Warning: Undefined variable $has_ut in /home/godispla/public_html/rapind.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/seo-wordpress/seo-metabox-class.php on line 308
Categories
2016 Blogs

Why Attending Wedding Exhibitions is Still a Great Way to Enhance your Wedding

Wedding fairs can begin to feel a bit outdated in the age of the internet where you can find a whole host of vendors online. They’ve gotten quite a bad reputation in recent years for essentially being a bunch of salespeople ramming samples down your throat. For couples who are just starting to plan out their big day, heading to an exhibition hall and being caught up in a whirlwind of leaflets and sales gusto is hardly going to calm those nerves. This is not to say that they are not worth attending however, but it can be important to approach them with a level head and a goal for what you would like to get out of the wedding fair.

Before blindly stepping in to the first exhibition nearby, do your research and find a wedding fair which fits with your aspirations for your wedding. There is a ridiculous amount of fairs out there from boutique wedding fairs, quirky wedding fairs, luxury wedding fairs, budget wedding fairs and many more. They are located all across the country, so before signing up for 10 to attend in the next few months, try and pick out a few which you feel that you will be able to find value in. It’s also worth noting the size of the exhibition you are looking at. The quantity of vendors is never indicative of quality, in fact, large exhibitions often feature national companies who are more focused on signing up as many clients as possible.

This is why local wedding fairs can be treasure troves for delightful vendors who share in your passion for the wedding. Attending an exhibition is more about looking for inspiration, what flavour cake to have, the type of flower to display on the tables or whether your DJ has the ‘cha cha slide’ in his playlist, seriously, stop it. If a vendor literally jumps on you, cramming leaflets in your hand while reeling off the same spew you overheard just a minute ago, it’s quite probable that their goal is the money in your pocket, not making your wedding day as special as possible. Remember, there is no pressure for you sign on the dotted line on the day, take it as an opportunity to absorb the kind of services that vendors can provide and if there are a few who really catch your eye then feel free to take away their contact details.

There are perhaps two things that you should be looking for when you are walking around the show floor. The first rather obviously is that the service they provide matches your vision for how your wedding day should look. The second is a bit harder to spot, but try to gauge whether the vendor is on the same wavelength with the overall theme of your wedding. When you are speaking to them, try and explain what you have planned as well as how you want to achieve this. In many cases, an honest vendor will be able to give you their opinion whether the service they provide will be able to live up to the standards which you expect.

The one tangible benefit of attending a wedding exhibition is that you are able to see, hear, smell and taste the services which are on offer. While planning your wedding online can be more convenient, it only takes one dodgy vendor to tarnish your day. Considering how much you can be expected to pay as well, there is added benefits in getting to meet the people that will be servicing your wedding and experiencing the kind of job that they perform. Just remember to enter the wedding fair like a sponge, absorb all of the information possible and take it away with you. So when it comes to finalising the details, your mind can rest easy in the knowledge that you know the cake will be fantastic, the flowers complement your theme and that you wedding day will be truly special.

Categories
2016 Blogs

Why Roller Banners are a Versatile Addition to your Wedding Day

When you are beginning to personalise your wedding day, there is a ridiculous amount of options to choose from. The overall theme of the day tends to dictate the flowers you choose, the food you provide and the location you are in. In situations such as these, it is great to have a blank canvas to work with and begin truly personalising your wedding day. A Roller Banner may not be the type of canvas which you had been considering for the reception, but there is a host of ways that they can be customised to enhance the environment. With each printed to a very high quality, Roller Banners can be great for displaying photographs, memories or be utilised as a useful tool for displaying table arrangements and more.

High resolution photographs are the obvious beneficiary when using Roller Banners. By opting for a manufacturer with extensive experience printing graphic panels for a wide range of industries, you can work with them to develop and create Roller Banners which display fond memories of you and your significant other, or you can even display unforgettable moments which you have spent with friends and family. Alternatively, we are increasingly seeing Roller Banners being used for unique photo backdrops, allowing you to create stylish albums featuring everyone who attended.

