We love
catalogues.
Lots and lots
of catalogues.
Good design.
the art of being
creatively simple,
not simply creative.
Getting you out there,
Getting you known.
it's called branding.
This year
we'll stick more
than 20 MILLION
catalogues in
Australian
letterboxes.
Welcome to The MAD House
Since 1996, we’ve been creating Marketing, Advertising and Design solutions for our clients.
We love what we do, we have fun, and people pay us to do it… so, who’s MAD?
-
COPYWRITING
Our copywriting experience goes back more than 35 years, when a writer’s best friend was his dictionary, not his spell-check. When copywriting was a craft, not a necessary evil. When it was written by someone who loved words, not by a designer who complained there were too many of them… -
CATALOGUES
We do catalogues. We understand them and we love them. Since the days when catalogues were the ‘ugly sister’ in the creative department, The MAD House has been embracing the design skills and disciplines required to produce targeted, impactful and effective catalogues for a wide range of clients. -
DESIGN
Ah… the ‘fun’ bit.
Nothing beats the challenge of starting with a blank sheet of paper (OK, computer screen) and creating a design solution that grabs the attention in a relevant, creative and powerful way. Hey, anybody can be simply creative, but it’s far harder to be creatively simple…
and effective. -
Print
It’s very easy to create pretty pictures and whizz-bang designs; far more difficult to deliver them on budget! We pride ourselves on our ‘behind-the-scenes’ print production experience and expertise, sourcing suppliers, stocks and quotes, then creating print solutions that will make sure you get great design at a realistic price. -
MEDIA
Of course, we do much more than just put ink on paper. For years we’ve been creating electronic media solutions for our clients with television and radio advertising, and supporting campaigns with press and magazine advertising. In fact, there aren’t many media disciplines we haven’t explored over the years…
About us
This won’t take long. It’s an interesting history, but probably only to us, so we won’t bore you…
Not sure if it’s a ‘philosophy,’ but…
Some of us started our advertising 'careers' back when computers were merely science fiction. These were days when advertising was fun; when we played hard and long, but never before the job was done, no matter how long that took. We had the creativity and the enthusiasm to take on the world. With the 90s came a new era of responsibility and accountability in the advertising industry. We accepted the change and embraced it, but we also decided that if we were going to do the hard yards, we still wanted to have fun while we were doing it. And we realised that the only way this was going to happen, was to start our own agency.
…so that’s what we did.
The MAD House – Marketing, Advertising, Design – started in 1996, operating out of suburban Melbourne bedroom with just one Mac and one client. More than 15 years later, we’ve worked with a portfolio of national and local clients, marketing and advertising a diverse range of products from toys to fashion, fishing to furniture and footwear. With a strong retail emphasis, we understand print intimately. In fact, we’ll produce around 20 national catalogues this year, with quantities ranging from 2,000 to 2,500,000. And naturally, we support our catalogue programs with TV, radio, press and POS campaigns. We’re proud to be an Australian company with a passion for our work and our clients. With a commitment to keeping costs down, we’re happy to say we’re still The MAD House… although we
Meet the main players
-
Brett Daws
-
Principal
Brett started as a copywriter at George Patterson in 1976. Since then he has written at agencies like J.Walter Thompson, Foote Cone Belding, Clemenger, Grey and many smaller agencies Australia-wide.
Tired of the big agencies, he started The MAD House in 1996. He still loves copywriting, but nowadays probably spends more time running the business and keeping clients happy.
-
Lindsay Jackson
-
senior designer
Lindsay joined The MAD House in 2005 as a designer and art director. Since then, he has forged a reputation for his rare ability to create unique design solutions for the highly competitive retail market, usually with unrealistic deadlines.
This year, Lindsay will be responsible for more than 250 catalogue pages, as well as the many other print challenges that cross his desk.
Our Work
Here’s a snapshot of the work we do. It’s not everything, but hopefully it’ll give you an idea of how we fill our days and pay our bills…
-
Toyworld
Catalogues
-
Focus On Furniture
Catalogues
-
AutoPro
Catalogues
-
Compleat Angler
Catalogues
-
Manchester House
Catalogues
-
Mensland
Catalogues
-
Shoex
Catalogues
-
Sportspower
Catalogues
-
CJ Media
Brochure
-
Quattro
Brochure
-
Mattel - Fisher-Price
Magazine Ad
-
Toyworld
Press Ad
-
Cara
Logo
-
Cara
Identity
-
Cara
Banners
-
Cara
Brochure
-
Dance Of Hearts
Logo
-
Dance Of Hearts
Brochure
-
Eighty One
Logo
-
Eighty One
Identity
-
Spika
Packaging
-
Spika
Packaging
-
Spika
Packaging
-
Spika
Packaging
What we do
Of course, we’d like to think we can do everything. Below is a snapshot of what we think we do best. Whatever it is you want to achieve, The MAD House will find a way to make it work. Print, electronic, multimedia… if there’s a solution out there, we’ll find it.
Our copywriting experience goes back more than 35 years, when a writer’s best friend was his dictionary, not his spell-check. When copywriting was a craft, not a necessary evil. When it was written by someone who loved words, not by a designer who complained there were too many of them…
• Concepts
• Press
• Magazines
• TV & Radio
• Brochures
• Annual Reports
• Manuals
We do catalogues. We understand them and we love them. Since the days when catalogues were the ‘ugly sister’ in the creative department, The MAD House has been embracing the design skills and disciplines required to produce targeted, impactful and effective catalogues for a wide range of clients and consumers.
• Concepts
• Layout & design
• Product copy
• Photography
• Typesetting
• Image manipulation
• Inserts
• Image Library
Ah… the ‘fun’ bit. Nothing beats the challenge of starting with a blank sheet of paper (OK, computer screen) and creating a design solution that grabs the attention in a relevant, creative and powerful way. Hey, anybody can be simply creative, but it’s far harder to be creatively simple… and effective.
• Catalogues
• Annual Reports
• Corporate ID
• Brochures
• Style Guides
• Web Design
• Stationery
• Point Of Sale
Of course, we do much more than just put ink on paper. For years we’ve been creating electronic media solutions for our clients with television and radio advertising, and supporting campaigns with press and magazine advertising. In fact, there aren’t many media disciplines we haven’t explored over the years…
• TV
• Radio
• Press
• Magazine
• Web Design
• Outdoor
• Point Of Sale
It’s very easy to create pretty pictures and whizz-bang designs; far more difficult to deliver them on budget! We pride ourselves on our ‘behind-the-scenes’ print production experience and expertise, sourcing suppliers, stock and quotes, then creating print solutions that will make sure you get great design at a realistic price.
• Sourcing & quoting long and short run print
• Inserts
• Overprinting
• Pre-press
From product shots to larger studio shoots, we do the lot. Most stuff is shot at our in-house photographic studio, but we have great relationships with a number of photographers, so if your shoot requires sets or sedans, we’ll jump into a much bigger studio space to get the job done. Always remembering that keeping it in-house keeps the price down.
• Models
• Pack shots
• Location shots
• Table top shots
• Image manipulation
Contact us
You can contact The MAD House any time for any reason on any of the following numbers or via our email address. We’ll get back to you straight away… unless the footy’s on!
- Contact info
- 518 Kooyong Rd, Caulfield South
- Melbourne, Victoria, 3162
- Telephone: 03 9596 9611
- Fax: 03 9596 9622
- Email: info@themadhouse.com.au