Guardian’s 30th Anniversary Newsletter

Challenge

Our client, Guardian Building Systems, approached us with a brief to create a sports-themed newsletter in celebration of their 30^th business anniversary. Sport has always been a part of Guardian’s culture, with professional athletes not only on their board of directors but also within their staff and Certified Installers.

The client wanted a newsletter that would:

Highlight their sporting culture by featuring staff and affiliates with professional sports backgrounds.

Celebrate their anniversary in a way that felt authentic and aligned with their brand identity.

Deliver company updates in a fresh and engaging way that still appealed to their audiences.

The challenge was to design a newsletter that reported Guardian’s business updates in a distinctly sporty style.

Solution

For the newsletter, we took inspiration from vintage 1990s sports magazines like 90-minutes and Score. These publications were known for their bold layouts, pull quotes, column-style interviews, and a punchy tone of voice. This versatile approach gave each spread its own distinctive personality while maintaining a cohesive overall style.

Key elements we included were:

Feature interviews: We interviewed key figures including Ross Darcy (ex-Tottenham Hotspur and Guardian Director), Niall and Mick Kearney (sons of the CEO and a professional golf player and rugby plater), and Dave Grace (Guardian Certified Installer and professional British Superbike racer). These stories were written in the authentic style of sports journalism.
Sport-themed business updates: Company milestones and updates were created with sporting language and design. For example, the Guardian Reward programme was styled like football card collecting, TrustMark Scheme Provider status carried the headline “On your marks”, and new branding guidelines were introduced with the phrase “Wear your (tool) kit with pride”.
Retro styling: We drew inspiration from the action-packed pages of iconic football mags, using our research to create a series of bold layout structures in this style. This included columned grids with overlapping elements, asymmetrical placements, and pop-out image boxes. The newsletter also carried oversized headlines, striking pull quotes, and vintage ad spots. The compositions were then topped with a texture designed to emulate the traditional printed magazine paper weight.
Tone of voice: We studied classic sports features to capture their style of writing and rhythm in an authentic way. For example, the Ross Darcy article began with a narrative reminiscent of vintage match:

“When Guardian was first starting out, there was a young Irish footballer gaining recognition – Ross Darcy. From Balbriggan, the tough-tackling Irish defender joined Spurs in ’94 after turning heads at the Milk Cup. A strong player in the 1996 FA Youth Cup final, Darcy also starred for Ireland U21s. After brief stints at Barnet, Dover Athletic, Darcy swapped boots for boardrooms, joining Celuplast in 2003 and later becoming Director at Guardian Building Systems. We caught up with Ross to hear his journey.”

This approach ensured the newsletter celebrated Guardian’s anniversary and sporting culture but felt fun, nostalgic, and memorable.

Results

Through in-depth research and a carefully crafted design, the Guardian 30^th Anniversary Newsletter proved to be a strong success. The results speak for themselves when compared to previous newsletters by the business. Guardian’s Spring Newsletter, released three months earlier, generated 92 views and 73 visitors. By contrast, the Anniversary edition more than doubled those figures, with 203 views and 155 visitors. This growth shows how the newsletter attracted more readers and increased engagement with Guardian’s business updates, employee interviews, and showcased products and services.

The popularity of the newsletter was even seen on social media. The launch post received 32 reactions and 5 reposts – a considerable increase from Guardian’s usual social content:

Have you checked out our latest newsletter yet? In celebration of Guardian’s 30th anniversary, we’re diving deep into our rich sports culture – featuring exclusive interviews, expert industry insights, and a look back over the last three decades!

#Newsletter #HomeImprovementIndustry #Anniversary #IndustryInsights #Exclusive

If you would like to read the newsletter for yourself, you can read it right now: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/GBSNewsletterSummer2025. And if you’re a business owner looking to share your updates in a fun, creative way with your stakeholders then let’s talk! We’d love to help bring your stories to life.