New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Uncategorized Boards => General => Topic started by: Kyle on June 03, 2011, 07:24:12 AM
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Okay, this was an initiative that was proposed in the last fiscal year and it was not taken up, but I do think it is an important one, and now that our membership dues have gone up to $30/yr there is more in the treasury to accomodate this.
The issue is this: we want to promote FCBA, but whenever mentioning it to new people, there is no intro card to give out, and then you need to write down the info, which is not convenient or professional.
The standard minimum order for business cards is 250. Covey has the best quality-price ratio I have found in town, on good quality 110# cardstock for about $21 black and white or $42 colour. They are also cut rather than perforated.
This initiative failed to get member support last fiscal year since there was very little in the treasury, and membership largely wanted to make no expenses that were not directly related to brewing. I have come to realize that this is without a doubt a worthy expense in my opinion, and that it is directly related to brewing.
This is a minor expense relative to the current treasury balance. If this is approved by a simple majority vote of dues-paid members, we will get them printed and distribute them to members for handing out as appropriate.
This poll runs for one week.
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Vistaprint.ca has some sharpe and very inexpensive business cards not to mention you can design it with a big ol mug of beer on it !!!
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Dunno if it's been considered, but I figure JW has some contacts on this front ;)
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haven't asked him yet, will check that and Vistaprint
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Looks like the poll is pretty one sided, so in answer to all above, yes as my Father used to say "That is something I happen to know a little bit about".
Vista Print is a good idea for something like this, they imprint the back with an ad for themselves and the cards are damn near free, though they may upcharge our own artwork a bit, I'll have to go and take a look at the current setup there.
I also have a colour laser that can print on to 80# stock, and if you give me an idea of what you want on it, and send me any files you have I could do a mockup for the next meeting, then people can say if they think it's good enough. I have a cutter still, so I could do the whole thing, though the accuracy of the cut won't be as professional (it's not the $25,000 computerized cutter I had at my shop, god it was beautiful).
The reality is, that there are levels of image you project, and as long as it's not avery perf card, it becomes a matter of degrees.
The heavier stock you'd get from Vista is offset a bit by the advertising, full colour has a definite impact over one colour. Full Bleed (printing that goes right to the edge without a border) makes an impact as well. But everything is relative, and what is the purpose...
In my mind,
1. Spark an interest in potential members.
2. Made at a quality level, that they'll keep it.
3. A quality level that makes us look "serious", but not necessarily "professional", after all, we are still a club, not a business.
In this circumstance, that's it for me.
JW
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+1 to JohnWay
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+2 to John...
Would love to see a mockup John if you don't mind! We'd be fortunate to have John help us with this...
I have been wondering about a logo for our club as well - we should really have something shouldn't we? I'd like to put it on the paypal payment page as well... here is the image I used for the account I'm using for the treasurer:
https://profiles.google.com/u/0/100114464927309642330/about?tab=mh
Maybe one day when we have a bit more cash in the bank, we could make ourselves a banner to display at events - demonstrations, competitions (after the laws change), that sort of thing...
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Microsoft Office also has a feature that you can download a pile of templates for cards.
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What I need to know is:
1. What info do we wish to impart.
Is it simply a direction to the website where they can get more info, or more? Perhaps listing the value propositions of membership, contact info outside of the website, etc.
2. What is the font that you used for the header of the website, Richard? It's important to maintain a single image, the headline on the card should match the headline on the website...when they click here it's an immediate confirmation of being at the right place and provides a subliminal message that we have connected with them.
3. What images do we want to include on the card? A city skyline, something brewing related, something else entirely?
It is possible to (WITH THE RIGHT IMAGE) to overlay text on a full colour card, the city skyline at night or during the day with the text and beer related images over top is possible, but not necessarily desirable.
4. Is the mainline for the card "Fredericton Craft Brewing Association" or "Craftbrewing.ca"
JW
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Responding here:
1. (text supposed to be centered, *'s approximate card dimensions)
*****************************************
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* FREDERICTON CRAFT BREWERS ASSOCIATION
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* craftbrewing.ca
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* NB Homebrewers social and bulk-buying club
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*****************************************
Decorate corners with wheat, barley, hops and yeast pics/drawings
4. the latter.
my 2 cents anyways, interested in other suggestions
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So here is a 5 minute mockup, that matches the theme of the website, and is a starting point only.
No Graphics at this point of any kind except the banner from the website, and just some bullet lines to consider.
