Archive for the ‘Bonfire news’ Category

Argos and Bonfire CI shortlisted for awards

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Transform-Awards-2012_shortlistWe’re starting the awards season in style with two fantastic shortlists for rebranding work with Argos! We’re absolutely thrilled. It’s great recognition for what we’ve achieved together.

Chad Valley’s branding sees Argos up for an Oracle Retail Week Award, and the BUSH rebrand has put us in the running for the ‘Best Rebrand from the Sector – Retail’ category in Communicate Magazine’s Transform Awards.  In both instances our work has had an immediate and positive impact on sales for Argos.

1256932_Oracle_Retail_Week_Awards_2012We can’t wait until both ceremonies in March, where we’ll find out who the winners are!

Winter Wonderland Window Wins!

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Bonfire CI xmas window 2011As a team we’ve been raising money for a local charity, Keech Cottage Hospice, for the past year. Our Christmas fundraising idea was to open up the entrance of our offices to the public on the day that our town’s Christmas lights were switched on to help raise some more funds. We made cakes, painted faces, sold mulled wine and more. For those of you familiar with our entrance, it’s quite a large, empty space.

We got creative. The whole entrance was decked out as a winter wonderland to attract passersby, with the designers and creative team producing some amazing cut-out creatures, including deer, bunnies, birds, foxes and owls. A snow filled forest scene was printed on the back wall and adorned with hanging snowballs, stars, enormous Christmas gift tags showing the logos of each company in Bonfire CI xmas window background 2011the building hung in the front windows, and it was all topped off by being lit up by fairy lights after dark. It was a sight to behold!

DSC_0463Imagine our delight when we found out we’d caught the eyes of Ampthill Chamber of Trade and Commerce! They popped in with a certificate telling us that we’d won the Ampthill Christmas Window Competition for a stunning design skilfully executed.

What a great positive way to end 2011, and wonderful start to 2012!

A brand isnt just for Christmas…

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

We’re all consumers of brands and whether we’re buying business or consumer goods and services, we still make decisions based on the same triggers, experiences and perceptions, regardless of whether we are buying for home or business.

Christmas is a very revealing time of year for consumer brands, providing an instant barometer for customer loyalty. People tend to base their buying decisions on:
- brand experience
- emotional attachment to a brand
- similarity and familiarity to their lives
- trends
- recommendation
- how they want to be perceived by the people they are buying for
In short, the ‘gift’ test is: do you feel good enough about a product to buy it for someone else?

The same rules apply to business. Although business-to-business brands don’t necessarily have the luxury of Christmas for a sales spike, the lessons of consumer brands can still be learned from. What connections do your customers have with your brand and what makes them loyal?

All too often businesses are too afraid to spend money in order to make money and branding is done ‘on the cheap’; that isn’t to say it can’t be done cost effectively. The focus tends to be on the visual components and not the actual brand or strategy behind it. I hate to point this out, but you can tell. Consumers of your products or services can also tell, so it may be time for a re-think.

To create an income-generating brand, you need to create something that is unique, that delivers true competitive advantage for your business based on a good solid strategy, and clever and effective implementation. Branding isn’t just about memorable logos and design, it’s about the experience you offer at every touch-point of your business.

Think beyond the old-school methodologies of ‘business-to-business’ and ‘business-to-consumer’ communications to working on a more holistic, up-to-date personal level – we call this ‘business-to-people’.To do this you have to forget about ‘what’s gone before’ and challenge ‘process’. Don’t focus on the channel or what everyone else is doing – focus on the needs of your business, staff and customers.

Create and develop a set of messages that mean something, that come from a honed and representative brand proposition and real point of differentiation. Brands are built on personality, stories and truths; you might need help in capturing this for your business, and it is achievable, effective and needn’t break the bank.

Business marketing should no longer be vertical. Branding draws on experiences from all parts of our lives. The success and expansion of social media is proof that it’s ALL about people. The result of effective social media is that it gets people talking and sharing – a very powerful medium that highlights the importance of getting things right in the ‘real world’. One thing you should also be very clear about is that social media hasn’t replaced anything. If you haven’t got the brand right, or your other marcomms channels working effectively, it’s just another medium to get wrong.

Effective branding is about engaging people across all channels, it’s about balancing expectations with experiences, and not least of all with your staff. It’s about developing loyalty and an emotional connection, stories with truth and something for the person to engage with, and it is definitely not just at Christmas.

