Ditching the DIY: Brochure Design for Joseph Gallagher Group

Ditching the DIY: Brochure Design for Joseph Gallagher Group

SYNOPSIS:
Two capability brochures for one of the UK’s most experienced tunnelling and heavy civils contractors. Created to replace a well-intentioned DIY effort with something that actually does the brand justice.

Context:

Joseph Gallagher Group don’t do things by halves when it comes to the work itself. Cranes up to 280 tonnes, shaft sinking on the Sizewell C supply chain, tunnelling for HS2. But when it came to putting that expertise on paper for NRC (their crane hire and sales arm) and SPA (Specialist Plant Associates – equipment supply and plant engineering), the in-house team found themselves doing what a lot of busy, brilliant technical businesses do: muddling through with Canva and a few AI tools, trying to turn dense spec sheets and site photography into something that looked like it belonged next to a 280-tonne crawler crane.

To their credit, they got a long way on their own. But two brochures, each needing to carry serious technical content. Lifting capacity tables, ventilation and dust extraction ranges, hyperbaric equipment, shaft jacking systems, while still reading as confident, on-brand sales tools, was always going to hit a ceiling that DIY tools weren’t built to clear.

Approach:

We built both brochures on a shared design language, the same red accent bars, colour-blocked callouts, and icon-led product grids., so NRC and SPA read unmistakably as two divisions of one group, while each kept its own identity: NRC’s bold crane-red branding, SPA’s own mark and tone.

The real work was in the organisation. Both brochures are carrying a lot: NRC’s full crane and test-weight range with lifting radius tables; SPA’s enormous equipment list spanning ventilation systems, grouting equipment, dust extraction, shaft jacking, underpinning frames, man riding cages and hyperbaric kit. We built a layout system that could hold all of that. Product tiles, spec call-outs, pull quotes, section dividers, without ever feeling like a spec sheet. We also folded in the brand storytelling that a catalogue alone can’t carry: the LIFE safety culture, a word from CEO Steve Harvey, SPA’s SmartWaste sustainability dashboard, so the brochures work as hard on credibility as they do on capability. Both went out print-ready and as digital flipbooks, so the BD team can hand over a hard copy or drop a link into an email with the same document.

Results:

Two finished, professional capability brochures replaced two good-effort drafts and freed up a marketing team who’d been spending hours wrestling with layout tools. That’s really the headline here: for the cost of outsourcing the design, Joseph Gallagher got brochures that look like the 280-tonne-crane, Sizewell-C-supply-chain business they are and got their time back.

It’s the kind of turnaround that’s become familiar to Gemma Ashley, Joseph Gallagher’s Senior Marketing Manager, who’s no stranger to a tight deadline:

“Just wanted to say the Attract & Engage team have been brilliant getting our requirements designed and finalised in time. So pleased and relieved!”
Gemma Ashley, Senior Marketing Manager, Joseph Gallagher

Let’s talk about your brand. info@attractandengage.co.uk