August 18, 2017
We really pondered how best to approach this blog post. I mean, we know that we design and make the best personalised prints in the UK (probably the galaxy actually) but we’ve got that proper British humility going on and don’t normally love blowing our own trumpet. But there’s also that knowledge that unless we tell you all about it, how will you know?
And, although we were one of the first companies in the UK to offer such a wide range of awesome personalised prints, lots of others have sprung up in the meantime and we’ve noticed quite a few differences in the way we go about this business of making something beautiful for you. So, trumpets at the ready – because we think you deserve to know all about it.
Betsy Benn's Original Designs
All of the prints on our website have been designed just by us and just for us. We have our own website (you’re on it now!) and storefronts on notonthehighstreet.com, Etsy, Hard to Find in Australia and a small selection on Houzz and that is it! So if you happen to have seen something similar on another website and it doesn’t have a Betsy Benn tagline underneath, then it’s not one of our designs and not an original.
We’re kind of flattered to have seen lots of prints that are similar to ours pop up over the years. Kind of! It reminds us that we created something beautiful and appealing and we’re proud to be style originators, not followers. And we know our totally lovely customers appreciate that too. Thank you for supporting us – it means a lot!
Here's our original Playlist Cassette Print, one of the top sellers on our site. It won best new product on notonthehighstreet.com
Real Actual Designers
Wow, this one took us by surprise. There are a few places out there where you can order a "personalised print" but an actual person hasn't designed it for you, it's all been configured by some software. Right here and now we’d like to state that every single one of the 50,000 plus prints that we have created over the years, and all the ones we'll ever create, have been individually worked on by a talented and qualified graphic designer. Not only a brilliant and skilled person in their own rights, but a designer that has then been extensively trained in the Betsy Benn house style so that all our prints over the years will have a cohesive look and feel. Your print will not be designed by a software algorithm that has about as much finesse as a sledge hammer would have on a soft boiled egg.
Yes, an algorithm has the benefit of letting you see an “instant preview” of your print on line, but the limitations are high! If you want to move something around, or make one word a different colour, or give one thing more importance or less, well the algorithm just can’t deal with it. It’s not programmed to. And should you accidentally make a typo or notice something after you have paid that is not quite right, then no matter how quickly you let the algorithm know about this error, it can't be changed, because even the printing process is automated.
The whole thing just sounds a bit, odd, to us. Surely, the reason you are shopping for a personalised print is because you want something that you can have complete input to and make it really meaningful for the recipient. So why would you settle for something that only seems to do half the job?
Luckily, our human designers can do ANYTHING for you (well – for your print anyway!) And we’re really happy to just chat on the phone about it, or try a couple of different variations to see what works best.
So instead of an “instant preview”, we prefer to email you a proof of our more bespoke prints so you can see exactly how they will look and then make any of the changes that you'd like. Only once you've signed it off do we print and post. We like to think of it as the difference between a supermarket jar of instant coffee and a slow-roasted speciality java made by the barista that knows you at your favourite boutique deli! Essentially, both still qualify as coffee, but we know which one we’d prefer!
Take for example our iconic destination bus blind prints and canvases. Our designers work with you to create exactly the emphasis you want for each special destination. The variation in font sizes between lines and even on each line provides visual interest and a clue as to the importance of each place.
Beautiful Materials
Once you’ve spent time and energy creating a beautiful and personal artwork with one of our designers, you’ll want to have that print made on some beautiful archive quality paper or canvas with some amazingly vibrant inks that won’t fade. And if you want your print framed, then you’d like some solid wood frames – trust us you do (no composite MDF thank you – leave that to Ikea), made by a professional and finished ready to hang. Sound good? Well that’s our standard level of service for every print we make.
We’re always keeping on eye on developments in print technology too and have expanded our range of prints to include wooden and metallic bases on which to create your unique artwork. Our metallic prints are exclusive to us, engraved in stunning gold, silver, copper or bronze substrates and not just foiled.
