ZURB

Mission Complete, Final Project Pieces

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:59:00 -0700

It's been an amazing race to get everything done in the last 24 hours, but we we're able to pull it off and more. We paced ourselves evenly throughout the day by using lessons we've learned from the last three events.

After 24 Hours, we we're able to finish:

Full website visual redesign (http://www.rcskids.org/)
Fully updated website back-end on Joomla
A responsive, mobile version of the website
Rewrote entire website and print messaging
Two tri-fold brochures (printed)
Post card (printed)
Two logo updates
Newsletter template
Letterhead and business card templates

In addition to the project pieces, we were also able to document the entire process:

11 videos (real-time editing and posting)
Over 350 photos (real-time editing and posting)
40 Blog posts

Here is a screenshot of the final designed website:

Here is a screenshot of the old website before we spent the last 24 hours redesigning and launching the new website:

Bonus Print Materials

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:24:00 -0700

Not that we already had enough on our plate... we got the crazy idea to also whip up some identity pieces at 3AM. We went through a few iterations of the business cards and ended up with this as the final direction.

We also put together a quick letterhead.

Newsletter Design

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:20:00 -0700

Around Midnight we made the decision to create a template newsletter form that the team could use to connect with their donors and followers. We're pretty stoked with the result as it works well with the website design. We ended up using our favorite email newsletter company, Campaign Monitor.

Nighttime Worker Bees

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:32:00 -0700

The morning light is starting to emerge and the team is putting the final touches on the website. Over the last 6 hours we've been testing the technical components to make sure the website transition is smooth. There are a number of potential problems that could still go wrong, but we're confident the website will be rock solid for launch.

Check out the photos from early in the morning:

Brochure Design

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:34:00 -0700

The printed materials arrived early this morning from PrintHQ and look great! We had a number of last minute changes, but they turned out really well. Here's a sneak peak of the final printed piece:

To see how we got to this point, check out the sketch prototypes and visual iterations: Brochure Sketches and Visual Design Explorations.

The Print Materials Have Arrived (3am)

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:16:00 -0700

Eight hours after submitting the proofs to the printer, we returned to ZURB HQ with the printed materials. After a short break and celebration of our collaboration to get these finished, it's back to jockeying code as we head for the home stretch.

Finalizing the Website Design

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:59:00 -0700

As we finished up the print pieces earlier in the evening, we also had to wrap up the final direction on the website. It was actually a great exercise because it forced us to nail the visual details and create consistency across the print and web pieces.

Here are a few of the early explorations of the homepage.

It's now 4am and we're working on fumes, but we're in good spirirs. We have four hours left to wrap up the website and get this thing debugged!

Boosting Energy with Antics (1am)

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:43:00 -0700

As we enter the early hours of the morning and continue to string together endless lines of code like crazy monkeys, it was time to take a moment in the photo booth for a little fun.

Worker Packet

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:16:00 -0700

Earlier in the morning yesterday, all the volunteers and staff were given a packet to help them understand our process. In an event that moves so quickly, it's important that we're sharing not only what we're doing, but also how we're doing it.

Here are pages from the packet:

Photobooth

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:27:00 -0700

Every year after dinner we assemble the team for photos... and after a long day of working, we let loose with crazy antics (not to be confused with our 2AM shots). Check out some of the photos and don't hold us accountable to our actions!

Logos & Most of Designs Done, On To Code (10pm)

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:07:00 -0700

The logos and most of the site design is done at this point. We're heavy into coding the site up as we pour over all the copy and the pretty colors to the already working skeleton. Just did the Taco Bravo run to gear up for the long night ahead of us!

ZURBwired Kids

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:26:00 -0700

When we started this crazy event in 2006, we were a pretty young group with a lot of single employees. As the ZURB family has grown, so has the number of kids. It's incredible. Last night at our pre-ZURBwired dinner, we set up the photobooth to capture shots of the kids. Chem 'em out!

Checkout the photos of the kids

Starting to Crank on the Code (8pm)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:42:00 -0700

As the sun goes down and the daylight fades, we are starting to crank out all the code for the website. Working from the sketches we created earlier in the day, the site was dropped straight into code using the Foundation framework. The CMS templates are almost finished and the designs are starting to come into focus.

Logo Refresh

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:27:00 -0700

As part of the design process we posted some sketches earlier in the day. The logo on the current website definitely needed a little love. We're happy with the update.

After a bunch of iterations, we stayed with a concept very similar to their existing brand, but freshened it up a bit. Doing so allows Rebekah Children's Services to utilize a lot of their existing materials.

You can see the rest of the logo process pieces here:

View the Logo Refresh

ZURBwired Mobile Prototype

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:07:00 -0700

For this year's ZURBwired we're not content to just build an awesome desktop site - we're going to build a mobile site in tandem, using a front-end framework we've been developing called Foundation. We just finished building the static prototype (layout for all pages), so that next we can bring in the copy and then the visual style.

With the pages complete on the desktop we'll then work through the mobile component. Foundation takes care of a lot of the mobile layout, but by doing interactive reviews of the screens on different devices (iPhone, Android phone, iPad, etc) we can adjust the layout and style to suit these views.

You can check out the prototype on our extranet (the mobile, responsive view is still a work in progress):

Website Prototype

Afternoon Photo Update

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:59:00 -0700

Check out the latest uploaded photos from this afternoon's work session. ZURBwired photos in the stream

Pushing the Website

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:42:00 -0700

We made a sitemap earlier in the day to capture the main parts of the website. We used the roughed whiteboard drawing to drive our prototype development and help shape decisions on the fly. In many cases with client work, we opt to minimize the importance of the sitemap by keeping it a sketch. We embraced that fully today :).

View the Sitemap

Postcard Sent to Printer

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:00:00 -0700

After working through multiple passes at the visual design across the post card, brochures and website, we wrapped up the post card. It's now in PrintHQ hands and awaiting a proof check to make sure it's set up right. We're pumped to be working with PrintHQ as they are donating they're expertise and print services to ZURBwired. Thank you so much!

We're excited about the direction and can't wait to roll the visual design details into the website.

28 Minutes Left Until the Print Materials Deadline! (5:32pm)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:47:00 -0700

We're making a push while the team tries to get all of the print materials finished before 6pm. The heat is on with only 28 minutes remaining...

Website Prototype Update

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:46:00 -0700

Earlier in the day the engineering team started prototyping the website. Right now they're transforming prototype page templates provided by the design team into working Joomla templates. So far we've coded up the blog index and blog show pages.

At this point it's not a visual masterpiece, but we're not worried about the refined CSS until we have a solid framework to work from. The team is making some excellent progress.

Prototypes Coming to Life As We Code (3pm)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:45:00 -0700

The team is firing on all cylinders as they work through some of the concepts and turn out completed designs. Working in tandem we are slowly but surely tackling the design challenges in front of us. We also had a visit from an alumni of the program and got to see first hand the impact that Rebekah's has on the community.

Lo-Fi Wireframes Pages Complete

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:48:00 -0700

Earlier in the day we went through a ton of opportunity sketches- 50+ to be exactish. This afternoon we then started to put more definition to the screens. Often times in our design process we'll just do sketches of web screens before jumping into code.

We're simultaneously creating coded prototype pages while we sketch out ideas. In the next update we'll reveal parts of how this is unfolding. In the meantime, browse the wireframes.

