Bungalow Blog

As we head into autumn there are two things looming large on the horizon: Strictly Come Dancing… and Christmas. How better to combine the two, than with our professional dancers' calendars!

Following on from the success of Ian Waite's 'Man for All Seasons' calendar last year, he commissioned us to create a follow-up calendar using photographs from his summer shoot in Majorca.

Provided with the disk of unedited images, we all got to work whittling them down — Ian choosing his favourites, which we then retouched and laid into our new format design. This year we upped the size to A3 to provide more space for fans to write, still including a couple of bonus pages as per last year's. Striking white-suited images provided the front and back covers, and with the summery shots within, we coined the title the 'Whitehot Calendar' with straplines referencing the 'smouldering looks and year-round heat' on offer — all adding another dimension to the product.

Again in wall and desk formats, Ian approved the artwork and we set about preparing print-ready files and creating the renders for his online shop and HTML emailshot to his mailing list. Like last year, each calendar will be signed by Ian nearer to Christmas — in another mammoth session!

Visit Ian Waite’s online shop here.

More top billing Strictly clients of ours, Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag were also keen to be there for their fans over '366 days of dance' — and using the images from their 2010 'Puttin' On The Ritz' tour, we created their 2012 calendar with the suitably music-hall title, 'Night and Day'. Their beautiful portraits were used to great effect at A3, showing the exquisite detail in Erin's dresses and we added the starry backdrops from the new website we created for them earlier this year to keep everything on brand and suitably sparkling. Extra pages were added, including a year-to-view planner and full-page print for the Nation's Favourite Ballroom Couple to hand sign.

With Anton and Erin's approval on the design and layout, we prepped the file for print, created the marketing renders and set the product live on their online shop to coincide with the Strictly Launch Show on the 10th September… simultaneously sending out a beautifully styled HTML email to their mailing list.

When it comes to marketing, like dancing, it's all in the timing!

Visit Anton & Erin’s online shop here.

Leading light in the provision of Risk Assessment software and systems to businesses nationwide, RiskBase approached Bungalow Industries to rethink the presentation of data and results in their report documents. Not the most glamorous of fields, granted, but certainly of relevance to us (being property-minded) and an interesting opportunity nonetheless with great industry-wide potential.

We began with Asbestos. RiskBase have devised a unique system for assessors to capture their survey data on tablet devices — such as the iPad — which syncs with their office database from which a report can be automatically compiled and prepared. Experts in user interface (UI) design themselves, their online polish wasn't reflected in their printed materials and they duly commissioned Bungalow to find a new way of reporting the information.

We took the report to task, firstly having to understand the survey's scope and important legal and technical requirements so we could work out how to present the information in the best possible way. We wanted to give a cleaner, stronger format to the layout, including more visual signals for the key levels of hazard. We even worked hard to understand the algorithms used in the calculations so we could clearly show their customers how raw data translates into risk, hazard… and crucial action lists. Clarity, communication and comprehension were key to turning dry, word-processed documents into engaging, understandable reports.

RiskBase were delighted with our approach, the format and design we presented and were quick to set us off reformatting their reports for Fire Safety. We went back to basics again, understanding the complexities of the assessments and how to interpret them in order to present the results.

Again, the layouts were met with approval — and not just by our client RiskBase… but also by the Fire Protection Association, the national regulatory body who will in fact be implementing our formatting into their reports. They requested some subtle customisation to work with their specific datasets, resulting in not just a delighted client but also a step change for risk reporting with Bungalow able to help raise the industry-standard bar.