Bungalow Blog

Case History

Founded in 2000, talkhealth partnership began as talkeczema and grew into a suite of related condition-specific sites providing free support and information on a wide range of health conditions. A vanguard platform for patients and carers looking for the latest information on specific chronic health conditions, the sites presented a valuable resource of NHS-syndicated content alongside blogs, forums and product- and service-rich directories.

Expanding so quickly, but without a platform to properly support its growth, talkhealth required a future-proofed solution to enable them to move forward and expand sustainably.

Call in the Consultants

We began by redesigning and restructuring talkhealth into a single site, with specific health condition hubs and forums nested within. All in one place, on a single domain, easier to navigate and better cross-linked to enrich the visitor experience.

A rebrand followed, introducing a softer palette of more soothing tones, and modernising the original speech-bubble-inspired logo. We devised tag lines; a friendlier, more approachable tone of voice, and carefully selected typefaces and stock imagery... a 'personality' to better connect and engage with the site's wide and diverse demographic.

8 Health Hubs, 18 Forums, 11 Online Clinics... And Still Growing!

We rolled out our site-plan to cover all the key areas of the new website, with interfaces designed for blogging, forums, product & service directories, members' area, online clinics, surveys, freebies as well as the healthcare information itself. The talkhealth partnership site thus evolved into a fully-fledged online community. It is now more welcoming, content rich, and much more interactive too, through the introduction of a bloggers' network, more user-friendly forums, members' stories, plus NHS-sponsored online clinics offering participants direct access to advice from medical experts – a groundbreaking service.

Strategies for advertising and sponsorship opportunities were designed into the site, along with persuasive marketing materials for pitching to leading pharmaceutical companies... as well as keystone charities, and celebrities too, for high profile support. (Check out the 20-page marketing booklet / media pack fully designed and copywritten by us.) The roll-out also included social media set-up across twitter, facebook and pinterest; plus a smart stationery suite and modular e-newsletter design, keeping everything fresh and on-brand.

The Prognosis is Good!

Much time and thought was invested into the initial consultancy phases and site restructure – time well spent in future-proofing the online business – with our involvement taking some six months to complete. To date, the site is live though still in the hands of the developer and there remains much content to be rolled out over the coming months.

We're delighted with the results and proud to have been involved in a project of this size – and significance. It's an invaluable resource: it empowers, informs, and makes available a wealth of information from patients' own experiences, literally enabling everybody to 'talk health'.

It's early days but the response so far has been resoundingly positive – talkhealth is fast becoming one of the UK's leading online health communities... Why not check it out for yourself and join in the conversations! 

www.talkhealthpartnership.com

After working with the world renowned dancer/choreographer Chris Marques in 2011 on his own brand and website in readiness for his rise to TV fame as head judge and artistic director on TF1's 'Danse Avec Les Stars', Chris and his partner Jaclyn Spencer commissioned Bungalow to create an identity and promo page for their new dance company: 'Dance Rocks'.

Chris and Jaci are the world-class duo behind some of the hottest choreography in the industry, including 'Strictly Come Dancing' and working with the biggest names in music and fashion. Their new company sees them performing at spectacular red carpet and VIP events, as well as award ceremonies and catwalk/couture events for the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier.

We set about creating a sleek star-lit identity and rolling it out as a one page addition to Chris' personal site with showbiz style and top-billing layout all to a backdrop of couture style photography.

Now signed to Sony Music, Chris's site attracts a world-wide audience – not least as he has a new DVD to his name (with artwork based on the identity we originated for his personal site).

Here's to their ongoing success, and as their library of video clips and photographs grows, there are plans afoot to roll out the page into a full site of its own. Watch this space!

You guys are stars!!!! Thank you once again!

Chris Marques

Click here to visit Dance Rocks.

We're not the most frequent bloggers about our work, we'll admit, but that's not to say we're not busy. Aside from renovating a midcentury property (one of our biggest passions), we felt it noteworthy to blog about one of our newer services, one in fact requested by fellow design and web development agencies.

We call it our 'brown paper wrap' service. Essentially, other agencies have cottoned on to our core in-house skill set:

• consultancy
• brand identity
• graphic and website design
• customer journey
• image sourcing and retouching
• copywriting

…and choose to outsource their design commissions to us. 

Our level of polish and professionalism, effective across the board from sole traders to global organisations, charities to celebrities, saves agencies time and money by providing a considered, consultative approach delivering one solution which invariably meets with approval.