Lo-Fi Wireframes

Early Prototypes of the Print Brochure

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:12:00 -0700

As part of our design process, we print our design pieces out to make sure we have the elements on the page working together. Here's a quick peek at what the design team has put together for the brochure. We're still in the process of iterating... we're going to be cramming to the last minute to hit our print deadline!

In the last review, we used elements from the web design to influence the visual design of the brochure.

Analytics Revealed Opportunities

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:51:00 -0700

In our design process we look at analytics to help us understand general trends. Rebekah Children's Services had only been collecting data since April, but we came across a few pieces of information that helped us brainstorm some opportunities.

Analytics Opportunities

Turning the Corner at Lunchtime - 12pm

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:00 -0700

At 12 noon we passed through the first major decision point of ZURBwired 2011. After taking a break to have a quick bite to eat, the completed concepts were presented to the group and everyone voted on which ideas they like best. The teams broke apart for the afternoon and started to work on creating and implementing the ideas developed during the morning.

We're on CNET Homepage!

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:37:00 -0700

"Companies everywhere get stuck. A lack of resources or passion--as well as any number of dysfunctions that can plague an organization--can all get in the way of building great things online. Today, a close-knit Bay Area design firm called Zurb is trying to help one lucky nonprofit get unstuck." Check out Dave's Article on CNET

Finalizing Opportunities Before Lunch - 11am

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:30:00 -0700

As we near lunchtime, the designs and structure are really starting to take shape. Rebekah Children's Services is diving in to help the ZURB team push the envelope with some of the design concepts. Each team is working on identifying opportunities and racing to formalize their ideas to present to the group after lunch. At 12pm we'll break for lunch and finalize the Define Phase and choose which ideas make the cut moving forward.

Rebekah Children's Services Web Audit

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:02:00 -0700

The high-level takeaways from the audit were:

Over abundance of navigation - We want to make sure the new site leads users organically rather than relying on navigation as a crutch.
Few ways to take action - Within the current site there are very few ways to support the program, very few ways to get involved, and very few ways to actually engage their services.
A lot of unnecessary divisions - A number of pages have similar content and are split up but don't really need to be. We'll work to consolidate related pages.

Rebekah Children's Services Web Audit

Ice Breaker Morning Photos

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:48:00 -0700

We're busy editing videos and photos from this afternoon's breakout sessions- here are the images from this morning's ice breaker session. Boy we have some good looking faces! Follow the uploaded images on our Flickr stream.

Hitting Stride Mid-Morning - 10am

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:30:00 -0700

Two hours into ZURBwired and the teams are well underway developing their concepts. After getting over the first few obstacles, everyone is starting to hit their stride as we work towards the 12pm deadline to finalize opportunities and start cranking out prototypes.

Competitive Reviews

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:25:00 -0700

We're cranking on all cylinders to hit our afternoon print deadline. One of the results of our morning sessions was a competitive review to help us shape our website. Take a look at our reviews of similar services (in a corporate environment this is useful to understanding a market. All of these non-profits are providing amazing services!)

View our competitive reviews on the extranet

Big take-away from the competitive reviews? Donation and Adoption are important concepts on homepages.

First Few Hours In Video - 8am

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:10:00 -0700

As you have seen on the blog lots has happened so far. We lost internet temporarily, we divided into teams, set our goals, got feedback on our logo concept ideas, and generated 54 opportunity sketches for the website design and the profiles. We're getting ready to present the opportunities and vote on ones we should run with. Here is the first few hours of the event condensed in 40 seconds of video:

Logo Sketches

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:38:00 -0700

We posted a bunch of opportunity sketches for the logo on the extranet. The goals of the logo refresh is to represent Rebekah Children's Services in a more modern and playful way Check them out.

Logo Concept Test

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:48:00 -0700

We're throwing around some logo concept ideas internally here and we're using our product Verify to collect feedback. We'd love your feedback on these sketches!

Please Give Feedback

Goals are Set

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:20:00 -0700

As part of our ZURB process, we publish our work to a website we call the 'extranet.' We'll capture all the work pieces for this event as it unfolds during the day- you can view these pages on the extranet here:

http://zurb.net/zurbwired2011/projects/zurbwired2011/

The first document to be published in the extranet is the goals page:

Goals Page

Here's a snippet from the Goals page:

What's all this?

This is a focused presentation of goals defined by ZURB and Rebekah Children's Services. As part of these goals, it's important to highlight issues and questions that might prevent completion. Some of these points might be obvious, but they need to be captured.

Ways this document adds value:

Keeps team on track
Calls out potential problems
Focuses effort around strategy
Highlights the WIN
Defines the playing field

When should we use this?

A goal document should be created any time there is a shift or advancement in strategy. We should update this document on an occasional basis..

Breakout Brainstorms

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:36:00 -0700

Jeremy kicked us off this morning by inspiring the group to jump into the work head first. As part of the kick-off, we broke into 8 teams. Here's a list of the ZURBian team leads that are currently directing the first phase of work:

Creative -- Tanya
Print & Logo -- Chris
Messaging -- Jackie
Nonprofit -- Anthony
User profiles -- Jonathan
User metrics/traffic -- Louis
Documentation -- Jeremy and Jordan
Engineering -- Matt

Our first leg from 8:00am to 12:00pm is the most structured to get a running start to the day. From here we'll build off the opportunities the team's find and make ad hoc project teams. The teams broke out with 2-4 people with a ZURBian leading.

Creative team- Goal is five mood boards with color, typography, asset and photo examples
Print team- Goal is at least five prototypes of each print piece
Messaging team- Goal is to do our Positioning with five tag lines, four bullets, and one description for each web property and print piece
Nonprofit goals team-Goal is 45 opportunity sketches around their services, to visualize their service strategy, and do a competitive review
User profiles team- Goal is to build Web Audit, Customer Profiles, and 45 opportunity sketches
User metrics team- Goal is Analytics insights, 45 opportunity sketches based on them and focused on creating traffic
Documentation team- Goal is to gather and present the team's work to our extranet. We'll link to these from the blog to help promote our process during the day. We'll need more help as the day goes on because we'll be doing a lot!

The big milestones we're working backward from should be pretty simple and easy for everybody to keep track of, but hard to hit!

8:00AM- Kickoff, short preso, Define phase teams, Print team, Creative team start
12:00PM- Opportunity preso, post-it votes, break into project teams Lunch!
6:00PM- Print file deadline + first big code merge
8:00PM- Website rough prototype up + Page List up in Foxhole
Wee hours- Print materials arrive!
Wee-r hours-Website launches
8:00AM Friday- Wrap up celebration of what we've accomplished.

Video Key Frames Completed

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:22:00 -0700

Part of the magic of ZURBwired is that we edit and document the event in real-time.

In the first hour all the groups broke off and started brainstorming while the documentation team got started with our video assets. Here are a few screens that play off the t-shirt design (this won't be the creative direction for Rebekah Children's Services)

Ice Breaker Starts the Day

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:17:00 -0700

What would be your last meal in the event the world ends?

Everyone is the room spent a couple minutes drawing an image of what their last meal would be. In project groups, this is a great ice breaker to loosen up the room. We often use techniques like this to break up the tension and allow everyone to be open with their ideas. Neil Torrefiel, a volunteer, picked blue Jello!

ZURBwired 2011 Kick-Off

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:45:00 -0700

ZURBwired 2011 has officially kicked-off. We're excited for this 24 hour marathon and look forward to your comments! Over the next hour we'll be posting images of our first tasks.

Here is the t-shirt that everyone is wearing for the event.

Congratulations Rebekah Children's Services!

