Been working on the proposal and the words are flowing nicely and I'm feeling like I've got a good understanding of what this website needs to be and how the client<>designer relationship is gonna work.
The one thing that's freaking me out a little is the amount of work that is needed to get all the content together for the site - so I been very busy at it on the side working up some graphic stuff in Illustrator and sifting through the few discs of images Naomi gave me of her past work as well as trawling through Google for appropriate images. Of course copyright is an issue on both fronts but I am thinking that I will try to deliberately create some anonyminity in the images of people I use but utilising software effects - and I don't mean harshly pixilate peoples face like they were criminals - more of a stylistic use of tools to create a slightly more animated feel which helps conjure up the 'art' side of the brief..
Anyway here's some excerpts from the proposal:
Introduction:
Two Thumbs Up is a newly established Community Cultural Development
company that is preparing to launch itself into the South East Queensland /
Northern New South Wales community arts project market in coming months.
The company has engaged Heaps Good Design to help create its web
presence and corporate identity.
Two Thumbs Up are a dynamic community oriented company that utilise
the arts - predominantly the performing arts - to engage deeply with diverse
communities to create inclusive, multifaceted, placed-based creative
projects that use the arts to bring individual community members from a
diversity of cultures & backgrounds together with local service providers and
government agencies, to together explore community notions of history,
culture & identity, along with critical local issues & together forge a roadmap
to positive change.
Two Thumbs Up are project based and their projects have equal aspirations
for both artistic and community development outcomes.
Major funding sources will be local, state & federal government and
philantropic grants. At startup, the company envisages funding will be attained on a project by project basis but they aspire to attract operational as well as project based funding in the medium term.
Two Thumbs Up are seeking to make a very strong impact with their launch,
with a corporate identity that highlights their dynamic, energetic, creative & fun nature, as well as reflect the grass-roots community nature of their projects with inclusiveness and cultural diversity, as well as the gutsy, poignant & powerful nature of the serious side of their work in dealing
with critical issues.
Objectives:
The major objectives of this proposal are to:
Create a corporate identity for Two Thumbs Up that reflects its values,
aspirations, unique personality and core nature of its work.
This includes the creation of:
a corporate logo as well as visual themes, motifs and colour scheme that can be utilised with continuity throughout all forms of identity documents and promotional materials both in print and online.
a website for Two Thumbs Up that utilise these visual themes that help create a high impact and visually exciting launch for the company as well as provide web platform and format that can continue to grow as the company grows.
The website will be styled to suit a diversity of audiences and will reinforce the core business, values and aspirations of the company to explain with clarity, simplicity and in an engaing way what it is the company does and how it does it.
A key objective of the website is to faithfully capture and communicate the
multifaceted identity of the company.
That is, to portray Two Thumbs Up as fun, creative and dynamic, and
producers of high quality, stimulating artistic output, yet at the same time, show the company as a gutsy organisation that engages deeply, that is
experienced in working around difficult issues and does so with sensitivity & respect and broad engagement to high levels of community leadership,
that understands how to affect change and gets results.
Target Audience:
The website will be aimed at quite a diverse array of potential visitors that are likely to have a vastly different motivation for their visit.
The site will target potential funders and key project partners from the government, community, welfare, philanthropic as well as corporate sectors. These visitors will be interested in seeing the professional side of the company - to explain with clarity who Two Thumbs Up are, what they do and how they do it in terms they are used to dealing with. They will be wanting to see that Two Thumbs Up are experienced, professional, dependable, are worth investing in, are good to do business with and get results.
On the other hand, the website is also aimed towards everyday community
members of all ages, cultural backgrounds and often coming from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
These visitors will be checking out the site to see who Two Thumbs Up are
and helping them decide if they would like to get involved in projects.
Obviously then, it is essential that the website appeals to a broad spectrum without saying too little or indeed too much and fail to fulfil the expectations of either.
Theme/Message:
The website will serve as a major tool in the official launch of the company and will therefore play a pivotal role in establishing the company’s credentials & unique niche in the market along with its unique personality. As mentioned previously, the company’s core business spans both artistic and community development aspirations and the website will serve to communicate their emphasis and ability for creating high quality outcomes in both.
