Rochdale Town Hall is a Grade 1 listed building located close to the town centre. It is quite simply a magnificent building packed full of features and details that never fail to impress.

I was tasked with designing and art working the finished document. This meant I’d need to work closely with a large team of talented people all submitting content for their specialist areas of knowledge. The target audience for the combined document was the Heritage Lottery Funding judges, who would decide whether to nominate the building for funding to give the town hall a new lease of life.

The bid document was packed full of information that was required to make a successful bid. This included; long sections of text, multiple pages of plans, and a huge selection of images. All to convey what the refurbished building could offer to the community and as a fully restored Grade 1 building to the town centre.

The document features a balance of images and text along with charts, plans and tables of information.

Producing the document whilst it was still being written!

As with all bid documents they are required to be submitted by a deadline and must meet a set of criteria. This job was no exception. I first designed style setter sections to show different fonts, weights and sizes. Along with these I also set out a flexible grid format that would allow all sizes of information to be included. I was also mindful of restrictions on digital file sizes as the document needed to be submitted in both digital and hard copy format.

Once all the style setting elements like fonts, colours and grids were approved I set about populating the Adobe Indesign file. The use of paragraph styles and character styles improved the productivity levels considerably. This was also invaluable when making final tweaks to the document, as one simple change to the style was implemented throughout by the publishing software.

As the deadline neared there were still a considerable number of changes being made to the content. This can make the whole process a little stressful. However I like to think that taking a calm and collected approach results in a better finished article. It also takes some of the pressure off those who are preparing the content.

The finished result was well worth all the time and effort. It showed the town hall’s true potential. And best of all the team involved in the bid really appreciated all the work I did to deliver an impressive document just in time for the submission deadline.

The bid document was divided into 10 sections with an large image introduction page for each

The document featured images, diagrams and plans that all had to be prepared in a short timescale

The A3 landscape format gives the document real impact

Semi translucent covers and wire bound pages make the document easy to read and resistant to damage