2018 marks our tenth year of Bright Red Publishing and we are so thrilled to be recognised as a company that produces high quality, effective Study Guides with Scottish students and teachers at the heart of everything we do. The last ten years have been challenging amidst many qualifications changes but also incredibly rewarding and we are delighted to have sold our one millionth book this year! Of course, none of this would be possible without our loyal authors and suppliers, as well as the incredible support of parents, teachers and students. Although the Bright Red team itself is made up of six people, we have a network of people who help us get our books to press and out into the world – from our wonderful authors, to printers, typesetters, reviewers, booksellers and so on.
With this is mind, we held a celebration a month ago today to say thank you to those who have been with us from the beginning and to those who have worked with us during the last ten years. As our office is based in Edinburgh, we celebrated in the City Art Gallery and enjoyed drinks and refreshments, supplied by the brilliant Fox & Co, where we often frequent for lunch. As an indie company ourselves, we try and support other independent companies as much as possible so it was great to be able to ask one of our favourite lunch spots to do the catering for this special occasion.
We had a pianist, Matthew Shiel, who played a mixture of classical music and some famous Scottish tunes throughout the evening much to the delight of our guests! There was also great excitement over our showstopper birthday cake, which could have easily rivalled any cake on The Great British Bake-Off. Our bright cake was supplied by Liggy’s Cake Company, which is based in Deanhaugh Street, Edinburgh. The cake looked entirely on brand thanks to Liggy’s incredible attention to detail – it had our distinctive jumping students printed on the front, our Digital Zone logo plus a range of other design features that have come to characterise Bright Red Study Guides. It was shaped to look like a 10th edition birthday book and had piping along the spine to reflect this. Our two directors, Alan and John, cut the cake to reveal a red velvet sponge under the decorative icing, and we can happily confirm that it tasted as good as it looked! It went down an absolute treat with our guests and we would highly recommend Liggy’s if you’re ever in the market for a celebration cake.
Towards the latter part of the evening, one of our directors took a look back at the last ten years to when the company first began, the years of curriculum change and the high points over the years, of which there have been many. From winning the IPG award twice, to developing new digital products and to establishing a reputation for producing accessible, thorough and effective Study Guides that students and teachers can depend on, Bright Red has enjoyed a great deal of success!
We had a slideshow of pictures, which captured many of these company highlights over the years as well as a number of events and conferences that we’ve attended. In addition, it had pictures of some of the lovely people who couldn’t be there at the celebration but helped shape Bright Red into the company it is today.
There was a great atmosphere on the night and a real sense of achievement. We were delighted to see many of our talented authors there and a number of our print reps, past interns, family and friends, who managed to come along to mark the occasion too! We received some very thoughtful messages from those who came and it was lovely to hear such positive feedback about Bright Red and the quality of products we produce. Looking back at our message book, these quotes really stood out:
- ‘Happy 10 years! I hope what’s to come is as inspiring as the amazing 3 weeks I spent in the Bright Red office.’
- ‘With all best wishes for the next ten years’
- ‘Many congratulations to all at Bright Red. It is a pleasure to work with you.’
As the night came to an end we gave out our birthday-themed goody bags. They contained an assortment of Bright Red items, including John’s homemade Bright Redcurrant Jam, a miniature bottle of Eden Mill Gin and a classic, Bright Red mug. Keep an eye on our social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) as we will be doing some giveaways in the run up to Christmas, which may well include our special, limited edition birthday mugs!
We would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone who came and to all of you who have supported us over the last ten years. We can’t wait to see what the next ten years will bring.
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