Exceptional Customer Service
Six years ago we won our first ever award and it's probably the one we cherish the most. The award was for Best Customer Service and it set the bar high from the outset. I hope it's clear that everything we do, from the designs to how we proof to the materials we use, the whole process in fact, has been designed with customer satisfaction in mind.
Need something really quickly? Let us know and if we can accommodate it, we will. Need a duplicate print because the dog thought that postal tube was the 21st Century version of a stick? We keep all our artwork files in a large archive and can reprint and resend most prints for a nominal fee. Need to create something identical to the photographed sample, slightly different, completely different, we're happy to chat about anything and everything.
We want to be proud of everything we send out and we want our customers to absolutely love what they receive, and be the most excited to give a Betsy Benn original as a gift to someone they love. And we want to hear about all those exciting "they loved it" moments. We even set up a little hashtag on Instagram where you can share your Betsy joy at #loveBetsyBenn. More importantly, we also want to hear about any not so lovely moments. Rare as they are, they do happen - the one downfall of using humans instead of algorithms to do everything - but we will do everything in our power to make it better.
The Betsy Benn Difference
So, that's a short summary of how we know we are different (*whispers* better) from the hundreds of other print designers and makers out there. There are lots of other, quirkier ways too. But the fact that we sing Christmas songs whilst wearing fluffy reindeer antlers and elf ears from about mid-September (and actually really like it) might not be quite so relevant. Hopefully, you've liked what you've seen and are ready to give us a try. If you've any more questions, drop us an email on betsy@betsybenn.co.uk or give us a call on 01242 570731. Let's make something gorgeous together!
July 28, 2017
So you need ideas for a wedding gift for your husband? For him? For that certain gentleman with impeccable taste who already chose you to spend the rest of his life with? I’m pretty sure we can help with this.
It’s often said men can be tricky to buy for even in the most everyday of shopping experiences, but this isn’t just any man. This is the main man, the love of your life and he needs something stunning and beautiful and full of love and something that he will love and find stunning. Well, luckily for you, you haven’t popped by to just any store. This is the main store, the store that can bring you something stunning and beautiful that we just know your husband will love. Why? Because you are going to choose it for him, and we already know you have exquisite taste because you chose him to spend the rest of your life with.
This isn’t going to be difficult AT ALL. This is a brilliant opportunity to get a bespoke artwork on your walls that suits his more masculine tastes, but also hits all the right buttons for you because they are so stylish. And of course, exceptionally meaningful without being twee.
Let’s begin with a few questions:
Where Did You Meet?
It’s that age old question, and one you’re going to be asked quite a bit, pretty much for the rest of your life by every new friend! You’ll refine the story with each telling, but the one thing that won’t ever change is the geographical location of where you first laid eyes upon each other.
Maybe it was at University and the campus and halls hold some great memories for you both. Perhaps it was at a train station after first emailing and calling each other for what felt like ages before finally agreeing to meet.
Wherever your story began, our beautiful map prints are perfect to remember that momentous location. A personalised wedding gift that he is bound to adore and remind him of the moment he fell in love. We have both printed and metallic maps, but generally the metallic maps are the ones that draw the most admiring looks and gasps of “that’s amazing, how do you make that!?”
Our metallic maps are not simply foiled onto card stock like many shiny prints these days. We actually engrave them with our high precision laser into a metallic surface that is either gold, silver, copper or bronze. We take out all the street and place names so we’re left with a network of just roads, rivers and train lines. Each feature of the map has a slightly different level of engraving, so if a road goes over a river, you’ll see that, giving it a textured depth that flat foiling can’t achieve.
Incidentally, if the place you met was at his mate Dave’s house, or just not very inspiring, these map prints also work brilliantly for the location of the proposal, wedding or honeymoon!
What’s Your Special Song?
We all have at least one special song with our other half that reminds us of them. Maybe you walked into a room singing it and he was mesmerised “who is that girl!” Or it could have been THE love song of the year that you started dating. This might even be the song that you are going to walk down the aisle to, or share your first dance to. So now you have the song in your head, what’s the best line? Is it a line from the chorus (all you need is love!) or a snippet from the second verse maybe. It will probably relate to your romance in some way or another, so is the perfect snippet for our Song Lyrics Personalised Print. A simple design featuring a coloured circle, which is very reminiscent of a vinyl record when in black, and a block font text for your choice of song lyrics. The emotion comes through from your chosen words and the design appeals to all.
