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Category: Design & Print

We are absolutely over the moon to have won not only one but TWO awards at the SME Northamptonshire Awards last night!

Held in association with the Business Times, the awards are a sought-after accolade of achievement celebrating the hardworking and enterprising SMEs of Northamptonshire.

The first award we won was the Service Excellence award which celebrates outstanding assistance and advice to clients. The judges said “A company very strongly focused on meeting the needs of its diverse range of customers.” We pride ourselves on going above and beyond for our clients. In fact, our whole ethos is about being an extension of a client’s team, so this win was music to our ears!

As if that wasn’t enough, we also took home the award for The Overall Winner! This is essentially the crème de la crème; the big finale award, and we are thrilled to take the title for 2018.

Having recently celebrated our 8th birthday, this was a wonderful way to mark the occasion.

Ben Skinner, Bluestep Managing Director, said “This was a really proud moment for the whole team. It was a brilliant night and unreal to have won against some amazing talent. A true highlight for the year.”

We are now looking forward to going to Wembley Stadium in 2019 for the SME National Business Awards Final, where all the 2018 winners compete on a national scale. Fingers crossed!

On your marks, get set, bake! For another year running, Bluestep have had the pleasure of working with Macmillan Cancer Support on their fundraising packs for The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

Any excuse to bake, and more importantly eat, cake is fine by us. So, when it’s for an amazing cause it’s even sweeter.

After working hard on this exciting top-secret project earlier on in the year, we have been really looking forward to seeing everyone hosting their coffee mornings and watch the products in action.

The 2018 pack includes an array of fun props to ensure hosts and participants get the most out of their morning. This includes flags, stickers, a fundraising box, bunting, tablecloth, bake-related games, cards and ‘mmm’ bunting; which our very own designers created!

1.5 million of these units were printed, stored and shipped back in June by yours truly, at our very own warehouse facility.

The masterpieces for our own coffee morning included a refreshing lemon drizzle, an indulgent red velvet creation and a selection of tasty cookies.

Not one to shy away from the cake, next month sees the launch of our very own Bluestep Bake Off! Keep your eyes peeled on the blog to watch it all unfold. Fingers crossed for no soggy bottoms!

We hope everyone across the UK had an amazing coffee morning raising money (and bakes) for such an important cause.  We’re already looking forward to next year, so stay tuned to see what we have planned…

Bluestep are delighted to have supported the Swedish lift manufacturer Aritco in the design, marketing and production of their latest exhibition stand at the Homebuilding & Renovating show 2018. 

Aritco wanted to create an exhibition that stood out, attracting the high level of footfall at the event and draw people in to find out more about the brand and the product offering.

We were responsible for designing everything from the exhibit to all the printed literature, ensuring that the modern and premium style of the brand was communicated throughout the event.

The customisable characteristics of the Homelift product were the focal point for all our creative, allowing Aritco to easily communicate the number of different editable features available to the visitors. The stand theme ‘express your taste’ helped illustrate the elegance of Scandinavian style within interior design.

We had a great day at the exhibition. The Bluesteppers headed to Birmingham to see our work bought to life and ensure all the design elements were put together and ran smoothly. Our resident motion graphics designer and part-time photographer, Carl, packed his DSLR and was on hand to take some professional shots of the day.

As a result of our combined efforts before and during the event, the stand was visited by thousands of guests at the NEC arena and has already generated over 160 new sales leads for Aritco. It has been recognised as the most successful exhibition in the company’s history!

To further support the campaign, Bluestep initiated and assisted Aritco with the launch of the #MyAritcoHomeLift competition. An exciting opportunity that will give one lucky individual the chance to win their very own custom designed Homelift!

Our digital team also created a landing page and organised the promotion of the campaign via social media, using both organic and paid posts to create a buzz amongst the target audience, reaching people in the hundreds of thousands.

“By the Sunday afternoon, we had run out of brochures and competition forms. Every single detail came together so well. Bluestep really brought all the elements together for us both offline and online and as a result, we’ve had some great sales leads.”
Reshma Miller – Marketing Manager, Aritco UK.