Of late, we've been sub-commissioned to design websites for a financial organisation and a £multi-million turnover online shop, a conference microsite for leading IT company, advertising emails for one of the UK's largest supermarkets and vehicle livery for one of the UK's leading suppliers of office furniture.  All delivered on time, and on budget.

Whilst we can't feature these recent projects in detail on our blog or portfolio, we're proud of the work and wanted to let you all know about our new Bungalow package.

When it comes to great design, Bungalow have it 'all wrapped up'!

If you're an agency looking to outsources elements of design where our consultative approach would add value to your service and to your clients' businesses, contact us to discuss our 'brown paper wrap' service.

We love property here at Bungalow and were very excited when estate agency entrepreneur Darren Wickes came to us on the strength of our work in this industry. Setting up a new estate agency business, particularly in London, required a complete package and he commissioned us to create a sharp identity, office signage, interior design, for sale & let board designs, stationery, property brochure designs, press adverts & templates, marketing campaign, flyer design, visuals for digital window displays, posters, mini liveries... and of course a website design which we copywrote from top to bottom.

The project had a number of hiccups, the first being, namely, the name. 'Redhot Property' wasn't a name that we felt matched his brief and vision for the business and we tried to coax him away from it. Change wasn't to be, particularly as he'd also invested in the key domain rhp.co.uk at not-insignificant cost. We didn't feel it sent the right messages to the customer and so worked to give the identity a particularly soft-edged whilst thoroughly modern treatment to offset any harshness that might be inferred. It not only met with approval from Darren, but also garnered the attention and interest from other agents on his patch.

The second hiccup was the website. We designed a beautiful, comprehensive site, and produced a blueprint guide for its build. The plan was to pass it to one of the UK's largest property website developers to build for ease of integration with their choice of back-office system and property portals. We provided an interactive walk-through demo site plus a 44-page build guide… and despite promises of their lead developer's attention, the project was outsourced to a junior (an all too familiar story). To cut a long story short, they failed to deliver and after countless wasted months, pulled out from the project.

To make matters even worse, rhp's state of the art office was situated in one of the streets most badly hit by the London riots.

Darren came back to us to explain the situation and our advice was to set up afresh as a fixed-fee internet-based agent, removing the focus from the high street presence, and concentrating on brand and service. He commissioned us to rework the original website design in accord, and insisted that we built it in-house here at Bungalow.

With understandably limited budget and short timescale, we crafted a new site based on a WordPress engine that showcased his brand, the key offers to sellers and landlords, and his level of service. Much was repurposed and updated from the original design, and with strong imagery, simple navigation, intuitive flow, fresh copywriting and our trademark lifestyle hooks, the site was designed, built and launched on time and to budget.

One key saving both short and long term was to host his property listings solely on Rightmove, rather than design, build and manage a parallel system on his site. Why duplicate what the UK's leading property site already does so well? Buyers and tenants head straight to the major portals to find a property – not to individual agents' websites.  Our belief is that an agent's website should focus on presenting their services to vendors and landlords: showcasing their brand, and quality of service, marketing and materials – these being the key USPs to differentiate them from their competitors.

The new website went live without any amends: the look, feel, design, imagery, and copywriting all approved without change.  Darren is thrilled to have his agency vision working for him at last, and to be doing business with a website that doesn't just sell his service… it really hits home.

Here at Bungalow, brand comes first – it's your most valuable asset in business. Whether you're an estate agency small or large, if you'd like to make best use of your marketing budget to grow, promote and strengthen your brand across web, print, and social media channels, contact us here at Bungalow Industries and make the right move for your agency.

Getting Connected

With our move now behind us, we were keen to start doing business locally, participating and contributing to Whitstable's thriving entrepreneurial vibe. With so many independent businesses here, we wanted to put our skills to good use locally, broaden our network, and enjoy a balance in having more face-to-face clients. The challenge: to find our first local client for a Bungalow-style business makeover!

With that in mind, we headed off to our first tweetup at Whitstable's Hotel Continental. No sooner had we walked through the door than we were approached, arms-wide, by the rather wonderful Kerry Hales, who we had already struck up conversation with over coffee some months earlier, Christmas shopping in Whitstable. A well-connected, much-liked and social-media-savvy businesswoman with great energy – and accomplished track record, she admitted she felt held back by not having a professional brand image, identity and website (other than her existing stock-template, unbranded blog). As a Strictly Come Dancing fan, she had already seen our work and was only too thrilled to let us take a look at her business. Early discussions made it clear that she would benefit from a Bungalow makeover... and that we too would benefit from her infectious and inspirational manner. The fit was good — we clicked!