One of the major advantages of the Roller Banners is their versatility. As they can be set up in a matter of seconds, this means that they can be used in a variety of different locations. Therefore, at the beginning of the day, you can use the Roller Banner to welcome guests at the wedding ceremony and let them know where to head, then pack it away and set it up later at the wedding reception, ensuring that nobody gets lost.

Each Roller Banner is a blank canvas, and with the breadth of things you can do with graphic design nowadays, this means that the graphic panel can be customised to display whatever you require, they’re not just for photographs! You could use yours for a quirky display for your seating arrangements, adding fun layouts of family and friends. Not all wedding receptions are held in conveniently located halls, so Roller Banners are a stylish way of adding directions for guests to find where you are seated.

It is your wedding day, which is why you should personalise every last detail, exactly as you imagined it. Here at Rap Industries, we have seen some creative designs in the past where Roller Banners are being used to their full potential. We love the idea of using them for favourite quotes and altogether using them as extensions of your personality. Even if you have a quirky, interesting theme, our graphic designers have worked on an array of different projects so will be able to create a design which integrates the Roller Banner in with your wedding.

If you would like further information on the potential for Roller Banners at your wedding day, then please get in touch by calling 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Two-roller-Banners-premier

Categories
2016 Blogs

How Wedding Vendors Can Make the Most of Roller Banners

When you are trying to advertise your services in a diluted market such as the wedding industry, it can be a challenge to know how you can stand out from the competition. For many, attending exhibitions and shopping centre displays provide the most viable way to establish themselves. However, more and more freelance photographers, wedding crafters and more spring up every year, which creates a highly competitive market for the select number of weddings being booked. While the individual can be delightfully talented, this skill needs to be presented correctly in a way that cries out to couples that this person is the ideal choice to work on their wedding.

Not everyone has the perfect sales pitch or the infectious personality which thrives in the industry, but this does not have to hold your business back. Being able to show experience in your craft and a professional outlook suggests to potential clients that you are a trustworthy vendor. Larger companies such as florists or cake designers often have shop fronts where they work from which provides an insight into their world, but this kind of setup simply isn’t viable for independent vendors. But at exhibitions or shopping centre displays, the playing field is levelled and it is in this setting where speciality vendors can thrive.

Roller banners are excellent companions for the independent wedding vendors as it offers a professional medium where you can advertise your services and justify why you are the right person for the client in a matter of seconds. Housed in a light and compact frame, roller banners can be utilised by vendors wherever they are such as in store, on the exhibition floor or pitching in shopping centres. Each roller banner can feature custom graphic design, allowing you to inject your personality into it and demonstrate why the service you provide is perfect for the couple’s wedding.

Many wedding destinations are open to the public throughout the remainder of the year and roller banners provide great additions to advertise the possibility of hosting a wedding there. Historic buildings and unusual locations in particular can benefit through this by showing that they are capable of being transformed into a truly memorable wedding destination. Making the most of the high quality banner allows these destinations to provide a glimpse of the environment in a wedding setting and allowing interested couples an insight into how their wedding reception could look.

By incorporating custom graphic design with the roller banners, the content you choose to include is completely up to you. Having a mobile promotional tool is excellent for illustrating what your speciality is and the type of locations and themes which you have worked on in the past. You can also utilise it to provide more information about yourself if you are an independent vendor, as it is important to create an element of trust with a client before they will commit to requesting your services. But most of all, remember to keep the design clean and professional, the design is a reflection of yourself so use it to catch a potential client’s eye and then you can step in and demonstrate why your services will be perfect for their wedding.

If you would like to learn more about the potential that roller banners have then please feel free to get in touch with our advisors, who can inform you of how they can help to advertise your business. You can contact them by calling 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Sterling Banner Visual - Floristry2

Categories
2016 Blogs

How to Make Your Wedding Day Personal and Unique

Wedding days are such a rare and special occasion that it can be easy to get overwhelmed with the options available to make your day perfect. From the dress right the way down to the invitations, each aspect of the wedding can be tailored to reflect your tastes and memories. Couples increasingly have been moving away from traditional weddings and this provides the opportunity to create a truly unique reception which embraces your loved ones into your lives. This day often only happens once in a lifetime for many people, so you will want to make sure that every part of the day is sprinkled with your personal touch.

