posted 07-03-2003 06:44 AM               

Greg, I think Susanka's method of promoting her ideas about design is a good one for her, but not necessarily for us. She is an architect who is also an author with several published books to her credit. I happen to know (having been an aspiring author, myself) that publishing a book is a very long, difficult and expensive way to get the word out. What I've suggested, and what Rous and Whitespike seem to be in agreement on really is the best, least costly and fastest way for us to realize our goals.

I like Whitespike's idea of putting brochures or flyers in modern furniture stores. It might be just as effective, and maybe even cheaper to place a small ad in some of the online design magazines, too. Once I have a few orders for plans, myself, I intend to place an ad in Dwell, and possibly Modernism Magazine, as well. Both would be a good place to advertise our website.

I guess, if we're all agreed on this, the next step is deciding exactly what we're going to do, and who will be responsible for what. Obviously, I think a portion of it falls into my lap, since it was my idea, but I have no problems with sharing and delegating tasks. This isn't an ego massage for me, it's a means of helping to promote modernist housing.

Newmod, you know how much a mailing list costs? Just one, even for a small circulation publication, can cost thousands. I agree it would be ideal if we could get our hands on at least one such list, but, I'm afraid te gatekeepers aren't letting us in without paying for it, and paying quite a bit, too. Modernism would be the cheaper of the two, between them and Dwell. Still, it would be quite an investment. It's one I would be more than willing to make, though, if I had the money for it, myself. Are any of you up for splitting the costs? I have to say, I'm not in a good position to do much right now.

Gary

[This message has been edited by GaryR50 (edited 07-03-2003).]

posted 07-06-2003 08:25 AM               

Before any long-range planning of a vehicle by which to promote the creation of modernist housing developments can occur, there needs to first be more modernist home design to promote. In other words, I need to focus on getting my designs market-ready first. So, maybe in a year or two, we'll be in a better position to launch this idea, eh?

Gary

posted 07-07-2003 07:31 AM               

1. a web page. Gary, how much does yours cost?

2. Someone to design it (it would have to take information from people and developers when they register).

3. Organize the data and maintain it. I assume the data could be dumped into a database for analysis and publication on the web page.

It could get fancier if we took in money from advertisers (like Gary and Greg).

posted 07-07-2003 07:31 AM               

Perhaps we do need to wait. But just for fun, what would it take?

1. a web page. Gary, how much does yours cost?

2. Someone to design it (it would have to take information from people and developers when they register).

3. Organize the data and maintain it. I assume the data could be dumped into a database for analysis and publication on the web page.

It could get fancier if we took in money from advertisers (like Gary and Greg).

You know. Five years ago we could have taken this idea (ModernHousing.com) and raised $40m.

posted 07-07-2003 07:13 PM               

To answer your points:

1. Nothing, zilch, nadda, zippo. I love free sites.

2. I've got all the tools and have designed several sites, though I'm sure there are those who could do it better (Incubus?).

3. No real database management required, here. Just periodic updates, which, again, I could do.

Yep, as far as the website itself goes, there is no cost to speak of. What I was referring to, though, is the cost of getting our hands on Dwell's (and others) mailing list. That would be prohibitively expensively (unless Allison can cut us a sweet deal. Wink, hint, hint).

posted 07-08-2003 02:40 PM               

Gary

posted 07-09-2003 05:55 AM               

I think to really get this thing going the cheaper and more feasible methods should be focused on. Do them and do them well, is my advice. Even printing flyers would be expensive.

Here are a few ideas:

If you want we could have a design contest for the flyer that would be used by the organization. Just a thought...I don't know who the judges would be. I would be willing to put my ego on the line to join the contest, as my background is in graphic design.

Another idea: On the page we could include a few photos of prefabs that are about ready or some of Gary and Greg's work. It could be something like, "Did you know you can afford a modern home to house your modern furniture?" Kind of a play between Gary's and my idea for slogans. We could put the images of a few companies/designers who would pay for the ad space, which would pay for the printing.

After this is done, we can divide up the flyers among board members depending on their city size and how many modern stores they have that would be willing to participate. I am willing to pass them out, even if I don't win the contest

posted 07-09-2003 10:35 AM               

The flyer idea is a good one, too. We could take the file for the winning entry send copies of it to everyone who is going to distribute flyers. They can then print it out on their own desktop printers and distribute it locally. We'd need to use the same software, or several programs that can share files, though. I have a ton of graphics software, myself, including Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, and MS Publisher, among them. We don't have to spend money on printing if we can use desktop output. It doesn't have to be really slick output, though I can acheive that on one of my two printers.

P.S.: one program I'm sure most of us have is MS Word, which can also be used to do a flyer. A Word .doc file would be compatible enough for most, if not all of us to use. Well, maybe not Greg, since he's a Mac guy.

Gary

posted 07-09-2003 11:46 AM               

A decent 100 dollar printer would print well, and it will look good as long as the design itself is good.

The only thing I don't like about making it a PDF is most graphic designers will probably use Illustrator or another vector program. Making it a PDF, even at high resolution, makes it a bitmap image. This is not as high in quality as a vector, but all in all, would be fine. Probably the best choice for mass use.

posted 07-09-2003 06:25 PM               

I just discovered Photoshop can save in PDF format, though. It also does both text and graphics.

