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Design

The statements and opinions on this page are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of CouchSurfing International.

The Organizational structure has started for the all creative efforts in CouchSurfing. We want you to volunteer. Contact Please submit your resume to creative@couchsurfing.com and tell us what projects you would like to participate in. See below all the projects that you can work on!

We will also add you to the Organizational Structure



Contents

The philosophy

The idea is for any of us to work in what we like! We collaborate in developing a creative common ground in a sense that we all are aware of our styles, skills and CouchSurfing community needs. it is Pragmatic view. It fits the mission of CouchSurfing and the Foundation of the Design Team.

Who we are looking for:

  • Web Page Designers
  • CSS Developers
  • Print Designers
  • All artists, to make and sell/auction art on the CouchStore
  • Ajax Developers
  • Flash Designers
  • Flash Developers
  • HTML editors
  • Photoshop folks
  • Fine Illustrators
  • Movie Makers
  • Art and Creative Directors
  • Copywriters
  • 3D Artists
  • Animators
  • Cartoonists

Main Org Structure

The model of work is very simple and involves the following:

  • Resourcing. Do we have all information that we need to make the project happen?
  • Messaging. control of image of the organization: Are we following standards of quality and the CouchSurfing mission of Inter-cultural understanding?
  • Strategy. what should we do next? 6 months? 2 years? Would you like to share your ideas about the future?


This creates a model to follow

  • We work in what we want!
  • The best ideas just bubble up to the top.
  • Volunteers: Teach, Share, Learn, work as a team
  • Get feedback, Do you know how to ask for it? If not, ask as how.
  • Create Projects, Manage your own if you want to. If you don't contact us and we will find you a team coordinator.


Projects

CouchSurfing.com Design

Interface design for the couchSurfing.com community. The need for designers that understand professional large scale sites are important, but small site design and flash is also important.

  • couchsurfing.com Web site graphics design
  • User interface design (usability improvement lies more in the domain of cognitive science than graphic design)
  • Special pages for marketing, sub sites, collective sites, etc.
  • Icons
  • Logos

Stationery

  • Letter Head
  • Brochure Design
  • Envelope Design
  • Brochure

Marketing Materials Design

  • Create graphics that will be displayed on the CouchSurfing.com home page that show all about the CouchSurfing community, somewhat of a street billboard style. These would be sized roughly 800x200 pixels. These images/animations would be displaying:
  1. Featured Location
  2. New Features and ideas
  3. Featured Profile
  4. Any Marketing or Communications
  5. CS Magazine Stuff


Communications Design

Problem: Communication to the CouchSurfing Community is mostly done using text.

Solution:Multiple ways to get any message across the CouchSurfing Community. PodCasting, Videos, Animation, Cartoons, Storyboards, etc.

  • Animated How-tos: For every key feature in CouchSurfing, we create an animation with voice that explains how that function works.
  • Newsletter Design in HTML and PDF for download.

Ambassador Package

Implement and design a package that will be sent to all ambassadors, with lots of information on how-to build strong communities and how to volunteer.

  • Envelope
  • Volunteer Guide
  • Stickers
  • Cards
  • Multimedia CDs
  • Other Print Materials


Magazine

  • Design and publish, eventually both online and in print, the CS Magazine.


MultiMedia design

CouchSurfing TV

  • The Comedy Channel
  • Educational Channel
  • Users Channel
  • Rock Stars Channel
  • Book And Movie reviews Channel
  • News Channel


CS Volunteer Manual Design

This will be a highly graphical and creative manual for the Ambassadors. It would be initially in PDF, but could be eventually in Print. It would sized 8x10 inches. Topics would include:

  1. Big Life
  2. Security
  3. User Inclusion
  4. Org Structure
  5. User Diversity
  6. Volunteer Growth
  7. Community strength


New User Greeting Animations

  • Design animations that new users would watch and learn about their initial steps in the CouchSurfing Community.
  1. Features
  2. How-to CouchSurf


CouchSurfing Guide Design

Design the layout for a print-ready CouchSurfing.com Guide, highly creative,artistic and graphical. The guide would include several sections;

  1. Location Guides
  2. Safety
  3. Philosophy
  4. Community Building


CouchStore

Design of a web store front and products that relate to the CouchSurfing Community, by the community.

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