Or maybe you have more than one special song and couldn’t possibly just choose one to characterise your relationship. You need a whole playlist!
We have you covered here too and these are especially popular as both wedding and first anniversary gifts for men. The simple black and white nature of the design and our textured, aged cassette tape images go extremely well together. And with 16 tapes to personalise you can create a print that captures the soundtrack of your very own RomCom.
Has It Been a Bit of a Journey?
Some of the best stories have had many twists and turns and seen lots of locations before reaching that happy place of finally being together! It’s okay. These are the stories that will make your friends laugh and you’ll be telling your grandchildren one day (okay, maybe not ALL the details for the little ones!) For the story of your romance, the personalised destination bus blind is perfect.
Based on the original London Transport Routemaster bus blinds, these classic prints have longevity and style written all over them. There are sixteen lines for you to personalise with any of the relevant places, memories, holiday locations, streets you have lived, times you had to spend apart, favourite restaurants, people’s names – anything really. Each line becomes a “stop” or destination in the bus journey of your adventures together! We have lots of examples on our website for inspiration.
These are excellent wedding (and anniversary) gifts for the men folk in our lives. All the destination prints are available in a range of colours, but classic black and charcoal are by far the most popular. And in one smooth hit, they are both slightly retro with a cool London Underground vibe (we use the original Johnston font designed specifically for London Transport) but also extremely current with clean unfussy lines and tightly justified text. Your partner will love it for both the design aesthetics, but also for the sentiment behind each line and the thought you have put into capturing your story.
Does He Make You Laugh?
Humour is essential in a great marriage. What was the funniest thing he ever said to you? Or what was the thing he said that suddenly lit up your lightbulb and you realised this was it, forever? With our personalised quotation prints you can go for some offbeat humour and capture him at his best!
Designed as part of our bus blind range and using the same luscious fonts, these prints are presented in a landscape format. There’s a wide variety of background colours to choose from so you can pick a room in the house that it will sit best in before you order
I think our work here is done, but if you want to take a look at our whole collection, just in case there’s something even more splendid, then we have a whole host of prints that would make perfect gifts for him on your wedding day. And, no, even though YOU are the best thing he is getting on that day, you don’t get to use that as your gift!
Happy nuptials!
July 19, 2017
You’ve used that mode of transportation commonly known as a bus before right? Even if you are super-duper posh and normally get flown everywhere by your own troop of unicorns, you’ve caught a bus at least once. Even Her Majesty the Queen hopped on board the Cambridgeshire Guided Bus in 2013 – there’s photographic evidence and everything!
And just how did both Queenie and you know what bus to get (assuming you didn’t plan your route on citymapper). THE BUS TOLD YOU!! That little information window above the driver faithfully displayed its numerical classification and intended destination in off-white or yellow text on a black background. It might have said Brixton, Barking, Buckingham Palace or Betsy’s House (in my dreams) but you knew the end point of that fabulous vehicle. Which, when you stop to think about it, is pretty handy!
Destinations and stopping points have been displayed on buses since 1829. To put that in some historical context, President Jackson was trying to buy Texas from the Mexicans but they weren’t having any of it, Russia and the Ottoman Empire (get your history books out) were signing a peace treaty, but the Brits were putting our first Bobbies on the beat and sorting out properly informative public transportation signage!
The original buses (even the horse drawn ones) had a single place name on a plaque. By the 1930s, bus routes had become more complex and all the destinations were silk-screen printed on to paper strips that were then pasted on to rolls of linen up to 30ft long. Later still, bus blinds were screen printed directly on to rolls of man-made fabric that could be any length. If you want to see some of these first hand then I highly recommend a visit to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. They have some very fine examples of VERY long bus blinds hanging from the ceiling of their very beautiful building and you can even have a go in a tube simulator and pretend to be a train driver.