Bonfire CI meet Wayne Hemingway MBE

Friday, October 21st, 2011
Wayne Hemingway MBE

Wayne Hemingway MBE

Last night, 20th October 2011, we had the privilege of meeting and listening to Wayne Hemingway at a Creative Bedfordshire seminar. He talked about innovation and creativity in business, starting small and working your way up, identifying opportunities and taking risks, breaking into new markets, and networking with other businesses.

It was a real thrill to meet someone so influential in our industry; someone who has had so much influence and created a enviable legacy in fashion, design and now a more sustainable community based genre he describes as ’social design’. For those not in the know, Wayne built Red or Dead into a fashion label that received global acclaim, resulting in him winning the prestigious British Fashion Council’s Streetstyle Designer of the Year Award for three consecutive years.

Wayne also set up Hemingway Design in 1999, which specialises in affordable and social design. The highest profile project is The Staiths South Bank, which has won a series of high profile awards including Housing Design Awards (best large project) and Building Magazine’s “Best Housing-Led Regeneration Project” as well as a Building For Life and the highest rating of any large scale scheme in the CABE National Housing Audit.

We hope he returns to Bedford again – we left feeling totally inspired and I think it’s fair to say in awe of Wayne’s achievements.

Bonfire becomes DBA PQQ Accredited

Monday, September 19th, 2011

pqq_logoShort of blasting you with acronyms, we’d just like to let you know that the DBA (Design Business Association), which promotes the design industry to commerce, has given us a big ‘thumbs up’!

Traditionally when tendering for work with the public sector and some larger organisations, the tendering process can be a long, laborious form-filling exercise.  Many of these organisations now use third party accreditation providers, such as the DBA, to pre-qualify suppliers to speed up the procurement process.

So now we’re all pre-qualification questionaire’d up and listed in the DBA’s Directory of PQQ Ready Suppliers, we’re looking forward to continuing our business growth!

Font master gets creative for charity!

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

Peepz AF fontKeech Hospice Care, our chosen charity for this year’s CSR programme, is set to benefit from an increase in our donations, thanks to the creation of a new font.

Bonfire CI graphic designer and illustrator Andrew Foster has created Peepz AF, an illustrated-style font where every key stroke is a different illustration of a child’s face. On sale for $29, the profits are all due to go to the charity.

Andrew has already been successful in designing and selling fonts online in the past and thought he’d put his talents to good use. One font, Spud AF, has been used by Gourmet Burger Kitchen and on the book sleeves of the Biff, Chip and Kipper series. This follows Andrew’s previous success with the same font Spud AF being published in the book ‘How to Design a Typeface’ by the Design Museum in November last year. To buy a copy visit Amazon here.

To support Keech Cottage and by the Peepz AF font click  here. Thank you for your support!!

PrintKeech Hospice Care is a UK charity that runs two hospice services – one for adults and one for children. Its aim is to help patients enjoy the highest quality of life, while providing vital support for their family and friends throughout their loved one’s illness and in their bereavement. All of the charity’s services are offered free of charge, every single day of the year. For more details about Keech, visit www.keech.org.uk.

Bonfire CI picks up Bronze at Transform Awards 2011!

Friday, April 8th, 2011

TRANSFORM2011Bonfire Creative Intelligence’s excellence in rebranding was recognised at last night’s Transform Awards, with its work winning a Bronze award in the category of ‘Best corporate rebrand following a merger or acquisition’ category.

Now in their second year, the Transform Awards are the UK’s only dedicated celebration of rebranding, repositioning and brand transformation.

In a ceremony at the Grange Hotel St Paul’s in London, hosted by former director of communications and strategy at Number 10 Alastair Campbell, Bonfire Creative Intelligence was lauded for its countdown campaign for the rebrand of Select Education to Randstad Education.

Judged by a panel of branding experts, communications practitioners and academics, the Transform Awards were established by Communicate magazine, the UK’s leading magazine for corporate communications and stakeholder relations, to celebrate creativity, innovation and effectiveness in brand transformation.

Stephen Judge MA FCSD said: “This is a great achievement. Both the campaign and award are the direct result of a great working partnership – let’s not forget that clients play a key role in all our work. It was a proud moment for all the team to see our campaign displayed alongside the creative of leading global agencies such as Interbrand, Landor, Siegel + Gale and Heavenly. Well done team!”