Design by committee generally doesn't work, so I'll probably stop paying any attention to you at some point, but for now, post away with any suggestions.
JW
(http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/43/26/63892643/photos/BizCard/FCBA%20Card%20Mockup%201.jpg)
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And before you say it, I note it's Brewers, not Brewing.
JW
On my way out geocaching for a few hours, so post away, I've not stopped ignoring you yet. :twisted:
JW
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looks good so far, maybe shorten that last point to "many other benefits"
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I can put the card together as per the mockup above if someone (JW) gives me the DPI + dimensions.
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I can put the card together as per the mockup above if someone (JW) gives me the DPI + dimensions.
Already in Corel, I can get if from there to any format.
Easier just to let me know the font for the craftbrewing.ca and I'll get it and get away from using the png file.
Any other graphics would be appreciated, though there is something elegant about the current simplicity.
JW
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At first I wanted graphics, but I actually like it the way it is.
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+1 on the simplicity / elegance thing. I'd actually be cool (in favour of) with a pure black/white job.
I'm going to try figure out the font I used, however I'm fairly sure there was post-processing done to do the outlines etc... Might have to give me DPI + size guidelines and I can shoot off a black + white version in the appropriate spec.
Ok, got it. It's called "Arnold Boecklin" and is available in various places via Google. Give me a shout if you're having trouble and I'll track you down a .ttf
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Very cool - I like it as well - is there any such thing as beer flavored card stock?
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ahahahahahahaa.
Maybe, one day, we have the chance to live in a world where you can drop a business card in some tap water and have a beer :D
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:lol:
And as soon as that happens BMC will find a way to make it consistently crappier!
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And here is another option...
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Brewing advice.
Tasting sessions.
That looks bloody excellent, though. Where did you get the medallion on the left?
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http://www.beerlabelizer.com/
It's one of their stock labels with our info, had to pull a couple of the old tricks out of the box to get it to a printable format that I could import, then had to pull another to get our font onto the label for the websitename. Overall looks pretty good though, and a nice subtle use of color. Used to do a bunch of these style and then do a grey screen of the label under the text, will see how that looks after I've got the label perfect.
JW
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Ok,
Added the other points, room for one or two more.
Did the funky greyscale background of the label.
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For some reason "all levels of home brewers" doesn't sit right in the grammar-nazi bit of my brain. I can't cite any rules or anything, but I think it should be "home brewers of all skill levels".
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Sure, by adding the word skill in the sentence we may mess with the jenga tower of layout, but if it gets wet and rainy tonight, work will go quiet, so I'll have a chance to mess with it some more, for now...it's off to keep the sky safe... :lol:
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Think we might be getting close here....
thoughts?
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I'm not really sure about the grayscale behind the text, otherwise looks really great, how about modifying the one line regarding home brewer levels to use the word at rather than of to deal with Richard's grammar concern?
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You'll have to see them printed to make a call on the greyscale, a monitor can't represent it correctly,
I had actually used exactly RB's rewording, and personally I'm in favour of the of over at, as at seems to me to feel a little condescending towards those who may feel they are at a lower skill level.
Don't know if I'm getting that point across right, try this...
I'm ok with being a brewer of a certain skill level, I don't feel like I 'have' to learn more to be a 'better' brewer, where when I read 'at' a skill level I feel like I'm down at that level and somehow inferior...does that make sense?
I think there are lot's of brewers of a certain level that are just fine and happy where they are, and they're welcome to join and stay right where they are without feeling like less of a brewer?
Of course maybe I'm just overly sensitive and parnoid, because I am still at a lower level than most of you guys.
JW
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Having played too many RPGs, I can't help but think of myself slaving over a full boil wort, and suddenly glowing gold for a moment with "LEVEL UP" displayed across the screen of my universe.
Anything we can do to appear non-condescending is a plus. I remember feeling like I didn't understand this shit, and the sooner anyone could move past that and into confident (but not misguided) efforts of brewing, the better. Perhaps a vote on alternatives would be suitable, because frankly this is not rocket science. We should be emphasising the fact that we can help people to make better beer. Nothing else.
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Having played too many RPGs, I can't help but think of myself slaving over a full boil wort, and suddenly glowing gold for a moment with "LEVEL UP" displayed across the screen of my universe.
:lol:
Anything we can do to appear non-condescending is a plus. I remember feeling like I didn't understand this shit, and the sooner anyone could move past that and into confident (but not misguided) efforts of brewing, the better. Perhaps a vote on alternatives would be suitable, because frankly this is not rocket science. We should be emphasising the fact that we can help people to make better beer. Nothing else.