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:36:00 -0700

The ZURB team and I are excited to announce that Rebekah Children's Services is our 2011 nonprofit selection! The combination of their strong mission, high energy, dedicated team, and clear goals won over our team amid a very competitive field of worthy organizations doing good for the people in their community. We want to thank everyone who made the effort to submit a proposal this year!

“When we got the call from ZURB that we had been chosen we flipped our biscuits!”

Meet the Rebekah Children's Services team of Melissa Driscoll, Scott Olson, Christine Balancier, and Roy Melendez. They will be spending 24 hours with the ZURB team and its volunteers from 8AM on August 18th, to 8AM the following day!

“ZURB tried to intimidate us with the 24-hour challenge, little did they know who they were signing up to spend 24 hours with; the challenge is definitely on them."

Wow! With ZURBwired we believe we can help nonprofits get unstuck in a timeboxed 24-hour creative burst. We'll use our unique design methods and goal-oriented teamwork to help them breakthrough and get stuff done that creates a ton of value for the people they serve. We believe anybody should be able to do this. Our real goal is to help Rebekah's focus on their mission, follow their hearts, and get great things done in the years to come.

It just might happen that in those 24 hours we'll also make a new website or a brochure happen that clarifies their mission or connects with their audience in new ways they didn't realize were possible. Can we pull it off? With our team and Rebekah's, we'll take our chances over most.

Rebekah Children's Services was founded in Gilroy, CA in 1897 where it is still based--that's a long time! They also now have offices here in sunny Campbell where ZURB is located as well. They work with kids and their families by providing adoption, foster care, therapy and other services focused in Santa Clara County. They even offer a thriving culinary academy that gives youth vital work experience and a leg up in the food industry.

We join together a week from tomorrow to make it all happen. Stay tuned here on the ZURBwired blog for updates in the run up to the event, as well as lots of goodies showing our progress on August 18th!

Thank You to All Our Nonprofit Candidates

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 18:20:00 -0700

The submission period for this year is now closed! It's been inspiring for us to see each submission roll in from nonprofit organizations with a goal to make the most out of our crazy 24-hour event together. We wish we could help them all, but a tough decision on this year's winner lies ahead for us next week!

This is our fourth year hosting ZURBwired. We know our approach is ambitious (can we really pull it off?) and also wildly effective (we usually exceed our expectations!), but also that the most important part of the event's success is the can-do spirit and enthusiasm of the nonprofit, the volunteers, and the ZURB team who believe they can pull it off.

The ZURB team will begin evaluating each nonprofit on Monday and we plan to announce the winner as soon as Tuesday, August 9th. We want to thank all 20 nonprofit applicants who applied to ZURBwired 2011!

1. USA Together
2. CoFED
3. Merspi
4. India Community Center
5. NCIP/Veritas
6. Rebekah Children's Services
7. Rebuilding Together Peninsula
8. Benetech
9. The Crossroads
10. DAVAI
11. MountHermon
12. The Monterey Institute
13. Champion Access
14. Little Kids Rock
15. Center for Transformative Change
16. Dependency Advocacy Center
17. Bloggers Without Borders
18. Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch
19. JobTrain
20. CityTeam

Four Days Left to Submit Your Proposals for ZURBwired

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:07:00 -0700

Reminder: Deadline for nonprofits to apply is Friday August 5th.

Yup, we're back for our fourth ZURBwired 24-hour event this August! We have helped our nonprofits participants raise over $100,000 across our first three events, something we're incredibly proud to say! We hope to increase this figure by a significant amount this August.

If you haven't heard about the event here is how it works: each year the ZURB team and the nonprofit select one mission to accomplish for their organization. It can be a new website, publicity for a new fundraising campaign or something else entirely. For 24 caffeine-fueled hours we work together with the nonprofit and participating partners as we rethink the project from the ground up. At the end of it, the nonprofit participant is left with both valuable outputs, as well as a new approach to the design process they can employ every day.

There are four days left for non-profits to submit their proposals. Deadline is August 5th. The event will take place two weeks later as we go around the clock from 8AM Thursday, August 18th to 8AM Friday, August 19th!

Submit your proposal now

P.S. To get the feel for the event check out this video of last year's ZURBwired kick off.

ZURBwired 2010 Wrap Up

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:00:00 -0700

We're exhausted from all the hard work, but excited about what we accomplished today. On behalf of ZURB, I'd like to thank everyone that worked so hard to get this project completed. It's been an amazing 24 hours working with the RAFT team. We're extremely proud of the effort everyone put in to make this event a success. This is our third ZURBwired event and we're excited about the awareness we we're able to create for this special non-profit. It's great to know that our RAFT effort has helped make it just a tad easier to put together classroom materials for Bay Area teachers. Thanks again for everyoneâ€™s hard work! We hope parts of this experience will rub off on other non-profits that are looking to drive their organizations forward. Progress doesnâ€™t always have to happen in 24 hours- but with a little inspiration and a motivated team, quite a lot is possible. Heck, corporations might learn something! Over the last 24 hours we created:

New website
New website structure
Wide scale SEO improvements
New front-end framework merged with existing one
Rewrote most of the site's content, including a donor interview
Rebuilt Idea Sheets search on the new site
Ported over existing form functionality
Redesigned the look and feel of the website
Email newsletter redesign
Email newsletter content
Social media strategy and tools
Blogging and Newsletter strategy
Annual Report sticker and six inserts
Volunteer 'Thank You' Postcard

We'll make sure to update our post to show the actual results. On the marketing side we published: - 8 edited videos - 230 images on Flickr - 40 tweets - 19 blog posts Another special thanks goes out to Jeremy, Dmitry and Amanda of ZURB this year- they successfully helped us through another event. Super job guys.

Website Completion

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:06:00 -0700

After nearly 24 hours of working on the website, we've completed the new RAFT website. There are some odds and ends on the engineering side that required going through a lot of old code- and we made it through most of it, but we don't want to launch the website without a team that is fully alert and ready to handle the bugs. Here is a screenshot of the completed site: Here is the old homepage: It's a bit difficult to see the navigation improvements, but once the site goes live we'll get to see the full benefits of the work.

Photobooth

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:44:00 -0700

Dmitry gives us his classic pose after a hard day of working on marketing materials. As part of ZURBwired tradition, we photo team members halfway through the event. While we sometimes have to drag people to the "booth," it's a great way to commemorate the event. Here is a video capture of us taking pictures: Here are a few more gems from the series:
Thanks to Ashley Batz for taking these great shots.

Website Visual Design

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:42:00 -0700

It's 2:30AM and the final print pieces are coming together- we've arranged to get the last items sent over for early morning printing. ChaseVP is stepping up to help RAFT get their materials printed. As the final print pieces are completed, the creative team looks to finish the website visual design. Here is the first design page coming from the team- very impressive! We used our own Notable to highlight specific feedback in first visual designs.

Here is a shot of Robert Konves working through some icon ideas for the site:

Nighttime Coding

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:51:00 -0700

The website team continues to work on building RAFT website skeleton as the visual design elements are constructed. The engineering team was able to fix a few problems with the backend while Matt, our lead engineer, stepped out. The printer files are almost complete and the editing team is reviewing the work. Whew, so many moving parts. It's going to start getting interesting around 3AM.