An initial consultancy session followed where we got to grips with her current business, before turning the tables and becoming coaches to draw out her longer term vision. We then began to plot out a strategy for her new brand, its positioning and roll-out.

A New Image

We wanted Kerry's brand and materials to be a true reflection of her personality, strengths, energy and capability. We turned the spotlight on Kerry, literally, when she visited us at our studio. Upon arriving, she instantly took a shine to our iconic Egg chair; glasses on, pen and journal at hand, Kerry looked right at home. The shutter began to click, and to our delight, a newly confident, empowered professional woman emerged. We shot a series of images that would become an intrinsic part of her new business identity and help direct the look and feel of her website.

A New Identity

With super new portrait photographs to work with, we focused on her visual identity and combined a friendly, positive mark and typeface with energising, corporate swatches, balanced carefully to appeal to both female and male demographics. We also advised she evolve from 'the communications coach' to 'Kerry Hales, the complete coach' to position her as the figurehead of her business and to connect more directly with her audience.

With brand visuals in place, Kerry was keen to present her new business identity at her networking events across Kent: we designed business cards with a QR code for quick mobile access, vital for such a busy networker.

The New Website

We then turned our attention to her website. Kerry's old site was no more than a stock-template WordPress blog. We took her site apart and turned it on its head. We redesigned it from the ground up, reorganising and rewriting the content, replacing what was effectively a personal journal with an engaging, business-based, service-focused website. We asked Kerry to write clear definitions of her core services, telling her to think of them as 'products', for which we created new pages, individual identities and site-wide promo-spots to make them feel accessible, tangible, professionally packaged – and purchasable.

Already up to speed with social media, we brought all her channels on-brand and incorporated them and their feeds into her site; we also introduced her to Pinterest to give an additional visual dimension and resource. Given Kerry's great presence in front of a lens, and wanting clients to be able to get to know, form a bond, and feel comfortable with her, we tried our hands at video-blogging... something we'll be focusing on over the coming months. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email newsletter, and YouTube - all integrated into her site for maximum exposure and engagement.

Designed to Engage and Connect

Kerry's new website enables her to keep her existing network – and potential clients alike – updated with her news, blogs, inspirations, products, activities... even video-blogs to maintain that crucial personal connection.

• Video blog
• social media shares
• newsletter sign-up
• calls to action
• pinterest
• twitter feed
• blog snippets
• branded sign-off & contact details

Over to Kerry...

With the website now handed over, its WordPress engine gives Kerry full control over all content, management and updates. She now has all the tools available to enable her to do what she does best: work on her business – her products, services and marketing – rather than 'blog, blog blog'. She has a professional, confident image, and a thoroughly modern, first class website that not only means business – it clearly demonstrates that Kerry means business too.

We've thoroughly enjoyed working with Kerry and are thrilled with the results, as is she...

I'm truly staggered by the Bungalow boys' talent and abilities… they wear so many hats! Not content with being top notch designers, they are business strategists, consultants, social media gurus, copywriters, and website experts – is there nothing they can't do? I am so grateful to have worked with them and can't express what they have done for my business and for me!

If you're serious about business – and shouldn't we all be? – then call them. David & Scott are personable, have the highest integrity I have come across in business and they will over deliver on 'everything'. They get right to the core of your business, they need no direction… they just do it, they get it, they are on another level!!

www.kerryhales.com

Having originated the Society brand identity in 2009 and subsequently their inaugural corporate literature and website homepage, we were called in once again when the socially-aware recruitment firm required tailored publications for its growing reach and specialist services.

As per their tagline, 'make an impact', their two new corporate booklets had to be on-brand, striking and impactful. Providing us with the straight copy, Society allow us creative license to interpret their content in layout, visuals and image-sourcing to best convey their message and ethos.

We're delighted to report that Society are thrilled with their new booklets – as are we!

It's always exciting to work with a brand that 'thinks outside the box', and we're sure the resulting materials will continue to set Society apart as a leader in the world of recruitment and executive search.

Click the preview spreads above to view the full publications on ISSUU, and visit their website here.

Always great to catch up with our old pal and holistic therapist Tim Norris, we go way back – first working with Tim in 2003 in fact, he was our very first client here at Bungalow Industries!

Since then Tim has made the move to Sydney, Australia, settled down, has a family of his own, and has gone on to develop a large corporate wellness program My5 (with a little Bungalow help in the brand identity department).

With My5 now established, Tim needed our help once again to unleash his new business!

Spotting a gap in the market, Tim has taken the lead and combined his holistic therapies with his other passion in life… his dogs! It was no surprise to hear that Tim is now very much in demand as a canine Myofunctional Therapist and with business booming and fast gaining the attention of the local Sydney press, he urgently needed a brand identity for his business 'Both Ends of the Lead'. Our ears pricked up!

