Thoughts from Mississippi

Posters:

15x24 is fine, but no larger please

Host sites vary on how they deal with labeling so one way is probably as good as another

50 is plenty

The posters are useful

Postcards:

Although I personally love postcards, I’m not completely convinced that most are as enthused about them.

Less images and more space on card probably makes more sense.

Host sites vary on how they use their postcards ranging from selling them to using for program promotion

500 per site is plenty

If leaving the by-line off will save a ton of money, please do (but does this mean there will be no description of the image on the back as well?)

From: Museum on Main Street [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harsh, Carol
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 12:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: question about MoMS posters and postcards

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)