them allowed people to donate with raffle tickets if they didn’t have cash on them.

“It gave them a real professional feel on the day which satisfied our sponsors.”

Championship point

At first, Chris was unsure how much this event would raise. Being a seasoned fundraiser, he believed his tennis marathon could hit around £5,000.

Now smashing that target, Chris has raised a total of £14,000. Thanks to his main sponsor, Rickard Luckin, his event also caught the eye of the tennis world as Judy Murray, Sue Barker and Ryan Peniston all contributed to the fundraiser.

Mime-times Wimbledon champion, Martina Navratilova shared her support on social media while Sir Andy Murray donated a signed tennis ball to the raffle auction.

Chris added: “Money’s great and it was amazing to raise as much as we did but it was equally as important to raise as much awareness for such an important cause as we did.”

Game, set, match

Expert graphic design is essential to getting professional results from your print. If you don’t have access to those skills, our design service is here to help you produce something special.

From amendments to complete creations, our five tiers of support can get your design over the line.