I totally agree, and the first bullet point is really the only line on the card that has the potential to convey either a sense of welcoming acceptance of any skill level or a sense of condescending snobbishness which we all know is not the case, we just need the words to convey it right.
I will ask my non beer drinking writers in the family and see how they respond, but the idea of a vote's not a bad one, I just think it should probably be between the 3 execs; you guys decide and let me know.
JW
PS, other than the one semi-contentious word or line...I'll run couple of different proofs for the meeting on Saturday, with and without the greyscale, maybe a couple of different colors on the text, perhaps even a couple of different stocks if possible, and then people can see what they think.
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OK,
Writer #1 suggests changing up "Open to"...
Welcoming Home Brewers...
Regarding the at vs of, Writer#1 feels the real problem with the line is the words "skill levels"
As soon as there's a level there's an implicit judgment involved, so we need to take the level away from skill and make it experience levels.
That would make it "Welcoming Home Brewers of all experience levels"
That might be getting difficult for the poor typesetter to make it work, but Writer #1 doesn't care about that. :D
The other approach may be to simply remove all reference to levels entirely...
So, maybe just "Welcoming all Home Brewers"
Then the typesetter comes up with...
"Welcoming Novice and Experienced Home Brewers"
Now if Writer #2 ever gets her sorry assed lazy self out of bed, we'll ask her, too.
JW
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First, this card looks fantastic...
While my preferences are not very strong one way or the other, I guess I would vote for "Welcome to all Home Brewers" - however I would also be happy with either of the other options as well...
I love this logo - John, could I get a 72 dpi jpeg of it for the fcba.nb google account?
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John, you are working wonders here.
I completely agree that we want to project an image of helpfulness and avoid looking snobby.
I like the use of "experience" rather than "skill level"
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I'll get you a copy of the logo as soon as I've done the final tidying of it, no problemo.
I'm really starting to like the Welcome and the experience.
JW
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John, you are working wonders here.
I completely agree that we want to project an image of helpfulness and avoid looking snobby.
I like the use of "experience" rather than "skill level"
Agreed that the club doesn't want to come off as snobby on the business card.
For most people, the first thing they will do when they get the card is go see the site.
We then want them to subscribe by creating a username and then become a member.
Personnally, I think the topic in the forum labelled "Beer Recipes: Extract (Beginner)" is snobby.
There are all kinds of methods to brew and some people have been doing it the same way for years. Just because some folks are not all-grain doesn't mean they're beginners and they may change and they may not change.
It's a numbers game. For example: give out 100 cards, 20 will go to the site and 7 might become members. We don't want to scare any potential new members once they've made it to the site.
5 cents.
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good point, lets drop the bracketed beginner and advanced words in the recipes forums
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Kyle, you'll recall your choice of wording there was because you did a beginner's demo using extract. The intent wasn't to permanently tie "extract" to "beginner", but rather to draw in those people who attended the demo with promises of tractable brewing within their reach.
It's probably redundant now, though; I'll change it over.
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Richard is right, but, overall, it has been switched to avoid the possibility of snobishness.
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Should change All-grain to All Grain (WTF? I gotta GRIND this?) ;)
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Should change All-grain to All Grain (WTF? I gotta GRIND this?) ;)
Had a friend of mine in disbelief the other day - he couldn't believe the effort we go to in pursuit of awesome beer :D
To me, it's not even that much effort now. Grinding takes a few minutes if you have the right tools for the job, and you're left with perfectly fresh non-slack grain. Hard to imagine doing it any other way, really.
JW: How we doing on the card front?
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Had to change top line to make it fit.
Was going to print a few samples for this Saturday.
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How about just "All" instead of "Novice & Experienced" ? :P
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How about just "All" instead of "Novice & Experienced" ? :P
Other than messing up the flow of the text which looks great now, sure...You 3 can decide and let me know.
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I'm just dicking around, it's fine.
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looks great!!!
I like the "novice and experienced" thing, it makes it seem welcoming and accessible to everyone.
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Absolutely - would like to get my hands on some of these! Need to send some to our suppliers as well...
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One very small thing, I see that there is first letter caps on most of the lines, except one, lets do it on all of them.
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One very small thing, I see that there is first letter caps on most of the lines, except one, lets do it on all of them.
Good catch Kyle,
JW