Side note: at the end of the article is a link where you can see the whole process of a modern destination bus blind being made. It’s fun, but don’t skip down there just yet!
But how did these functional items of signage move out of the buses and into our homes to become the ultimate statement piece of urban art?
Well, the love of vintage has a lot to do with it of course. We’ve always loved bringing unusual things into the homestead and breathing new life into them. This decade has brought us the apple crates as shelves, the bare Edison light bulbs in LED form (sometimes being held by resin mice and monkeys!) and mason jars as drinking glasses. With works of art on walls the vintage world has been our oyster. Anything from album covers to sheets of stamps to gig tickets to advertising posters has been co-opted into our homes. And why not? All the aforementioned usually have great graphic elements to them and are perfect for displaying!
So why bus blinds?
Destination bus blinds have been turning up in auction houses and antique markets for quite some time now. Bus routes change, or get decommissioned, or place names get updated, new stops get introduced or the blinds just get worn from being cranked around so many times that they get a second or third edition made!
What makes them so appealing owes a lot to the designs skills of calligrapher Edward Johnston and the eponymous font he created especially for London Transport. The brief was to create an easily read font that would tie all of the Underground signage together under one brand and make them distinct from advertisements. The font should also belong “unmistakably to the twentieth Century”
Amongst many characteristics, its perfect circle O, straight sided M, and diamond dots above the i and j make it instantly recognisable. Adopted across the whole of Transport for London and then later as the font for the GLA, the London Assembly and the directional signage for London 2012 Olympics, it seems no other font represents London quite so distinctively. This is maybe why bringing it into the home instantly evokes an urban out and about feel!
Many of the decommissioned bus blinds were chopped up (oh the inhumanity!) and individual destinations were framed and displayed, but it didn’t take long at all before whole length bus binds starting appearing on discerning walls in interiors magazines such as World of Interiors and Elle Decoration.
I guess this is where Betsy Benn came in. A full length original bus blind, as blissful as it is, had some peculiar combinations of destinations. This might work for you and is very authentic! But what if you could have every destination that had ever been important to just you and not the whole of your town?
What if your very own destination bus blind could start with where you grew up – maybe even as specific as the road you lived on. And then journeyed through the schools you went to, the parks and high streets that knew the teenage version of you. A personalised bus blind that traversed the holidays you loved and the places you discovered when you met and fell in love with that someone special? Could it even pick out restaurants and beaches and that one location and date where someone proposed spending the rest of their life with you and you accepted?
Well, lucky you! Because, since 2010 that is exactly what we have been creating. A full range of bespoke destination bus blinds to capture all of those amazing adventures and memories.
Our first creation was a metre and a half long canvas in homage to the original form and function of the destination roller blinds, and it sits in my home to this very day. Charting the path of the first 15 years spent with my husband, we took the best and the beautiful parts of our lives together and created the bus journey of our dreams! We were the first company in the UK to offer these amazing personalised works of art and they still hold a firm place in our hearts.
After the canvas option came the long thin destination print. Again this was unique in the UK and to us. The sizing allows us to capture 16-18 destinations and place names and is not a standard sized print like the A3 and A2 options. It’s very reminiscent of the bus blind shape and format and works so well.
This print graced the front of the Notonthehighstreet.com Valentines Gift Guide in 2011 and essentially propelled both us and the personalised bus blind into the limelight! It wasn’t until an article was published in the Independent in 2012 that we learned the bus blind print had been the TOP selling item across the whole site in 2011. It seemed that the concept and our interpretation of this design classic had really struck a chord with people.
As a company, we have very strict styling rules for every bus blind print or canvas that is ordered. Similar I guess to the rules that apply to the guys making the functional ones for the actual buses! Letter point sizes have rules, the spacing between letters (or kerning) have rules, where and when we take prefixes and suffixes and make them smaller (words like station or in dates the TH) have rules. It’s very much the first thing that all our graphic designers are taught when they join the company, and prints are not allowed to leave the building unless they are signed off by a style expert!
