Guild Website?

[Chisa]

Okay, heres the list so far of what we seem to want on the site so far (and some others I thought up...). Feel free to complain/suggest alternatives if you don't like whats up here. And keep suggesting more!

- News/Updates
- Links + Resources page
- Articles (monthly?)
- Member Profiles (separated into groups? What kind of groups?)
- Featured Member of the month
- Archive of past contest entries

So, I'm thinking we have a site with News updated with guild announcements as they are needed, sections for links, profiles and archives, and do a big update monthly with things like articles, featured members, contest winners, things like that. Sound good?

Silvervixen and I can take care of the updates, I'd say we need one person to take care of the links, a few to take care of the profiles (one for each group?), and a lot of people to write articles (and illustrations o go with them too would rock!). And we'll need someone to code the site, since in the layout comp I plan to only ask for the layout as a picture, to make it more open to people with less coding experience.

Keep the ideas coming! Suggestions for articles you would like to see, or that you could write, would also be good!  

[GhoSt-X]

i can do any throw off jobs that are left behind ..  

[SilverVixen]

Great list, Chisa. It sounds pretty darn good to me. We could have a very respectable e-zine type thing! I'm glad someone else is getting so excited they could just cry. wink heart

Someone mentioned that we won't grow until we concentrate on growing... I say we get a basic plan worked out for the webby, and for all the things we do on this forum, and then make a huge effort to get more members. If more people request to join before then, that's great. We can just go out to all the boards and say, hey, we're a great guild with a cool website and great discussions, and stuff like that. biggrin  

[Poma]

I was wondering how we would want the site to look, a more anime style thing, a more gaia kind of theme, a more modern theme, minimalistic *sp or what not.

I also think that for the member profiles we can either have active members write what they want or have an interview kind of thing, like the first feature of the website could be "Meet the members" or something corny like "Meet the elite" sweatdrop lol i duno, but that way we can have a sample art work from each person, just something to show their style, ask them a few questions like how they got started, what do they use, are they planning on getting a job in graphic design on anything like that. Instead of people just saying :

Hi i am ........ and i like to draw... YAY  

[SilverVixen]

I think the style issue is something we'll work through during the contest in... November? I think? Whatever you think might look good, mock it up (advertising slang wink ) and we'll see what we all like. And yeah, good idea about the meet the members thing. If we have profile pages, we'll always have a good intro for each member, so new members can get to know us better.

I was thinking about the issue that I know a few graphic designers, but a lot of them don't really want to get hooked on something like Gaia. So with the website, people that aren't members of Gaia can see what we're all about, and also send articles to the email account, if they would like to contribute. They could be like, honorary members or something. Or is that just too much? biggrin Plus, on the Yahoo group, we have a couple people that aren't in the guild, I think... and people not on Gaia could get on the yahoo group. As long as we feel like we can keep track of all the members, and what goes on in each area, I think that might work out well. I just want as many people as possible to be involved in this exciting endeavor!!! Woo!!  

[Skymon]

I think nonGaians being members is fine. Perhaps going through the site will get them to Gaia. wink

I also like the idea of using a contest as a way to decide on layout. But to make it a little more specific, maybe we should start a poll now on what general style people want. That way we'll have a lot of different but specific designs in the contest to choose from?  

[Chisa]

I definitely think we should be open to non-Gaians as well... this anime-ish site isn't for everybody wink The more active members, the better I say, even if they aren't from Gaia.

I guess to keep the profiles somewhat consistent, we could post a set of questions for people to answer, as well as asking to provide a sample of their work. And I like the 'Meet the Members' idea 3nodding

As for style... personally I'd prefer something a little more stylish than an anime layout... I dunno, I think it might trivialise what we're trying to do here in some way, and discourage people who aren't really anime fans from enjoying the site, since it will be open for everyone to see, not just Gaia members. I'd prefer to see photos, or a member's original artwork, featured on the site. But thats just me xd  

[Suubi]

If no one else has volunteered, I would be happy to code it, I love coding ^_^

Also, I think you already have someone providing webspace? If you don't or that falls through (or just need more space for storage) I have pretty much unlimited space/bandwidth because I have a server. I would be glad to host anything/everything/whatever...  

[myst_dragon]

It sounds like a good and fun idea.  

[Chisa]

Suubi

If no one else has volunteered, I would be happy to code it, I love coding ^_^

Also, I think you already have someone providing webspace? If you don't or that falls through (or just need more space for storage) I have pretty much unlimited space/bandwidth because I have a server. I would be glad to host anything/everything/whatever...

Thats great! We'll definitely be taking your offers into consideration. You won't have to do ALL the coding if you don't want to - we'll see how big this project gets.

Does anyone other than me have any preferences about the layout? Anyone have ideas for articles?

I think maybe we could put up the tutorials that have been done so far (in html form) for a more permanant record of them, especially as posts have been lost on Gaia before xp . The Photoshop Basics tutorial was a good one for people just starting out; is there anyone who could do similar tutorials for other programs used in GD (Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, Dreamweaver...)? I can use most of them, but my knowledge of them is not very broad sweatdrop

Also, should we give the site a name? The Gaian Graphic Designers Guild Site is kinda long and not very catchy... we need something cool sounding! I could run a quick mini-contest to see who can come up with the best name, and donate some gold as a prize xd What do you think?  

[Poma]

I was bored lol... blaugh  

[Chisa]

I want to start deciding on articles to include in the first issue of the site, but first I need to know who wants to be invloved, and what they can do.

If you're interested in being involved in the site, post saying:

a) Your area(s) of expertise
b) What kind of background you have in that area
c) How you think you could use that to contribute

Besides the tutorials, I want to see articles on customer interaction, going freelance, case study of a full project, personal experiences studying, stupid client quotes xd , reviews on GD programs, thoughts on the current wages for jobs in that area... to name a few.

Unfortunately I have no experience in any of those things, so if no one has any objections, I'll appoint myself editor and more knowledgable people can write the articles?

I'd say we should aim for the first issue to be out in January, and monthly from there? Just to give us time to properly prepare the first one.  

[Chisa]

Also, it might be a good idea to start collecting profiles. What kind of questions should we ask?

Name, age, location, area of expertise, skills, do you do commissions (real money/gaian gold), 3 thumbnails of examples (linking to the real thing), links to website(s) + some kind of picture representing you, whether its a screenshot of your gaia avatar, a photo, a self portrait, a photo of a monkey you think resembles you, whatever.

Anything I'm missing? We'll place restrictions on the size of all pictures and thumbnails, to make it nice and uniform throughout.  

[Raine Dragon]

I'm all for it, it sounds like allot of fun to me... I would be more than happy to help with anything anyone might want my help with... ^_^ oh! I guess I ought to introduce my self since I'm new ^_^ I'm raine and I am currently majoring in Mass Media > Web Design.  

[Chisa]

Raine Dragon

I'm all for it, it sounds like allot of fun to me... I would be more than happy to help with anything anyone might want my help with... ^_^ oh! I guess I ought to introduce my self since I'm new ^_^ I'm raine and I am currently majoring in Mass Media > Web Design.

Thats great! Is there anything specific you want to work on? Do you have a specialty? Do you have any ideas for articles?