Subject:
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Re: 2002 NELUG wall calendar
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.us.nelug
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Date:
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Tue, 10 Jul 2001 16:13:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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776 times
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In lugnet.org.us.nelug, Shaun Sullivan writes:
>
> > In lugnet.org.us.nelug, Suzanne D. Rich writes:
> > > Here's a project I always wanted to do.. an AFOL-themed calendar.
>
> I think this is a fantastic idea! I'd love to see this come about!
>
>
>
> > > This could be done in the spirit of a previous discussion, suggesting NELUG
> > > hold a group-wide theme build. Conversely, it could highlight the diversity
> > > of our interests by profiling 12 members. Or it could tell a story
> > > page-by-page, or maybe include the club's prior activities (train shows, BW
> > > games, home show, etc). Most likely, I'd expect it to act as a simple
> > > gallery.
> >
> > Of your ideas I like the "diversity" idea and the "prior activities" ideas
> > best. Although it would be hard to get high quality/profesional photography
> > done for our "prior activities".
>
> I think we have enough of everything under our collaborative belts to be able
> to include quite a bit - more on this in a minute, but I think we might be able
> to have some of everything: some Mindfest, some window displays, some
> MasterCard, and lots of various and sundry projects that the members have done.
>
>
>
> > > I think NELUG could benefit from such a project in a number of ways..
> > >
> > > As a club activity.
> > > This could be done as a group building project. It could help our LUG to
> > > stand out and be recognized. Members could submit LEGO creations, such as
> > > scenes, sculptures, or electronic files specially made for the purpose. Each
> > > month's spread could include a small picture of the featured builder/member
> > > with a bio, bringing a human face to our hobby.
>
> The prospect of seeing my mug on a wall hanging for a month straight should be
> enough to convince anybody that concentrating on the creations, not the
> builders, is the way to go in this endeavor. IMHO.
>
>
>
> > > Just a few of the issues requiring consideration:
> > > - The art elimination process, as there are only 12 months available.
> >
> > Actually don't a lot of these calanders occasionally have 14 pages (one for
> > the previous December and one with 12 mini calandars for the following year)?
> > Just something to consider if we want more space.
>
> I checked out our SPCA Greyhound Calendar this morning. It's got an
> alternative layout that we might want to consider emulating. Each month has
> the main picture page, the big full-size picture opposite the calendar. That's
> the same .... it's the calendar page that is different. The calendar itself is
> only about 75-80% full size, and located in the upper-right corner of the page
> opposite the main picture. This means there is room for 3 or 4 smaller (2"x3"
> or 4"x3" ??) photos along the bottom, and some room to the left of the calendar
> itself as well for another picture or some text. Each of these photos all have
> captions as well. One of the guys here at work has a calendar like this with
> his kids on it, I think.
>
> In addition, the calendar itself is printed on a very faded, muted, washed-out
> photograph that's done in sepia/white. It's light enough to be visually
> unobtrusive, but dark enough to offset the actual calendar part from the white
> background of the rest of the page. And, if you take the time to notice, you
> can see the photo behind the days quite easily. The days are still large
> enough and distinct enough to write in, too. I'll try and scan a month to show
> in the next couple of days.
>
> In any case, this lets you put a number of photos and text on a single month.
> This broadens up the scope of what can be showcased: imagine a month for each
> of the following: Mindfest, MasterCard, Train Shows, Window Displays,
> Brikwars, Robotics, Models, Town, Space, Castle, etc ... Or, from an
> artsy perspective: Realistic mocs, abstract mocs, huge mocs, tiny mocs, etc.
>
> As an in-between offerring, I'm checking out the Frog calendar on my wall here
> at work. There's the main picture, and then the calendar on the page opposite
> only take up the bottom 3/4 of the page. The top 1/4 has a single phot and
> some text about the month's species of frog.
>
> Granted, these options may entail a somewhat larger investment, but I'm
> guessing that the difference won't be immense, and that it would be worth it to
> increase our presentation from just 12-14 photos up to 30-50. It seems that
> the range we have could be anywhere from 12 (1 per month, 12 months) to 80 (5
> per month, 14 months)!!
>
>
> > > - Photographing the works. for consistency, professional quality, design.
> >
> > This is probably going to be the toughest part (and most expensive). Do we
> > have anyone in the group that dabbles in photography? My skills and equipment
> > definitely arn't up to the task.
>
> I "dabble" in photography, but admittedly most of my experience is in 35mm
> manual and SLR, not digital. And, as we know, standard photography of LEGO is
> plagued with difficulties, and I've taken to borrowing my brother-in-law's
> digital camera for LEGO shoots. However, I'd be more than happy to lend my
> services/equipment, and I like to think that my digital photos come out
> relatively crisp and clear :)
>
>
> > > - costs, pricing and sales
> >
> > This is probably the easiest part to nail down I would guess.
>
> I say take the hammer and get whacking, then.
>
>
> > > I'm prepared to volunteer my time in getting such a thing designed and
> > > produced. This would mean a great deal to me. We'd need another club
> > > member(s) to handle the gathering of entries and the selection process. And
> > > probably another to manage sales and target distribution.
