NikkiKlemmer's blog

The teams gathered a little after 11 a.m. to present the final results to Safe Haven Family Shelter.

At the end of 24 hours, the volunteers delivered:

• A redesigned website that's simple to update and makes it easy for visitors to get involved.
• Three print ads with the tagline "Family homelessness. It's not what you think."
• Rough cuts of two video testimonials from Safe Haven families.
• A brochure about the Guardian Angel donor program.
• A brochure about the programs Safe Haven provides.
• A marketing plan, social media plan, e-mail marketing plan and e-mail template.

Even with a complete turnaround in the creative direction in the middle of the night, the clients were extremely pleased with the results. They plan to launch the new website and materials at an event later in August, so we'll have to post more details about that.

As a teaser, here's one of the ads, which will also serve as a rotating image on the website. There are still a few holes to fill, but after 24+ hours everyone is ready to take a breather.

Thanks again to all of the in-kind donors who kept us fed and caffeinated throughout the day/night: Amerigo West End, Moe's Southwest Grill, Mafiaoza's, Dunn Bros. coffee and BDT Beverage.

I'm in awe of the stamina and devotion all the volunteers showed this weekend. It's amazing what we can accomplish when we all come together.

We're an hour away from the creative freeze. At 10 a.m., teams will wrap up what they're working on so we have an hour to collect everything and present the finished product to Safe Haven  Family Shelter at 11 a.m.

Almost everyone got a few hours of sleep to recharge for crunch time. The coffee that Dunn Bros. donated doesn't hurt.

The copy team is editing the website, writing tag lines for the ads and finalizing collateral. Marketing and web are discussing the eNewsletter campaign, and the design team is inputting copy and tweaking brochures.

The group watched a rough cut of one of the testimonial videos around 8 a.m. I don't know whether it was because of his story or lack of sleep (probably both), but more than a few tears were shed.

Jessica Murray, one of the organizers, is doing what's kept her busy for the past 22 hours--keeping the whole operation moving smoothly (and keeping us fed).

The big reveal will happen two hours from now, and we'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

OK, so technically we're a little more than halfway there. We just had another "scrum" to check in on the teams' progress. Our creative director Bruce presented the homepage and internal page comps, which make the calls to action (donate and get involved) clear.

With their current site, Safe Haven Family Shelter has to call their web firm every time they want to update the content. Now that the site will use WordPress as its content management system, they can make the changes themselves quickly and easily.

Bruce also shared three ad concepts that the design, web and copy teams developed. All three center around the same tagline, which will be revealed tomorrow.

The marketing team is finalizing its overall, social media and e-mail strategies and will hop on to help the copy team finish all of the new text for the site and collateral pieces.

We've hit another important stage in the Design-A-Thon: nap time. Team members are taking turns getting a few hours of sleep so we don't burn out before dawn. Crunch time is 8-10 a.m., when the creative freeze hits.

(Photo by design volunteer Erin Cubert.)

After consuming way too much pizza, the teams came together at 8 p.m. to hear about the client-approved conceptual platform. The focus will be on kids and how Safe Haven Family Shelter improve their lives.

At this point, the marketing team has an overall strategy outline and is making progress on the social media and e-mail strategies. The blog strategy is next.

The copy crew is pulling together the content and organizing it based on the sitemap. Design has finished the wireframes and is creating the layout style in Photoshop.

The video team has finished shooting footage of two Safe Haven families, and one of the team members is off site editing.

Web volunteers are getting everything set up in WordPress, which will serve as the site platform. They also serve another important function--one of their team members is the only one who can print.

I should add that a team from Safe Haven has been working with the volunteers all day, throwing out ideas, approving concepts, and serving as an invaluable resource for the teams.

The teams are getting back together at 11 p.m. to report on their progress. We'll keep you posted.

It's a little after 6 p.m., and the copy and design teams are close to hitting on a concept that the content and imagery can center around. The intent is to invoke feelings of pride in Nashville -- that we can do something about the problem of family homelessness. Everyone in Nashville should feel at home here.

In the meantime, the web and design teams are working on the wireframes and look of the redesigned website.

The reward for team members when they wrap up their brainstorming: pizza donated from Mafiaoza's. 

Volunteers started showing up at CoLab for the Design-A-Thon (a.k.a. #designathon or #designathonbna11, if you’re following along on Twitter) at 10:45 a.m. to get ready for a day of writing, designing and developing a marketing strategy for Safe Haven Family Shelter.

The day officially kicked off at 11 a.m. with lunch donated from Amerigo West End, which was much appreciated.

After introductions, everyone split up into their teams: design, web, copy, marketing, and photo/video. The teams assembled their work spaces, making sure there were plenty of outlets for laptops, clean whiteboards and access to CoLab’s wifi.

In the second group meeting we talked about specific deliverables and strategy. The top priority is redesigning Safe Haven’s website, www.safehaven.org.

In addition to the website, teams will develop a marketing strategy, social media strategy, and print collateral for Safe Haven’s sub-brand for donations, Guardian Angel. The print materials will include a comprehensive brochure about Safe Haven and all of its initiatives, a corporate brochure for donations at that level, and a piece to give the donor after the contribution is made.

The creative team is going to come up with an ad campaign to help set the tone and language and ensure consistency of all materials.

While we’re working away at CoLab, a video team is shooting 60-second testimonials of families that Safe Haven serves.

I’ll be live blogging throughout the Design-A-Thon, so stay tuned. For more photos, check out the Flickr group.