As a designer I see things everyday that inspire me in some way or another. Sometimes it just clever use of whitespace. It seems though more than anything I tend to be inspired by music. Different types for different projects obviously. For instance today its Punk/Ska, to help me push through some monotonous page edits. What inspires you?
If music inspires you more, which bands?
If other designers, who?
John Fuller is the President of Phoenixfire Solutions and a professional with more than ten years experience in IT, seven years in non-profit, and four years in design. Taking his love for all things technological and all things artistic,Phoenixfire Solutions came into being. John’s expertise offers a unique perspective from someone who has been both the client and the vendor. After experiencing years both the good and bad of outsourcing solutions, John has made it his mission to bridge that gap for companies and non-profits that have fallen prey too many times. Connect with John on Twitter: @phoenixfire8383 & LinkedIn.
Posted December 16th, 2009 in Design. Tagged: Design.
A colleague sent me an article today that I wanted to expand on a bit and share with you. The post was for the “Diary of a Social Venture Start-up” over at Good.is. The point of the article is pretty straight forward and something I’m sure most of us would agree with perception is important, and what you need to do to change the perception of your organization.
Your Packaging Needs to Pop.
Hire a professional designer or web designer to build a brand that is representative of your mission. It should be consistent across all channels and help be part of why the donor picks you off the shelf.
The way it looks matters more than you think. How much does it matter? 60 to 65 percent of the population are visual thinkers, meaning they prefer images to words. Your mission critical messages have zero impact if you can’t get people to stop and see them. If your development teams are spending their time developing materials, then who is building and maintaining the relationships your going to need going forward.
In-store Display
Listening and interacting with your donors and constituents is essential. Its not enough anymore to put an ad in a magazine or newspaper (if you can still find one in business to put an ad in ). You must be engaged in social networks. I mean on there really listening, talking to the people who can help your cause, and adding value to their efforts as well.
In 2009 Americans have almost tripled the amount of time they spend on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In August of this year 17% of all time spent on the internet was on social media sites, up from 6% in August of 2008. (via Nielson Co.)
So what do these numbers mean to you. They mean your donor base is there, interacting with their friends, posting pictures of events they were recently at, and talking about your organization. They are talking about how they wish they could contact you there because they have questions. They are talking about how you screwed up their donation, and how they will just give to a different organization next time. The point is that they are there, and they are talking, and the best part is that they would love for you to be part of that conversation. Social Media has unlocked something extraordinary for non-profits, an opportunity to talk one on one with donors, participants, constituents, and sponsors. The kind of access your development staff has dreamed about since the day they first stepped through your door.
As much as we all wish the mission was enough, its not. You are competing for a withering attention span, against nearly 1,010,400 other charitable organizations in the US alone. Does your product have what it takes to catch the consumers eye?
John Fuller is the President of Phoenixfire Solutions and a professional with more than ten years experience in IT, seven years in non-profit, and four years in design. Taking his love for all things technological and all things artistic,Phoenixfire Solutions came into being. John’s expertise offers a unique perspective from someone who has been both the client and the vendor. After experiencing years both the good and bad of outsourcing solutions, John has made it his mission to bridge that gap for companies and non-profits that have fallen prey too many times. Connect with John on Twitter: @phoenixfire8383 & LinkedIn.
During the month of August we will offer a free logo to one of the follwoing non-profit organizations, and you’re going to help us decide. Read a bit about the non-profit organizations below, and vote for your favorite. The organization with the most votes by August 31st at 11:59pm EST will win. Additional information about the logo for good program can be found at an earlier post.
Additional information about the non-profits is avaliable below. Thanks For Voting. Non-profits are listed n the order they submitted.
Theatre Charlotte is a volunteer-based community theatre dedicated to creating outstanding theatre opportunities relevant to the people of the Charlotte region. As the oldest arts organization in Charlotte and the oldest continuously producing community theatre in North Carolina, Theatre Charlotte is committed to making theatre relevant in the lives of more people by demonstrating that theatre engages, inspires and unites communities. Now in our 82nd season, Theatre Charlotte produces a 5-production Main Stage series and a holiday production annually. Theatre Charlotte holds open auditions for volunteer actors and crew for all of our Main Stage performances and enlists the assistance of more than 500 volunteers annually
Triple J Great Dane Rescue is organized as a non-profit organization for the prevention of cruelty to animals. We strive to promote animal welfare, decrease the number of homeless Great Danes, and prevent cruelty to animals. Triple J Great Dane Rescue provides foster care including food, lodging, and socialization to Great Danes. We make sure that all dogs at Triple J get proper veterinary care including vaccinations and spaying/neutering.
