Christmas competition winners

A special thank you to everyone who entered our 2010 Christmas competition. We had some fabulous entries which made judging extremely difficult but enjoyable. In fact we spent some time debating the merits of composition, focus, quality, creativity, popularity and standout. But we have chosen three winners...

1st place - photograph number 115, Viktorija Vaisvilaite Skirutiene - child on sledge
Judges comments: Fantastic shot, excellent focus on child’s smiling face with other child in the background, crisp contrast, excellent black & white image, fun in the snow, wow we loved it

2nd place - photograph number 43, Ian Whitehead - Robin on icy twig
Judges comments: Best and superb wildlife shot, excellent colour saturation and composition, great use of focus as eye drawn to robin retaining  crispness of ice on branches

3rd place - photograph number 50, Alan Rossiter - Heh da, where’s me bike?
Judges comments: Well executed - captured the moment perfectly, good framing, appealing subject and good contrast with the shape standing out in the virgin snow, good use of black & white, excellent combination of landscape/close-up

iPad, Kindle & camera prizes will be sent out shortly.  Photographs are numbered according to their position on our Wall, where 419 photographs are entered (there are some additional entries in Links). We also wanted to mention the following entries which are highly recommended and popular:  

378  Rob Hawkins, 41  Kerry Shaw, 44  Dylan Walker, 69  Colm Henry, 77  Taklong Blurblur, 83  Ale Fletcher, 139  Martin Hudak, 149  Kerri Ogg, 191  Charles Chad Valentine, 196  Alex Oneofmanyalexs, 207  Wii Fii, 358  Conor Doherty, 372  Jack Hood

To celebrate the completion of the contest, we are collating entries and will post a montage of our giant Christmas card, personalised with your wonderful pictures next week.

Thank you again. Happy Christmas & New Year from all of us at Optimalprint. 

Credit where it’s due – to you & your friends

We're giving friends £10 to share in our new recommendation scheme. Customers can now earn £5 credit and give invited friends £5 off their first order - so everyone benefits.

We always aim to delight our customers with both the quality & value of our products as well as the simplicity and convenience of our online ordering.

We believe that if you are happy you will want to share your positive experiences and now you can earn £5 credit every time you recommend a friend or colleague. We want to thank you for helping us spread the word about Optimalprint.

So why not snap up our end of year deals on Christmas cards, calendars and our recently launched range of hard and soft cover photo books and share the good news.

http://www.optimalprint.co.uk/refer-friends

Stylish, quality, affordable photo books are now available

We've launched photo books, exciting times! We wanted to make our products stand out so we've combined brilliant customisable designs, premium quality and affordable prices. 

Photo books are a fantastic way to celebrate special occasions like weddings, holidays, christenings and birthdays. A perfect way to keep memories special and great as gifts for the family.

We are offering a choice of hard or soft cover photo books in three different sizes. And, like most things at Optimalprint, you can personalise by changing the background image, layout and page colour.

Dropping in photos is as easy as ever direct from your PC, flickr and Picasa. We recommend a minimum of 20 to get started but you can always use more as you can add extra pages, up to a maximum of 86.

Check out our website for details and don't miss the introductory 20% discount offer available from today.

http://www.optimalprint.co.uk/en-GB/choose/photobook

Sprucing up and simplifying our Facebook activity

We are making changes to our Facebook page so we can engage more with customers. We have made the page more visually appealing and interactive so I hope you like it.

Perhaps more importantly, we are moving our different Facebook country pages to one Facebook location to help us build a community which is truly European, like ourselves.

Our Facebook location is now simply http://www.facebook.com/Optimalprint

Our aim is to keep friends updated regularly with relevant and interesting information about products, ideas, offers and competitions.

We’d love you to follow or like us on Facebook and Twitter. And in doing so, you will help us keep you in touch and us in touch with our customers.

Photo competition now live – must-have gadgets up for grabs

We've launched a competition for people to send us their festive photos on our Facebook page. We have some brilliant prizes to give away including an iPad, camera or Kindle plus each winner will also receive printing worth up to £200.

The competition is easy to enter - simply post your favourite photos on our Facebook wall.

So while you are making your Christmas cards or calendars don't forget to send us some of your fabulous photographs.

I can't wait to judge the entries.

http://www.optimalprint.co.uk/competition/christmas

Top five words to write in Xmas cards?

Merry Tweetmas from @optimalprint? What are you going to be writing this year? Should you combine modern with traditional in your Christmas cards?

Are you printing personalised cards, buying from the high street or sending electronic messages?

We're just curious. We're reviewing what cards our customers are buying to see what styles are popular in 2010.

The beauty of customising your own cards is you can do what you like. So if you want to keep Christmas for conveying festive wishes you can.

If you want to use Christmas cards as an opportunity to share information with customers or family you can drop in text such as social media, images and photos.

Ultimately it's all about personal choice. And there's lots of it at Optimalprint. Check out our extensive range of off-the-shelf and customisable Christmas card designs.

Going square – new card designs & styles launched

We listened to customer feedback which told us you wanted square cards. So now available, we have launched a fantastic selection of new Christmas card designs including over one hundred square styles.

We have our biggest ever choice of card designs available this year. Ordering only takes five minutes - it's easy to personalise your designs, simply drop in your own words and photos from your PC, Flickr and Picasa.

All cards are printed on quality paper and available to order in larger quantities. We will be promoting offers in the run up to Christmas on our website. But don't worry we're offering express delivery (three working days) for people in a hurry.

Last year we printed enough cards to fill the world's largest City square, Tiananmen in Beijing, China (440,000 square metres)!

Does using a portrait on your business card work?

Professional photographer John Cassidy thinks so. He uses his photograph on one side of his business card so people remember his face.

Have you ever attended events, collected a clutch of business cards and can't put a face to a card. With end of year networking events on the horizon it's a great time to revamp your business cards.

And to really stand out from the crowd try our new premium quality matt paper to give your business cards the ultimate professional look and feel.

With our easy online ordering you can make business cards in five minutes:

- choose one of our off-the-shelf designs or upload your own files

- insert your words and images and drop in a photo from your PC, Flickr or Picasa

- checkout - don't forget to add a coating or premium matt paper - and your design will be saved in an online account for easy repeat ordering

John's secret for a great portrait - good eye contact, cropping and look happy. Check out his website for more tips and inspiration www.johncassidyphoto.co.uk

Dawn Capital invests in Optimalprint

We're delighted to announce Dawn Capital has made a substantial investment in our company. This is an incredibly exciting time for myself and the Optimalprint team.

The capital will be used to expand our products and services for customers in Europe and globally. Check out our press room for more details and a copy of the release.

http://www.optimalprint.co.uk/en-GB/press/dawn-capital-investment

We will keep you informed of our plans, new products and service improvements on this blog, on Facebook and Twitter. So watch this space... there will be some great new initiatives happening over the coming months.

Optimalprint supports Latin American charity blog

When a young Swedish man named Patrik Appelquist contacted us, we were impressed by his ideas and ambitions. He is currently building a network of bloggers, companies and individuals who want to help street children in Latin America.

Patrik is growing his blog to support his project - or as he calls it, mi curazon or my heart. In January 2011 he is going to Latin America for one year, working in a children’s home. He will be helping to give disadvantaged children a better start in life and a brighter future. You
will be able to follow his experiences on his blog and see pictures and videos.

By supporting his blog with gifts, products or other ideas you can also make a difference. Find our more at www.gatubarn.nu or http://www.facebook.com/Gatubarn.nu.

We support Patrik in his charitable work and wish him well.