Hot off the press!

We are delighted to share one of our latest projects with you. We were recently approached by the Royal Parks Trust to create a booklet for their calendar of events 2018, and we love the result!

Bluestep have worked with the fabulous Royal Parks team for the past couple of years now and have created the charity’s events booklet three years running, as well as posters and collection boxes.

The Royal Parks Trust looks after some of the beautiful landscapes within the hustle and bustle of the capital, including the famous Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens and St James’s Park. The foundation exists to protect and conserve 5,000 acres of urban parkland. Here at Bluestep, we are pleased to create something that helps keep this alive and support the work they do.

Every year, the Royal Parks hold a variety of events the whole family can enjoy. From sensory learning experiences for little ones, to wilderness survival skills for those looking to release their inner Bear Grylls. What’s more, the parks give Londoners the opportunity to swap the busy life of the city, with yoga and wellness classes immersed in green and glorious surroundings.

Two Royal Parks Booklets 2018

We wanted to create something that reflects the great work they do, maintaining the spaces for everyone to enjoy for generations to come. We made the booklet light and full of pops of colour, as a nod the beautiful parks.

Easy to navigate, whether you are looking for family activities or fascinating walking tours, the booklet allows everyone to find out how they can make the most of the magical parks.

Next time you’re heading to the capital, be sure to check out the Royal Parks and their events, and keep your eyes peeled for our work whilst you’re there!

The London Design Fair saw Bluestep head to hipster paradise Brick Lane to support Aritco at Alexander Lervik’s stand.

Us Bluesteppers know good design when we see it, which is why we couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the prestigious London Design Fair at the Old Truman Brewery in sunny Shoreditch.

London is without a doubt the design capital of the World and this year’s event saw Alexander Lervik display his ‘Scandinavian Light Senses’ exhibition, featuring the Aritco HomeLift, which Lervik designed himself.

The Aritco-sponsored stand featured some of Alexander Lervik’s most iconic work, including his contemporary Scandi-style sofa designed for furniture manufacturer Adea, his mesmerising Light Swing designed for Swedish light designers Saas and the Artico HomeLift.

An image showing the Aritco HomeLift at the London Design Fair 2017

After a couple of tests in the swish HomeLift and a quick go on the Light Swing, we decided to venture into the abyss of the design fair and get lost in inspiration.

In what seemed like a maze of design stalls, we managed to soak up a load of ideas for future projects and discover some hidden gems…

An image iof a sun screen poster at the London Design Fair 2017

WEAR SUNSCREEN as commanded by Baz Lurhmann, which always serves as a nice reminder for the few days of nice weather we have in the summer!

An image showing stationery and greeting cards at London Design Fair 2017

We’re big fans of stationery and greetings cards, with one of our very own Bluestep designers creating her own stationery website – Louie Prints!

An image showing interior design at London Design Fair 2017

A lot of stalls focused on interior design and the Scandi-style that’s popular within the industry right now. We’re trying to persuade Ben to let us have that light in the office.

An image showing plants at London Design Fair 2017

There’s no escaping millennial pink at this year’s Design Fair which is safe to say we’re all a bit partial to. We are millennials after all?

An image showing tiny ornamental vases at London Design Fair 2017

We were pretty fascinated with these tiny ornamental vases, fit for a blade of grass! We had to be held back from buying the whole lot.

An image showing Bluestep staff at London Design Fair 2017

At the end of a long day getting lost in London Design Fair, we found a photo booth equipped with tropical-themed props! Spot the photobomber…

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, it’s essential to keep up with trends and changes and be ahead of the game. If you’re on social media, it’s likely you’ve noticed the stark presence of animated content popping up in both your news feeds and affiliated ad slots. Lately, particularly in the healthcare sector, video animations have become extremely prevalent. As a vibrant and engaging way of displaying stats, figures and stories, animation is the new way forward for digital marketing.

So, why should you be using animation?

