A team of working together to tell your story in a lasting way.

Our Story

For more than fifteen years we’ve been making exquisite, high-end milestone books for companies and businesses celebrating anniversaries. We produce corporate histories and films to mark an organisation’s milestones – everything from research to writing, editing to proofing, design and printing. Our books capture the history, stories and essence of your business, organisation or community.

And just like any other business, Hyphen has a story. And, like so many of the businesses we have gotten to know over the years, it began with a leap of faith.

At the time, Val was a primary school teacher winning over reluctant readers to the joys of a good book, while Neil had followed his passion for European football into a sports marketing role. When a fork in the road presented them with the chance to combine their passion for words and stories, they formed Bounce Books. In just a few years they had a thriving publishing business, an amazing creative team to work with, and a parade of clients with remarkable stories to tell. They plunged into those stories head-first, turning them into beautiful books that would hold those stories forever. Then in 2018, they rebranded the business, bringing in fresh expertise to include films and exhibits.

And just like that, Hyphen. Stories, well told was born.

Our Team

Our team has a passion for storytelling and our expertise covers research, writing, design, filmmaking, photography and project management. Let us tell your story in a way that resonates with your audience.

Val Montagnana-Wallace
Director and general manager.
Val Montagnana-Wallace started her working life as a primary school teacher, wrangling small children and teaching them to respect a possessive apostrophe. After a detour to Italy for a year of pizza, travel, and English-language teaching, she ended up working at Bounce Books, where she repurposed her love of language into a career in publishing. Today, she is the co-founder, director and general manager of Hyphen, a storytelling company that helps organisations record their history through books, films and installations. She has been kicked out of cafes on more than one occasion for rubbing an aberrant apostrophe off a chalk board.
Neil Montagnana-Wallace
Director of communications.
More than fifteen years ago, Neil Montagnana-Wallace bid goodbye to his corporate career in sports marketing to launch Bounce Books, and then Hyphen. Since then, he has authored almost forty books, written and produced a full-length documentary, along with eight short films. He also ran the business for more than a decade. These days, he is focused on writing. Not one for boredom, he’s part way through a masters in International Relations and coaches a football team in his non-existent spare time.
Heather Maltman
Film producer and project manager.
Heather has always wanted to work in the world of stories. Though she never studied at a tertiary institution, she’s used her street smarts to work her way up from assisting roles to running the finances for QuikStrike Brand Ambassadors (part of Clemenger BBDO & Traffik Marketing). She has worked as a TV and radio host on several productions, including the Heather, Dan and Ben breakfast radio show, and as a producer, assistant director, and screenwriter for feature films. At Hyphen, she runs the film production side of the business along with managing a slate of book projects and Hyphen’s social media and online presence. She is really looking forward to working with you. Or, at the very least, catching grasshoppers and eating scones together.
Jenni Kauppi
In-house editor and proofreader.
Jenni Kauppi is Hyphen’s in-house editor and proofreader. Her publishing background is in print and digital content writing and editing for publications such as Lonely Planet, The Big Issue, The Age and Broadsheet. When she’s not fangirling Loma Snooks, editor of the Australian Government Style Manual, she’s ruminating on the widespread and troubling misuse of the plural possessive apostrophe, deep diving little-known grammar rules, ruminating on textual dashes and hunting down pesky comma splices. No, just kidding. She’s watching Survivor re-runs, expressing strong views on minor issues on Reddit threads and scouring the internet for cat memes (but also fangirling on Loma). There are no photos of her on the internet.
Rairu Rebolledo
Lead designer.
Rai is the lead designer and art director at Hyphen. Originally from Venezuela, she relocated to Australia to pursue a career as multidisciplinary designer. Her professional background in advertising, concept creation and design for corporate and internal comms has given her the perfect skillset to work in a boutique publishing house. Since working for Bounce Books and Hyphen, she has designed and crafted books for a wide-ranging portfolio of clients, including Qantas, Akubra, Bakers Delight, James Cook University and Arden College. She is currently working with Hyphen to develop the film and exhibition arm of the business.
Claudia Piggott
Junior project manager.
As Hyphen’s junior project manager, Claudia’s wide-ranging (read: totally non-linear) professional background in management, graphic design and digital marketing, helps keep all of Hyphen’s balls in the air. Her most memorable roles to date include wrangling a chaotic illustrator at TedX, and wiping cake off a studio floor after a late-night music video shoot. She enjoys being tagged in ad-hoc film production roles by friends, long drives, and picnics in the park. At Hyphen, she’ll be applying her professional juggling skills across film and book projects.
Nicolas Brasch
Writer.
Jacqui Ross
Writer.
Jessica Atkinson
Writer.
Mark Harrison
Videographer.
Taras Mohamed
Photographer.
Lola Black
Moral support and chip thief.

Our Impact

We care about the planet we live on and we’re trying to make it better, one project at a time. Our book projects are printed locally whenever possible, and we prioritise working with printers that offset their carbon footprint. All our books are printed on FSC paper with soy-based inks.