RAFT Website Skeleton

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:49:00 -0700

The website front end team has been working throughout the evening building the RAFT website skeleton for the visual design elements. We have an incredible team that has worked together designing both in Photoshop and HTML- this is possible by utilizing a common grid system and structuring the CSS to be flexible enough to handle design elements. Here is a loose sitemap that the team is working from: Here are some screenshots of the rough CSS that is shaping the website. In our process, the design elements will slowly be added and refined as the content elements get plugged in to the framework. In order to put this website work in perspective, there are 5 engineers and 5+ website designers working simultaneously. Anyone in the web world will understand the complexities of working like this on a project!

Website Wireframes

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:30:00 -0700

Earlier this afternoon two groups combined to hash out the new RAFT sitemap. After accepting a general flow, the teams created a series of wireframes to visualize what the website pages structure would look like. By shaping the pages, the content teams were able to get started brainstorming new copy. If you look at the pages, the structure on this new website is dramatically different than the current www.raft.net. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't put dummy text in these wireframes, but there are too many moving pieces to coordinate at the same time. You can still get a good idea of what we're trying to accomplish. The above wireframes were quickly created from low-fi sketches. Here is an example of the how the team used sketches to convey functionality to the engineering team.

RAFT Newsletter

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:58:00 -0700

Earlier in the day the team was able to put together a newsletter structure for RAFT. Here are a few tips that we pulled from the document: ----------------- **From:** Email should be addressed from CEO, Founder or Marketing Lead. *must be from an individual. **Subject Line:** Should be specific and include the words "Newsletter" and the edition information. *More info on newsletter subject lines here: http://www.mailchimp.com/articles/email_marketing_subject_line_comparison/ **Body Content:** The body content of the newsletter should fit into one of these three categories:

Life- Remember, we're talking to people! Start each blog post with a short anecdote, story, timely quote or other piece that reminds the reader you're human, approachable and may even enjoy a laugh from time to time.
Industry Specific- We're experts and people know that. If they've forget it, let's remind them. Each month this section should validate our expertise by highlighting something specific we're doing to change Education, Community Involvement, and Non-Profiteering.
Raft Specific- What about Raft? Here's our opportunity for a little horn tooting and celebrating. This section can be used to highlight the success of past events, drive attention to future events, or just generally update folks on Raft happenings.

RAFT Content Strategy

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:44:00 -0700

Earlier in the day the content team brainstormed on the different ways the RAFT team would use advocates to create content for the website. What started as a brainstorm and loose sketches, ended as workflow diagrams created by Greg James. Here is a more complex flow diagram:

ZURBwired Halfway Point

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:21:00 -0700

Mary from RAFT and Jeremy from ZURB give updates on our progress. We have some of the printed pieces at the printer and the website is now being built. The team spirit is still very high and we just finished dinner. Here are some photos from the Flickr stream:

Sneak Peek at Printed Pieces

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:28:00 -0700

WooHoo! The team has been working diligently on the print pieces all afternoon— it's been a grinding process. Here are a few pieces that capture the overall feel that was established in the morning style guide sprint. We've opted for a rich and colorful palette, but we've used the color in a very selective way. The beige offers a subtle background that helps the color elements on the page pop. We haven't committed these to the website yet, but expect a similar treatment. It's amazing to see our talented team put these pieces together so quickly!

Video Afternoon Update

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:00:00 -0700

The team spent the morning working in groups to capture ideas. In the afternoon each one of the eight groups spent three minutes presenting their ideas—here are a few recaps from the session: Once the presentations were done, the respective teams went off again to start working on specific deliverables. The print team is under the largest pressure to hit their goals, so we're doing everything we can to support their efforts. Here is an update from each team:

Amazing People

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:21:00 -0700

We're over 9 hours into ZURBwired and the group has shown amazing teamwork. About an hour ago we spent sometime outside trying to get a breather and refresh. We're all working hard to hit short deadlines so that the work later tonight happens on time. Here are some of the most recent photos on Flickr:
Part of the challenge of ZURBwired is forcing the body to perform under intense stress. We don't recommend doing this on a regular basis... but for ZURB it's a chance to bond with our teammates and RAFT, commit ourselves to the community and learn about our own skills. Besides the ZURB and Raft team, here are some of the additional volunteers: Jonathan Hung, Designer
Mark Otto, Designer
Rob Konves, Designer
Naoko Kudo, â€œMake-Happierâ€
Greg Janes, Designer
Emily Eisenhart, Designer
Hunter Block, Instigator
Phillip Kelly, Developer
Susan Hwang, Marketer
Tiffany Yang, Designer
Chase VP, Offset & Digital Printer
Thanks Guys!

Web Strategy

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:44:00 -0700

The web strategy team focused the morning on structuring the goals of the website. RAFT has clear goals, but the website doesn't reflect all the great things the organization is doing. As the afternoon progressed, this team transitioning into creating the sitemap and website workflows. The collaboration is tedious, but critical for the engineering team to have a solid structure to work from. As part of the web strategy, the donor team put together ideas on how to grow its base. Here is the pdf of the donor opportunities: RAFT donor opportunities.

RAFT Creative Direction

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:50:00 -0700

The boys on the creative team have put together some great visuals to help us shape the rest of the afternoon. We're under a time crunch to meet our print deadlines, so these files are extremely helpful to enable different groups to stay consistent with their work. These files we're put on the server for the rest of the team to use while creating assets. A style guide is a great way to empower individual team members to follow through on projects while insuring a consistent look and feel.

RAFT Media Strategy

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:16:00 -0700

As part of the website development, we're working on putting together a cohesive social media strategy to help RAFT connect with teachers, volunteers and donors. Dmitry from ZURB and Aimee Theron from Raft put together an awesome series of sketches that capture potential media opportunities. A successful social media strategy is all about relationships, but without original content it's hard to sustain ongoing conversations. We're helping RAFT use assets and content that they already produce in order to make these conversations more exciting. Here are the RAFT social media accounts that will be updated before 8:00AM tomorrow morning:

First ZURBwired Video

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:12:00 -0700

Here is the first video from the ZURBwired event. We quickly put together teams that are working on different projects.

Teams Split in Groups

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:45:00 -0700

We started the day off by splitting into a bunch of small groups in anticipation of short presentations at noon. The groups include teams of 3-4 people- event, engineering, creative, print, volunteer, donor, educators and non-profits. Dmitry and the marketing group work through different social medai tactics and strategies for RAFT.

ZURBwired 2010 Kicks Off

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:46:00 -0700

We're excited to announce the kick off of ZURBwired! Everyone should expect a flurry of blog posts documenting our progress over the next 24 hours. ZURBwired is a 24-hour design collaboration, hosted annually by ZURB, where we complete a marketing effort for one lucky nonprofit. This year we selected RAFT. RAFT is a non-profit organization that provides educators with the tools they need to engage their students in powerful hands-on learning experiences. We'll be helping them redesign their entire website and create new printed materials for their annual report. Jeremy Britton, partner at ZURB, kicked off the event with an 8:00AM scrum. We have over 30 volunteers working today from as far as New York. We're incredibly excited to work with such a talented group. We also have some ZURB alumni- Hunter, Mark and Rob here to help! Stay tuned for the next update.

ZURB Teams Up with RAFT for ZURBwired 2010!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:26:00 -0700

We want to say a special thanks to all the nonprofits who applied to participate in ZURBwired this year, as well as to all the volunteers who've already committed to spending a crazy 24 hours at ZURB HQ on April 8th.

Less than three weeks until ZURB hosts our annual 24-hour design collaboration effort: ZURBwired— and we're happy to announce that we've selected the 2010 nonprofit organization.