  1. One minute of video is the equivalent of 1.8 million words.
  2. Videos make up 35% of total online ad spending according to Break Media.
  3. After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online according to ComScore.
  4. 50% of executives look for more information after seeing a product/service in a video, according to Forbes.
  5. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

What are you waiting for? Get in touch and talk to us, about taking things up a notch.

The approaching new year symbolises a time to reflect, show gratitude, appreciation and make goals for the next year…
So to say our goodbyes to what has been a fantastic year, we’ve put together a list of the top ten memories from 2016.

1) London Charity Softball

Bluestep sponsored the London Charity Softball team and supported the event by providing the branded kits and marketing collateral ahead of the event. The Bluestep team showed an appearance with a fully stocked sandwich stall, helping to feed the hungry players post-match. On a hot summers day, we ended the night with a few bevvies together in Hyde Park. A great day which deserves to be up here as one of our top memories of 2016.

2) Bluestep Bake Off

Shockingly competitive, the Bluestep Bake off saw the team go head to head in a bid to become the Star Baker. Each week we saw three bakers slave away in the kitchen to create their culinary masterpiece. Chocolate, banana, coffee, shortbread, scones…we had it all. Despite all of the tasty treats, a sour taste was left in our mouths (not just from Ben’s coffee cake) when it became apparent someone had used shop-bought pastry which lead to a disqualification from the final!

3) New employees

Since the beginning of 2016, we’ve seen ten new starters walk through the doors of Bluestep. All to fill new roles which have been created as a result of our increased workload. Since the office is getting pretty cosy, we’ve decided to expand our office into the next unit to make room for even more Bluesteppers in the new year!

4) Bluestep Summer BBQ

It seems like a distant memory now, but remember that scorcher of a week we had back in July? The boys set up a disposable BBQ in the courtyard and we finished off the hottest week of the summer with burgers and some ice cold bevvies. Bring on #Summer2017

5) NHS Expo ‘16

Bluestep’s healthcare team took a road trip up to Manchester back in September to host our own stand at the NHS Innovation Expo ’16. Designed by the very talented Becca Tyler, the stand was a huge success. We shared insight and spoke to a whole host of NHS professionals and stakeholders, absorbing as much as we could from all the talks and events. It was full on, but our energetic team kept up by fuelling up on all the free sweets!

6) Bluestep’s 6th Birthday

Possibly one of the biggest milestones – our 6th birthday! Who’d have thought six years how Bluestep was comprised of Ben, his kitchen table, a landline phone and a stapler? Amazing how much you can achieve with sheer determination and ambition.

7) Redecorating

One late night for the team and a fresh new look for the office. Rather than pay for a painter, we thought it’d be a fun, team building activity to just chip in and do it ourselves! There were laughs, there were arguments and there were spillages, but we’re pretty proud of our lush new office.

8) Seminars

Ben started to identify everyone’s individual talents and realised that a lot of the team were bringing additional skills to their role and further improving the company. Although the team were dubious about presenting in front of their peers, Ben finally persuaded us to start giving monthly seminars which have actually proven to be a lot of fun! We’ve shared some of our knowledge in our blog ‘Bluestep Seminars’, if you fancy some insight.

9) Charity Brochure …hot off the press

The highly-anticipated charity brochure was one of our most chopped and changed internal projects! In a bid to ensure it was absolutely perfect, it was in and out of the studio more times than we can count. Ten final, final proofreads later and we were finally happy to send it to print. Hot off the press, it was better than we had envisaged and we hope our clients have found it a useful reference for all of our offerings!

10) Secret Santa

And finally, the most recent, festive highlight. Ben receives a giant German sausage for Secret Santa…don’t ask.

In case you haven’t heard, we’ve had a new buddy in the office recently.

Inca has been helping us out recently with a list of admin, housekeeping and tea making chores to give her a brief introduction to life in the office. To help us monitor the effectiveness of her stay at Bluestep we asked her to keep a log of her time, and since it was so brilliant, we decided to make it this week’s blog post:


09.00: They’re all complaining about traffic when they arrive this morning, but I’m not sure what that is. I loved my journey in. I love going in the car. Especially when I can stick my head out the window.
10.00: CHRISTY THREW SOMETHING! Please do it again, human!

