diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index e7c8af0..310848a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ deploy:
     - basescript/utils.py
     - examples/adder.py
     - examples/helloworld.py
-  name: basescript-0.2.0
-  tag_name: 0.2.0
+  name: basescript-0.2.1
+  tag_name: 0.2.1
   on:
     repo: deep-compute/basescript
 - provider: pypi
diff --git a/basescript/log.py b/basescript/log.py
index 65d5411..fff4160 100644
--- a/basescript/log.py
+++ b/basescript/log.py
@@ -225,8 +225,13 @@ def _proxy_to_logger(self, method_name, event, *event_args,
         it also preserves positional arguments in the `event_dict` so
         that the stdblib's support for format strings can be used.
         """
+
+        if isinstance(event, bytes):
+            event = event.decode('utf-8')
+
         if event_args:
             event_kw['positional_args'] = event_args
+
         return super(BoundLevelLogger, self)._proxy_to_logger(method_name,
                                                          event=event,
                                                          **event_kw)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 247f1d7..98892af 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def get_long_description():
 
 long_description = get_long_description()
 
-version = '0.2.0'
+version = '0.2.1'
 setup(
     name="basescript",
     version=version,
@@ -35,15 +35,16 @@ def get_long_description():
     download_url="https://github.com/deep-compute/basescript/tarball/%s" % version,
     license='MIT License',
     install_requires=[
-        "pytz",
-        "structlog",
-        "colorama",
+        "pytz==2018.3",
+        "structlog==18.1.0",
+        "colorama==0.3.9",
     ],
     package_dir={'basescript': 'basescript'},
     packages=find_packages('.', exclude=['tests*']),
     include_package_data=True,
     classifiers=[
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7",
+        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5",
         "Environment :: Console",
         "Intended Audience :: Developers",
         "License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License",