ZURB will be teaming up with the folks over at RAFT (Resource Area for Teaching), whose mission is to make hands-on teaching more accessible and affordable through the many resources they offer educators. They are able to continue this mission through their website, San Jose warehouse, and their newly added Redwood City warehouse.

Get to Know RAFT

RAFT is a nonprofit organization that creatively transforms donated business materials into packaged classroom kits on hundreds of curriculum topics. Teachers use these affordable kits to teach important concepts in science, math, literacy, and art. These kits are designed to provide each student with a powerful â€œhands-onâ€ learning experience. Last year RAFT provided over 43,000 classroom kits to teachers in the Bay Area.

Members shopping bins of school supplies and hands-on activity kits at the RAFT warehouse.

"The state of California has continuously cut their education budget causing teachers to often end up spending their own money on classroom supplies and materials for their lesson plans. RAFT is able to provide teachers, at a low cost, classroom kits focused on their curriculum so that they can be the best they can be in challenging economic times."RAFT's ZURBwired application

The Project

The ZURBwired team will be tackling the bulk of the RAFT.net website, paying special attention to their donor pages, and helping them reach out to a new donor base through not only their website, but through updated print collateral as well. And— for those of you not already familiar with our event— we'll be doing it all in 24 hours.

The whole event begins at 8:00am on April 8th and ends at 8:00am on April 9th (after which we all go home and sleep for a day!). ZURB and our partners will cover all the costs associated with the project, an opportunity worth over $30,000.

It's Not Too Late To Get Involved!

We're still looking for partners and volunteers to join us on this adventure. Volunteering opportunities include:

Photographers (both on and offsite)
Writers
Designers
Videographers

If you run an offset or digital print shop, a custom products shop, a videography business or any other company that could offer useful products or services, then you're a perfect fit to partner with us.

If you'd like to be part of a great project with a great team, head on over to our website and fill out a volunteer form.

Get Involved »

Watch the Event Unfold

When April 8th rolls around, we know you'll want to see what's going down at ZURB HQ. Lucky for you, we'll be sending out updates, live, for the whole 24 hours (though they get a little less eloquent around 3am).

Latest news of the event: http://www.zurbwired.com
Latest photos of the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zurbinc
Latest video footage of the event: http://www.youtube.com/zurb
Latest tweet from All Participants of the event: http://twitter.com/zurb/zurbwired

Attention Nonprofits: Get in in Gear, Open Submissions Have Begun

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:39:00 -0800

The ZURBwired plans are in full swing now, and we're happy to announce that open submissions for nonprofits are running now through March 18th! All nonprofits interested in participating in ZURBwired have from today until March 18th at midnight to submit their interest to the team at wired@zurb.com.

What is ZURBwired?

Siming Wong and Brice McGowen work on the menu template.

ZURBwired is a 24-hour design collaboration, hosted annually by ZURB, where we complete a marketing effort for one lucky nonprofit. It's 24 straight hours of doing what we do best, all to benefit one special nonprofit organization, and all at almost no cost to them. That's right; maybe it's a new website, maybe it's posters and invites for an upcoming event, whatever the materials involved, the nonprofit will walk away at the end of the day with all the completed and printed collateral—literally hot off the presses—and it will cost only their time and commitment to the event.

ZURBwired is an opportunity for ZURB to use it's skills to give back to our local community. The idea is to collaborate with a nonprofit organization using our design expertise to produce something great. This year will be our third ZURBwired and every year we're more overwhelmed by the results, as well as the number of people volunteering to help us make the event a success.

What can you really get done in 24 hours?

A lot more than you would think thanks to ZURB's talented team and our dedicated partners and volunteers. You can get that sweet new logo along with a website relaunch. You'll finally get that newsletter campaign going and setup those AdWords landing pages you've been meaning to do. And print collateral? We can design and produce all the cool schwag and marketing brochures you need, all in 24 hours. They'll be in your hands that very day. For real.

It's at no expense to your non-profit if you're willing to join in with us and work just as hard as we do for it. And did we mention it's for 24 hours straight? It's crazy, but as our last ZURBwired showed, it's exhilarating and creates results fast.

What do I need to do?

If you're a nonprofit, you need to gather your core team—those folks who will be here with us all day (and night!)—and send us an email at wired@zurb.com that includes:

The project you need ZURB's help with
The team who's going to be here for 24 hours helping us make it happen
Why your organization is a fit for ZURBwired.

If you're a vounteer or a potential partner for ZURBwired, you just need to email us (wired@zurb.com) and tell us what skills or services you'll bring to the event and why you think you're a fit for ZURBwired.

Find out more about ZURBwired »

We'll be announcing our ZURBwired 2010 nonprofit partner on Friday, March 19th.

It's Time! Announcing ZURBwired 2010 on April 8th

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:54:00 -0800

It's that time of the year again. ZURB has started planning our annual ZURBwired design marathon for April 8, 2010.

What is ZURBwired?

It's 24 straight hours of doing what we do best, all to benefit one special Bay Area nonprofit organization, and all at no cost to them. That's right; maybe it's a new website, maybe it's posters and invites for an upcoming event. Whatever the materials involved, the nonprofit will walk away at the end of the day with all the completed and printed collateral—literally hot off the presses—and it costs their team nothing but their time.

We'll team up with area volunteers and vendors who will all spend the day (and night!) at ZURB Headquarters powering through web and print collateral for the nonprofit whose proposal is chosen for this year's event.

What Do I Need to Do Now?

The event's not until April 8, but open submissions for nonprofits will be March 4-18.

In the meantime, we're looking for volunteers & partners to participate on the big day. We need people who want to work with the ZURB team and our chosen nonprofit from 8:00am April 8th until 8:00am April 9th. To be considered, just shoot an email to wired@zurb.com to tell us what skills you'll bring to the day, and why you want to participate.

Vendors interested in partnering with us should also send an email to wired@zurb.com to let us know how they can help provide the goods and services donated to the nonprofit.

Last year's partners included Zazzle, Tradewinds HD, and Chase VP, not to mention our long list of volunteers who stuck it out with us during ZURBwired 2009:

Patrick Briggs
Alvin Cheung
Justin Holbrook
Michael Horn
Jonathan Hung
Kim Kooyers
Brice McGowen

Jeffrey Rix
Anthony Saenz
Alina Senderzon
Amy Sirota
Pim Techamuanvivit
Siming Wong
David & Jeff from Chase VP

Let's Make Sure You've Got This

The 24-hour design marathon is April 8th, 2010.
Volunteers & potential partners should start sending us emails today.
Interested nonprofits should be ready to send us their proposals during
open submissions: March 4-18.

For more information on this incredible event, or to see what we did for ZURBwired 2009, check out zurbwired.com.

The team is psyched to get the ball rolling on this year's event. Will we see you there?

Please Stand Up

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:59:00 -0700

In a recent conversation with a client, we made the suggestion that the company should remove the chairs in the conference room. The suggestion got a little bit of a chuckle, but the reality is that chairs in a group discussion rarely help the team get stuff done. Removing chairs isn't a solution to the meeting problem, but it's a fantastic tactic to improve the quality of most meetings. Seth Godin has a nice blog post on fixing the meeting problem. Seth takes a broader view of the problem, but ZURB would agree on most of his points. Removing chairs happens to be number four on his list. So why do standing meetings work?

The first obvious reason is that people don't like to stand for long periods of time, so it creates a sense of "moving on to the next thing."
Standing gets more blood flowing and this activity encourages participation.
Long meetings standing up are tiring, so people will tend to keep them short and productive.
Standing encourages people to do something other than talk. Whiteboards become a new opportunity to drive the meeting.