11.15: Been brought into the meeting room to discuss what types of biscuits to order this month. I said Pedigree chums but they went for Hob Nobs. They said I’m not allowed the chocolate ones, things got a little hairy.

12.00: Chased my tail for 30 minutes, until I got hounded by the boss again…

12:30: Woofles for lunch, yum!

13.00: SOMEONE DROPPED CHICKEN ON THE FLOOR!

14.05: Sarah’s showing me how to make a spreadsheet. I’m thinking, why can’t I grab the little arrow moving about on the screen??

15.15: The man with the drawings on his arms. I like him best. I gave him a kiss and everyone laughed. So I did it again. I’m not sure he liked it.

15:30: Maybe I can I win him over with a gift…

16.00: SOMETHING FLEW PAST THE WINDOW!

16.10: I’m bored now, can I go and run around the car park?

17.00: Hey, where’s my toy?

17.05: THERE IT IS!

17:25: Pawformance review – didn’t go well. Man that was ruff.

Was it a profound moment of mental clarity that led our MD to choose this almost household name, or an unprecedented set of circumstances that led fate to make the decision for him? The name’s even been adapted these days to affectionately refer to our colleagues as our trusty Bluesteppers.
So how did Ben come up with the name, Bluestep?

Take our multiple-choice quiz and test your Bluestep knowledge...

A. The business was actually first registered under the name ‘Skindawg Cooperations’, but after business took off and the team moved into a converted barn office (painted bright blue), they decided to give the business a reputable and professional name and came up with Bluestep.

B. Our MD Ben has a wardrobe to rival Steve Jobs’. Every morning, he decides whether to wear his blue chinos, his pale blue chinos or his mid-blue chinos. For special occasions, he has a pair of dark blue chinos. Usually, he settles on a nice pair of blue chinos and a white shirt. It only seemed right that with the number of steps taken wearing blue chinos, the business should be rightly called Bluestep.

C. After dressing up as smurfs to compete in a charity sporting event, Harry and Ben checked their Fitbits the next day and realised they had taken a combined 54,798 steps over the weekend: the equivalent of a marathon. They soon took on the nickname ‘the Bluesteppers’ and after working together closely before business took off, made the combined decision to name the business Bluestep.

D.‘Blue’ – calming, reassuring, steady, reliable. ‘Step’ – progress, moving up, moving forward, growth. Ben combined the two words to create Bluestep as he felt the meaning behind it illustrated his thoughts about how he wanted to portray his business. BS also happens to be his initials!

Think you’ve worked out the answer? Send your answers to our social media platforms and you could be in with the chance of winning a *prize!

Each month, one Bluestepper takes on the task of hosting a breakfast seminar on a subject they are particularly passionate about. Not only have a we found this a great team morale and bonding exercise – but getting together an hour before work over croissants and OJ, and brushing up on subjects we might otherwise not come across, is a great learning experience and helps keep the whole team up to date on relevant skills and subjects!
So what has been presented so far and how is it benefitting the team?

Shanice Martin – Social Media for business

Media savvy Shanice kicked off the seminars as a tender newbie back in May this year. She wanted to fill the team in on the latest social media trends, strategies and success rates.
Always have a strategy. It’s all well and good if you’re posting x3 times a day but if you have no strategy or relevance, your audience will tail off.
Consistency is key. Consistency across TOV, imagery and posting times is a must to ensure you keep audiences engaged and active.
Pick the right channels. Twitter is great for exposure…if you have plenty of followers. Know your audience and know their preferred platforms.

Ben Johnson – Negotiation skills

Straight talking Ben chose to educate the team on negotiation skills. With a clever multiple choice quiz, we were soon able to point out the softer team members from the feistier negotiators.
Find a middle ground. If you’re struggling to make a deal, try and meet the customer half way.
Negotiation is a fundamental part of life! We negotiate every day, even if we don’t realise it, so you may as well be good at it.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. As with most business scenarios, it’s essential you’re adequately prepared. Know your facts and figures before confidently closing a deal.