I just tried it out. Since, when you add text to an image file in Photoshop, it can only be saved as PSD, I first created a JPEG file in Corel PhotoPaint, then opend that in Photoshop and saved it as a PDF: http://www.modern-home-design.com/test.pdf

Gary

posted 07-09-2003 07:52 PM               

I think the main points to stress are:

1. National Modernist Housing Network (by the way, I'm open to suggestions for a better name, if you have one) is a network of architects, home designers, builders, developers and homebuyers who share a common interest in the market for modernist houses.

2. Membership is free and is open to anyone who designs, builds or desires to own modernist houses.

3. Anyone may sign up for their free membership at the NMHN website (we'll need to find a free business host for this).

4. Membership includes a free subscription to the monthly NMHN email newsletter.

Any other ideas, suggestions?

posted 07-10-2003 08:53 AM               

I did not mean that it WOULD bitmap. I meant it becomes a bitmap image. All PDF images are bitmap images.I realize that they can still be printed in high quality, I just meant the vector images will become bitmap images.

Gary:

Jpegs are lower in printing quality. You are adding extra steps that are not needed. Simply save as a normal photoshop document so you can go back and change things as you wish. But also flatten the image into one layer and the image will save as a PDF. The reason it will not do it with a text layer is because PDF's must be a one layer image. It will be a higher quality than using a Jpeg.

If you work in Illustrator you can save a copy of the work as a Photshop document. Then you can open it in Photoshop and save as a PDF.

Always save the original for changes before you flatten of course!

posted 07-10-2003 10:05 AM               

I also have InDesign, which saves .pdf files beautifully and I can create a flyer relatively quickly. Heck — I can post it on my own site if you want to - not that anyone looks at it.

Also - you can save different versions of .pdf's suitable for screen viewing or printing or any gradient in between.

Check here for an example of a InDesign Document I did saved as a .pdf http://www.eiu.edu/~alumni/events/cubs03.pdf

So - if you need anything along these lines, lemme help, lemme help!

posted 07-10-2003 12:04 PM               

I didn't realize that. Thanks for ending the "Great PDF" debate.

posted 07-10-2003 12:35 PM               

I like ModNet - by the way. Very - uh - mod. :^)

posted 07-10-2003 01:09 PM               

Hmmm...maybe I'm misunderstanding you, Christy, but the main advantage of the PDF format is that, once you've created a PDF, it can't be altered. So, how could you select elements within a PDF and "adjust" them? The PDF format's strength is that is great for issuing copyrighted materials; the very thing you DON'T want people altering.

About the name issue, no, we certainly don't want to use "professional" or "professionals" anywhere in the name. This has to be clearly for everyone who is interested in modernist houses: architects, designers, builders, developers, AND consumers who are looking for modernist houses. Otherwise, we wind up with a bunch of "pros" just talking to each other and getting nowhere nearer to making the public aware of what we're doing. So, here a few suggestions. I'm shooting for quantity, here. We'll narrow it down. See what you think:

Modernist Housing Association (MHA)

Modernist Housing Coalition (MHC)

Modernist Houses For Everyone (MHFE)

People For Modernist Housing (PFMH)

Modernist Housing Institute (MHI)

Modern House Project (MHP)

Then, something less "formal":

ModHouse

ModArch

ArchMod

Project MOD

MOD

MODhaus

Anyone have some others?

Gary

posted 07-10-2003 01:52 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by GaryR50:
Hmmm...maybe I'm misunderstanding you, Christy, but the main advantage of the PDF format is that, once you've created a PDF, it can't be altered. So, how could you select elements within a PDF and "adjust" them? The PDF format's strength is that is great for issuing copyrighted materials; the very thing you DON'T want people altering.

---

Indeedy you are misunderstanding me - what I am saying is that as a designer I can save different versions of the same flyer - one for the purpose of printing out (better quality and a bigger file size - for printing an posting at shops, etc.) and save one that is intended for computer screen viewing (smaller resolution and smaller file size - loads quicker- e-mail it to all your friends,e tc.).

And Photoshop 4 is ancient, too, by the way. Best leave the flyer design to cnoise or me, if we get that far. It would be alot easier and quicker with our updated programs. Stick to the house deigning, darn it!

Oh - and how about ModAbode? Ok - that sucks. Nevermind.

:: christy ::

posted 07-10-2003 05:36 PM               

Again, I think we should have a design contest here to determine the designer of the flyer. I might give it a shot as well, and yes my degree is in graphic design.

posted 07-10-2003 09:01 PM               

Whitespike, I'm not sure what you mean by "flatten." all I did, in my test.pdf example was open an existing image file in Corel PhotoPaint, add text, save it as a JPEG, then open it in Photoshop 4 and save it as a PDF. PhotoPaint automatically merges the text with the background image, without any loss of quality, when you save it.

Really, I don't care who does the graphic design, as long as it's good.

Gary

posted 07-11-2003 04:33 AM               

As far as a design contest goes, I think it's a great idea. The more contributions the better. In the end, everyone has to agree on a focused message for any design piece to be sucessful. This message should also carry over to any website that may be done. There should also be a design continuity to everything. Like the message, this to would be agreed upon by everyone involved.