Just to prove the chair point, here is a great example of standing "meetings" from ZURBwired last week. If you watch this time lapse video over the second part of the 24 hours (10PM-8AM), you'll notice there were many standing scrums. There's a great one around 1:30am where a flurry of activity around whiteboards is followed up by individual efforts and smaller scrums (keep in mind this was only one big room- there were other breakout rooms where more projects were being worked on). If your company has a problem with meetings, start removing chairs. Get your team invested in getting projects done. Tell everyone to please stand up.

ZURBwired Wrap Up

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:00:00 -0700

I've got a coffee in one hand, but the eyelids are still a bit heavy. On behalf of ZURB, I'd like to congratulate everyone that worked so hard to get this project completed. It's been an amazing 24 hours working with the Pie Ranch team. We're extremely proud of the effort everyone put in to make this event a success. This is our second ZURBwired event, so I'll just go ahead and call us the craziest design team in the world. It's great to know that our efforts have helped Pie Ranch get closer to their goal of raising 5 million dollars. Thanks again for everyoneâ€™s hard work! We hope parts of this experience will rub off on other non-profits that are looking to drive their organizations forward. Progress doesnâ€™t always have to happen in 24 hours- but with a little inspiration and a motivated team, quite a lot is possible. Heck, corporations might learn something! Over the course of 24 hours we created (we'll link to these over the coming days):

- Functional website with blog - Newsletter template - Content for donor packets and website - Donations self-mailer with envelope - Invites and envelopes - Thank you cards and envelopes - Round stickers - Donor packet label - A Poster - Zazzle store - Letterhead templates - Envelope templates - Pocket map template - Farm dinner menu template - Facebook page - LinkedIn profile - Twitter page On the marketing side we published: - 9 edited videos - 300 images on Flickr - 50 tweets (90 total zurbwired mentions) - 19 blog posts Special thanks goes out to Jeremy and Amanda of ZURB who put in the extra effort to pull this event off. Great job guys.

Website Completion

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:13:00 -0700

It came down to the last hour, but we have a fully functioning website launched at PieRanch.org. It's a fully redesigned site that includes new pages for their upcoming events and campaigns, better donation page flow, integrated social sites (YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter), and a clearer mission. Here's a few pages from the website:

Late Night Video

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:34:00 -0700

Michael has been rockin the video segments- here is a great one documenting Hunter's arrival with the printed materials. It was something special to see the completed pieces when Hunter walked into the office.

Web Pieces Come Together

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:35:00 -0700

The web team has been diligently working on copy, visual design, front-end code and a modified wordpress backend all night. Most of the work started at 8:00pm with the teams breaking into separate groups to tackle the navigation and marketing concepts.

It's been amazing to see the ideas and critiques happening- awesome work by the entire team. The content team is adding content directly in the admin screens: Part of ZURB's process is to start stubbing out the CSS and XHTML before the visual design is complete: Here is another screenshot of the in-progress work: ...and for a sneak peak of the final design, here is a psd screenshot:

Printed Materials Completed

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:08:00 -0700

Getting all the print materials completed today was extremely stressful, but the Pie Ranch and ZURB team pulled through. Hunter was our print man and went down to ChaseVP to supervise the job. Those guys did an awesome job on all the pieces. While Hunter was working with the ChaseVP team (Anthony, Amy, David and Jeff) in Morgan Hill, he was able to take some shots of our job on the press. Very cool stuff!

Here is a thank you note (custom envelope not shown): Here are the pages from the donor booklet: Here is a shot of the invite (going to be cut at 7:30 am) and the folder sticker:

Website Visuals and Update

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:47:00 -0700

The team has been hard at work on the website as all the other pieces come together. Here's a video update from the past few hours. As part of the design process the team put together five different layouts that we're presented to the group on the whiteboards. After reviewing the designs, the team decided to do another round of concepts before meeting up again. We'll be posting a visual of the final design in an hour.

Late Night Photos

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:36:00 -0700

While the energy goes up and down, spirits have remained amazingly positive. No major fights yet. Unless you count the rapid escalations and repeated "sneak attacks" that result in a face full of Nerf darts.

Everyone's still hanging in there, although Amanda has a sleeping bag stashed in the corner and Jered is seriously considering a power nap in the Lion's Den. Keeping us powered are serious amounts of Red Bull, fresh ground coffee and a chocolate beet cake that Selina brought us. That's right chocolate beet cake. With real beets. We're fully immersed in the web elements now and with 6 hours still left to go, we think things are just going to get crazier. Check out the photo stream. We have over 200 images from the day so far.

Beautiful Chicken #142

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:49:00 -0700

We've reached that point in the day where a solid +12 hours of work starts to do funny things to your brain. This video segment has a little of this and a lot of that. Great stuff. Chicken #142 from the ranch is also included.

Donor Packet Design

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:21:00 -0700

Okay, we're catching up on a few pieces that were sent over to the printer within the last couple hours. One of the larger pieces we put together was a donor packet. A big thanks to Alina Senderzon for her efforts on this piece of the project. Mark and the Pie Ranch team also played a big role in making sure the packet looked great. Here are two pages from the packet:

Each page was slightly smaller than the next so that they display the headers in the folder.

Poster Completed

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:01:00 -0700

After a bit of running around, we've finally completed the poster design. Besides the donor packet, this was one of the last pieces remaining to be set-up for printing. Thanks to Zazzle for helping us out!

Great work by Alvin- we call him of the marketing materials to whip this out!

Halfway Point

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:18:00 -0700

Now halfway through ZURBwired, we've sent part of the print pieces along to the printers but still haven't finished the collateral for the donor packets. Almost all of the team is now working on the remaining print pieces and catching a bite to eat at their stations. We were lucky enough to receive a visitor: one of the Pie Ranch chickens is on site and posed a bit for the camera before settling down for what is apparently a very strict bedtime.

Moving in to the second leg of the day, we'll be focusing on the web pieces and overall experience for the farm dinner. We're expecting the graveyard shift to arrive any minute.

Print Deadline Looming...

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Hunter left for ChaseVP, our print partner, to finalize the printing of the invitations, thank you cards and donor remittance form (due to the internet outage we have to hand deliver files). We've still got the donor packet to put together, stickers and a poster! Here's how the envelope turned out:

Here is the invite right before we we're told no bleed (cards had already been cut!): Wish us luck with the remaining print pieces!

Photos of the Team

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:24:00 -0700

We're in a low point before dinner, but we're looking for a second wind. Some of us have already had 5+ cups of coffee. But we're still chugging along, the first print pieces are almost complete (far from our 3:00pm deadline) and Hunter's ready to drive the files down to Morgan Hill to Chase VP.

Things are getting loud and a little crazy as the pieces start coming together and the doors occasionally have to be shut to maintain concentration. A Nerf dart gun has also surfaced in addition to our regular artillery of ZURBalls. And we're just over one hour until the halfway mark and a delicious dinner.

ZURBwired Progress Report

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:04:00 -0700

We're 1/3 of the way done, but a ton of things have been completed for Pie Ranch. Here's an update from each one of the teams. Dinner w/ Adelaide team They've got time line and agenda for the evening based on a target audience. The dinner has a focus (yeah!) and plans have been created to raise money.

