Tuesday 30 August 2016

The Power You're Supplying - It's Electrifying!

class II bathroom lights
Bathroom recessed downlighters (C2)
Those annoying laws that get passed for our health and safety are difficult to understand for a lay person so it's in our best interests to call an expert. In this case study, a family home had been extended and the local Hertfordshire council required the relevant certificate from a suitably qualified, certified electrician.

If you can't get a recommendation for a tradesperson from someone you trust, you then have to trust yourselves to choose wisely by careful research. Many people begin with their favoured social media, usually Facebook or Twitter, with Twitter casting a more immediate and wider net to capture suggestions.

If that fails, it's a case of comparing all local search results, checking reviews and sometimes reading between the lines. In our case study, KBR Electrical (Herts.) was contacted; the brief was to ensure that all electrical work was passed in accordance with the rules prevalent at the time the work was done. The older part of the house would have been exempt but the old fuse board had been replaced by a new one, therefore the whole house was subject to testing, not just the extension.

The lighting circuit in the older part of the house was not an earthed installation, requiring some modifications: re-wiring would cause considerable disruption so KBR's owner/electrician put forward alternative compliant suggestions. These included ensuring that the lights on the unearthed circuits were replaced with ones that are specifically manufactured and tested for non-earthed systems, known as class 2 or II.

The clients were delighted with the service in terms of timely response and consideration for both budget and minimising disruption. The local planning department issued the appropriate certificate the following morning.

That's why returning clients say... You're the one that I want! www.KBRElectrical.com

unearthed lighting - transformer led

unearthed lighting

bulkead unearthed lighting


www.KBRelectrcal.com

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Safety at Work - as easy as ABC

Workplace safety applies to all companies, whatever their size. Employers must ensure that all staff, contractors and volunteers under their care must know how to work safely without risk to themselves or others. The management has to provide clear instructions regarding safe working practices, with information and adequate training as appropriate.

Depending on the work environment, basic information or instructions may be all that is required. The best way to demonstrate that health and safety practices are being taken seriously is to provide training via a specialist who is geared up to cover all aspects on your behalf, e.g. relevance, effectiveness, feedback. Keeping training records will help you to identify when refresher training might be needed.

Our client ABC WorkSafe has a long and successful history of providing high quality training courses at reasonable cost throughout the southern half of the UK. They have launched a 'Business Special' to suit most companies with at least a handful of staff.

Three certificated 'Work Safe' courses, each two hours long, which cover the main topics for First Aid, Manual Handling and Fire Safety - 12 people per session.

ABC WorkSafe will deliver basic Safety at Work courses for your management and staff in just one day.
  • Our Fire Safety Awareness Course is suitable for everyone and essential for those with Fire Warden or Fire Marshall responsibilities:
    • basic fire safety principles for the workplace
    • identify fire hazards and how a fire develops
    •  evacuation procedures 
    • use of fire extinguishers. 
  • Our Manual Handling Training Course
    • creates awareness of the risks related to the incorrect undertaking or supervising manual handling
    • raises the level of understanding risks and thus helps avoid work-related injuries. 
  • Our First Aid Course provides essential basic knowledge, not just for work but everywhere. The training session will include:
    • emergency response skills, e.g. CPR
    • Life-saving skills! The DO and DON'T essentials while waiting for medical professionals.
A full day for all three courses for a maximum of 12 people per session includes course manuals and a certificate per attendee for each course attended.

ABC WorkSafe courses include: First Aid, Fire Safety, Food Safety, Manual Handling, Health and Safety and Care.

A specialist will be able to assist with a review of particular training needs of inexperienced new recruits, young people and those who may be less able plus additional training for health and safety representatives.

Still in doubt? Give them a shout! Build your team of potential life savers!

Thursday 30 June 2016

Providing Launch Assistance for Two New Companies

The BPc has recently been asked to help promote a truly innovative concept in retail shopping. Yndica combines a physical 'shop window' showcase with wifi links to online information and purchasing using your smartphone.

Starting soon in London, the Yndica pod enables an independent manufacturer or importer to compete with much larger companies by placing products in prominent shopping areas. The brainchild of Roberto, a young energetic entrepreneur, who is looking for suppliers of 'indie' products to work with Yndica. The pod will display a selection of products in four busy retail locations each month, providing major exposure for small businesses, complementing their current sales channels, online or retail. Take a look at the video below and contact Yndica if you have an amazing product!



Follow on Twitter
twitter.com/Yndicaofficial

Follow on Facebook
www.facebook.com/Yndica


The Yndica Team (Roberto is the tall one) standing in front of the first retail pod.



Earlier this year, we helped a young innovator, Xavier, to generate interest in his new internet service (currently being completed) via social media. Xavier is a French entrepreneur who has lived in the UK since 2005 and has recently won The People's Choice award in the Virgin Media VOOM Business awards (click the image of Richard Branson and Xavier for details).


The service enables patients to book healthcare appointments online, using findoc.co.uk. It benefits the clients who do not wish to keep telephoning to receive an engaged tone or no answer; it benefits the medical professionals who may be busy treating patients and are unable to answer the telephone. There will also be a review guide for people who are looking for a service for the first time.

The service includes Physiotherapists, Osteopaths, Dentists, Surgeons, etc.

Friday 27 May 2016

The Welwyn Festival 2016 - a bumper size programme

Just when you start to think that a paperless lifestyle has finally been achieved...