Before you can begin mapping every cute detail, it is important to create an overriding theme which connects each element of your wedding. This can reflect your hobby, interests, time of year and more, just make sure it is something that you truly love. The theme provides the basis for every other aspect to revolve around. For example, if you are planning on having a beach wedding in somewhere warm, then you can personalise the food selection to reflect on the location, introduce order of services which also double up as fans or even personalise the beach to add your own little stamp to the environment.

During the reception there is a great deal that you can customise, so we’re going to lay out some interesting ideas that are worth thinking about. The easiest way to add that personal touch to your wedding day is to introduce photos of you and your loved one as well as the friends and family that will be attending. These are a great way to customise place cards and you can even add some humour by adding photographs. At the reception, provide a photo mat which guests can sign on arrival so you have an interesting way of remembering those who attended. Additionally, you can display fond memories using a roller banner to create high quality prints of the image and provide a talking point for your guests.

Coming to the table display, everything all the way down to the type of material used to create the table can be customised if required. Place names, flowers, table decorations and more can be tweaked to reflect the theme of your wedding. For one, if you are employing a caterer, you can work with them to develop a menu which includes some of your favourite dishes, seasonal fruit and vegetables or theme related platters. A fantastic addition that more and more couples are using is adding disposable cameras to each table, allowing you to gain a perspective from each table throughout the night as well as some behaviour that you might not expect your official photographer to capture.

With the joys of the internet, you can now create custom music playlists, rather than relying on the tedious wedding playlists that your parents may have endured. Take advantage of this by introducing songs which evoke fond memories, songs with meaning which draw on your guest’s emotions. You could even combine this with a projected photo loop which display memories from past and present which all of your friends and family can view. Your cake design is another aspect which is no longer restricted by the traditional white, three tiered design. Make the most of it by employing a wedding cake designer to integrate what you love into both the flavour as well as the design.

As it is your day, the only important thing to keep in mind when planning is that it brings out what makes you and your significant other unique. The disposable cameras and photo mat suggestions are great for reminders to take away, but ultimately the design of your wedding should express what makes you both special by incorporating the colours you love, the flavours you adore and conveying that with the people that you care about. For information about how you can make the most of roller banners to help achieve this, then please give us a call on 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Wedding_Banners

Categories
2016 Blogs

Preparing for Wedding Exhibitions and How to Make the Optimal Impact

Wedding exhibitions are a lively hotspot for vendors with an array of different talents, but many struggle to make the most of their potential. In these halls, soon to be married couples can taste, experience, or touch a little portion of what could later feature on their wedding day. That day will only come once in a lifetime for many, which is chiefly the reason why couples will pay a premium to get what they want. Despite this, you can attend many exhibitions and find some vendors sat behind a desk showing little interest or others who aggressively ram pamphlets into the pockets of anyone that walks past. There is a good reason why some do incredibly well at wedding exhibitions whilst others don’t, so we’ve got a rundown on how to set yourself up for success.

This planning all begins when you first settle on the idea to attend a wedding exhibition. The first step is to research around what is available, and with hundreds or even thousands of wedding exhibitions every year, there is a huge amount of choice. There are very few generic exhibitions and each has their own niche, so it is essential to find out where you can identify that you both share a similar target market. Some exhibitions appeal to the rich and extravagant, others feature unique quirks and even more focus on themed weddings. For example, you will probably want to avoid taking your pearl white dressmaking exhibition stand to a Harry Potter themed event.

Now you have identified a few locations where you know your company can be a hit, it’s time to start thinking about the design of your exhibition stand. You have complete creative freedom here, but there are a few tips you may want to follow. Firstly, choose a design which will appeal to your target audience, if this is for traditional weddings then a professional stand enhanced by roller banners and more is a great fit. Next, try to inject some personality into the display, make it stand out so when the brides walk into the hall, their eyes are immediately drawn to your stand. Finally, freebies are always a winner, but make the customer work for them, you don’t want to be giving away your product without seeing any results!

