Design/Marketing

Posted by lowVocal on March 13, 2008 at 3:10pm

Hi everyone,

(I've moved this post from an earlier sub-thread.)

When the time is right I can work with the group to come up with a design for the marketing artwork.
The components aren't entirely clear, but these are probably necessary:

-- KF/GDO Proposal graphic
-- Banner for GDO
-- color palette for KF and GDO shared ID.
-- Wording presentation outlining the shared objectives
-- Type

I'd like to help create an identifiable and uniform graphic language and image that can be shared by GDO and KF and that can serve as a recognizable entry point for people submitting proposals.

A couple of questions:

-- What is there to add or change in the above list?
-- Other than on GDO and KF where/how might these graphic elements be used? (potential larger marketing audience)
-- What sizes might this KF/GDO graphic need to be? (banner, sidebar element, email bug...)
-- Is there any theming required or possible for submission forms? (UI and form design elements...)

Looking forward to working to help turn this out with everyone.

Comments

Sounds great, thanks for

Posted by johndbritton on March 14, 2008 at 7:37pm

Sounds great, thanks for volunteering.

I can't answer all your questions but I can tell you what I know.

I'd see this being used on the g.d.o site, possibly on the d.o site too once we have everything up and running. Also I'd say that we would want to submit to as many social networking sites and possibly /. and other sites that can drive traffic and increase the number of proposals. We should hold off on that stuff until we're ready to accept a flood of proposals.

--
http://www.johndbritton.com

Where else it might be used

Posted by Maurreen on March 15, 2008 at 4:35am

Possibly it could be used at journalism sites and schools. Knight had posters for its News Challenge.

Journalism sites and schools, yes

Posted by lowVocal on March 15, 2008 at 2:45pm

Good idea.

It would be great to know where KF has a recognized and targeted presence already -- no need to dig out a brand identity where one already exists. J-schools, other schools, other news-center foundations... and?

This understanding would help us appreciate Knight's brand focus relative to audience, and to shape the presentation.

KF's Journalism Funding Priorities

Posted by garykebbel on March 15, 2008 at 3:38pm

Knight Foundation is journalism's largest philanthropic funder in the U.S. We have a huge brand identity in high school and college journalism, as well as professional journalism organizations. The educational and professional journalism worlds know us well. Our goal now is to reach way beyond that. We want the technology world's help in achieving one of our our ultimate goals: Bridging the technological digital divide (access) and the knowledge digital divide (barriers to entry). We want to vastly improve the information flow for communities in a democracy. Democracies can't function without information. So, help us easily enable everyone to express their ideas and comment on the ideas of others. Help us create the conversations that strengthen geographic communities.

Knight Foundation's journalism program funding priorities are detailed here, and below are some specific examples of our digital media grants:

The University of Maryland’s J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism leads the effort. J-Lab administers three programs that involve new forms of media: www.j-lab.org

The Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism: The awards honor both professionals and citizen journalists who use digital media to help people better understand public issues. www.j-lab.org/batten.shtml

New Voices: Seeds community news experiments. www.j-newvoices.org

Knight Citizen News Network : A one-stop training center for citizen journalists and a showcase for all of Knight’s online training endeavors. www.kcnn.org

Our partners working to advance news in the public interest include:

Poynter Institute: Poynter hosts News University, e-training for journalists. www.newsu.org

News 21 : Four top journalism schools produce investigative reports by top-notch students distributed in innovative ways. www.newsinitiative.org

Stony Brook University: The school is educating a new generation of news consumers with a News Literacy course. www.sunysb.edu/journalism

University of Alabama : The school offers a master’s degree in community journalism, taught inside a working newspaper, The Anniston Star. www.comj.ua.edu

Center for Public Integrity : The center produces Investigative journalism in the public interest. www.publicintegrity.org

Online News Association : ONA presents the Knight Public Service Award. www.journalist.org

Syracuse University : The school hosts TracFed, a government database tracking federal spending, court decisions and agency actions. www.tracfed.syr.edu

PBS Engage : This effort is transforming PBS.org into a more interactive web site. www.pbs.org

Online NewsHour : The program is transforming into a more widely accessible, interactive, multi-platform web site that appeals to younger audiences. www.pbs.org/newshour

The Paley Center for Media : The center explores alternative economic models for independent documentaries and other investigative journalism. www.paleycenter.org

Gary Kebble's Keys to Branding/Marketing KF/GDO

Posted by lowVocal on March 15, 2008 at 4:41pm

Gary's comment is key , to targeting, focus and messaging. Great.

It greatly sharpens our focus:

One sentence:
"Our goal: ...We want the technology world's help in achieving one of our our ultimate goals: Bridging the technological digital divide (access) and the knowledge digital divide (barriers to entry)."

While this is not quite a tag-line, it refines the message considerably and will help us arrive at one and at a more focussed message.

Clarifying in our minds the brand landscape (the above links) will help us target the message and improve how it is heard and responded to. These links push us way down the road in that effort.

I'll take a look at each of these links to get a feel for the overall landscape.