>
> I'd love to get involved in the gathering of entries, selections, and layout
> aspects. Hear that, Eric? That sounds like decision-making work to my ears,
> and I'm volunteering for it ...
>
> Anyway, it would be worhtwhile if people thought about what they might be able
> to contribute, including:
>
> (1) Clear photos/files from previous events
> (2) Clear photos/files of already-photographed MOCs
> (3) MOCs that haven't been photographed well, but might be deserving of
> calendar inclusion
> (4) MOCs to build in the next month to sneak in under whatever deadlines come
> up
>
> For now, a mental list might suffice. Or, if people don't have any objection
> to my being involved, an e-mail to 'sullis3@mediaone.net' with a list of what
> you might be able to contribute would be great as well. Being as specific as
> possible (event name and date, MOC name, genre, theme, style, size,
> description, etc.) would be helpful, as we haven't even chosen page concepts
> yet.
>
> Anyway, sign me up!
>
> Shaun
wow. I think Shaun's excited..
I just want to mention a couple of production things.
* don't do anything yet. :-)
* I thought about the multi-pic layout also, but I kinda hope to keep the whole
thing to 24 images or less. Otherwise it gets a little out of control. Not just
in time and effort, but the final product runs a risk of looking too busy. Just
my personal opinion, but I'd expect this to work better as a less-is-more,
elegance kinda thing. Whether or not it would work really depends on the images
chosen and what's expected of the viewer. remember, in selecting pictures, they
need to be prelim. sized first, that is, not all photos will look good at 2x3" .
* but surely there's an enormous number of possibilities in layout. I hope
everyone looks around and finds stuff they like. if you photocopy some, we could
have a meeting where we all look at what people gathered. I can listen to what
everyone says about content and layout, then do some sketches to narrow it down
to a few proposals. that would make it easier for people to then vote or
whatever.
* the "image in the back" trick is called a screened image. easy to do.
sometimes it's a hard-edged graphic. it acts as a hint. but again it should be
simple. people often do this to make soemthiing look more "designed." it gets
more ink on the page.
* this would be an offset printed 4-color press job. Not electronic output. I'd
assume at *least* 1,000 copies because once the press is running, more copies
are practically free. most places have minimums of 1,000 to 5,000. but that
depends on a lot of things. Paper is what adds up. we'd want the heaviest,
whitest, glossy stock we could afford.
* resolution of offset pics has to be very high in order to survive screening
(being reduced to dots) and look sharp. Think at least 200-300 pixels per inch.
digital pics aren't going to cut it. not unless they're quite small, and then
they'd have to be close up shots of something simple (like a minifig). I
honestly think you can forget about any digital group shots we have.[1] I'm sure
there'll be some of you who disagree, but please trust me. Keep in mind too,
that many cameras and scanners can double pixel size by interpolation, fooling
you into thinking you have, say, 600dpi by producing that, when you really were
only scanning at 300dpi. And JPEG compression can be *brutal*. I almost never
JPEG compress images for print because there's another non-lossy type for TIFF
files. Here again, many digital cameras hand you a JPEG compressed file as your
initial picture. My Sony Mavica can take a 1024x768 bitmap image, but the file
fills a whole floppy disk. I can't get into all this right now.. maybe at a
meeting, but I think you get the idea.
* I'd hope to have the models pro-photographed in studio. It takes pro lighting
and tricky non-shine(non-damaging) spray to get good pics of plastic, not to
mention experience, but it's important for a professional looking product. I
have access to studio stuff and (I hope) a friend who'd help do the photography.
I directed product photography shoots every month when I worked for magazines.
This is why I offered to handle "design and production" aspects.
* depending upon how the calendar is bound (stapled vs GBC plastic spiral) and
what size paper it's printed on (8.5x11 or 11x17 or bigger), it may be cost
effective to keep the pages with dates to being black and white only. I doubt it
though. and because I think stapled looks better, the formation of pages allows
color on all.
* one last thing, more photos doesn't equal more money anymore. (Whereas years
ago each photo got "shot and separated" then "stripped" into the layout, now all
imagery becomes digital, calling for only one printout to film.)
-Suz
[1] when mentioning the train show (for example) I was thinking we'd represent
the event with a nice clean shot of (for example) Dave's trolley, then use text
to briefly describe our involvement in the event. Similarly, a SW walker could
represent the MF event, etc.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: 2002 NELUG wall calendar
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| [Previous msg clipped for space] Hi, I realize I'm a neo-NELUGer and outside the group but I can't help but chime in, too. I hope this is okay. (...) A well composed collage may look nice, too. Also, maybe if each month was treated graphically to go (...) (23 years ago, 10-Jul-01, to lugnet.org.us.nelug)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: 2002 NELUG wall calendar
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| (...) I think this is a fantastic idea! I'd love to see this come about! (...) I think we have enough of everything under our collaborative belts to be able to include quite a bit - more on this in a minute, but I think we might be able to have (...) (23 years ago, 10-Jul-01, to lugnet.org.us.nelug)
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