Knowing it would be a walk in the park for us here at Bungalow, Tim sent over the copy and let us get to work. Such a unique enterprise required a considered approach: friendly, engaging, but with a feeling of trust and authority. Built on Wordpress, Tim wanted to be able to update the website himself with all of the events he attends, the canine resources he wants to share, and dates of his regular clinics too. We're also encouraging him to get to grips with social media, and have introduced him to Twitter with a flurry of initial tweets. The result is a bright, fun brand and website that really hits his target market. With just enough doggy cues, great photography and catchy lingo, the website looks a treat!

Tim is already a regular at dog shows in the Sydney area demonstrating his approach and talking to potential clients. With this in mind, we wanted to kit him out… literally! With branded clothing, A-boards, flyers and appointment cards, Tim is certainly going to stand out as 'being best in show'.

It's great to be able to help chums out, and we wish Tim all the best with his latest venture (not that he'll need it with his agility, discipline and pedigree).

www.bothendsofthelead.com.au

(Excuse all the canine howlers in there… couldn't resist… we got like a dog with a bone!)

The Youth Career Initiative, a programme of the International Business Leaders Forum, is a long-standing client of Bungalow Industries and it's always a pleasure to help them out with their ongoing documentation and materials.

As part of their closer integration with IBLF, and the expansion of their youth education programmes into new territories, they have a growing need to manage their suite of smart, designed documents in-house. From their programme overviews to full course curricula, having truly 'working' documents is increasingly important – not just for ongoing updates but also for regional localisation and translation.

It was our pleasure to not only begin a refresh of their collateral, but to go a step further and convert the designed documents from our workhorse application, InDesign, into… deep breath… Microsoft Word.

No mean feat, as any of you with experience in creating professional looking layouts in Word will agree… but ever-focused on our client's outcome we sallied forth with margins, columns, text boxes, tabs, tables, shapes, styles and page formats to achieve our end – and checking they displayed correctly on the team's PCs from London to Brazil and beyond.

YCI are full steam ahead in deploying these documents whose implementation came at a great juncture: the tourism-based life-skills programme is about to roll out across hotels in India!

Well done! I very much appreciate your attention to detail, your technical skills, creativity and above all your patience!

YCI, London

Wow! It looks fantastic, congratulations for making this possible! I am sure our partners will also appreciate it! Greetings from Mexico!

YCI, Mexico

Brilliant news, and we wish them every success in their continuing, youth-empowering work.

Perrett Laver has one of the largest Higher Education executive search practices in the world, with a vision of influencing society through a new breed of a leaders for a changing world.

Having worked with the directors and consultants on previous corporate literature, as well as the redesign and reposition of their website, we were appointed once again to produce materials for their Global Chairs Practice.

The new literature, aimed at identifying, engaging and securing outstanding academic leaders for the world's top universities, had to feel truly global, set the right tone, and feel every bit as sharp as the the company itself. Taking its overall look and feel from the website, we sourced supporting images and devised a structure to best present the information.

Having met with resounding approval, printed copies of the book were whisked off to Asia where the Global Chairs Practice convened with the heads of some of the region's top universities. Feedback was prompt upon their return and we're delighted to report that the document proved to be a "roaring success" among its learned readers.

Our relocation now behind us, tucked up snug and warm in Kent, we received a winter warmer of a project from entrepreneur and regular client, Damien Knight.

With the overwhelming success of every venture Damien undertakes, and fuelled by the demand for his gas services, Damien swiftly commissioned us to design not one, but two new brand identities and websites for him. We thoroughly enjoy working with Damien, he's clear about his outcomes and objectives, decisions are made quickly, our designs are implemented promptly by his long standing developers – and he's always delighted with the results. This commission was no exception. 

The first to be undertaken was 'London Boiler Centre': a simple, friendly and informative website targeting Londoners in search of a new boiler; the second: a sister site offering boiler repairs. Whilst the design work is complete for both, Damien is initially targeting the new boiler market, and the build of the repair site is on the back-burner for the time being.

We were mindful that the new sites should work well alongside Damien's other venture which supplies gas and electricity testing and certification to the property industry: London Property Inspections. We used our Bungalow trademark approach of clear, engaging graphics, strong imagery, plays on words, simple language, and most of all: a friendly and approachable feel. 

Yet again the site has been a roaring success, and we are in talks with Damien about moving forward with a pilot for another of his business ideas. Damien is one bright spark!

www.londonboilercentre.co.uk