That way, we can ensure that each print is in our own unique style, but also is very recognisably inspired by the original Routemaster bus blinds.
More bus blinds followed and our range of personalised destination prints is now the most comprehensive and fabulous anywhere in the known universe (it’s in a blog post now so it must be true!) We have bus blinds for weddings and anniversaries, big birthdays, new babies, graduation and gap year gifts – all sorts! In fact, for any life story you can imagine, we can create the perfect destination style print.
And although they look beautiful in classic black, we can print them in any colour you would like to match your own personal tastes. More recently we have added gold, silver and bronze metallic prints in the same style. Perfect for wedding gifts and anniversaries! We even offer some in the most gorgeous Sapele wood that we could find!
And in case you were left in any doubt that these are simply the best custom prints in the whole wide world, here is a picture of Richard Curtis giving one to Dustin Hoffman after the filming of Esio Trot. Two of the nicest and most brilliant people anywhere in the universe, actually.
Silk-screen printing of a modern destination bus blind:
July 17, 2017
Your friends are getting married! Brilliant! And now the day is creeping slowly closer in the calendar and you need to get a gift. A fab gift, a wedding gift worthy of your fabulous friends.
The Betsy Benn take on wedding gifts for your mates is that you can go one of two ways:
We've got presents for the home and personalisable pieces that will become post-wedding talking points. There is no hard and fast rule on how much you should spend but there should be something here for individual and joint budgets big and small.
So here’s our round-up of the best prints to give and who they work for.
The Cool but Sentimental Urbanites
The fashion for art on walls has evolved into displaying statements of your life story like never before! And these two prints are classically simple, yet artistically beautiful enough to stand the test of time. The best part is that you don’t need to know all the intricate details of their story together, as these prints commemorate the date and place of the wedding – all information that you can get from the invitation. Personalisation at its most simple is quite often the best!
For the nostalgically modern, we recommend the Bus Blind Wedding Date Print. Reminiscent of a Routemaster bus blind it’s both retro and current – a quirk of a design that is truly classic. A simple way to show the date, time and place of the wedding as well as the couples names.
For those with a love for clean lines and possibly a Scandi interest in design and colours, we have the Personalised Coordinates Print. Simple blocks of colour and clean unfussy fonts show the coordinates of a special place with two additional lines of text. Maybe the date and place they met, but this works just as well with the wedding place and date.
The Music Lovers
Maybe your friendship group all used to go out to the same pubs and clubs together and had a bunch of tracks that would be guaranteed to get you all up and dancing! Or you know the songs that they love the most or could find out by asking the person organising the wedding music for a set list. However you do it, a personalised music print will be just the ticket to celebrate the happy union.
We have the Retro Cassette Playlist for up to 16 tracks from a playlist.
The single vinyl or cassette prints for that one special song, perhaps their first dance! Or a song lyrics quote print, to pick out a beautiful line in a special song that seems so fitting to their relationship.
The Travel Lovers
If the wedding itself is overseas then you can pretty much guarantee it will be near a coastline of some description. If the wedding isn’t, then the honeymoon probably is. A sure fire unique win of a gift can be found in our range of coastline products. From the beautifully simple Coastline Line Drawing, to the unique Wooden and Acrylic Coastline Clocks and Wall Hangings (see this blog post for more details) a coastal themed gift will be a gorgeous and heartfelt reminder of their big day. Further personalise with some text details for a truly meaningful gift.
For the city dwellers and honeymooners, how about one of our bespoke abstract maps. Available for literally any location in the world these designs take the humble map to a new level of artwork. And each can be personalised with any two lines of text such as the place name and maybe the date of the wedding.
With two finishes available, you can go classic with a printed version in a variety of palettes, or you can add a modern touch with our new metallic engraved maps which are simply sublime.
So with our range of beautiful personalised prints, you can find something completely bespoke for the happy couple and win "most loved gift".
June 07, 2017
Everyone has something to say about the Dad in their family– his amazing burger grilling skills – his slightly dodgy musical tastes – his love of travelling and of course his love for his kids.
