Re-inventing the Business

The 1960s brought big changes. Package holidays began to replace traditional seaside breaks, and with them, the guidebook business started to decline. But Graeme saw it coming and re-invented the company as a full-service advertising agency.

Press advertising dominated this era. This was the age of hot metal typesetting, when adverts were hand-crafted pieces of work. Older readers still remember the Evening Express compositors by name; the skill required was extraordinary. A case in point was Millett's Stores, a major PR advertiser whose extremely complicated advertisements were typeset using printing blocks and metal type, with boots, underwear, camping equipment and clothing all carefully assembled by hand by skilled compositors.

The team would design campaigns, write copy, create layouts, and deliver everything by 5.30pm so ads could run the following day. Speed, precision, and craftsmanship defined the work.

The logo that still defines Farmfoods today? Created here in the 1960s for a local Aberdeen business that would become a UK-wide retailer.