Our venues have appreciated the postcards and used them for invitations and
announcements to a variety of groups and souvenirs for visitors. I agree
that four or five images rather than ten would be just Jim dandy. If
possible continue to credit the state council on the cards as they find
their way into many hands. I don't think our council needs many, if any,
postcards. We've used our allotments to fire up our board about the tours
but for the most part try not to scoop our venues by mailing them out in any
quantity. For the most part all our council needs is a sample quantity of
the materials.
Most of our small town venues couldn't use 50 posters productively. I've
actually gotten a couple of complaints from venues in the past that half as
many would have been plenty and not as wasteful. Typically I think they use
clear labels in-house rather than going to a printer. I have heard from some
that the size would not allow them to run the posters through their office
printer, if they had one. Our council alottment could be reduced to a half
dozen posters.
The number of flyers could be reduced to 250-500 per site. I think they were
used mostly to reach educators. Most of our small towns, being small towns,
don't need bunches and bunches of materials as the options for use are
limited. Overuse or misuse of promotional materials, like political signs,
can sometimes have an unintended negative effect. The quality of materials
you provide is excellent. The quantity could be reduced with no significant
harm to the cause.
Mark Payne, Program Officer
West Virginia Humanities Council
1310 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25301
304.346.8500 ~ 304.346.8504 (fax)
www.wvhumanities.org
Cultivating the West Virginia state of mind.
_____
From: Museum on Main Street [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Paul McCoy
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: question about MoMS posters and postcards
I don't mind one way or the other about poster size, but I'll second Julie
about the postcards. Fewer images is fine, but the council name is very nice
to have. We have a difficult time with acknowledgment from host sites as it
is.
paul
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 8:49 AM, Julie Mulvihill
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Carol,
Thank you for the opportunity to respond. I wish Dan was here to offer his
thoughts since he organized the last two MoMS tours in Kansas, but the sunny
beaches of Galveston beckon. Our loss. Anyway....
POSTERS
Some Kansas communities think the posters are too large. This came about as
we encouraged them to place them in storefronts, and we found out that store
owners think the posters take up too much space! Many of them use clear
labels to put their information on the posters, and we really encourage
that. Otherwise, the connection between the local venue and the Smithsonian
weakens. Primarily the posters are used as promotional materials, but they
are also used as give-aways or gift shop items. 50 posters is likely too
many. They could handle 30. KHC does not need that many to use as a
council.
POSTCARDS
The postcards are more popular in Kansas then the posters. Any size is
fine. Any number of images is fine. They would even be fine with only 1
image. The postcards are used primarily as invitations, thank you notes,
and gift shop items. KHC communities use anywhere between 350-500. I
really like having the Kansas Humanities Council on the back of the
postcard. I use them as invitations and thank you notes to legislators and
other statewide funders. Not having it there removes us from the
partnership. I confess; I would prefer fewer images printed but keeping the
councils listed on the postcard.
Julie
Julie Mulvihill
Executive Director
Kansas Humanities Council
www.kansashumanities.org
[log in to unmask]
785-357-0359
On Aug 16, 2010, at 12:10 PM, Harsh, Carol wrote:
Hi all,
Hope you are having a wonderful summer and have enjoyed some time of
relaxation.
We are in the early stages of designing and printing the posters and
postcards for The Way We Worked and we want to get some quick feedback about
posters and postcards.
We are considering a horizontal poster for The Way We Worked that may be
about 15" tall x 22" wide. As you know we design them in such a way as to
leave space for the host communities to overprint their names and
exhibition dates on the poster. Council names and logos are on the posters,
too.
. Is this size about right, or should the posters be smaller?
. Do your host towns use clear labels to put their info on the
posters or do they go to a printer and have them done?
. Is 50 posters per town about right? Or is that too many?
. Do you think your venues find the posters useful? Or should we
change them in some way?
For the postcards, we are considering changing things up a bit and making
them a little larger, 5" x 7" rather than 4" x 6"-and using 6 images rather
than 10 images. This will give the host communities more space to print
their program schedule or other info that they want to put on the postcards.
. How popular are the postcards?
. How are the postcards used in your states?
. Currently we print enough for each town to get 500 postcards. Is
that a good number?
. On the back of each postcard, we currently include a statement
like, "Brought to you by the XXX Humanities Council." It would save MoMS a
ton of money if we didn't customize the postcards. How important is it to
keep that phrase on them?
We would appreciate your responses to these questions. It will help us plan
appropriately and spend MoMS money wisely.
All the best,
Carol
Carol G. Harsh
Director, Museum on Main Street
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 941
Washington, DC 20013-7012
202-633-5333
202-465-5267 (cell)
--
Paul McCoy
Program Officer
Humanities Tennessee
306 Gay Street, Suite 306
Nashville, TN 37201
615-770-0006, ext. 17
|