Boy can they be infuriating to buy for though! Sometimes they are a bit guilty of the “when they want it they just buy it” syndrome, which is fantastic for that sense of achievement, but doesn’t help us when compiling a list of things we could surprise them with. Other times, they simply state “Oh I don’t want anything darling, your love is enough”. Yeah, right. We believe Mum when she says it too, but she still gets a little something on Mothers Day!
Or they’ve got to a certain experienced point in life where they want exactly what they want and anything else is nice, but not lovely. My husband is a prime example of this. He likes one particular coffee supplier in Scotland (The Bean Shop), dark chocolate but only REALLY GOOD dark chocolate, and just a small smattering of very clever American fiction writers. So we know awkward!
If you have a difficult to buy for Dad in your life, then your worries are over! We have the gift solutions you will need to tick all their funny shaped boxes.
For the Rockstar Dad
If your Dad likes his music then we have you covered. Our Personalised Cassette Playlist Print can be personalised with up to 16 of his favourite tracks and has a very cool retro flavour. So whether it’s his favourite driving playlist, or the songs he’s passed on to you that you love just as much now, this will have him rocking in approval.
Or if he has just one AMAZING song that he always hums along to, or can’t resist turning up on the radio in the car, then what about our song quote print? We took inspiration from some classic 80s rap, but you can have any song lyrics you choose. They look great in classic black, but if your Pops (see what I did there - pop music? Sorry!) prefers a splash of colour on the walls then we have a great range of background colours to choose from.
For the Explorer Dad
Is your Dad’s favourite book his passport? A good friend of ours quite often only knows what country her Dad is in from his Facebook status updates! If exploring and travelling are the thing that lights your Dad’s fire, then he’ll love our worldly gifts.
To capture memories of an amazing place that could be across the other side of the world, or just a few towns away, our amazing abstract map prints are big winners.
What can we tell you about these awesome personalised maps? Well, we have two versions for a start; a metallic map engraving in gold, copper or silver and a fun and fresh printed version in a selection of colour ways.
And you can choose whether you want your bespoke map to focus on a small, neighbourhood sized area, or zoom out to look at a larger city or conurbation. So if they have always lived and lived it up in one town, you can celebrate the geographical centre of his world.
For the Hero Dad
But if you really want to tug at the heart strings, we have something a little special up our sleeve. Our family silhouette prints are based on your own photographs of Dad and his mini. We put a thoroughly modern spin on the humble photographic snap and make a piece of modern art that will be loved for many a year. These are exceptional gifts for new Dads and Dads with youngsters - because quite simply the kids are super cute!
Have a look at the process with this photo to silhouette print transformation. We remove the distracting backgrounds and pick out just the two figures in contrasting colours. Sometimes there will be a small detail such as a hat or hair bow that folks want to include and we can do that too!
The result is a timeless print that will be loved for a lifetime (and conveniently hides the chocolate smeared face or the curse of the blink at shutter moment!)
So, you see, whoever your Dad is - we have him covered!
May 08, 2017
When is a clock not just a clock? When it’s also a beautiful piece of modern art and a hint at the part of your story that took place in a wonderful location.
Sometimes when we think of a new product, we can turn it around pretty darn quickly. You all know that personalised prints are our core and the beauty of that is that we always have the raw materials to hand; super design skills and fine art paper!
So when we developed our coastline clocks (which use no paper at all - gasp) we had to start at the very beginning and explore all sorts of design ideas, investigate beautiful materials to work with and source the very nicest components.
Let’s start with the design. There’s something quite Dali-esque about our new clocks, with those undulating curves that time itself has carved away from our coastlines. We faithfully recreate all those inlets and bays to capture an important coastal location. It could be the beautiful beaches that you visited on your honeymoon, or the familiar seaside town you had fish and chips at with your family as a kid. Whichever stretch of coastline you like, we can recreate it for you.
Then we started to investigate all the beautiful woods that exist out there. Oh my! I can tell you I spent ages pawing over all the different colours and veneers and textures and smells – yes of course smells! With woods like Eucalyptus, Cedar and Pine the aromas in the studio were just divine.