Here's a piece from their work:

Barn Happy Hour
5:00 Arrive

Pie Ranch slide show playing continuously. Images of Pie Ranchers projected on inside wall of barn.
Barn happy hour- appetizers, wine
Informational stations where dinner goers can learn about Pie Ranch. Mission, projects, successes etc...
Music! banjo, fiddle, washtub bass, keytar,

Design Team

The invite prototypes have been completed and the final designs are almost complete for the invite. Below is a mock-up of the design before a critique. Content Team They've made some great progress creating a mission statement based on the morning session brainstorms. Donor Packet Team A prototype design has been created and the guys are writing content. This is a larger effort, so it will be going to the design team later today.

Afternoon Progress

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:43:00 -0700

Wow. Teams are head down working on their assignments in each room. The first print milestones have passed, but I think we're still OK to get things printed tonight.

The Experience

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:08:00 -0700

In this video segment, Jered Lawson, of Pie Ranch and Jeremy Britton talk about the ZURBwired experience. Within the first couple hours of ZURBwired, it was clear that the team is full of amazing talent. Pie Ranch has a dedicated team. While the product team is creating design pieces, the marketing team has simultaneously been recording the event. Michael Horn of Tradewinds HD has been doing an exceptional job capturing video and quickly putting together segments. Alvin, ZURB's intern, also put together a great little animation to front up this video.

Design Team Cranking

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:11:00 -0700

The design team is working furiously on layouts to hit our print deadlines. The concepts have been roughed out, but the final designs need copy from the invite team. Check out the extranet to see the visual design concepts from the team: Visual Concepts.

And design is not the only thing we're crazy enough to try and finish in the 24 hours. After taking team shots of people working, we set up the lighting to take photos of isolated objects. Since all of the rooms at ZURB currently have people working in them, we decided to set it up in the middle of the Support side workspace. The team from Pie Ranch was kind enough to bring over some supplies and fruit from the farm- wheat, strawberries, baskets, and pie were all used. Check out some assets from the photoshoot:

Team Work Sessions

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:24:00 -0700

Things are starting to take shape in the ZURB office. Six groups were created (user needs, biz goals, creative, print, web/ext, and marketing). After an hour of brainstorming the team got together to discuss ideas. Here is our first video that documents the start of the ZURBwired. On a side note, all internet and phone connections are shot in Santa Cruz and south of Blosom Hill road. Vandals cut the the fiber line. So........looks like we'll be jumping in a car to get our files to the printer!

ZURBwired 2009 Has Begun!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:02:00 -0700

We've Begun ZURBwired!

The morning began with a group scrum where everyone introduced themselves with an inspirational item. Jeremy, our chief instigator for the day, got us on track with the goals of the event. You can follow the event at ZURBwired- we'll be tweeting, uploading photos to Flickr and YouTube, and posting blog entries over the next 24 hours.

Chalk sign welcoming volunteers early morning.

Mary Schmidt and Jered Lawson also gave us a great overview of Pie Ranch and the goals for this event. During the day we'll be posting our work to the extranet. Below are some of the high level print goals for the day:

###Priority #1: Reach for Pie Campaign materials ####Goals: - minimum 100 copies to take away, up to 500 if pricing works. - organized, easy to locate information, materials not falling out. - reflect pie ranch mission, vision, values - minimal use of resources - ok to print letterhead blanks but hold off printing any content that still requires major revision. Deliverables: 1. Presentation folder (ideally this functions as the folder that holds everything AND is an external envelope)- smart packaging. substantial. double as mailing envelope using self-closure and adhesive mailing label. eye catching exterior to make it stand out in mail. inside design- stepped pockets on left side for easy viewing of donor inserts; one pocket on right side for 8 1/2" by 11'' campaign case materials. 2. Letterhead for letters, envelopes, thank you cards- includes font, color palette, reach for pie campaign logo (separate from pie ranch logo), color headers for different donor packet inserts. Donor packet inserts include: campaign budget, financials, donor recognition, pie ranch leadership, naming opportunities, guide to giving, construction and renovation (some of these may be able to be grouped together). 3. Campaign case-need a fancier front sheet, like the cover of a book. want it to be evocative right away/ transport people to Pie Ranch. Ideas: use a map or a single evocative image. we need to place Pie in space and create connection/relevance to donor's life. 4. Self mailing pledge form 5. We also discussed custom stamps; stickers for envelopes, egg cartons, etc; face book and web presence although not on jeremy's list below ... 6. Pocket guide to Pie Ranch- not a priority right now, can wait on this. ###Priority #2: Dinner with Adelaide ####Goals: - secondary priority - up to 500 copies to take away - reflect pie ranch mission, vision, values - minimal use of resources - ok to print materials, if we have final date, but if we can hold off, lets do so (~to be discussed) Deliverables: 1. invitation 2. tickets (digital mockup) 3. menu (digital mockup) 4. some form of place setting (digital mockup) 5. emails and web presence at the meeting last week although not on jeremy's list below...

Why a 24-hour Design Marathon Works

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:27:17 -0700

These are volunteers pitching in at Pie Ranch's chicken coop raising. That same spirit will help drive ZURBwired to create print materials and a web presence all in one day.

Only two short days away from [our crazy 24-hour, coffee-fueled design-a-thon][1], we wanted to spill the beans on why this event will be a success for Pie Ranch: it's the rapid teamwork formed by bringing **passionate people** into a **culture of design**. Any nonprofit can repeat what we'll do Thursday by applying our methods to any group committed to making a positive change. ###Passionate People We've generated a level of support from partners and volunteers that already has our office buzzing. Everyone involved has expressed excitement and shown a commitment to doing something great by offering their time and energy. Meet our team, including partners, volunteers and members of Pie Ranch: - Anthony Suez, Amy Sirota and the **[Chase VP][2]** team, off-set printing - Michael Horn of **[Tradewinds HD][3]**, videography - Bhaskar Roy and **[Qik.com][4]**, live mobile video - **[Campaign Monitor][5]**, email newsletter campaigns - Patrick Briggs of **[Zazzle.com][6]**, custom products of all kinds - [Kim Kooyers][7], writer and ace task master - [Jonathan Hung][8], multi-talented cognitive psych grad - [Pim Techamuanvivit][9], blogger extraordinaire - Justin Holbrook, CCA student and resident Pie Ranch cartographer - Leanne Liang, CCA student with a fashion background and a flare for maps - Jeffrey Rix, Pie Ranch supporter and fireman - Brice McGowen, CCA design student - Siming Wong, CCA student with a knack for textiles and Disney songs - [Jered Lawson][10], Co-Director of Pie Ranch - Mary Schmidt, Development Director of Pie Ranch - Susan Petersen, Creative Design for Pie Ranch - Sky DeMuro, Current Webmaster, but really just wants to farm! - And of course Jeremy, Bryan, Hunter, Amanda, Alvin, Mark, Ryan, Jonathan and Matt from the [ZURB team][11]! ###Nine Tricks of the Designer's Trade It's not just the people that make will make this a success for [Pie Ranch][12], it's **a certain design culture**. Some of our ways of doing things may be unique to designers, but anybody can use them effectively. Here's a sneak peak at some of the ones we'll be using for ZURBwired: 1. **Create Icebreakers** - Bring in an object of inspiration to introduce yourself. 2. **Define Opportunities, Not Answers** - Start by doing your homework. Identify problems to solve and seize on opportunities no one has thought of yet. 3. **Brainstorm** - Know the [rules of brainstorming][13]: defer judgment, encourage wild ideas, build off the ideas of others, stay focused on topic and quantity rules. 4. **Visualize Ideas** - Sketch the ideas you want to share. Can't draw? Even better (it's true). 5. **Build Mockups** - Be like MacGyver, grab scissors, glue and a partner. Build mockups so other people can feel your idea out in their own two hands. 6. **Timebox everything** - Our entire event be a big 24 hour timebox with a lot of little timeboxes throughout. [Timeboxing][14] is a vital ingredient to successful design. 7. **Poll the Team** - At certain points the team will vote with their post-it notes. Sometimes the team's expertise trumps the vision of even the brightest individual. 8. **Empower decision-makers** - You need people with the power to decide who can make gut calls on the spot. Get leaders involved and set them up for quick wins. Teams need to be able to call their work 'done' and move into the next thing. 9. **Trust experience** - Design experience can take you a long way in stressful situations, especially when the decisions you have to make are far from black and white. These are all methods you can bring into your own organization. We'll document what we do and share it at [www.zurbwired.com][15] on Thursday, April 9th in a blog posts, pictures, video and more. Stay tuned! ###The Team Said... **Kim said,** > "hey this looks cool. i'd do just > about anything for a good piece of > pie. need a writer?" **Patrick said,** > "Sweet! I want to get in there and > twitter with these folks and about > everything we are doing, blog it and > just the whole nine yards." **Pim said,** > "Ok, I'm in. I'm thinking I must be > mad, but hey what's news there. It > sounds like great fun, and a great > cause no less." [1]: http://www.zurbwired.com/ [2]: http://www.chasevp.com/ [3]: http://www.tradewindshd.com/ [4]: http://www.qik.com/ [5]: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/ [6]: http://www.zazzle.com/ [7]: http://www.oneroofcom.com/about/ [8]: http://jonathanhungworks.wordpress.com/ [9]: http://www.chezpim.com/ [10]: http://www.pieranch.org/about-pie-ranch/ [11]: http://www.zurb.com/team [12]: http://www.pieranch.org/ [13]: http://www.zurb.com/word/brainstorming [14]: http://www.zurb.com/word/timeboxing [15]: http://www.zurbwired.com