While exhibitions will naturally draw in a crowd, there is plenty that you can do to keep your stand busy on the day. For people that have enquired beforehand, this is a great opportunity to let them know that you will be displaying your services and it’s an excellent chance for them to really get a feel for what you provide. If you already have your social media channels established, then this is the perfect way to let people know that you will be attending. Also, be mindful of researching where the event will be advertising, as it is helpful to guarantee that there will be a healthy amount of traffic throughout the day.

With your research done and potential interested parties contacted then you just need to plan how you can make the most from the amount of people you will be speaking to. As mentioned in the intro, having promotional material such as leaflets on hand allows you to provide an example of your services for potential clients to take away. With so much to see, it can be easy for people to forget the name of your company, so providing them with a fresh reminder can help to boost your appointment book. As a side note, people generally hate having pamphlets thrust into their hands, so make sure that you are engaging with everyone interested in your stand and if they want to go away and consider it further, then this is the perfect chance to hand them your promotional material.

By completing this preparation, you are setting yourself up for having a great wedding exhibition. Just remember to smile and be approachable, which can go a long way to showing that you are the right person for that couple’s wedding. Even if traffic is slow, make the effort and show enthusiasm for the needs of every client as you never know who might be giving you a call back to help at their wedding.

Wedding_Banners

Categories
2016 Blogs

How to Create an Effective Display When Attending Wedding Fairs

Wedding fairs are a hotbed for couples looking to be amazed at what vendors can do for their wedding. Weddings are significant investments and they only come around once in a lifetime for some, so couples will be on the lookout for florists, caterers, photographers and more who will make their day truly special. Attending a wedding fair provides direct access to hundreds of couples who are searching for ideas and if you can design an effective exhibition stand, you may just fill your appointment book out significantly for the year ahead.

In very much the same vain as traditional exhibitions, you will be competing against others in your industry, but having the loudest and proudest display is not going to give you the edge. Couples are conjuring up more unique wedding ideas every year, and they are looking for someone who can make their dream a reality who is often equally as unique. It is therefore vital to inject as much of your personality as possible into your exhibition stand. Make a display which demonstrates the types of wedding you were passionate working on and add those personal touches which help couples to gain an understanding of what kind of person you are.

Ultimately, attendees are looking for someone they can trust, that when their day arrives, everything will run smoothly. This means interacting with them and trying to understand yourself what they want. There is nothing worse than going to a wedding fair and seeing vendors sat behind the tables, browsing through their social media and paying no interest to the people in front of them. Equally, you don’t want to kamikaze everyone that walks past, if someone takes an interest, then smile and approach them by asking about what kind of wedding they are interested in.

As important as your ‘performance’ is, it is equally necessary to have a well-designed exhibition stand to back you up. This is a great opportunity to show your personality, demonstrate the work that you do and prove to people that the service you will provide will make their day that little bit more special. Hand-made goods emit the aura that you are unique, while roller banners create a professional appearance which goes a long way to showing that you are excellent at what you do. Take care when using colour, traditional wedding colours such as whites and pastel shades are consistent winners while loud colours risk doing more harm than good.

Freebies and tasters can be a great way to draw people into your exhibition stand and give them a feel for what you provide, but be careful not to overdo it. Couples almost always value quality and information and while it is great that you have brought cake or fizzy for everyone, if you don’t have the information to back it up, then people are more likely to move on. They won’t all be looking to book on the day, so ensure you are stocked up on elegant promotional material which they can take away. A well designed pamphlet may just make the difference in guaranteeing a few extra bookings.

Finally, consider how you act and how you look. Typically, you may be quite shy or business may be slow on the day, but it is important to show your enthusiasm and engage with everyone showing an interest in your stand. Wear something smart, but don’t be too ridiculous, it is essential to come across as professional as possible and show that you are the best person to support their wedding.

Wedding fairs are all about displaying why your services will be perfect for a couple’s wedding. Huge exhibition stands or excessive designs will do more to push people away than to draw people in. When designing your stand, focus on expressing your personality and what makes your service unique. Make the effort to engage with every couple that shows an interest in what you provide and perhaps more importantly, show to them how knowledgeable you are to put their mind at ease. Combine these and you will create the foundations for a successful wedding fair and hopefully, this will fill out your appointment book for the approaching wedding season.

