eNewsletter 7 - January 2007

KTDC welcomes junior designer Mare McCall. Mare has over 12 years of marketing and communication experience serving a variety of clients, from nonprofit organizations to Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, she served as communications director and owner of Moxy Studios, a fine art gallery and studio in the heart of New Orleans' art and antiques district.

Mare's design approach is to listen, research, think, design and execute. She has worked on successful projects for the Maryland-based Carson Scholars Fund, the Caroline Center job-training program in Baltimore, Coventry Health Care and Prudential. Like Kate, Mare earned a master's degree in Publication Design from the University of Baltimore. This unique program develops complementary skills in professional writing and graphic design.

It can be difficult for organizations to determine the most cost-effective online and print solutions for their needs. KTDC is committed to educating clients on this potentially tricky topic, to help them make the best use of limited resources. Mark your calendar now for “Communications Planning: Solving the Online & Offline Puzzle,” sponsored by KTDC and OneWorld from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Benton Foundation, 1625 K St. N.W., 11th floor.

OneWorld is a community of more than 1,600 organizations communicating, learning and networking to increase their common impact. Its partners include international relief and development, advocacy, research and policy, and academic organizations.

The seminar is free for staff of OneWorld partners, and $30 for others. For more information, go to: http://us.oneworld.net/section/us/learn/peerlearning/0207/communicationsplanning

A Content Management System (CMS) is a computer software system that allows a user (that's you) to manage content such as text, images and multimedia resources on your organization's Web site. Organizations frequently contact KTDC, inquiring about a CMS and reciting a wish list of desired features: blogs, event calendars, rss feeds, partners-management tools, moderated chat tools, staff admin tools, etc. But clients often are surprised when they review the design and CMS costs based on the lists they provided, as they had limited knowledge of the features they requested—and no idea what the costs might be.

Do you need a CMS? What can this unique tool do for your site? Before your organization signs a contract and pays a considerable sum for a CMS, consider the following:

1. What are you trying to do with the site? If you are creating an active, online community with discussion forums and lots of text or multimedia content, you will need a CMS. If you just need a few pages to advertise your company or organization (“a brochure site”), a CMS would be overkill. Know the long-term goals of your site before deciding to use a CMS.

2. How much content do you have? More complicated sites need more robust technology to support the volume of content – and are more likely to need a CMS. Greg Schnippel, associate director in the Integrated Technology Initiative at Ashoka, applies this analogy to a content-rich site: “You are writing a book.” We all know that a novel is numerous hours of writing, editing, design, layout, revisions, printing and distribution. Similar steps are involved with complex sites.

3. How often do you update your information? If the site must be updated frequently, a CMS with an upfront price may cost less over several years than the expense of going back to the designer to update the site for you.

4. Who will update the site? Some organizations employ a tech-oriented staff member who uses Adobe Dreamweaver or Contribute software to update the site. Consider: What happens if the employee leaves the organization when the site needs frequent updates? A CMS allows any designee with passwords and a modicum of tech-savvy to update the site. In fact, a typical CMS will provide a tutorial as a reference tool.

5. What is the budget? Give your budget to the firms you are considering for design and CMS. An upfront price range will assist the designer and Web developer in recommending appropriate tools. Compare the process to shopping for a house: No one retains a real estate agent without informing the agent of a price range; no good agent would show potential buyers listings that were out of their price range. The same principle applies with design and CMS.

Those who bring you this e-newsletter issue are some of the same people I trust to handle pieces of the design and communications projects that come KTDC's way. Read more about our contributors on KTDC's virtual studio page at: http://katetallentdesign.com/about/virtualstudio.html. › Anne Tallent – writer/editor › Jesus Navarro Saracibar – Web development › Kate Tallent – design

Explore the KTDC Web site at www.katetallentdesign.com to learn more about our services, examine our print and Web processes, and review our creative portfolio. You'll find that KTDC designs solutions that deliver information clearly, offering an integrated communications approach that provides a return on your organization's investment.