For our coastline clock bases we use veneers over an MDF core for reasons of stability and practicality. You just cannot buy sheets of thin wood in a solid wood, for one main reason, they warp like crazy! So if you wanted an actual Dali clock, then with solid wood you’d have one pretty quickly! So, completely solid wood is just not an option. This is not bad news at all, quite the contrary.
For a start, with veneers you only use a thin slice of the wood, around 2mm. So that one beautiful tree is used extremely economically and responsibly. Our wood suppliers understand this very well and we were super impressed with their excellent environmental values.
Once we had chosen a selection of amazing wood types, we then had to see how well each one engraved. As all trees have different properties, they all engrave slightly differently. We had to be able to achieve something that was legible and a pleasing colour. For this part of the process we use our super funky Trotec 300 laser engraver, creating a permanent mark in the wood. We had to turn down some gorgeous varieties of wood just because of the way the engraving came out, but that still left us with a solid range of 6 utterly perfect woods.
Now, onto the acrylic detailing. You would be forgiven for thinking that acrylic is acrylic and there isn’t much to say about it. And when it comes to acrylic that you can cut on our hero of a laser cutter, that’s mostly true. But guess what? We found something sleeker, smoother, and altogether sexier. It doesn’t scratch like the standard acrylic is prone to, and the colours, oh the colours, be still my beating heart! Safe to say we fell in love with it a little more than is strictly “normal”. And the juxtaposition of that smooth man made surface against the grainy patination of the natural wood was exactly the contrast we were after.
Form was now well and truly taken care of. Now we started to look at function. And I’m not suggesting that was the right order to go about it, but what can I say, we’re artists first and foremost.
Would a clock that depicted a coastline make a ticking noise? Well, possibly. We’ve already talked about the very fact that our physical coastlines are carved by the ravages of time and tide, and that certainly isn’t a quiet event. But when we looked at why you would want to recall a coastline, at the events that become a part of your story there, we concluded that ultimately coastlines are wistful and dreamlike. Magical things happen there like engagements, weddings (dare we say conceptions?) and of course the everyday magic of just having fun with loved ones. Peaceful things happen there like solitary walks in and out of the surf, meditative stone tower building, dozing in the sun with a paperback. None of these things said loud, annoying ticking.
Therefore we selected clock mechanisms with no ticking noise, rather a smooth constant rolling around of the second hand reminiscent of gentle rolling waves.
All in all, we’re delighted with the results. I hope you will be too.
To buy our new coastline clock, please click here. And the best news is it's on an introductory offer until the end of May = £60 instead of the normal £70.
December 03, 2014
Since the very first days of Betsy Benn way back in the cold and snowy winter of 2010 (nearly five years ago now!!) I've been creating and designing more and more lovely things and we've kept on growing and getting busier every year. I've been extremely fortunate that you, my lovely and incredibly clever customers, like what we do and keep returning and that some of you must tell your friends as well! Our very own "story of us" hasn't really changed very much in those five years. We've moved offices (twice) as we've got bigger, we have more Betsy's who help me design and create and make the beautiful prints and gifts we sell, and we eat more brownies and slurp more hot chocolate as a result. But the essence of what Betsy Benn is and does hasn't really changed, and I think that's a good thing. If you order a personalised print from us at Betsy Benn, we don't wave a magic wand. We don't have a whizzy thingamajig that "designs" your print as you type your life and memories into the computer screen that then gets automatically printed and posted without anyone looking at it. We have something that we think is more important, and that something makes your print or gift special to us as well. We have our lovely people who work here at Betsy Benn. Our personalised prints and gifts are created the same way we've always done them (just with more Betsy's!). Each personalised order is received and a designer makes a decision about what looks and fits best. Simples! This means that when something leaves here on its way to you we know it's been created with your approval and our design and material quality.
November 13, 2014
It seems that you, our wonderful customers, are being incredibly well organised this year as things are getting noticeably festive at Betsy Benn towers. In anticipation for the festive period, when our team of Betsy Benn elves need ultimate sustinance, we've already carried out random checks on those refreshment points that keep us fed and watered during the run up to Christmas.
