Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

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!

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.

Out with the old, and in with the new

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Well it’s all over, 2010 is behind us and we enter the second decade of the 21st century. Bonfire also enters its second decade, which makes it even more exciting and a little more than just another New Year.

Lots to look forward to this year with the run up to the 2012 London Olympics and a Royal Wedding in the planning! Don’t forget to get buy your commemorative stamps and mug, we’ve all got a few of those!

We’ll also be updating the website in the next couple of months so keep your eyes peeled for our latest case studies, stories and information on Bonfire’s ongoing development.

In conclusion to this brief note Bonfire Creative Intelligence would like to take this opportunity to wish our clients, suppliers, colleagues, business contacts and their families a very happy and prosperous New Year.

See you soon.
The Bonfire team x

Keeley organised another fantastic Christmas party for the Bonfire team this year

Monday, December 20th, 2010

All staff and their partners were invited to The National Bowl in Milton Keynes to indulge in an array of unique Russian experiences as part of the Nostrovia themed party nights.

We were greeted by Cossack guards singing Siberian folk songs and the scantily clad male and female dancers impressed on many levels, putting everyone in the party spirit. The whole Bonfire team enjoyed a night packed full of entertainment including acrobats, trapeze artists, fire-eaters, poi-twirlers and stilt walkers.

After dinner the team made their way to the casino tables where Mic, drew an impressive crowd on the roulette table. Amassing a significant amount of chips on the table and supporting cheers from watchers on, Mic undoubtedly proved the star of the evening. Keeley also proved that she could give Lady Ga-Ga a run for her money when it came to her Poker Face and Paul, was strutting some moves that MC Hammer would be proud of!

On your marks, get set, ho ho ho!

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Santa_Run_2010Whilst everyone else was Christmas shopping and indulging in a mince pie or two, the Bonfire team gathered at Bedford’s embankment on Sunday 5th December in support of local charity Keech Hospice Care. Donning Santa suits and beards the team, including family, warmed up before braving the winter weather and running 5k.

Keech provides free specialist care for young people diagnosed with a life-limiting illness. Their 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 therefore the support of the local business community is crucial.

Jason Pearce, Bonfire’s Director, commented, “This is the second year Bonfire has supported the Keech Santa run and we were incredibly impressed with 100% staff participation. All Bonfire employees were invited to an away day earlier this year as part of Bonfire’s corporate responsibility commitment and staff were incredibly passionate about this local charity, this is clearly reflected in their attendance and fundraising efforts.”

The charity aimed to raise £50,000 by attracting 500 runners. Bonfire were delighted to be able to contribute over £1,000 and plan to continue to support Keech Hospice Care in 2011.

A miracle in the making

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

MiracleChildren_Event_BThe Bonfire Creative Intelligence team proudly supported the first ever Miracle Children fundraising event on 12th November 2010 in conjunction with The Beds Downs Syndrome Association. The evening, hosted by Paris Taylor, proved a resounding success with over £7,000 raised through ticket sales, donations and charity auction.

Miracle Children were identified as a local charity partner as part of Bonfire’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Bonfire Directors gave each member of staff the opportunity to help shape the company’s CSR policy by recommending a charity to support at an away-day in Woburn earlier in the year. A key focus this year was to support a charity whose services could be transformed by our support.

MiracleChildren_Event_AKeeley Farrar, Admin Support, moved staff as she introduced Maisy-Anna Roberts. A close friend of Keeley’s, Paris Taylor, had a vision of launching her own charity after her experience following the news that Maisy had been born with Down’s Syndrome. We were all quite shocked to hear how little support and advice was readily available to Paris at this life-changing moment.

Following Keeley’s presentation, and a democratic vote, Miracle Children were adopted as a charitable partner and Maisy’s parents were invited to meet the Bonfire team. Following an initial consultation with Paris a fundraising event at The Swan Hotel in Bedford was highlighted as a core activity. Bonfire delivered over £1,000 of creative support (which included creation of a brand identity for the initiative and design and invites/tickets), £160 of printed collateral, £780 of management support and purchase of 10 tickets for the big night worth £350.

Despite the large venue, tickets to the event were snapped up. Lorraine Ballantyne, Business Support at Bonfire, added, “In addition to the creative, Bonfire managed to secure a number of prizes for the evening’s raffle and auction. Donations were kindly made from clients including Argos, who supplied a number of Chad Valley toys, and The Little Black Gallery, who donated signed copies of Terry O’Neills ‘Celebrity’ book. The support from the Bonfire team, clients and the local community has been incredible.”

With over £7,000 profit raised the evening proved both fun, emotional and a significant step forward for Maisy and her family. Bonfire will continue to support Paris who now aims for Miracle Children to become a registered charity in its own right.

Celebrating 10 years of creativity

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Bonfire 10th Birthday CardWhen Jason and Steve were just 10 Jason had been ‘made’ to have his first kiss and Steve was making pea-guns out of pegs, elastic bands and wood.

Today Bonfire are celebrating their 10th anniversary. And if a week is a long time in politics, 10 years in creativity is something worth celebrating.

So here at Bonfire, we rifled through our cupboards, found and dusted off our trumpet and were just about to take a deep breath when we had an even better idea. To help celebrate we have created 10/10; a series of 10 perfect lessons from 10 years of Bonfire.

10/10 includes 10 very real lessons from our experiences that have been given a light-hearted context, amongst a few other things we felt you should know.

You can download a copy of 10/10 by clicking here or call us on 01525 841079 and we will post a copy out to you.