Andrew Thomas, publisher of Communicate magazine said: “We have seen a 60% increase in the number of entries this year, fabulous growth in difficult times. This highlights the importance of the Transform Awards. They are important because whilst still recognising the importance of creativity they also benchmark execution, outcome, and, perhaps most importantly, the strategic input of Europe’s branding consultancies and in-house expertise. It is my belief that Europe leads the way in these fields.”

For further information please contact Stephen Judge MA FCSD on 01525 841079.

Darkroom, The Obsessions of Bob Carlos Clarke

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Having worked on the branding and promotions for The Little Black Gallery since its launch 2 years ago we have become great fans of the works of Bob Carlos Clarke. During this time we often thought about whether it would work in film. After working in partnership with The Gate Films and the Directors Bert & Bertie on the wonderful Olympus Voice Recorder TV advert we produced last year it got us thinking about more of this celluloid medium and about taking photography to film.

We had a long chat with Bert & Bertie about the potential of the project and the rest is history. Bert & Bertie have been hard at work and have partnered with acclaimed producer Amy Gilliam (The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus), whilst we’ve been working on the title screen graphics for the trailer and soon to be short film.

Lindsey Carlos Clarke, widow of Bob Carlos Clarke, says ‘We have agreed to the short film route, rather than a TV documentary, because we want to produce a creative piece of work that will last in perpetuity. We also feel that Bob would have loved the fact that two women are making a film about him.’

The Foundation needs to raise a total of £75K to make the film and they are looking for friends and sponsors to contribute to this wonderful project in Bob’s memory. Anyone who donates more than £100 will be listed in the films credits and any donations over £5,000 will carry an Executive Producer credit.

Stephen Judge adds ‘This announcement comes just as our branding work for the The Little Black Gallery is nominated for Best Lifestyle Brand at the Lifetstyle Awards 2011, exciting times!’.

DARKROOM: The Obsessions of Bob Carlos Clarke from Bert&Bertie on Vimeo.

The film entitled ‘Darkroom – The Obsessions of Bob Carlos Clarke’ with hopefully be completed later this year. More information about the project visit.

Wells & Young’s appoints Bonfire to brand export ales

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Leading creative agency, Bonfire Creative Intelligence has been appointed by the UK’s largest private brewery, Wells & Young’s, to develop the branding for a range of Young’s premium ales for export.

Wells & Young’s is developing the brand due to meet customer demands and is looking to grow its share of the export market with this new range of export ales.

The range will be launched in August, which includes a presentation to purchasers from around the globe.

Guy Shreeves, Director, Wells & Young’s said: “A new range of beers under one of our key brands is to be developed for the international market. We needed to find a new strategic agency to jointly develop the brands and proposition. Bonfire displayed to us good creativity along with stability and maturity to ensure the brand extensions are created sympathetically. We look forward to working with the new team.”

Stephen Judge, Director, Bonfire Creative Intelligence said: “We’re really excited about working with Wells & Young’s to take this brand forward. It’s a great opportunity to work with a leading local business.”

Wells and Young’s is a major player in the UK beer market, brewing, marketing and distributing some of the country’s most loved cask and bottled beers including Bombardier, Young’s and Courage.

Bonfire on-brand with Survival International campaign creative

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Survival Internationl Advert in TatlerWe have been working with the charity and human rights organisation Survival International for just over a year now and were recently asked to develop a high-profile advertising campaign for publication in titles such as Tatler, American Express Magazine, Intelligent Life, Wired, Egg and Conde Nast Traveller and National Geographic, amongst many others.

The advertisements were originally created as an underground poster campaign and working closely with creative copywriter Ben Jolliffe the the project soon evolved into a campaign aimed at leading international lifestyle magazines.

A spokesperson Ghislain Pascal, Head of PR for Survival International, said ‘We are extremely grateful for Bonfire’s hard work.  They have taken the original copy by Ben Jolliffe and developed, what is a complex issue, into a thought provoking and inspirational campaign. These adverts really get under the skin of what the brand is all about. We’ve loved working with Bonfire on these projects and they always deliver great creative executions’.

Our own Stephen Judge adds ‘We take great pride in our creative output, working closely with both Survival International and Ben has been a real pleasure. This was a great brief’.

For further information about Survival International visit www.survivalinternational.org