The BPc recently completed creating the Welwyn Festival programme for 2016, our 15th year of assisting this hardworking group of volunteers who have raised tens of thousands of pounds for local charities. 5,000 copies are being printed for distribution within local schools and hand-delivery around the locality, including Oaklands, Ayot Green, Digswell, as well as Welwyn village. A downloadable/printable PDF version of the 2016 Welwyn Festival programme is available online.

Last year, we re-vamped the Welwyn Festival Website and, a few weeks ago, held training sessions for a group of people who are helping to update the website news and events plus social media. This year, for the first time, the website is displaying a handful of advertisements for which local businesses and organisations have paid a nominal fee. Clicking the image below will take you to the Welwyn Festival website.

The BPc ad

Just yesterday, we quoted for 1,000 business cards for a client and discussed a high quality product presentation pack with a printer and another client so maybe paperless hasn't quite arrived - as can be confirmed by the amount of unsolicited mail and advertising leaftets that we pick up from the doormat for recycling every day.

So, if you'd like us to produce artwork for your promotional materials - paper or digital - let us know. We are currently updating The BPc website but you can use the email address below.



Monday 11 April 2016

New Website aimed at a small percentage of the populace...

Not every company is keen for their website to be seen at the top of Google. We recently published an information site for potential investors in a UK property fund. This information is aimed at specific industry investors/advisers and not for the general public (as stated within the website), in accordance with government and financial institution rules and regulations for this type of investment fund.

To discourage anyone who stumbles across the site from wasting their time, some pages have been password protected so that seriously interested parties will make contact with the company's representatives.

Our interest, of course, is to show potential clients of The BPc another of our websites designs, this one for a property investment company.



On the Home (above image) and Contact pages, we've used a moving image of London (where the company is based)

We have used a standard slider on the Properties page (above image), plus a gallery of thumbnails that provide more information (these links are password protected).

The news page has no image header. Instead, each featured post has a related image.

Very little SEO was required for this website as the client will direct viewers to it as an information source, rather than printing and posting glossy brochures.

The obvious advantage over traditional printing is that tweaks and even major changes can be accommodated as required, fairly instantly and without paying for full reprinting and postage.

Please contact The BPc with details of your website and graphic design requirements.


Monday 21 March 2016

Award Winning Design

An extension on a Victorian terraced home in Shepherd’s Bush *featuring UltraSlim doors and windows* has won an award for architect Henri Bredenkamp of Studio30, achieving an enviable third prize in a Don’t Move, Improve! magazine competition.


UltraSlim is the best selling range of slide-pivot patio doors, designed and manufactured by our client, SunSeeker Doors.

Their aluminium side frames are less than 2cm wide, barely disrupting views when the doors are closed. When the doors are fully open, they rest at the edge of the opening, enabling maximum walk-through width.

This is achieved by opening the first door (or window!) as usual, then sliding susequent doors across the open space and opening each of them outwards or inwards, depending on your installation.

The Dezeen Magazine website includes several photographs of the winning entries. Visit the SunSeeker Doors website to view the full range of products.

Monday 29 February 2016

Celebrating 10 Years as a Successful small (growing) Business

We recently wrote about MPS Facility Management / Millers Property Services and have now created a celebratory logo-style panel celebrating their 10-year business anniversary. The image has been added to their website and will be used during 2016 on social media and correspondence. Here it is:


We are pleased for MPS/Millers that their dedication and hard work has seen them survive the recession and even grow through it. Well done guys at www.MillersPropertyServices.com - here's to the next 10!

UPDATE: MPS has been named as a Business of the Year 2016 Finalist for Hertfordshire.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Graphic Design, SEO & Social Media Clients

We're not just a website company. We have a number of clients who have had their websites created by other designers (and some who don't yet have or need a website). Some clients prefer our involvement to be low key, for example, if we are ghost writing for their blog or posting to social media on their behalf.

This is not the case with other clients who are happy for us to collaborate publicly. This post will feature our clients Host Capital, OVIO Wellness and Signcraft.

Independent ACD, Host Capital: Graphic Design projects.

Host Capital Logo
Host Capital Ltd
Based in the heart of London, Host Capital offers a flexible, cost-effective alternative in their financial field. Their dedicated team remains focussed on core business as they out-source design work for marketing materials to The BPc, including printable brochures and PowerPoint presentation templates.

OVIO Wellness, olive leaf extract products: Social Media posts.

OVIO olive leaf extractOVIO Wellness has developed a range of supplements and refreshing InFusion drinks based on olive leaf extract. The products are totally organic and free from sugars, artificial sweeteners and preservatives. OVIO products are stocked by Holland & Barrett and Boots, also available from Ocado and online at Amazon.

The company's staff are often too busy to post updates to social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, so The BPc is currently managing social media posts for them.

UK signage company, Signcraft: Page SEO and Blog posts.

The BPc works with Signcraft's current website designers, Oracle Creative, to update the site content. We have been writing blog posts for Signcraft for a number of years, originally on their external blog but more recently on their website, under News and Case Studies.

Signcraft creates and installs a wide range of signage and is able to provide some very interesting images to include on their website. Some of these are shown below.

fascia - coronet cinema
Printed hoardings

printed tiles
Printing tiles for the film Cinderella

printed hoarding
Printed hoarding

metallic letters
Metallic effect lettering

logo - tante marie restaurant
Lettering for Restaurant

tribute and memorial wall
Internal wall covering

retail park signage
Retail Park Signage