crowdSPRING

Creative brief

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT US:

VideoNewsletters.com is a new division of BeTuitive Publishing. We focus on relationship-nurturing and ROI-driven custom business publications. Said another way, we're an outsource solution for company newsletters and magazines across the mediums of print, email, and video. Check out our websites at www.BeTuitive.com and www.VideoNewsletters.com.

HERE IS WHAT WE NEED:

Design for our Video E-Book. This includes:
-cover
-table of contents
-chapter title pages (including design around embedded video)
-font
-color palette
-icons: three small icons for defining sections of the book:
(1.Straight Talk 2.Real Life 3.Launch It)
-standard page layout for written content




OUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS:

Our target audience is marketing leaders at companies over $100 million in size (CMOs; EVP, SVP, VP and Director of Marketing; Marketing Managers). Our audience is the best of the best marketing professionals. We must hold the bar very high on quality of design.

WE LIKE THESE DESIGNS:

Of course we like our website design (www.VideoNewsletters.com) and this is where the video E-Book will be posted for sale. Disclaimer: The E-Book design does not necessarily have to follow the same design elements as our website, but should not conflict with our site.

We also like clean, simple designs that are elegant and cool. Please visit www.centresource.com and any apple website for design direction.

WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE (or we don't want to see) THIS IN OUR DESIGN:

Keep the sophistication of our audience in mind. We would be happy to give credit to your name in the E-Book.

Update 15-Nov-08, 7:10p.m. GMT

1. This project will have to draw on BOTH print and online design principals, as we clearly are positioning this project as a book, and expect that most readers will read on-screen due to the videos that introduce each chapter. PLEASE download the file and watch a couple of the videos -- the links are on each chapter page except chapter four -- in the post-design eBook these videos will be embedded in the document and will play right from within the PDF using Flash video. The videos are a short (30 seconds) and comedic introduction to the chapter topic. We've worked with professional comedians on the scripting and acting in the videos.

There will be some readers who print this eBook for reading, so the design will have to work both on-screen and off.

2. Three special sections of the book that need icons (1. Straight Talk 2. Real Life 3. Launch It) should also have some special design attention given to them so these sections easily stand out from the balance of the chapter content. We are working on additional content for these special sections right now and every chapter will have a Straight Talk and Real Life section, four of the eleven chapters will have a Launch It section.

3. Photos/purchased graphics -- If you choose to use photos or other graphical elements that are not wholly created by yourself please use media that is in the public domain and royalty free. If you fall in love with a particular photo or graphic that is not yours, we are open to licensing some pieces, but on the inexpensive end of the spectrum...maybe under $300 for the entire book, one-time cost.

Please email us with any additional questions.

Todd

Update 15-Nov-08, 10:09p.m. GMT

Title page:

As far as the videos that will be embedded in the title page of each chapter -- we are going to do that in-house. What we're requesting from this design project is that the space where the videos will be on those eleven chapter title pages be included in the design -- maybe that's simply a box, graphic or curtain around the square where we'll put the video.

I'll talk to our video person and add the dimensions for the video box on our Crowd Spring project.

So you don't have to know anything about video except that it is going to be the focus of those chapter title pages and the design should support it as such.

Questions for the chapter title page that come to mind for me are things like, based on default PDF/monitor resolution settings, should we strive to have the chapter title and subtitle small and close to the video so that they can be seen on screen at the same time as viewing the video or is it better without the distraction of words while the video is being watched? Should the video be first and large -- top of the page?, how can design promote and support the reader to watch the entire 30 second video before going on to read the chapter?

Update 16-Nov-08, 4:47a.m. GMT

Designing reading momentum

Can you design with reading momentum in mind? There must be a science of how to attract a potential reader to the cover of our eBook, draw their eye to the title and subtitle, have them build reading momentum through great font, headline and sub-headline use...and maybe most important of all, white space, all of this leads them smack dab into the first chapter title page video -- which makes them smile -- and then they turn the page, begin to skim, like usual, but their eye continually gets DRAWN in to the content due to the icons and overall clean design.

Success = the design makes our eBook hard to put down and people share it with others.

Update 16-Nov-08, 5:09p.m. GMT

The deliverable defined:
1 – 8.5” x 11” cover design
2 -- 8.5” x 11” table of contents design
3 -- 8.5” x 11” chapter title page design including the square for the video to be embedded later
4 -- 8.5” x 11” Standard page layout/design with header, footer, icons for Straight Talk, Real Life and Launch It call out sections to draw attention to these special content areas.
5 – brief write up about font style and size, color choices and special treatment of the Straight Talk, Real Life and Launch It call out sections

I’ll post a new example of the book with content for the Straight Talk, Real Life and Launch It call out sections.

Update 17-Nov-08, 5:28p.m. GMT

I just uploaded a new version of the book with the three sections that need the icons.

End of Chapter One has an example of a Straight Talk section
End of Chapter Two has an example of Real Life and Launch It

Here is the type of content that these three sections of the book represent.

WHAT TO EXPECT

You’ll see different icons throughout the book.

[insert Straight Talk icon here]:

I promise never to gloss over the tough parts of content marketing strategy in this book. Straight Talk boxes prepare you for the reality of custom publishing.

[insert Real Life icon here]:

Benefit from others’ experience. The real-life examples that appear in these boxes share other organizations’ trials and successes.

[insert Launch It! icon here]:

You know you should regularly communicate with customers and prospects, and you probably already have some solid ideas about what you want to do. The Launch It! questions help you articulate your publications’ goals, and sets you in the right direction for getting them off the ground.

Update 18-Nov-08, 3:19p.m. GMT

DELIVERABLE RE-DEFINED -- extra credit

To increase your chances (as it's easier for me to judge) please apply your design to the first ten pages of the book -- which may be from seven to eleven pages post-design. Upload each page as a separate entry so I can see them larger.

Thanks for your participation!

Todd

Update 19-Nov-08, 6:28p.m. GMT

Video box size/shape

The video ratio is 3:2 -- and the resolution is 720x480. The ideal size for the video box is probably around 6"x4". Any larger and it may get grainy, any smaller and readers/watchers won't be able to see as much detail.

Thanks,

Todd