Our work

Melhuish | NSW Telco Authority

The templates highlighted here were built for the NSW Telco Authority. As with most of our work with design studios, we follow a process whereby Melhuish prepare the designs, discuss any potential feasibility issues and then supply us with the finished artwork (Packaged InDesign files).

Brief

This was a project that continued for over two years, and included 12 templates, so build consistency over that time frame is important. The templates all had to work well together with matching language styles and colours. Technically there were some interesting challenges, with the requirement for an EDM template which needed to be sent out as a PDF, which is why it was built in Word rather than Outlook. There was also a requirement across the Fact Sheets and PowerPoints to have changeable images, with the appearance of duotone to match the background theme colour, that could be coloured within Word or PowerPoint.

Project scope & features

  • Build for Word and PowerPoint using Office 365 on PC to be compatible with PowerPoint for Mac
  • Six theme colours
  • Arial font throughout

Templates

  • Agenda
  • Letterhead
  • Report
  • EDM
  • General Word template, 4 x Fact Sheets, and 3 x PowerPoint

Our approach

The solution to the long timeframe and multiple templates was stringent quality control and careful filing. Incorporating the coloured images was a simpler solution but one that worked well. Using the Microsoft ‘Recolor’ feature with instructions we were able to guide users through the colouring process.

The instructions were clearly written over the image and directed the user to access the theme colouring feature. Instructions are included throughout all our templates to prompt users on the best way to populate the content elements and how to use the basic features.

"Microsoft Word and I broke up a while ago. It just wasn't working, we ended up hating each other. I heard she’s moved in with Timplates - that’s for the best, they get on really well. If I ever have to work with her, we only talk through Timplates. The relationship works fantastically, for both of us."

Julian Melhuish

Director / owner

Another Word feature used in the Word template was Quick Parts. The EDM was built to have a modular page layout based on separate tables. If a different configuration was needed, the current tables could be deleted, and different ones dropped in from the Quick Part menu.

Why we liked it

With government work there is often a wide scope in terms of number of templates and different types of templates, and this was no exception. Colouring in Word and PowerPoint can be a powerful tool, but we rarely have a chance to legitimately use it in a template build.