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Star of the show

IMG_2033blogIMG_2036blogIMG_2061blogIMG_20449blogIMG_2042blogIMG_2049blogHaving delivered some hugely successful exhibition stands for clients over the last 12 months it was time to turn attention on ourselves last week as we participated in the Event and Exhibiting Show 2010.

The fact that we had previously scooped their award for stand design and build supplier of the year meant we had an enviable reputation to live up to – and the challenge for our creative team was intensified as we had a 2m x 2m space in which to communicate our message.

Yet again our Live team excelled themselves with an eye-catching concept that put the frighteners on our competition and left a number of the show visitors open-mouthed.

The focus of the stand was on our capacity to develop powerful creative solutions – so who better to demonstrate this than one of our top creatives?

However, with clear evidence that his explosive capacity for original design had seriously wounded several of our clients’ competitors, he needed to be suitably restrained in public.

A padded cell, mask and strait jacket did the trick. Along with advice to visitors that they shouldn’t get too close unless they had a challenging brief with which to defend themselves.

Thankfully, there were a number of brave visitors willing to step up and take a closer look, ask some questions and have a read through our case study newspaper.

And for those of you wondering…we didn’t have any fava beans but managed to keep visitors refreshed with some fine Chianti. IMG_2028blog(Click on image to view more)

Inspiring creative excellence.

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During the past few months BMB Towers has been home for a team of design students from the University of Bedfordshire. No, they weren’t simply here to watch the masters in action but were invited to join our design studio to work on an exciting project for local organisation – Luton Culture.

This summer Luton Culture is hosting the Luton Summer Season, which comprises the annual Stockwood music concerts, the Luton Fringe Festival of comedy, music, theatre and dance, and the Luton Summer Festival – a series of free events taking place in the centre of town.

In previous years, the three elements of the Summer Season each had their own brand identity meaning that there was no visual cohesion between the different events. Under the guidance of our design and production team, the students were tasked with rectifying this and creating a youthful and engaging identity for the Summer Season and its three sub-brands before applying the results to various elements of the promotional campaign which included bill boards, brochures, flyers and press advertisements.

The students rose to the challenge and used a combination of distinctive illustrative characters, bold colours and stylish typography to create an instantly recognisable brand with appeal for the season’s varied target audience. Luton Culture were delighted with the finished results, all items have now been printed and delivered and the students have some exceptional work to add to their portfolio.

With designers like these making their way into the industry, the future of creativity in Bedfordshire is in safe hands.

King for a day.

PK event at Luton Town FCPK signage at Luton Town FCLuton mascot tries his luck

As we build up to a huge summer of football, the time was right for one of our clients – Penalty Kings – to bring a bit of healthy competition and feverish excitement to Luton Town FC.

The club was holding its annual Hatter’s Cup where over 120 six-a-side teams from across the country, from under-7s to under-15s, battle it out in the Kenilworth Road stadium to be crowned champions of their age group.

Helping to provide entertainment in between matches – as well as raising money for Luton’s Youth Development programme – Penalty Kings challenged the young footballers and their coaches to find out who would be the best penalty taker in their team, and subsequently their age group.

With over 2000 penalties taken across the weekend, including some booming strikes and majestic fingertip saves, the event was a huge success and more proof that the Penalty Kings concept is an exciting way to raise money for a range of good causes.

We’ve been working with the charity to develop their identity and launch strategy and it was great to see the positive reactions we had to the simple yet strong branding around the pitch. We even managed to get the Luton Town mascot excited enough to take a shot at goal….unfortunately he was hampered by his rather large boots and missed the target.

Let’s just hope the England team has been practising and have more luck when they head off to South Africa in a few weeks…

Standing out from the crowd.

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BMB’s Live team are dusting down their tuxedos once again after being named as a nominee in the Stand Design & Build Supplier of the Year category at the prestigious AEO Excellence Awards 2010.

The team previously won the award in 2008, and are delighted to have been recognised again in 2010 for their extensive and varied portfolio of exhibition and events work.