Rebecca Tyler – Branding

Becca’s passion for all things design shone through in her branding seminar. After taking a course on branding earlier this year, Becca wanted to share some of her insight to the team.Find your brand personality. Where do you sit in the world of brands? Are you the hero? The lover? The optimist? Establish your personality and stick to it!
Consider a rebrand. It’s worked for some of the biggest brands in the world. Keep up to date with the fast paced industry and keep your brand fresh.
More than just a logo. A brand is so much more than a logo. People connect with a brand on a higher level, and remain loyal to a brand that has served them well. Remember this when communicating with your audience.

Ben Skinner – Business Development

Bluestep MD, Ben, built up a business from scratch, so it was only natural he should brief the team on the ins and outs of business development. As you might already know, Ben is a fan of putting people before business and it’s worked pretty well for him!
Know your customer inside out. Where did they go on holiday this year? How many dogs do they have? Where’s their favourite place to eat?
Be fun to be around. Ever get on so well with a client/supplier that meetings just seem to fly by? It’s always nice to do business with someone you get along with.
Keep in touch. Make regular contact with all clients and customers, even if work is quiet. Make them feel special and remember who you are!

Mark Chamberlain – Websites and Digital

Our go-to coder, Mark, was constantly bombarded with techy questions from the rest of the team, so decided to give us all the low down on everything web and digital!
Not all websites are created equal. Custom-coded, wordpress, e-commerce, one page… with so many options on the market, there’s something for every type of business.
Consider WordPress. If you’re not overly tech-savvy, but low on budget, it might be worth considering a WordPress template. WordPress is super user-friendly and with a content management system, you can easily make updates yourself.
Be responsive. Making your site responsive should go without saying these days, especially since 80% of internet users now own a smartphone!

Nicola Risi – Copywriting

With super speedy typing skills & an eye for typos, Nikki has naturally become Bluestep’s creative copywriter come dictionary. During the seminar, she presented the team with some of the world’s greatest copy ads, and some handy hints & tips on how they can polish up their own copywriting skills.
Write drunk, edit sober. Well, not literally…! Do an initial braindump of everything you want to say, then come back later to edit, correct and refine.
Be flexible. Some days you could be selling shoes to twenty-something London commuters, the next you’re selling cars to middle class family men. Never underestimate a copywriter’s power to adapt their personality and language.
Don’t use big words when a smaller one will do! To quote Joey from friends “They’re prepossessing, humid homo-sapiens with full sized aortic pumps”

We’re struggling to keep up with how fast Bluestep is growing at the moment. From new starters, and new clients, to a second office in London – safe to say it’s been a big year for us.
The growth of the business has naturally impacted all of our sectors and we’re seeing each section of the business really come into its own.

At the start of every year, we tend to meticulously plan every last detail down to how many ink cartridges we plan to use! Although we never could’ve predicted the growth we have seen this year… and after we ran away with ourselves recruiting, we had nowhere to seat everyone, doh!

Working with what we’ve got, we’ve turned the office pretty much upside down to utilise every last corner and wall, but when we heard our neighbours next door were moving onto pastures new, we jumped at the opportunity to extend our office further into this beautiful location!

Ideas are already flying around about how the new space will look, but it will all start with knocking the design studio wall through to next door, introducing a whole new office – this is where the charity team will be based. We will then introduce additional meeting rooms, and utilise the rest of the ground floor to create our brand new design studio – complete with breakout areas, bean bags and other quirky add-ons to increase creative stimulation and flow.

Anyone who knows us will be well aware of how much we pride ourselves on our beautiful, countryside location down at Blisworth Hill Farm, so when we heard the equally picturesque Stone Barn – adjacent to our existing office – was up for grabs, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to embed ourselves further into this perfect location. Call it wishful thinking, but we are hoping to have the work complete by Christmas!

Keep an eye on our blogs for more updates and progress pictures.

Today Bluestep Boasts a 50% turnover year on year, A strong team of 23 Talented individuals, A beautiful picturesque office in the countryside, and an impressive catalogue of case studies. But how did it all begin?

