International media companies are meeting in Valencia this month at the Festival of Media and they needed some display props and reception desks for their delegates. Plunge were approached by Eventwise and Vibration Music to create these elements for the conference.

The display prop they were looking for was a large internally lit spinning unit with images from shows on the Fox network. Plunge created a steel and perspex unit with printed translucent vinyl images.

For the reception desks we designed a set of 4 sleek and simple reception pods. These housed a computer in the base and featured a 19″ LCD screen and integrated lighting. We think they looked really rather smart.

Ever wondered how to unveil a sculpture that’s the height of a block of flats?

Don’t. Find another symbolic way of doing it instead.

That’s what we were asked to do when Xcite Campaign Management needed a giant bow prop to mark the ‘opening’ of a huge piece of public art in the centre of Cardiff.

The artwork is called Alliance and was made by Jean-Bernard Metais. It is a 17m diameter ring with a 22m high spike leaning against it. Whatever you think of it as a piece of public art it is certainly large.

Initially Xcite wanted a bow to span the 17m of the ring but the predicted windy weather would have required such a complicated, load-bearing design it became necessary to scale things back a little.

The result was a giant satin bow tied around the spike and primed ready for the unveiling. We made the bow, fitted it to the spike and arranged for a confetti explosion to mark the event too.

Despite the rain and wind a group of local dignitaries stood outside the central library as the ribbon was pulled and the artwork was declared ‘open’.

It’s Brighton and Hove Children’s Festival this week and on of the events they are running is called In The Frame.

In The Frame involves children taking to the stage for 5 minutes to do whatever they would like to do. It might be sinf a song, read a story, do a dance, it’s entirely up to the child on stage.

Plunge, in collaboration with Pete Woolins from Workhaus and Kevin Butcher from Ebanista, have created an easily assembled stage with a gilded frame fitted to the front.

If you’d like to join the event then head down to Jubilee Square in Brighton and get involved.

Fancy running the Brighton Marathon dressed as a rocking horse?

No, neither do I frankly.

But luckily for one children’s charity called Rockinghorse there are people who do and we’ve been busy making costumes for them.

The costumes needed to be lightweight enough that the runners wouldn’t be impeded too much by them. We opted for using a fantastic foam material called Plastozote which is easy to cut, carve and glue together. Once we’d sorted the pattern the rest was pretty straightforward.

If you’d like to support the team running for Rockinghorse then you can do so here.

Not a question you’ve ever asked yourself huh? Well, you should have done, at least according to Puffin Books.

Puffin are promoting the Vampire Academy series of books with a tour with the author Richelle Mead. They are visiting a number of vampire conventions (who knew?!) and are offering the young bloodsuckers the chance to discover their vampire name.

For this they required a Random Vampire Name Generator. Some kind of promotional marketing prop that would allow people to spin the wheels to find out their vampire name. Something like Wheel of Fortune but resulting in a name like Count Anton Dragomir the Ruthless. Scary stuff huh?

Plunge created a four wheeled name spinner from foam PVC, hand finished with spray details and vinyl stenciling.

Puffin were as pleased as punch. I can only hope they survived the ravenous teens.

We’ve been doing some work with the BBC on their science show Bang Goes The Theory and we can’t really tell you much about it.

I’m afraid it’s top secret, sorry.

What I can tell you is that we’ve been working from a secret workshop in ******** with Jem Stansfield and the Bang crew making a ********, several ********s and a prototype *********. We also spent a day on the water at ********** where Jem managed to ********** on his revolutionary new *******. It was a great success.

Next week we might be fitting a ***** to the top of a **** ***** and ******** it at massive speeds along a track at *********.

This is silly.

To find out more you’ll just have to watch the new series of Bang Goes The Theory on BBC 1 later this Spring.

Earlier last year we did some event illustrations for Eventwise in association with Vibration Music. They were planning one of their Christmas parties at Lindley Hall in London.

They needed some visualisations to sell the concept to their clients. They were planning to transform this spectacular venue into a full circus, complete with big top and acrobats.

As the event neared they again approached Plunge to build the circus bar for the foyer of the event. So we did.

I understand the party was a great success.

It’s Christmas, this is no time to give up drinking!

So to celebrate the season of excessive drinking and lavish expense we’ve made a giant champagne fountain for Mask Entertainment of London.

To be honest the fountain does not actually pump champagne (though i guess is could) but the effect is quite dramatic.

We had some early teething problems with the fountain pump being too powerful and water splashing everywhere. After adding slots to the rims of the glasses and iridescent beads hanging down we managed to reduce the spray to a minimum.

It will be the centre-piece of their HAC christmas event this year.

Our prop shop has created a set of giant Rubik’s cubes for Eventwise, a party and event company based in London. they are running a disco styled party at Congress House for the whole of December and they wanted some cube seating.

The cubes are a solid MDF cube, routed and painted, with acrylic squares fitted to the outside and if we say so ourselves they look fantastic.

We had a hell of a time letting them go.

We spent the day at Pinewood Studios shooting the promo for Every Now And Then in which Shingai Shoniwa crashes a car and needs emergency help from none other than Jacques (as our DS is known).

Check out the video here…

Just imagine, you could hire this Citroen DS ambulance yourself!