Quick Notes
- Simplified design
- Flat and geometric
- Specific color palettes
- Specific typography
- Proper sizing proportions
- Mood boards
Review
I think the key aspects of branding we can take from this guide are color and typography. This would make any site or formal document we create look excellent.
A. DaFont
Back when I used to know some html, I used to frequent the site dafont.com. This website offers a wide variety of downloadable fonts, and many of them are free. Companies like Google are able to have graphics designers create topography, but for us, that's not really an option. However, if we download a free font from a more obscure website, we can pretend it's unique to us, and it will have much the same effect.
Google's design emphasizes simplicity, so I feel like the best font to use would be a basic sans serif (as in the tips of the letters don't have wings).
Here are a couple of possible I think would be nice. The thicker texts could be used for titles and the thinner ones for text.
B. Color Palettes
I'm not much of an expert on color palettes, but I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people in STAC who are. Like Danny, who loves color theory. I know that Sarah posted about color psychology on the Facebook page and Danny wrote some blogposts. Perhaps there's a way we can use a special color palette that manipulates people into finding our logo appealing!
I found this guide to color palette percentages in Real Simple magazine. It's intended for room design but I'm sure it can apply to us as well.
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2. Palantir
Quick Notes
- Slider-show
- Uniform typography
- Exciting pictures
- Easy to use navigation bar
- Special icon
- Pictures of people having fun
- Meet us
Review
Much of what this website demonstrates I've already talked about with the Google design. However there are some things that caught my eye.
Palantir has a specific symbol that they use throughout the website. It has a circle and two conjoined lines underneath.
We ought to have a symbol like that.
Also, I feel like we should include quality pictures of ourselves. We should have profile shots like on the engineering culture page, and pictures of us in action on the life at palantir page.
Speaking of web design, I want to talk about another blogging platform.
A. Wordpress
A few weeks ago my friend Jen was asking me for advice on how to start a fashion blog. One of the things she asked me is what the best blogging platform is. I told her I used Blogger.com, but there were other options, such as Wordpress. After looking at the two, she told me that Wordpress was much more attractive. I decided to check it out for myself.
I made a blog here as a trial run to see how the site worked. I was very impressed! The platform was both easy to use and attractive. I mean this is one of the templates I found on the website itself.
Frankly, compared to Wordpress, I think that Blogger is an ugly looking platform. Actually, I've always thought Blogger was kind of an ugly looking platform, but I wasn't aware of any viable alternatives. I've spent a lot of time trying to find decent templates for Blogger, both for this STAC Blog and my other one. Most of them were unappealing to me, and I think that may have been because of the way Bloggers are laid out, with all of the uncharming text fields, and not because of the inability of designers to make good templates.
I'm not saying we all have to go and switch to Wordpress now, but I think it's something to take into consideration.
3. 11 Tips
Quick Notes
- Idea is offered
- Contributors are rewarded when project comes to fruition
1. Right Crowdfunding Website
I think that we ought to focus on a website meant primary for donating to causes and not specific projects.
In STAC, we do a wide variety of projects, and I view our community as more experimental that export based. Personally I would like to keep it that way as much as possible because I don't like the pressure of having to export product to get money when I'm still developing my core as an artist. Maybe I'm being scared. What I mean is that I don't want us to be so focused on exporting art that we don't have a chance to experiment and make mistakes.
If we were to use a site like Kickstarter, we would need to create a product to give back to the contributors. Frankly, we need to do that anyway, but with Kickstarter it would have to be a specific item.
To me, causevox seems like the nicest site for this. I think its appearance is equally as attractive as Palatir. However it does say that there is a monthly fee if we raise above $5000. I'll have to look further into this when I'm not dead tired and finishing my homework at 11PM. I'm sorry Luke. I'll do better next time.
By the way, gofundme looks quite good as well.