Wedding_Exhibition_Bundle

Categories
2016 Blogs

How Does Soundproofing the Office Enhance Concentration?

Delta acoustic office partitioning in office

As the popularity of an open plan office continues to grow, there are a variety of practical issues which many businesses neglect when beginning to design the office layout. Factors such as colour choices and acoustic control have a significant impact on the productivity of staff, despite the effects not being immediately obvious. Office design needs to create a comfortable environment which helps people to concentrate and while huge rooms with clean white walls and amazing hardwood floors look great, they are a horrible space to work in. In particular, when deadlines loom, the constant clacking of that beautiful oak floor can become unsurprisingly infuriating.

Many interior designers will now advise you based on acoustic as well as aesthetic design, but if you don’t have the budget to commission one, then it’s important to take note. While the overall look of your office has obvious benefits, it is the practical elements which need to be at the heart of the design. If you choose to have an open office layout, then you will be hoping to work towards a dynamic environment which allows relationships to flourish and creativity to flow. However, no team is perfect and over time as staff continue to work in the same space, gripes can begin to emerge and the environment which began as a great collaborative workspace can transform into a room full of tension.

One major element which contributes to this is sound, whether it is in conversations from across the room, phones ringing throughout the day or even just the sound of footsteps walking past you, these can all destroy your focus and concentration. To remedy this, many office designs now incorporate acoustic foam as well as more heavy duty materials which are tasked with absorbing ambient noise. A common misconception with acoustic foam is that it will be able to block out sound altogether, however, due to the way that soundwaves work, this would take such a meticulous and expensive design that you would probably be better off having multiple private offices.

Sound feels quite linear as our ears seemingly instantly detect the sound. However, the source of where that comes from is the result of vibrations causing the sound wave to go from the original source to our ear drum. For example, when someone is speaking to you, the sound causes vibrations in the air which bounce all around you. To interpret these, when the sound waves reach our ear drums, they cause them to vibrate. Initially these would be unintelligible such as if someone was trying to speak to you from far away. However, the louder the person speaks, the greater the vibrations are on the ear drum, which the brain can then interpret to understand the meaning.

So basically, as long as the sound is loud enough to cause our ear drums to vibrate, our brain instinctively begins to decipher the sound. For our ancestors, this would be fantastic as a warning system for oncoming predators. However, in an open office environment, it means that heated conversations, phones ringing and shoes stomping, all cause us to lose concentration. The reason that we don’t pick up absolutely every sound is because as the sound wave bounds off in every direction, they lose energy rapidly and once this runs out, the sound dissipates.

This is why it is crucial to integrate acoustic control into the office design, as while you will never be able to block out sound altogether, you can create an environment which helps to dissipate soundwaves and help people to concentrate. Simple additions such as carpets are great for absorbing noise, but more advanced solutions such as acoustic screens are fantastic at stopping the sound at the source. Here at Rap Industries, we have developed the Delta Acoustic Screens for this very purpose. Featuring a vibrant and modern design which is combined with innovate acoustic foam, these provide a very effective way of absorbing ambient noise in the office.

If you would like to know more about how Delta Acoustic Screens can help your open office environment, then please feel free to get in touch by calling 01733 394941 or by sending an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

delta straight

Categories
2016 Blogs

How the Colour Blend in the Office has Risen in Importance

Colour has always been an instinct for humans and can be so subtle that thousands of years of our ancestors probably never realised it. In the primitive times of technology, simple aspects such as colour formed the very first kinds of communication, many of which are still prevalent today. Think about how you feel when sat by a river, as the water gently flows past you and the chaos of urban life slowly ebbs from your mind.

If you were to ask someone what they associate with blue, chances are they will instinctively say the sea. How about yellow? Sunshine, obviously. By creating such an intrinsic link, you could then ask someone how they feel when they think of the colour blue? I would wager there is a reliable probability they will say it evokes the feeling of calmness and serenity we normally associate with flowing water.