There are some lovely establishments in Cheltenham - so in the interests of science we have tried to taste test as many staple foods and beverages as possible. This of course really means that Hotel Chocolat, Huffkins, The Tavern, Costa@Waterstones and the Star Bistro at Pepper Crescent have been scrutinised thoroughly and all have passed the Betsy Benn taste and nutrition test for chocolate content, perfectly moist buns, ease of calorie inhalation and general scrumminess. As difficult as this has been, we feel we have had to undertake this rigorous testing on your behalf! Without these lovely establishments, we may never get through to Christmas....
Which brings me to my original intention in writing this humble post. Our Personalised Christmas wooden tag decorations as seen at our partners notonthehighstreet.com are literally flying out of the door (as if by Christmas elf magic). We think they are beautiful and will not just make great additions to your presents, but can then be hung from the tree and kept as keepsakes. They are the perfect gift to add to your personalised Christmas presents.
Made from utterly gorgeous, totally sustainable bamboo, we've three types of personalised tag for you to choose from:
October 24, 2014
So for about a year now we have been thinking about the nature of some of our personalised prints. They can be very detailed and not particularly easy to photograph as a whole piece. And the best part of each design is the story behind it. The amount of thought and work that our customers put into the content is quite astounding. So we really wanted to capture some of that emotion, with the aim of having some lovely videos that prospective customers could watch so that they had a better understanding of what is achievable.
Today we filmed Gordon Hall and Helen Redfern, along with their lovely designs, and are now in full on edit mode. Once the films are ready we'll let you know.
We have quite the variety of personalised prints, we'll give you a brief catch up on them below - don't worry, we won't ramble on.
Bus Blind Prints - great for capturing particular places
Coastal Prints - for the coastal lovers, of course!
Iconic city prints - for the city lovers who can't get enough of cities and their busy nature
Travel prints - born for the travel lovers who NEED to capture their travels and memories, or have at least some type of photographic evidence.
While we wait for the video to be produced, browse our range of prints today.
March 19, 2014
It would be the hugest understatement in the world to say we aren't just a little excited and nervous at the moment!!!! Not only are we approaching our fourth birthday but this Thursday evening we will find out whether we have won the highly prestigious title of Business of the Year in the Gloucestershire Women In Business Awards. We'd like to thank the sponsors of these incredible awards, Grundon, EDF Energy, HSBC Commercial Banking and Circle2Success for shortlisting us from all of the incredible businesses in Gloucestershire that entered.
And we'd like to wish our fellow finalists good luck, HRML, (Heather Resource Management Ltd) from Twigworth - who gave us our first valuable insight into the world of HR when we took on our very first employee - and Orange Tree Toys who make the best and brightest wooden toys for kids; our own bear was obsessed with his Orange Tree push along stripy Lion. Our fingers and toes are very much crossed and whether we win or not we're proud as punch and there may well be some special offers to help us celebrate or help us commiserate so stay tuned! Gloucestershire Women In Business Awards
February 05, 2014
A beautifuly typographic card for marvellous Mums and their equally marvellous children!Choose to send this card direct to your recipient to save time or postage by selecting the 'send direct to recipient' option. Let us know your personalised message for the inside and we'll hand write it for you. Cards will be sent to the delivery address you enter at checkout. If you are sending direct to your recipient, please ensure that the delivery address...
February 03, 2014
We're proud to introduce our musicality MP3 mug that we've designed. It's a great mug perfect for music lovers as it features MP3 and Ipod prints all around. It even works a treat for homeware gifts - you know those are extremely difficult to buy for? Why not jazz up their mug collection a little bit? It's certainly something different and for a low cost of £10.00, you can't really go wrong.
You can buy the musicality design mug here, we provide several delivery options so if you're needing it in a rush, don't worry we've got your back.
Please don't hesitate to browse our full range of personalised gifts for music lovers - keep this on the down low, but we're quite proud of our selection.