Bootstrap 2.0: Million-dollar Agency Design on a (tiny!) Nonprofit Budget

www.captulsa.org

about.me / cmoreno

http://www.facebook.com/chimchim237

@chimchim237

living the dream

graphic designer: cap tulsa

board member: fab lab tulsa, tulsa now

auryn creative: a startup creative firm.

what is Bootstrapping?

Starting a business with no outside (investor) funding …running a business on as little

money as possible.

Spending money wisely: ONLY on those things that will directly contribute to launching and selling

your product.

Guiding force – what is the least needed to launch a product and test it in the real world.

Spending money wisely: attempt as much as possible to only spend money on those things that will directly

contribute to furthering your mission.

Guiding force – what is the least needed to run the organization in such a way that maximum resources are

being put toward accomplishing our mission.

what is design?

not just making things look pretty.

design / branding helps answer the question: “what is the experience

you want your clients to have?”

what is branding?

markets are conversations.

branding is the context of the conversation; everything you control and everything you don’t

control.

who are you?

what do you want your clients to tell you?

what do you want to tell them?

where are these conversations happening? not physically, “where” but where in your client’s life?

a branding guide provides structure.

a branding guide (if you follow it…) provides consistency, simplicity, and clarity of communication.

a branding guide gives you some institutional knowledge (…what to do if your designer gets hit by a bus)

CAP Tulsa re-branding

step1: clean and standardize the logo

step2: standardize use of fonts.

(no more comic sans or papyrus)

step3: build a set of colors and photos we can use.

step4: get some GREAT professional photographs.

step5: put it all together.

simple shapes.

colors, fonts, from our branding guide.

keep everything simple, easy, clean, and straightforward.

resources

visual /design:

colourlovers.com

pinterest.

how magazine

lynda.com

presentations:

prezi.

youtube / vimeo.

tech:

google apps ($50 / user / year).

google adsense ($10K worth of free ads for nonprofits)

techsoup.

wordpress.

wufoo.

mailchimp.

collaboration:

google apps / calendar / drive.

basecamp. highrise.

dropbox.

social media (of course!):

facebook.

youtube / vimeo.

…engage, connect emotionally, tell the story.