January 2010
Ben Skinner sets up shop at his kitchen table equipped with one printer, one stapler and a house phone. Having to put his out of office on to make a cup of tea or hang out washing, Ben dedicated the majority of his days to researching, cold calling and building rapport with contacts.

August 2010
Discovers there is a problem within the NHS sexual heath sector – not enough 16-24 year olds are getting tested for STIs. Ben creates a non-clinical, fun solution in the form of funky, branded boxer shorts. Idea is taken up nationwide by NHS CCGS and Bluestep goes on to sell millions across the next few years.

November 2010
PR is booming especially after the Sun newspaper try to get the boxers on a page 3 girl!

December 2010
Harry joins the team, packing boxes and driving the delivery van, and the team begins to grow with the addition of a designer and PA. The guys sub let their first office – called The Hovel – no bigger than our existing meeting room!

July 2011
Ben spends a lot of time driving around the country meeting with potential clients, networking and building up a contact list. The healthcare side of the business grows which results in Bluestep taking on more people to manage the workload.

January 2011
Client base begins to grow including big names such as Thomson and STA Travel, and Blue Step are commissioned by Jack Wills to supply retail merchandise for the Royal Wedding.

December 2011
Move to Stone Barn and expand the team further, building up a strong sales team who go on to form the charity team, supplying products and merchandise to some of the UK’s largest charities.

September 2012
Time for a bigger office! Move into Tithe Barn in Blisworth, armed with a design team, account management and sales team.

January 2013
50% growth sees Bluestep rocket to fully fledged agency status.

March 2014
Relationships with the UK’s CCGs lead to further work in marketing promotions and campaigns. Build up marketing team to help manage and execute campaign work.

June 2016
With a growing team of 20+, Ben is looking to fill 3 new roles which have arisen as a result of an increase in client expectations and needs.

October 2016
With the majority of its client base now in the City, Bluestep opens its first office in London.

2016 marks the 2nd year that Bluestep have been one of the proud co-sponsors of the Charity Softball League & we’ve loved every minute of it.

And over the past summer months, the charity team have been working closely with the events team to provide these snazzy t-shirts for the charity teams who have been training and competing in the games.

On the LCSL big finale day last Thursday, the Bluestep team, along with the 6 league finalists headed into London’s Hyde Park where the sun blazed all afternoon long and the games went on until the sun went down.

Before the trip down to London, the girls popped into Costco, raided the fridges and clearly bought enough food to feed the 5000 (or enough for 6 hungry softball finalists & their colleagues).

The girls got a quick selfie in before they drove the hefty refrigerated truck down the motorway & into the centre of London.
The charity team roped in the help of some of the other big and small Bluesteppers.

Here are the team all set & ready to go in their matching Bluestep t-shirts (looking good guys).

The sandwiches & crisps went down an absolute storm & despite how many we had, we’d been cleared out by the end of the last game.
It looks like the Bluestep selfie boards did the rounds of the park.

The sunset on Hyde Park as the games carried on through the evening.

As the final game of the day took place, tension was thick in the air and after all those long months of softball sweat, blood and tears, it all drilled down to those last few swings of the bat which would determine who the crowning winners of the 2016 league would be.

The British Heart Foundation Basemakers pulled through and reigned victorious of the London Softball Charity League games for 2016.

Throughout the games, we ran a social media competition and would award the team who posted the best content on Twitter with a shiny plaque after the finals. With their catalogue of epic pyramid photos & hilarious gifs, we named The Sloths as social media champions.

We were even given our very own handmade medal from the amazing kids from Action for Children.

So we want to say a massive thank you to the London Charity Softball League team for selecting us to sponsor such an amazing event, we had so much fun spending a summers afternoon in the park with all of the involved charities. Until next year LCSL.

Rio Olympics 2016 Infographic

Okay, no more puns…I promise. Seriously though, apps are taking the marketing world by storm. With most big name brands already well established on the app download chart, more and more independent and SME businesses are following suit.

