New logo for Community Connections

The decision was made today, our community group choose from the five logo concepts we provided yesterday.

And the winner is:

information hub, pōhutukawa, connection, abstract, organic, dynamic, delicate, strong, clean, warm, elegant, modern

We can't wait to apply this logo on business cards, homepage, just everywhere.

Community Connections

We feel that it is time to give an overview about the project developments.

• The new name of the North Shore Community and Social Services Inc. will be “Community Connections”. This new name really reflects the essence of the organization.
• We sent 5 logo concepts today at 9am to our community group to choose. After they decide which logo to use, they have to get the approval of the government board. Hopefully the decision will go through in the next two days.
• We will have a meeting tomorrow morning where we are going to present the new website which is around 80% in the development phase. We have to add/change some colors according to the new image and test all the integrated functions.
• We are also planning to present the “power of PDF”, and how they can generate and modify them in acrobat. It can be a very important tool for their publications.
  
• After we get the approval from the government board for the logo, we create the new business card, letterhead and some publication templates in the next few days.

We find that these face-to-face meetings with the community group are essential. On these occasions we are able to explain, show and teach them all these new digital solutions, so they could overcome the anxiety about the unknown territories, and can give us an instant feedback.

Initial Brief - excerpts

Here are some excerps from the initial brief.
Video post follows if it gets the approval from our yMedia mentor.

Identified goal (of yMedia project)

• New name and image for the organisation
  (old name: North Shore Community and Social Services Inc.)
  
• Apply the new image online/offline
  
• Improve online presence

Typical client/target audience

• Community groups + organisations
• Government departments – local & central

Possible/discussed digital solutions/options

• Switching to electronic publishing process
• Electronic library from the previous NSCSS publications
• Improving the web presence

Proposed Solutions

• Creating a new name and logo, apply new design to stationary, business cards, publications
• Switch from print publishing to electronic publishing of the 'Community Recources' booklets and the monthly newsletter
• Building a PDF library from the existing publications
• Restructure, and redesign the website using tools like blog, tags, archive, RRS feed, comments, etc.

Technology to be used

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Wordpress

Timeline – Dates

30/07 Logo concepts – decision – forwarding concept to govt. board
31/07 business card and letterhead
02/07 presenting new website – CMS education
04/08 PDF Library, electronic publishing education
05/08 Publishing templates (newsletter, publication cover pages)
06/08 Manuals for the website and for the print templates
07-08/08 Time for unexpected difficulties

Briefing workshop

It was amazing, just as I was hoping.

Yes, I love the harbor, and modern architecture so I felt at home in the Microsoft (/HP) building.

And the magic happened there, as promised, for real. It was a very intense experience because everybody in that room was so committed and motivated to help and being helped out. This is how the yMedia challenge works. It is the smartest thing I was involved for a long time.

If I had a couple of seconds to look around, it was very inspiring to see all the other groups taking care of business, having real dialogues with their community group. This environment is so special, it brings the best out of me and the people around me.

I dedicate this post for all of us who experienced this miracle there Thursday afternoon. Keep up the good work guys!

The Clutch Team table next to us. It was amazing to see them communicate.


Interaction and commitment.


Real conversations to improve our social environment.

Sorry, the images about DigitalFix were all blured because they were so active and dynamic. Pelease send me some images guys!

We ate all the chocolate, 'cos we needed all the energy :)

Excited!

I'm off to the Briefing Workshop, I am very excited!
See you there guys!

First meeting in Takapuna

We got the pleasure to meet our community group contacts on the sunny Monday afternoon in Takapuna.

Our community group, the North Shore Community and Social Services Inc. is a co-ordinating council for community groups that aims to enhance and promote the community development process and empower community groups to better serve their communities. It was formed in 1972. It is one of 55 Councils of Social Service affiliated to the New Zealand Council of Social Service based in Wellington. They work like an information hub and connect the other groups together.

They provide services like community development advising, they create publications and information resources, they organize workshops, seminars and keep the information flow trough printed and emailed newsletters.

We met two amazing ladies who make all these things happen: Lesley Farmer executive officer and Melinda Greshoff resource coordinator.

We had a long and very inspirational conversation. We had the opportunity to get to know this fantastic organization, their needs and the challenges they face. We realized that we really can help them with so many things … we wish the challenge would be at least 4 weeks.

It is very motivating and inspiring to know that our help can effect all the other community groups as well through the North Shore Community and Social Services.

We started to form a brief, and after the meeting Kevin and me sat down on the beach to put together the first to do lists. Can’t wait to meet again on the briefing session to define all the details on Thursday.

Lesley Farmer executive officer, Kyle Meszaros from the OpenEyes team, Melinda Greshoff resource coordinator and Kevin Cooper also with Open Eyes

It's ON

Hi everyone, this is the official blog of Team OpenEyes.

We are finalists in yMedia Challenge 2008. Our aim is to document step by step our attempt to help the group North Shore Community and Social Services to retool their image and communication.

My team mate Kevin Cooper and me Kyle Meszaros are very exited about the challenge and we feel that we are already winners just with the opportunity of the participation.

We also started a Facebook group to support our cause, please join us to our journey.