Meet Pie Ranch: Our partner for ZURBwired 2009

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:34:30 -0700

ZURB is embarking on our second annual ZURBwired; a 24-hour coffee fueled marketing marathon, during which we select one local nonprofit and help them accomplish a huge goal. We accepted proposals from many nonprofits and then came together as a team to pick one project. ZURB and our partners cover all the costs associated with the event, including printing, delivery, productions, photography purchases, etc. And everyone on the ZURB team is excited to announce that we've selected this year's nonprofit! Meet Pie Ranch, a thriving, hands-on farm and food education center. Their mission is to inspire urban and rural people to know the source of their food and to improve the health of our food system from seed to table. Their team of five will be joining the ZURB team of eight and a half on April 9 here at the ZURB headquarters in Campbell. In addition, we have a dedicated core of volunteers to pitch in, as well as partners like Chase VP and Qik to help us make this event a success by printing materials and helping broadcast live video. We'll start work at 8:00am April 9 and wrap it all up at 8:00am April 10. And you can follow the whole event start to finish via images, videos, a blog and Twitter online at www.zurbwired.com.

We received proposals from many worthy organizations throughout the Bay Area and thank them all for their effort and ambition. We hope to find the opportunity to work with you in the future. At the end of the day Pie Ranch's ambitious goal of a fundraising dinner on their farm for hundreds, as well as their "Reach for the Pie!" capital campaign captured our team's imagination. We think this is a perfect fit.

Dinner with Adelaide

The bulk of our work on April 9 will done helping Pie Ranch come up with a theme, menu, web presence and all the necessary collateral to host their largest farm event ever. The Pie Ranch team is already visualizing a long dinner table in the field that can seat hundreds of people and be filled with the bounty of a late summer harvest.

Reach for the Pie! Campaign

Currently, Pie Ranch sits on 14 acres above the historic Issac Steele Ranch. Their Reach for the Pie! campaign is a capital campaign to raise the $1.25 million necessary to buy the historic farm and homestead, which is being protected from development by the Peninsula Open Space Trust until then end of this year, at which point Pie Ranch hopes to have raised the money to buy the land.

About Pie Ranch

Pie Ranch is determined to teach and remind Bay Area residents of where food really comes from (not just the supermarket) and the work and pride involved in planting, growing and harvesting that food.

They grow and raise everything they need to produce scrumptious pies, including the wheat to grind into flour, the fruits for filling, chickens for eggs and their newest edition: Adelaide the cow, for milk. Many of the pies are sold at their partner project Mission Pie, located in San Francisco. They also host a variety of educational programs that allow Bay Area youth to experience first-hand, the cycle of food from seed to table.

###Join our team for a day! We're looking for volunteers and partners who are willing to contribute their time, goods and/or services to ZURBwired. What we're looking for:

Volunteers

Energetic and creative people!

Videographers
Writers
Illustrators
Web Developers
Crafty People

Partners

Goods, services, and time to donate

Professional Photographers
Custom Product Producer
Image and Video Host
Email Newsletter Support
Blog Engine

####What do I need to do to join? Send an email to wired@zurb.com that includes the following:

A catchy subject line
Why you want to work on ZURBwired
The type of service you can offer
Three reasons why ZURB would want to work with you
Your URL

Nonprofits and Volunteers, Just One Week Left for ZURBwired '09 Submissions!

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:38:00 -0800

Get involved! Deadline for nonprofit and volunteer submissions is March 11th.

Nonprofits and volunteers, there is **just one week left for submissions** to the ZURBwired 24-hour marketing marathon. If you're a small team of dedicated individuals working to make a difference in the world as a nonprofit, this event may be perfect for you. Go to [http://www.zurbwired.com][1] and submit your proposal to be considered. The deadline for submissions is March 11th and the actual event will be held April 9th. **Interested in volunteering your time or goods or services?** The team needs energetic writers, illustrators, print designers, a videographer, a video editor, photographers, and anybody with a creative streak and MacGyver-like can-do attitude to get things done. We'll be working quickly in a large group and small teams together as we go around the clock (twice) from first concept to last sticker or line of HTML for the brand new website that will come out of this. Forward this on to people you know who might be a good fit. And don't be shy about volunteering yourself. You have a rare chance to work with a talented group and make a big difference in a remarkably short time. Visit [http://www.zurbwired.com][1] to learn more. [1]: http://www.zurbwired.com

Announcing ZURBwired 2009: A 24-Hour Marketing Marathon for Nonprofits

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:40:00 -0800

The entire team is excited to announce **[ZURBwired 2009][1]**, a single, coffee-fueled 24-hour marketing marathon at [ZURB Headquarters][2] on April 9th, 2009 that will propel one nonprofit organization years forward. We have done it before and can tell you it's amazing what a group of motivated people get done in one day together. It's a lot of fun, and yes, it's a little bit crazy. We aren't going to do this alone. If you work with or run a nonprofit organization and think you'd be a perfect fit for this, [submit your proposal (PDF)][3] by Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 to be considered. We're making our decision within one week. Care to join the team for a day and contribute goods, services, or elbow grease that can put this event over the top? We need to hear from you. Head on over to [http://www.zurbwired.com][4] for more details on how you can get involved. [1]: http://www.zurbwired.com [2]: http://www.zurb.com/contact [3]: http://www.zurb.com/downloads/ZURBwired-2009-Nonprofit.pdf [4]: http://www.zurbwired.com