In the meantime we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped Bonfire achieve what it has over the past 10 years; friends, family, clients and suppliers you all know who you are.

We are looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond.

Cheers.
Team Bonfire.

P.S. The picture is from a card the team produced for the directors.

The Design Museum honours Bonfire designer in new book

Monday, October 4th, 2010

SpudAF_BookOne of our budding designers has had his work acknowledged in a new book entitled ‘How to Design a Typeface’ by the Design Museum, published by Conran Octopus.

Andrew Foster says ‘It’s a real honour to be included in the book and exciting to see my work alongside big names in the design industry, such as Neville Brody and Jonathan Barnbrook. It feels good to know that all those hours spent cutting potatoes was worthwhile!’

Jason Pearce, Creative Director, adds ‘It is a great achievement for any designer to have their work included in a book and we are all very proud of him. Andrew is a gifted designer and we are glad to have him as part of our creative team.’

The book was published on the 4th October 2010 is available online through Amazon and other good bookshops.

mister_loopyAndrew Foster has designed two fonts to date Mister Loopy (which has had an amazing 78,000+ downloads since its release in January 2009), and Spud AF. You can check out Andrews font creations using the two links below.

You can view and download Mister Loopy for free here.

You can view and purchase Spud AF from here.

Who said fun run?

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Well it’s that time of year again when we all add a few inches, watch a whole host of television that we would have otherwise missed,

The Bonifre team at the 5k Santa run for Keech Cottage.

The Bonifre team at the 5k Santa run for Keech Cottage.

and wonder what happened to the year. December has come around so quickly and this is a short note to advise you of a few things.

Firstly we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and as those of you who received our Christmas mailing will be aware this year’s competition question was ‘In total, how many gifts were given in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas’. The correct answer is 364 and congratulations to Paul who is now the owner of a new Orange iPod Nano. There were a total of 35 entries, of which 10 were correct and entered into the draw.

This is a popular, well known conundrum and the answer is calculated using the following formula. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree, on the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves and a partridge in a pair tree. If you read it literally, on the second day there were 3 gifts given – both a partridge in a pear tree and two turtle doves. Then if you follow this logic throughout the song your total will reach 364. Easy.

If you missed the mailer but would still like to view the festive microsite and learn a few tricks you can click here, but please note that the draw has now closed!! We would also like to thank all our clients, suppliers and contacts for their donation choices. You raised £110 for Keech Cottage and £30 for the Forest of Marston Vale.

The Bonfire team also collectively raised £865 in the Keech Cottage 5k Santa Run on the 6th December 2009 (well done John for coming second!!) and we would like to congratulate Steve on his silly beard antics that ended on the 30th November, as seen in the Mail on Sunday, raising a further £670 for Keech Cottage. A time for giving indeed, and a very worth cause so thanks to everyone who supported us. On another note Gemma also completed a sponsored swim (22 miles in 12 weeks – distance of the channel) raising £430 for Aspire – so at least one of us will be in shape for the Christmas calories!!!

On a slightly more serious note, and for your reference, we will be closing our doors at 1pm on the 24th December 2009 and reopening them on 4th January 2010 to start another exciting year – our 10th!!!

Once again have a great break and a wonderful New Year!

All the best

The Bonfire Team xx

Remember, remember…

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Remember, remember indeed. As many of you will have noticed our new site finally went live on Thursday 5th November 2009 – nearly 2 years after we took the previous site down. It has been the busiest 2 years in our history and you’ll have to bear with us for a little while yet while the case studies are completed, we polish off a few areas of copy and finish the photography.

The Bonfire 5th November elephant...

The Bonfire 5th November elephant...

There are still quite a few exciting case studies to come including the 2009/2010 International adult and young learner course prospectuses for Bell International, the delivery of a 2 year brand transition for Select Education (soon to be Randstad Education – this is halfway through and we are entering the final phase to be completed in January 2011), Central Bedfordshire Council’s senior management conference and staff roadshows following the unitary status of Bedford Borough Council, Improvement East’s stakeholder event held in Harrogate and many more. We have also had the pleasure of working with Wells and Young’s recently on a number of corporate and brand projects as well as Argos – but more on all of that in a few weeks.

On another positive note we will be moving into the new year with more great news and larger premises as the company expands following a recent acquisition and a merger in Q1 2010.

Anyway back to 5th November. This year we celebrated with an integrated campaign developed with students at Bedford College consisting of a limited edition origami elephant paperweight, limited edition T-shirts, a paper based origami direct mail piece, an origami video posted on our youtube channel and promotion through the social advertising experiment iwearyourshirt.com. The elephant itself was a bespoke commission designed in partnership with international origami expert Nick Robinson who was a pleasure to work with. To find out more about this campaign click here.

Due to popular demand we will also be uploading the flat artwork this week. This will be up by Wednesday 18th November – and remember to send photos of your attempts in for a chance to win a real elephant (adopted)! Alternatively we do still have a few printed copies left so email in your details to sparks@bonfireci.com and we’ll mail them out while they last.

You will also now find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for those that use these channels.

A big thanks to everyone for their support on this campaign: our dedicated staff, suppliers, paper merchants, Jason Sadler at iwearyourshirt, Kayte at Goodthings and last but by no means least Jeffrey Tribe and all the students at Bedford College. It has been a long time in the making – keep coming back for more news and views!

One last thing: Congratulations to Mark for winning the Lexon radio from October’s email newsletter – a design classic on show at the Design Museum in London, UK.