However, it has only been in recent times where we have begun to realise how our passive understanding of colours can be used to maximise productivity and happiness. While many of us will decorate our home to our tastes, the concept of customising the workspace is very much a recent theory. In the past, the workplace has been the beacon of professionalism and efficiency, environments which were designed to maximise proficiency by resembling factories. Unsurprisingly, humans are not quite as straightforward as machines, and white, beige and dull grey walls only serve to increase stress levels and lead to more absenteeism.

Now in modern times, the workplace is become increasingly diversified as many seek to create spaces which represent their brand. A key proponent behind this is the use of colour and many of the colours found in a company’s logo are increasingly being transferred across to the office. Have you ever taken a moment to consider why major brands use the colours they do in their iconic logos? BP makes the most of green and yellow to present an image of health and growth, Apple solely uses neutral colours to promote the idea of calm and cleanliness, meanwhile Virgin uses a bright red to emphasise its boldness.

The same can be applied in the office, whether it is on the paint on the walls, the colour of the floor, or the colours of partition screens. Creative departments are increasingly surrounded by yellows and purples to encourage creativity and imagination, meanwhile financial departments utilise greens and blues to promote calmness and serenity. There is a huge variety of colours available which passively lead our minds astray and encouraging emotions which we would not otherwise have had.

In open offices, it is best to avoid huge colour clashes for aesthetic purposes, which is why it is becoming increasingly popular to utilise vibrant partition screens to accent various departments with relevant colours. This allows the walls to be blanketed with a universal brand colour, meanwhile, closer personalisation can be applied through the use of partition screens. The Delta Acoustic Partition Screens are perfect for this kind of environment as they incorporate a modern design with 20 different Fizz fabric colours.

If morale is beginning to dip, or absenteeism is steadily beginning to rise, then consider a re-design of the office. Not only does the process encourage a degree of excitement, it can become symbolic for a fresh start, one in which you can create a more enjoyable working environment for employees and help to project your brand values through them. If you would like to learn more about how Delta Acoustic Screens can help you to achieve this, then please give us a call on 01733 394941 or send an e-mail to sales@rapind.com

Omega-desktop-screens

Categories
2016 Blogs

Why Managing Acoustics is Crucial for Boosting Productivity and Health

For modern interior design, the focus falls on transforming spaces into aesthetically pleasing open offices which encourage collaboration and teamwork. The traditional cubicle style has evolved drastically in recent history into hubs designed towards bundling teams together to work towards the collective goal. But while these environments are pleasing on the eye, the practicality of them is often limited as they often do more to hinder teamwork than they do to encourage it. Wherever we are, we use all of our senses to absorb our surroundings and something we often neglect is sound. Whether we are sat alone in a room or in a bustling train, sound can have a seriously detrimental impact on us.

This is especially the case in open office environments where phones are ringing constantly throughout the day and the inescapable earworm of your neighbour chatting away persists. For many workers, the biggest disturbance at work is overhearing the conversations of others and no matter how much we may try to ignore them, we always passively concentrate on what is being said, regardless of how mundane it may be. Studies have shown that disturbances such as these can occupy up to two thirds of the attention that we can muster, leaving very little room to concentrate on the work at hand.

Constant disturbances can be frustrating at the time, but when left to linger, they can foster a range of mental and health implications. When deadlines are approaching, having to listen to your neighbour discussing their plans for the weekend can aggravate stress levels. If this is the case for one member of staff, then you can be pretty sure that it is common amongst the majority of the workforce as well. In the end, what began as frustration, can lead to increased absenteeism and bouts of sickness as noise levels continue to spiral.

The answer fortunately, is not to condemn your office to complete silence. While tricky, the key component of office design is to create an acceptable level of ambient noise. This allows conversations to continue, but adds a degree of control to distort sound and removes that impossible allure of listening in to what others have to say. Eradicating conversations altogether merely creates an oppressive environment, which defeats the whole point of the open office in the first place. For example, blood pulses will only continue to boil when a phone call does have to be made and the whole office has the pleasure of listening in.