It’s 2016, so get involved. Show your customers you’re ahead of the game. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss out on the biggest mobile trend of the decade:

Visibility

Apps are a constant reminder of your brand, constantly visible on a mobile screen. Think about how many times you look at your phone every day. Your customers are doing the same. Get your logo on their home screen.

Speed 

Mobile apps make for a much faster way to engage with your services as opposed to traditional web browsing. Offer booking or purchasing facilities (depending on the nature of your business) making it quicker and easier for customers to connect with you.

Cost effective 

Think of all the letters, leaflets, posters and SMS messages you could save money on, just by installing notifications on your app. Notifications can communicate discount codes, events, reminders and news directly to the people you want to see them.

No more spam! 

No more getting stuck in customers’ spam folders or incessantly checking your open rate on direct mail and mailchimps. Interaction is easy and seamless.

Stand out 

Stand out against your competitors by showing you’re ahead of the game and well versed in modern technology and consumer wants and needs.

Loyalty 

Customised rewards and discounts, first hand communication, loyalty schemes and regular contact are just some of the ways you can build a flawless customer loyalty program into your app.

Fancy getting ahead of the game? Bluestep can help! We offer full design and development services for apps.

Get in touch and let’s talk about how an app can help you.

Don’t panic – our lovely, scenic Northamptonshire office will still be here, but following recent expansion of the company and our evolving client base, we noticed a need for a London presence.

Bluestep will be branching out with a London premise, allowing us to recruit some fabulous new people and making it easier for our London based clients to meet up for coffee, lunch, cake or of course, to discuss exciting projects! Anyone who has worked with Bluestep knows we do whatever it takes to suit our clients’ needs and be as available and efficient as possible – it’s also a big plus that we’re going to be located in the middle of London business hot spot, Bank.

Our new space will be our third UK premises, which is pretty exciting considering Bluestep began at kitchen table (but let’s save that for another blog article!).

We’re so excited at how quickly things are growing and moving at Bluestep and the exciting new clients we are working with. This is a sure sign of big things yet to come.

We’ll be in from 1st Oct so if you fancy meeting up for cake and catch up get in touch and we’ll be happy to give you the grand tour!

Joining us fresh faced from the University of Northampton, Andrew is another local talent we’ve managed to snap up for a 3 month internship. We’re excited to see what more Andrew has to offer here, since his first week has been a real chance for him to show off his talents and skills after gaining his degree in BA Graphic Communication.

Bluestep regularly keeps contact with the University on Northampton and we’re always head hunting for raw talent – Andrew fits the bill perfectly which is why we approached him following the University’s degree show.

Andrew was drawn to Bluestep by the company ethos; the enthusiastic team and the fact that the work we produce can go on to have such an impact on individuals and establishments across the country.

A man of many talents, Andrew is a keen cook and actually chose graphic design over cooking as his specialism! Also an avid football fan, he is season ticket holder at Northampton Town where he regularly supports his local team. He does however, make sure he finds the time to dedicate to his friends and family – be that enjoying a BBQ, watching films or catching up over a drink.
We think Andrew is fitting in just nicely and we can’t wait to see what more he has to offer.

Last week saw the 2016 D&AD New Blood Festival and our design team put down their pencils for the day to soak up all things creative.

The event took place at The Truman Brewery in Shoreditch and hosted 150 speakers over four stages, exhibited some of the world’s best advertising and design and held training sessions and workshops for all visitors. The New Blood section saw some of the UK’s best raw talent showcase their work.

The guys all came back to the office sporting their own personalised Adobe t-shirts created by the team on the Adobe stand. The process started with calligrapher writing up your choice of wording using an Adobe stock which was then uploaded in Photoshop and customised to suit personal tastes with colours and imagery.

We also loved the D&AD branding this year, which tied in beautifully with their tagline, ‘it all starts with a pencil.’
It was a fantastic opportunity for the Blue Step studio to nurture their creative spirits and gain a fresh perspective on current commercial creativity.

The day ended on an even higher note when they were lucky enough to catch the premier of the long awaited Design Disruptors.

If you haven’t caught wind of it yet, check it out!