Guild Refresh! Come post your ideas

[Chisa]

I'm outta here on a big holiday in less than two weeks, so I'm afraid a lot of these plans will have to be put on hold til 2007 sweatdrop Anyway, I've done some thinking and here's what I've come up with.

I've thought about what defines us, what we hope to achieve with the guild. Here's them 'aims' I've decided on. Sounds a lot like school huh? xd Hope that's not too offputting.

- to provide an environment for members to discuss design issues, trends and other relevant subjects

- allow members to give and receive detailed and constructive feedback on each other's design work

- give members intending to pursue a career in design related fields advice on courses, careers, portfolios, networking etc

- gather and promote useful design resources and sources of inspiration

- challenge and inspire members with regular projects suitable for professional portfolios

Anything missing there?

Keeping that in mind, here's my plan for the future, in phases cos phases are just cool:

Phase One
This phase is basically setting things up so when all the members are contacted and come back they have something interesting and new to see!

- update outdated stickies
- promote more discussion
- set up subforums
- start up logo contest
- crew recruitment thread

Phase Two
Here we concentrate on contacting and keeping our current members

- send out reminder/newsletter with Miss GD and gather all interested on her friends list
- encourage input on more ideas for the guild refresh
- encourage more discussion
- hire a new crew
- promote the logo contest

Phase Three
Branding and getting the guild all in top shape!

- decide on a logo, via the contest
- create graphics using the new logo for the front page, button and official threads - perhaps another contest?

Phase Four
Further promotion and reaching out to new members

- Advertise in Registered Guilds
- Encourage members to use banners in signatures, threads etc (maybe for a bribe?)
- Find some affiliates in art guilds, other design guilds, profile guilds...

Phase Five
Future projects once we have the guild all nice and busy again

- a guild newsletter profile would be cool!
- guild website?
- collaborative projects?  

[miigiro]

*BRAVO* Yay Chisa! I like the plan! I love the plan! I absolutely love phases! Yay! YES! I LOVE IT! Have a nice trip, and we'll get things started anew 2007!  

[Chisa]

Hooray! Any suggestions or additions at all, just let me know ^_^

The important thing for the moment is to keep some discussion going so the guild doesn't look all neglected when the new users come back! So um... just keep up the good discussion!

In terms of subforums, I'm thinking of a few changes:

- Crew subforum stays
- Contests -> 'Challenges' or something to that effect
- Tutorials & Resources to stay
- Critiques and Suggestions to stay
- Design Digest -> Career and Portfolio Discussion

For the challenges forum, I thought for each new 'challenge' or project or whatever we decide to call it (ideas?) the person handling it would start a thread with some background info, links to useful resources for it and possibly a short tutorial. Discussion and ideas for that project can go in that thread. When members finish their submission to it they then create a new thread in that subforum for it where people can post their feedback. As well as the most recent project being stickied we'd have an archives thread, so people can go back and do previous ones they might have missed. No time limit, no pressure, just do them at your pace and get some feedback ^_^

I really like the Design Digest but I think it would do better in the main forum - if all the good stuff is in the subforums then the first impression of the guild in the main forum isn't as good. So maybe the main forum can be for discussing all design related issues, including the kind of content in the Design Digest currently?

Career Discussion would obviously have more of a careers and business orientation, with ideas for getting jobs, conduct in interviews, resources for writing good CVs, portfolio suggestions etc.

Sound okay? I need to get Silver's okay on this, so I sent her a message to come take a look over things ^_^  

[SilverVixen]

Oh wow this looks so awesome! Thanks Chisa for outlining the goals and phases!!

I think having indepth discussion in the main forum is a good idea.

The "challenges instead of contests" idea is great as well. I think there are a lot of potential projects we can do to help people improve their design skills.

We're going to start rearranging the subforums, so forgive any mess that ensues from switching threads between subforums. smile

There will most likely be a few changes between now and the end of the year, and then once the new year is here we'll really start revamping the guild! Any help and/or suggestions are appreciated, so get involved!!

Thanks so much everyone.

Happy Holidays! heart  

[Chisa]

Chisa's back!

Hokay, looks like Silver's done the subforums! Now to continue with Phase one biggrin

I'll discuss the contest and crew recruitment with Silver (and GhoSt if he's around...), but what we really need you guys to do if you can is generate some discussion. In the main forum is good so it makes a good first impression, but I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff that should go in the subforums too. I know its hard with just a few people around, but we need to bring the activity level of this guild back up so when new people come they don't think its dead and leave sad

Thanks everyone who's stuck around! And start thinking about whether you'd like to become a crew member, because we'll be sorting that out soonish.  

[Kitten Puff]

A guild Colage? Sorry if I spelt it wrong. sweatdrop

It would contain everyone making graphics, and us putting them together. It could go on the front page if we do it? Group activity.  

[miigiro]

Already, let's get things astart! biggrin  

[GhoSt-X]

ill stay out of anything to do with designing graphics .. but if you need me you know where to find me =P  

[Krystal_digitaliS]

I was thinking, once we have the new crew, maybe someone could do a little drawing of each of their avatars and chuck it in a banner, just to make our guild look pretty, and we could have it on a welcome page so new members think we're friendly ^.^  

[CrZyJ0E]

Krystal_digitaliS

I was thinking, once we have the new crew, maybe someone could do a little drawing of each of their avatars and chuck it in a banner, just to make our guild look pretty, and we could have it on a welcome page so new members think we're friendly ^.^

Yeah i agree with her. I mainly agree because when joining you guys seem very strict. You could be scaring away members.Well it sounded strict to me when I joined at 5:00 am.  

[miigiro]

Ahah, now that I think of it, it does sound strict. But it's that way for reasons, good reasons. I would rather be in a guild that's strict and organized rather than a guild that's loose and lets everything just fly around. But anyways, the ideas good. Maybe for the front page, there could be a quick drawing of all the crew members. That'll be so cute! biggrin I'm willing to help all I can, just let me know. We all have busy lives, so a little helping hand here and there helps a bunch.  

[CrZyJ0E]

Well on the front page they could state that whier strict and not sound as strict as they do now. I also think some graphics that are eye catchy, because that one computer one is ok but more should be with it. Its like 1 graphic is representing this guild. We should have some 3d models some animations and stuff all things that'll show them whats instore. I think this will help alot.  

[Rika-Rutei]

Though I'm not very active, I plan on comming more here.

My suggestion is to bring back the newsletter. It had lots of fantastic tutorials and it was simply amazing. I keep checking back every few months if it's back, but I can't seem to find it.  

[Chisa]

@Kitten: A collage? That could be a really fun group activity, I'll keep it in mind for later down the track ^_^

@GhoSt: Alrighty, I'll bring you in when we need you for organisy type stuff xd

@Krystal: Hrmm... I think since our guild is more interest based than social based we should keep a professional branding that says more what we're about than who we are sweatdrop I'd prefer to see some nicely done graphics and a guild logo up there than avatar art.

@Joe: I think the strictness is important - ideally we'd like to have people who have a passion and strong interest for graphic design, not people who want to chat - this isn't the place for that. I know that's not what you mean, but I'd like to make sure the people who come in really want to be here. We don't have any shortage of members really - what we need is some more activity from our existing ones.

@Carolina: We'll definitely have to resurrect that, probably in the form of a journal on Gaia ^_^ What kind of content would you be interested in seeing in it?

Silver and I are working on the logo contest and staff recruitment, so you should see those up soon!  

[miigiro]

Sounds good. I'm here, I'm in, contact me for anything!