A Book is Judged by the Cover: Design and Communications Workshop

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the communications workshop at the Growing Local Conference last weekend.  Here is the list of resources we went over along with some suggestions that you made.  Also coming out of that discussion we had a few suggestions to start conversations about low tech ways of communicating and also a conversation about internet service providers in different parts or rural and northern Manitoba, so if you have anything to say on those subjects please make a comment on the blog and if we get some interest we will start a new blog for each topic.

Free Stock Photos

Pictures are essential for good communications documents. A picture is worth a thousand words. Good photographs will go a long way to communicating what you do, so making sure that you have a camera or volunteer photographer kicking around is a great idea! Sometimes though you don’t have the right photo for a poster or pamphlet and stock photos can come in really handy. Free stock photos can be found at Free Digital Photos and Domain Photos. There are also a number of good sites that charge a small about for photos.  Photos for credit can be found at Stock Xchng, Every Stock Photo and 123 Royalty Free.

Media, Design and Communications Related Workshops in Winnipeg

There are some good workshops in Winnipeg in regards to communication and design/print making.

Volunteer Manitoba

Has a number of media workshops such as:                                                                                                                           Partnerships in Publicity – March 10, 12-1, Persuasive Writing – March 15, 9am-noon, Making the News – March 23, 9am-4pm

For Information Contact Delores Jansen, Ph: 477.5180 ext 221 (toll free) 888.922.4545, delores.jansen@volunteermanitoba.ca

Red River College

Often has continuing ed classes in design and small business management and many of them are available through distance ed.

The University of Winnipeg

The University of Winnipeg also has a continuing Education Division, which does full diplomas and programs as well as one day courses on how to deal with the media etc.

The Winnipeg Leisure Guide

Spring 2011 guide is coming out on March 3rd, there are often courses related to photography and design software etc.

Canadian Community Economic Development Network

The Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network has great workshops.

Martha Street Studio

Martha Street studios often has workshop on design and printmaking, which would be helpful especially in poster making.

Canadian Manitoba Business Service Centre

The Canadian Manitoba Business Service Centre has a number of great workshops across the province.

Fonts

Designers often use new fonts in their work. Most design software of word processing software has a list of fonts already available, but you can search the websites below and find new and exciting fonts like, AMPUTA , American Typewriter, Fineliner, League Gothic, nasalization, Tall Films and more! Installation is easy and instructions can be found on each of the websites. DaFonts, My Fonts and Font Squirrel are some of our favourites.

Surveys

Your organization may at times want to have a web-based survey that people can fill out. There are many easy to use, free or cheap survey tools on the Internet. Survey Gizmo, Survey Monkey and Stellar Survey are a few that are usually free for small surveys.

E-mail Newsletters

E-newsletters are another great communications tool and they don’t have to be difficult to make. Both Constant Contact and Mad Mimi allow you to send out an attractively designed e-newsletter without needing to have computer design skills.

Information Sharing

Many people use google documents to share documents with other people in their organizations. You have to have a google e-mail address to use google docs, but there are some great tools on it including the ability to make form fillable order forms that will then create a spreadsheet of your orders for you.

Another tool for file sharing is drop box.  It is especially is you have large files that cannot be e-mailed

Posters

Seripop, Grain Edit and Poster Cabaret are all websites that will inspire you to make the poster of your dreams.

Scheduling

Doodle is a scheduling website where people can go online and list their availability. It makes it easier to plan a meeting or event that more people can attend.

Website Development

Pamela Habing was gracious enough to provide us with the amazing website development handout that she came up with for her Website workshop at Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art.

E-mail Addresses

Sometimes when you send an e-mail around to a large group of people the spam detector on the e-mail server thinks that your message is spam and moves the message into the trash or spam folder. To avoid this happening you can use an e-mail list service provider, such as YMLP, that helps you to avoid some of the problems that arise when sending group e-mails.

Listserves and Groups

Listserves and groups can help you more easily and efficiently communicate with a set group of people. Rise up provides great web tools for activist and alternative organizations.

Online Tutorials

There are many online tutorials showing you how to do things. Lynda has great tutorials that you can access for a monthly fee. They will show you how to use design software, but you can also just search for free tutorials online through YouTube and Adobe Tv.

Miscellaneous

Physical Resources

The University of Manitoba has a free store called Re-Shop. They often have office equipment , including computers, which are made available first to University Departments, then students and Manitoba Charities and then to the general public.  The University of Winnipeg also gives away their used office equipment.  You can e-mail sustainability”at”uwinnipeg.ca to make enquiries.  Kijiji, Used Winnipeg and Freecycle are also places that you might find communications equipment or things for your projects for free.

Red River College

Red River College and the Department of Community Development / Community Economic Development are seeking meaningful placements for their students for one month from April 4th to April 28th. Experienced workers all, they will bring not only their previous experience but training in: Facilitation, Community Development, Team Building, Planning & Evaluation, Event Coordination, Proposal Writing & Fundraising and much more.

For more information contact Lynn Ann Lauriault, Ph: 632-2003 or llauriault@rrc.mb.ca

Press Releases

If you need help there is a great resource provided by Cause Communications.

Plain Language

A great plain language checklist can by found online through Literacy Partners of Manitoba

Design

You can find our design handout here.

Software

Often time design software or other communications software can be quite expensive to acquire. If you are a not for profit or a charity you may be eligible for free or reduced price software. Find out more at Tech Soup.

Another way around expensive software is using open source software. Open source software refers to software that has a source code that is available to anyone. Typically it is software that can be adapted and created by many people and it can be used freely by whoever wants to use it. Scribus and Gimp are two open source design programs that you might want to try out. You can also search for different kind software by typing “open source software” and then the kind of software that you are looking for into a search engine like Google.

Analytical Tools

Analytical tools provide detailed statistics on who is using your website and how they are using it. They can tell you how many people come to your website, what parts of your website they visit, where they from and how they find your website. Google analytics is one way to find get analytical information about your website, but you website service provider might have some other tools that you can use, so make sure to look into those tools as well.

Phone Meetings

There are also a number of resources that allow you to have phone conference meetings. Whether is be Go To Meeting or Skype, it can be a great way to connect cheaply or for free over great distances.

Presentations

You may not have access to Powerpoint, but a great online resource that you can use for free is Prezi. It allows your to create unique presentations for you or your organization.