From launching a destination website for a luxury Caribbean island to showcasing the breadth of Britain’s coffee shops in a series of Indy Coffee Guides, our 20th year as a design and publishing house has been a busy one.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the projects we’ve been working on during 2023.
Exploring the world of luxury travel with The MOKO Collection on Moskito
It’s not every day the team get to travel to what is probably the world’s most exclusive island resort, but that’s exactly what Jo and Nick did as part of a fact-finding mission before kicking off the job of rebranding and producing a website for a collection of exclusive properties on Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands.
The pair immersed themselves in the world of luxury travel as part of an exciting new project to create a holiday rental experience unlike any other for a collection of US entrepreneurs, including Michael and Xochi Birch, Naveen Jain, Paul Salem and Mike Krupka. Their homes-from-home The Oasis, The Village, The Point and Cape Stout form the core of The MOKO Collection where groups of friends and family can gather at estates with multi-million dollar sound systems, DJ booths that rise from beneath the ground, waterslides and astonishing pools and watersports.
Each estate’s design is a representation of the personality of its owner and their family, and we represented this in the design of the branding, copywriting and website. We’ve also created in-room materials for the concept, as well as stationery, signage and merch – and there’s lots more to come.
Read more about The MOKO Collection and view the website.
Taking Food Magazine in a bold new direction
We’ve championed the South West’s dynamic food and drink scene for 20 years through Food Magazine – the UK’s first local food magazine and the South West’s favourite bible for discerning foodies who are as interested in the provenance of what they eat as they are in the best places to dine.
Now, 200 issues later, Food Magazine is evolving into Food Lifestyle to feed the needs of consumers in a new era. The new quarterly publication and multi‑platform experience will provide locals and visitors to the South West with the low‑down on the best places to eat, stay, shop, visit and experience during each season.
The print publication will be complemented by a new incarnation of the Food website, which will provide town and area guides, curated weekends away, day‑trip ideas, the best restaurants, special places to stay, and quality retail and lifestyle experiences, organised by location as well as genre. All will have great food, style and hospitality at their heart.
The first issue of Food Lifestyle will drop in April 2024. Subscribe online
Going nationwide with the Indy Coffee Guide
For the past decade we’ve produced the Independent Coffee Guides, helping bean geeks and brew freaks find the best speciality coffee roasters and cafes across the UK.
The Indy Coffee Guide portfolio includes guides for England: The North, Midlands and East; England: The South, South West and South East; Scotland; and this year we produced, for the first time, a guide just for Wales. We’ve also published two editions of the Indy Cafe Cookbook, showcasing recipes from the UK’s hero speciality cafes and roasteries.
The only thing missing in our coffee portfolio has been a guide to the London, so we’re delighted to announce that we’ll be launching the Indy Coffee Guide to London in August 2024. The new London guide will reveal to locals and tourists exactly where to find the best speciality coffee shops, cafes and roasteries. The kind of places where you can natter with the owner as they prepare your superlative flat white made from top-notch speciality coffee, pop into a roastery shop to pick up fresh single-origin beans, or tuck into hot‑from‑the‑oven pastries served by the artisans who crafted them.
Visit the Indy Coffee Guide website and get your guides.
Curating unique experiences for The Collective at Woolsery
The quiet village of Woolsery in North Devon is undergoing a bold reinvention thanks to The Collective, which comprises award-winning dining pub The Farmer Arms, a gourmet fish and chip shop, a traditional corner shop and post office, a 150-acre farm, and a reimagined Georgian manor house.
The Collective is the creation of tech entrepreneurs Michael and Xochi Birch who commissioned Salt Media to create a new brand and website that would take people on a voyage of discovery, uncovering stories of the buildings, people, land, food and farming techniques behind the project.
Approaching the project as a creative publishing and engagement venture, the Salt team created a new brand, bespoke illustrations and a tonne of original content that is being published through web, social and e-newsletter platforms to reach out to and engage with customers.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve been fine-tuning the website and improving its SEO, ensuring more people in more places can see what this quirky and aspirational North Devon destination has to offer.
View The Collective at Woolsery website
A new editor for the Trencherman’s Guide
Photo by Guy Harrop
The Trencherman’s Guide is a carefully curated guide to the very best places to eat and stay in the South West. Rick Stein calls it ‘A guide with teeth’ and it includes exquisite establishments from casual dining pubs to Michelin-starred restaurants, It’s 31-years-old this year and we’ve been its proud publishers since 2009, working alongside Trencherman’s chairman and leading chef Michael Caines MBE to take this much-revered annual dining guide to the next level.
This year, we used the fabulous Trencherman’s Awards evening at Salcome Harbour Hotel, which was hosted by Mark Hix and William Sitwell, to announce the guide’s new editor Abi Manning. Abi has been part of the guide’s editorial team since 2017 (she’s pictured above with chefs at the launch of the 31st guide at Ugly Butterfly in St Ives) and is injecting fresh ideas into the guide including overseeing the launch of its new social content, a website refresh in 2024 and plans for the Trencherman’s Awards 2024 at Bovey Castle which is going to be the hospitality event of the year.
Read our interview with Abi
Putting St Austell at the heart of the community
We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be publishing a new print magazine for Cornwall’s St Austell Brewery in 2024. The brewery was founded in 1851 and since then the company has grown to become one of the South West’s leading beer makers, having acquired Bath Ales. Alongside the brewery, St Austell also has over 180 pubs and places to stay across the region.
‘The Local’ will be a high-quality print magazine, promoting St Austell’s pubs and accommodation, the latest beers and brewing techniques, as well as things to see and do across the South West. Watch this space for more information in the new year!
More 2023 projects
2023 also saw us hosting a lovely Food Reader Awards event at Nancarrow Farm in Cornwall which was one of the best yet. We also produced a series of exciting bi-monthly magazines and an annual yearbook for the Army Cadets, created a second journal in the Net Zero series for environmental consultancy Blue Marble, published bi-monthly magazines for the British Veterinary Nursing Association, and producing Membership Magazine for this year’s MemX.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog post and are looking for a creative publishing, design and content team to realise your marketing ambitions in 2024, we’d love to hear from you.
Give us a call on 01271 859299 or drop us an email
