I’ve just finished sewing a pair of bloomers and a chemise – essential ‘smalls’ for your average Victorian lady. It’s another ‘usual’ day in the Tricker PR office. Tomorrow, colleagues Laura and Lauren will be heading off at about 6.45am to head for Findhorn on the Moray Coast for the photo shoot to launch the new Moray Speyside tourism brand.

Packed in the car will be a crinoline cage style dress made from a whisky barrel two corsets; a pair of Victorian pantaloons; a chemise and lace up boots and – if we ever manage it – a copy of the new Moray Speyside logo on a large piece of white material. But we’re having huge problems with it. Our ‘pet printer’ Tom (who never asks us why when we turn up with a box of free range eggs to ask him to print them with a company logo or ask him to give us a transfer of a logo to adhere to a pregnant woman’s ‘bump’!) has had a major computer problem and he’s unable to finish the job.

It’s Thursday night so there’s late night shopping – but will that help? Laura hits the phones and calls every company we can think of who might be able to photocopy or screen print the logo onto the fabric … but no joy. We discount the idea of photocopying the logo and sticking it on the fabric, but then the fabric won’t catch the wind the way we expect. But she’s not one to give up easily. It’s after 6pm now and we’re scratching our heads. The logo has been designed to look like a cask mark from the end of a whisky barrel and appears to be monotone – but we’ve been told by a couple of printers when we send it over to them that it’s actually a more complex set of colours than that. We think of trying to cut a stencil ourselves but discount this as being too fiddly to complete in the timescale. Eventually at 6.30pm we decide on painting the logo onto the fabric and head for the closest craft shop where we load up with various poster paints, brushes and the type of foam ‘brushes’ that you give pre school kids for their masterpieces. Back in the office we talk sweetly to the photocopier and eventually manage to ‘jigsaw puzzle’ together enlargements of pieces of the logo until we have one big enough for the photos.

Which is why, at 8pm I’m sitting at my dining table discovering a new world of artistic possibilities with foam brushes! As I trace the logo through a 4 meter length of thick muslin I ponder whether it wouldn’t have been easier for us to admit defeat at 5pm – but only for a second or two. It’s great to have a team of people who always pull together to deliver – even when it’s against all the odds.

The next day, Lauren makes a detour to pick up the material from my house before 7am and off they head to Findhorn about 1 hour 40 minutes away. There’s always a buzz in the office when we’ve got a big shoot on and we all wait with baited breath to see the snaps which Laura sends through on her mobile.

Once again the photographer has done us proud with a stunning set of images. Ones for the walls of the office. But we can’t be the only place of work where the unusual is the norm however. When we asked the cooper who made the whisky barrel skirt if it was his most unusual commission, he surprised us by saying no. Apparently, we’d been trumped a few years before when he made a Dalek from whisky casks! Now there’s an idea …