Activities featured in this year’s submission included the impressive, interactive and innovative stands designed for Total, Parker, Cheshire West and Chester, Robert Horne Sign & Display and Elster.

The results will be announced at an awards ceremony in June – fingers crossed!

Look who we spotted…

Nick Clegg visits Ecosheet

Wherever you turn at the moment you can’t fail to notice that we are in the run up to a General Election and one of our clients – 2K Manufacturing – found themselves right in the thick of the action yesterday as, Lib Dem Leader, Nick Clegg’s battlebus pulled up in Luton.

2K Manufacturing has developed the revolutionary Ecosheet product – an environmental alternative to plywood that can be used in construction projects. We have been helping them to develop the product’s branding from the very early stages and have delivered exhibition stands, advertising, DM, website and ambient media campaigns.

After touring round the factory and doing his best to win trust and belief in the Liberal Democrats, Mr Clegg will be hoping he can replicate the success of Ecosheet and, like the product, shake up the status quo with some revolutionary thinking that can make a real difference.

Child’s Play

Hasbro blog logoIf you’ve spotted a stream of pizza delivery drivers cruising down Guildford Street, and seen the lights on late at night over at BMB Towers you’ll know that we’ve had a crack team of creatives working hard on an exciting new project.

Well, we can now reveal that we were in fact revamping the packaging of an old classic for leading global toys and games giant, Hasbro.

As the secret project won’t ultimately come to fruition for another two years we can’t give much away but needless to say such a job is far from a 9 to 5 when the end result will be played by millions worldwide.

Well done to the BMB Hasbro team, and thank you to the guys and girls over at Hasbro UK, not only for their dedication and partnership but also for their great feedback.

Have a look at their website. It’s remarkable just how many of their toys you’ll recognise, and want to play again!

Ding ding, round two.

Pride AwardsWell, after Team BMB returned from Wednesday night’s awards empty handed, the suits and dresses have been to the dry cleaners, the shoe polish has been out and we’re ready for this evening’s trip to Surrey for the CIPR Pride Awards.

Yet again it’s our work with DLR that’s in the spotlight – an internal communications programme and the much-lauded History of The Docklands brochure.

All fingers are crossed that tonight will see us pick up at least one trophy, hopefully two. Usual rules apply – keep an eye out for the live twitter update and a full report will follow next week.

Going for gold.

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It’s awards evening again and Team BMB are heading to the ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel on Piccadilly to see if they can land the gong for Best Corporate Publication at the CorpComms Awards 2009.

We’ve been nominated for the History of The Docklands piece we produced for DLR and it is a project which has already proved to be a winner after scooping a prize this year’s Community Rail Awards in September.

Apparently the ballroom is where Queen Elizabeth herself learned to dance so we’ll be praying some of those skills will rub off on our team as they take to the floor for what we hope will be a celebratory jig later tonight.

We’ll be posting a live Twitter update to this site throughout the evening so keep an eye out for the results. There’ll also be a full write up following the event.

Snap.

Like Swine Flu, likenesses are rife across the countries’ agencies of late. Not to be outdone, today we had our most recent of designer clones. Here’s Paul the ‘Nice Client Hunter-Gatherer’ (I think that’s his official title anyway) and Al the Creative Director.

There may well be an ‘app‘ in development to ensure diversity of dress in the mornings, but until there is we’ll no doubt find such clones wandering about the corridors of BMB. If we get some more we may even put together a game of Snap in time for Christmas…

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A digital invasion.

Digital invadersWe have been bombarded with a huge array of digital challenges over the last couple of months which have tested our team’s resolve and skills to the max. We’ve nailed all of them, and as a special bonus we have been awarded 3 more digital lives to support our digital offering and help us capture even more of the little blighters. We don’t normally give ‘the digital people’ names as we become too attached to them and it makes it harder when they disintegrate under the pressure, but on this occasion we thought that we would.

Welcome Alec East – Digital Planner, Adrian Callaghan and Nik Louch – Programmers.

So come on Digital World, we’re ready for you.