Employing an interior designer to take these concerns into consideration can be an expensive option, but there is still plenty you can do, especially if you have a smaller office to contend with. Neat tricks such as blindfolding yourself and picking out areas where noise peaks can allow you to identify places where acoustic control is required. An important factor to recognise is that sound bounces off of hard surfaces, so unfortunately hardwood floors are incredibly impractical for your offices. This also means that adding soft surfaces such as carpets as well as padding on the walls and ceiling, are incredibly effective at soaking up ambient office noise.

An alternative to those is to invest in acoustic partition screens which combine acoustic absorbent foam with a stylish design to help confine conversations to each desk while contributing to the overall design of the office. At Rap Industries, we manufacture the Delta Acoustic Screen which incorporate this vibrant design and each screen can be tailor made to adapt to each office environment.

The benefits of managing to keep volume levels under control can be subtle, but you are certainly more likely to notice the negatives when the noise becomes unbearable. Failing to keep a lid on things can lead to it spiralling out of control as employees clamber to speak over each other, so it is pivotal to keep a track of levels, especially as your business continues to grow. If you would like to learn more about how the Delta Acoustic Screens can help to contain ambient office noise in your workplace, then please give our team of advisors a call on 01733 394941 or send them an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.

Free standing acoustic screens with a two tone fabric finish

Categories
2016 Blogs

How Office Design Has Evolved Since the 1970s

When Rap Industries first began to manufacture office equipment back in 1975, the way that offices operated was significantly different. It was before the advent of the computer as Microsoft was only just being established, therefore offices hummed with the clacking of typewriters and in a select few, the resonating hum of the very first computer terminals. The widespread trend of cubicle offices grew dramatically as economic necessity saw office pods littered around open plan offices in the vast majority of businesses across the United Kingdom.

The sight of partition screens scattered across the office is gradually coming to an end, but it has been their widespread success which has helped Rap Industries to grow. With so many unique working environments, initial suppliers sold standardized screens, however by manufacturing the partition screens, Rap Industries have been able to create bespoke partition screens for customers for over 40 years. Well before the days of soft touch keyboards, even the sound of co—worker’s voices were drowned out by the ratcheting sound of multiple type-writers on the go, which led to the development of acoustic partition screens to keep ambient office noise under control.

Personal computers first began to emerge in offices in 1977 with the release of the Apple II PC, which has since gone on to revolutionise how businesses operate. Four decades on, as computers spent 40 years as a mainstay in offices around the world, we are finally beginning to see the end of rigid workplace structures. With the advent of portable technology such as laptops and tablets that are combined with the power of the internet, employees no longer need to be seated at their desk to get work done. This has led to flexible working hours and office design changing drastically to keep up with a more dynamic workforce.

Elsewhere in the office dynamic, as fashions have changed, the typical suit attire has slowly ebbed away barring the key figures in each business. For women, the past 40 years has triggered a drastic shift in workplace perception. In the 1970s, the general consensus was still that women should serve in menial clerical roles before taking up their supposed true calling of being the homemaker. In fact, the term ‘sexual harassment in the workplace’ was not even coined until the 1980s, which demonstrates quite how far we have progressed.

While 40 years may not appear like a long time, much has changed. From computer terminals which could operate basic functions to being able to access an unlimited bank of information that we can hold in our pockets, the way we live and the places we work in have advanced significantly. Office design has been one of the key factors attempting to keep up with this pace, as design briefs now focus on creating environments which enable employees to work to their best ability.

At Rap Industries, it is this focus which has led to the development of the Delta Acoustic Screens. A far cry from the cubicles which dominated open plan offices 40 years ago, the Delta Acoustic Screens adopt a vibrant design and combine it was acoustic foam, ensuring that there are subtle tools available within office design to help soak up ambient office noise. If you would like to learn more about how Delta Acoustic Screens are revolutionising the workplace, then please give our team of advisors a call on 01733 394941 or send them an e-mail to sales@rapind.com.


Notice: ob_end_flush(): Failed to send buffer of zlib output compression (0) in /home/godispla/public_html/rapind.com/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5427