Business, Customers stories
#helloprinted: “Print has made us more professional”

We take passion very seriously and believe that you should always pursue whatever it is you are fearlessly passionate about. What keeps our team moving is talking with our customers about their obsessions and how they follow their dreams. This week we are getting inspiration from UK Astronomy, a charity started by a husband and wife, working together to bring the stars to the people. Let’s see their story:

Tell us a bit about your cause.
My husband has always been interested in stars, planets and all that stuff, so I bought him a telescope about 5 years ago and he was absolutely hooked. He ran outside and looked up constantly and saw Jupiter and his formings and came running at 2 am to tell me about what he had seen. I was naturally less excited about all of this at 2 am, so I told him to set up a Facebook group for him and his friends.
Then he decided he wanted to see more so he bought a bigger scope. At one point he started doing talks and it just grew from there. What started as a facebook group with 30 of our friends developed into this cause where we have over 4000 members and he travels all around Bedfordshire.
He is teaching schools, community groups and anyone that would listen with the aim being that we are bringing the skies to people, because not everyone can afford a scope and not everybody knows what’s out there.
What’s your most important aim currently?
At the moment, the most important aim is to try and get to as many people as possible. We mainly aimed at amateurs and families with children, so we want to reach as many of those as possible, we are currently fundraising for a mobile observatory to allow us to reach more people.
How do you use print as part of your marketing?
We use quite a lot of print, we produced roller banners, roller banners for our events, we’ve got business cards, leaflets, which we use as activity sheets, we have made posters with you, we use quite a lot of print.

Which print material would you say is the most effective and you get the most use out of?
The roller banners, they have been at every event we have done, everybody takes pictures next to them and they get out our name. We have definitely used and reused them.
Can you tell me more about your events?
Last year we did over 45 events, which vary in program. We do educational talks, we do group stargazing, we have an inflatable solar system, so we get kids to hold up a planet, we do plenty of things and try to keep it interesting.
How would you describe the impact that print has had?
I would say it has made us a lot more professional, it has helped us reach a lot more people, so people have something to take away from our events, because we print out our activity sheets, for people to take away from our events.
What is your number one tip for successful prints for charities?
Make it bright and colourful – we try and make it look like a movie poster – to get people engaged. Honestly another tip would be to keep it simple, not too wordy and mostly image led.
Why did you choose Helloprint as your supplier?
Friends have told us about you. We used you the first time, because we heard that you offer really good value for service. Later on, we found out your customer service is amazing, very quick to respond. As a charity, quality print for a good price is very important for us, so that’s why we chose you.

What’s something funny that has happened during one of your events?
At our last Christmas event we got the children to sing along with my husband to the 12 sights of Christmas. If you would like to see this delight, check it out here.
One time we were in the middle of a field, doing an event, with no access to the bathroom. My husband wanted to go to the toilet, and as he was hiding behind a tree, the entire sky lit up. What had happened is that a comet was falling. Unfortunately when it flew, it lit up absolutely everything.
What does the future hold for UK Astronomy?
At the moment we are fundraising for an inflatable planetarium, which would help us on the nights when our skies get cloudy!