2. Know your target audience
I want to comment part of a comment I wrote on Danny's blog
We need to have a way to show that the money people donate makes a difference, and have them emotionally connected to the cause. We need to have a way of showing our projects and we need to give people an incentive besides "look at those cute kids!" That is not a legitimate incentive for most people. We should take inspiration from the sports and music programs at our school. Perhaps we could ask for people to donate money to STAC during the musical, because many STACies are in the musical and the show gathers a considerable crowd.
So I say we first target the school before we go outside, and we do it the same way the other school programs do. I think fundraising at the musical is a VERY good idea.
3. Plan ahead
We should plan on finding a good way to demonstrate what we accomplish in the workshops. Perhaps post slideshow pictures on our future beautiful blog and crowdfunding website!
4. Passionately pitch product
We will have to make a video to encourage people to donate. There is no denying.
5. Plan ahead for spending money
I think Luke has done this by laying out future workshops.
6. Leverage your social networks
Everyone should bother their friends, but not too much. Posts on Facebook and Twitter would be smart. If anyone is a secret internet celebrity on an obscure website, that'd be nice to share.
7. Break up bigger projects
I wonder how relevant this is to STAC. It is possible that we could divide our crowdfunding into different projects for different workshops, but it'd probably be better to pool the money. Perhaps if individual STACies need funding to work on their own projects, we could designate them separately.
8. Create compelling awards
We need to share some product. Perhaps we can get involved in ethical causes.
9. Treat crowdfunding like a campaign
Same as #6
10. Tell a great story
Perhaps we can steal some pieces from Ron DeMaio's STAC documentary.
Also, I think that the commercials we made for STAC 3 years ago are a good example. Most of you were probably not in high school yet, but 3 years ago we made a number of great commercials that focused on individuals and how STAC helped them pursue their passions. We had one for Ashley Coppolino and Alex Katz. In Ashley's, she had her big camera lens, and photos were thrown around in an extravagant way, making it visually appealing. In Alex's, he said the same line in different voices and characters, making it humorously appealing. Those commercials were great and I think that's how we should show STAC.
11. Give credit where it is due
If we publish some of our art, we could list the contributors in the credits of movies or the back of booklets.
4. Kickstarter
I like how each kid contributes to one drawing. I also like the narration over action about why art is special.
We can't copy the idea for this project completely. We are not elementary school kids in a city neighborhood. We are upper-middle class teenagers on Long Island. We need to find that element of pathos that will encourage people to donate to us. I think we need to brand ourselves as mature artists.
That reminds me, we should look back at that video the Georgians made about us.
Two years ago, a Georgian television network came and made a video about STAC. First of all, I think we could quote this video to show the worth of STAC.
More importantly though, I think we should show ourselves like we're a cool art class from the movies.
One of the most important people in my artistic community is my friend Tony. He's a highschooler in Venezuela who wants to be a writer (he's nearly done with his first book), and he's quite invested in the arts. When I told him about STAC, he was very interested. He asked me to explain what it was. Of course, as many of you know, it is very hard to explain what STAC is. I showed him the video, to which he remarked, "Wow! It's like the American movies!" He was so impressed!
What we have here in STAC is very special. It's easy to forget that. That's why we need to fight to hold onto it. Perhaps we can set an example for the future of arts education!
We should take advantage of our specialness. We should make ourselves seem fascinating and we should make people want to keep this unique and modern educational form alive.
5. Go Fund Me
I'm noticing a lot of funding projects for individual kids raising money so they can do the People to People Student Ambassador Program. For those of you who don't know, People to People is a program that sends kids to foreign countries to help people. If you've heard of kids spending part of the summer in Costa Rica, it was probably through People to People.
This makes me think that this website could be appropriate for us.
Frankly, compared to some of the other sites, gofundme seems a bit limited in terms of appearance and options. Perhaps this wouldn't be a problem if we could link to stacworld.net.
Summary
I basically splattered all of the various ideas I had onto this post. Hopefully there is a piece of gold in the pile of coal. I think tomorrow I will re-examine all of these things and try to pick what's best. If other people randomly found a cool idea, please pick it out so we can notice it.
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