Habitat for Humanity of Charlotte has been serving families in need since 1983, partnering with them to create hope for their future through homeownership opportunities. We have served over 900 families utilizing our traditional model of new home construction as well as making critical repairs to existing homes. Also, we have recently begun to purchase vacant, foreclosed homes in an effort to serve even more families as well as preserve and stabilize existing neighborhoods.
We are so thankful for the loyal volunteers and donors who have helped make our mission possible over the past 25 years. We have become increasingly aware of the importance of engaging this and younger generations in our mission to eliminate poverty housing. It is their determination, their focus, their volunteer hours, their gifts – that will sustain our organization in the years to come. Our main effort to engage this demographic is through our group the Habitat Young Professionals of Charlotte (HYPC). Currently the HYPC is over 500 members strong and is growing all the time. Habitat Charlotte sees the huge value and unprecedented potential they hold and we want to take the HYPC to the next level. Our goal is to have a movement of young people supporting our mission with their voice, their time and their gifts. We want to offer our members as many opportunities to help the eliminate poverty housing in the Charlotte community as we can and allow them to set an example of service for those in their sphere of influence.
The Parish School is the only school in Houston, public or private, which offers a multi-age, language-based, developmental curriculum for children 18 months through fifth grade. Children served have communication and learning differences, but average to above average learning potential. These differences may include problems with speech/language, learning to read, focusing attention, visual motor areas, social skills, and auditory processing.
The Parish School utilizes a classroom based therapy program implemented by certified teachers and speech/language pathologists. Classroom ratios are low and treatment/education plans are individualized to maximize the success of each child. The state-of-the-art facilities include parent/therapist viewing areas, built in assisted listening devices, play and picnic areas, gardens and large, bright classrooms. The creative and visual arts play a large role in the academic program and incorporate the focus on expressive, receptive and pragmatic language skills while giving children a creative outlet in which to express themselves.
The Parish School is the only school in Houston, public or private, which offers a multi-age, language-based, developmental curriculum for children 18 months through fifth grade. Children served have communication and learning differences, but average to above average learning potential. These differences may include problems with speech/language, learning to read, focusing attention, visual motor areas, social skills, and auditory processing.
The Parish School utilizes a classroom based therapy program implemented by certified teachers and speech/language pathologists. Classroom ratios are low and treatment/education plans are individualized to maximize the success of each child. The state-of-the-art facilities include parent/therapist viewing areas, built in assisted listening devices, play and picnic areas, gardens and large, bright classrooms. The creative and visual arts play a large role in the academic program and incorporate the focus on expressive, receptive and pragmatic language skills while giving children a creative outlet in which to express themselves.
Urban Harvest is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the community about local food. In a commercial world, driven by the latest consumer buying trends, we are educating a community to sustain itself on the basic necessity of life. By teaching the entire community how to grow and prepare food, we aim to show all walks of life that local, organic food is the key to a healthy community.
Working with local volunteers, we build both residential and community gardens in various locations around Greensboro, NC. We use these residential and community gardens as a platform to teach the community how to landscape using edible plants. We believe that the future of our food is in the hands of the local farmers- and we want to educate everyone to be a local farmer
Here at Phoenixfire Solutions, we believe that good design shouldn’t be relegated to for-profit companies only. Some times all a non-profit needs is a little help for their idea to come to life. With this notion in mind, we’ve created our Logo4Good program. During the month of August we will offer a free logo to one non-profit organization, either for the organization itself or one of their events.
Beginning July 31st and ending August 15th we will be accepting stories from charities. To submit your charity for consideration, complete our Contact Us Form and be sure to include your story, charity name and URL.) We will gather up all submitted stories, post them on our blog and open online voting beginning August 18th. People will then be given the opportunity to vote for the story of their favorite organization or event thought August 31st. The organization with most votes will receive a free logo design (see design details). So tweet it, post it on your facebook, sky write it if you have access to a plane, and send it to your mailing lists because winner takes all.
Accepting story submissions: July 31 – August 15th
Online Voting: August 18th-31st
Voting will end on August 31st at 11:59pm EST.
Design Details – We will meet with the winning organization to discuss the organization/event during the discovery phase to see what they are looking for. We will then provide the organization with 3 preliminary designs. The organization will provide feedback on a design for us to work with further. The final product will be provided to the organization in multiple formats for easy use.
I just wanted to take a quick moment and say thanks for dropping by. On our blog you can expect to see posts about design and marketing trends, case studies on the clients we are working with, non-profit resources, and the newest technologies.
