The NSA Redesign

http://mysite.du.edu/~afeight/native_student_alliance/

We added some images and fixed up some of the little things that just help maintain a strong image and uniform look.  There are still things that we will continue to update, such as the contacts and events page.  We would also like to get more pictures to use that will portray the organization even better.

Interview Questions for Native Student Alliance

1. What is your mission statement and/or purpose?
The mission of the Native Student Alliance of the University of Denver is to increase awareness and appreciation of the various Native American / First Nations cultures on the university campus as well as collaborate with other student groups to promote diversity. The organization strives to inform individuals who are not familiar with American Indian culture and is open to any individual affiliated with the University of Denver, regardless of gender, religious preference, sexual preference, physical disability, ethnicity or race, or whether he or she is of native ancestry. NSA will also attempt to obtain funds to promote its presence on campus and to provide the DU community with enriching events to benefit all parties involved. The main goal of the Native Student Alliance is to serve as a resource of unique support and fellowship for individuals of indigenous American descent in the college atmosphere and also to serve as role models for youth (mainly of Native American heritage, but not limited to) in a post-secondary educational environment. In conclusion, we strive to promote Native American awareness, provide support and fellowship to any persons seeking such, and support diversity at the University of Denver.
2. What is the history of this organization?
NSA has been active on and off at DU throughout the years under slight name variations. Our chapter of the Native Student Alliance was officially recognized and funded by the All Undergraduate Student Association in Fall 2005 and has been active since.
3. What are the goals of the organization?
NSA is one of a handful of campus organizations dedicated to promoting diversity. In addition to working together with other student organizations, we also try to maintain a known presence at DU. In our own circle, our main focus is to create networks between Native students. We serve as a much needed resource of support and fellowship.
4. Do you have any partners within the community?
We’ve worked with a variety of people from the Denver area for small projects ranging from local elders to other Native student organizations. We’re familiar with the local organizations as well such as the Denver Indian Center, the Denver Indian Family Resource Center, and the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce. Our American Indian Services Coordinator with the Center for Multicultural Excellence is an employee of
5. What is unique about your organization?
Our group consists of members of one of the least represented ethnic groups at DU and yet we differ greatly from each other. While we all consider ourselves to be a part of the Native American / American Indian / First Nations collective, we still have our own distinct tribal affiliations.
6. Who are the most important individuals who make this organization possible?
Outside influences were crucial to NSA’s start. The sense of identity was the main goal and we’ve received nothing but support and encouragement from the staff at the Center for Multicultural Excellence and the other student organizations around campus. These days, the leaders are the main persons keeping the group active not only as a personal collective but as an officially licensed group recognized and funded by the University of Denver.
7. What are the greatest accomplishments of the organization?
Besides getting started and creating an infrastructure for the future of the organization, the best thing we’ve had the pleasure of doing is getting involved with Denver’s Native American community. We’ve done this in a few ways, from assisting with pow-wows to marching against the Columbus Day holiday to sponsoring toy drives.
8. Are there any yearly fundraisers or campaigns that are beneficial?
*See what Leo says for this one*
9. Any ongoing projects?
An event that has been successfully planned, promoted, and executed for two consecutive years has been the Native American Fashion Show, a free-to-the-public event showcasing clothing and accessories from Native designers by Native models. This may be the main event for which NSA is known.
10. What type of marketing is most beneficial for the organization?
News always travels well by word-of-mouth amongst the communities we serve. Formal advertising never does as well as telling the right people.
11. What resources do you currently use to project your organization out into the public?
We have a few resources, including online support through a Facebook group, a Myspace profile, a DU listserv to communicate with members, as well as network ties to other organizations.
12. What are your organization’s main objectives for the next year; five years?
DU lacks a lot of resources for its Native students, meaning there is no curriculum concerning Native American issues / history offered nor an alumni association. Overall, we would like to see the membership grow in order to have a greater demand for these things.
13. What would you want to include in a website for you organization?
There are a few things: calendar page for events, a member profile page (maybe a map with dots for where each member is from), links to our other online pages, a counter for the number of hits the website receives, an e-mail form to contact us, we can talk more about this.
14. Do you want to expand your target audience or keep it the same?
We would like to reach and / or be available to as many people as possible.
15. What are your expectations for the website?
NSA is hoping for a sleek and interactive website which successfully represents our group. We want it to showcase NSA to prospective members (i.e. high school students) and colleagues while providing a tool to keep our members up-to-date with group happenings.

NSA Minutes 01/15/08

Native Student Alliance
Meeting 1, Winter Quarter ‘08
January 15, 2008

Meeting Minutes

Attendence: 8 members, 3 guests

Agenda
1. Red Power: Native American Activism and the Civil Rights Movement
2. Designing Social Awareness Project
3. The Circle
4. Teuton Reading Group
5. Future Events
6. NSA Outing
7. New Meeting Time

Notes
1. Special guests Dianna Ducotey-Sabey and Ahmed from the DU Health & Counseling Center were in attendance to discuss the upcoming “Red Power: Native American Activism and the Civil Rights Movement”, an event in conjunction with the three-week long DU observance of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. legacy. The presentation is set for Thursday, January 24th from 4:30-6 PM in the Ritchie Center 3rd Floor Multipurpose Room. It was determined that the evening will be broken into 3 parts:
a. Introduction of the topic, including background
i. Movie clips from two films will be shown
b. Discussion with elders from the Denver community
c. Q&A from the audience
NSA members are expected to arrive at 4 PM. We will also meet earlier in the week for a run-through with our guests for adequate preparation. Tip: Do some research on the topic (issues of reparations, perhaps what was happening in your respective communities, any family member points of view, etc.) and develop your opinions / views to share.
2. Treasurer Alicia Chee and special guest Aaron Feight have chosen NSA to be their non-profit organization to brand for a Designing Social Awareness Project. They will be collecting ideas from members throughout the quarter to develop a brand for NSA through new logo design and a website. A color scheme of white, black, red, and yellow was determined; however any suggestions of symbols, slogans, and other themes to incorporate into the new NSA image are encouraged. You may e-mail them to Alicia (achee@du.edu), Aaron (afeight@du.edu), Leo or myself.
3. January’s Circle will be on Monday the 28th, 6 PM @ CME. Chef Leo is hooking up Navajo Tacos and we will be watching a documentary on Navajo culture. Bring your friends!
4. Chris Teuton’s Reading Group is still having monthly meetings. The group distributes free books by native authors each month then reconvenes for discussion. All are welcome. To join, e-mail Leo.
5. The Native Civil Rights event kicks off 2008 for NSA activities. Coming up: fundraisers (bowling tournament, bake sales) and May Pow-wow. Leo is in the process of finding available dates for the Hamilton Gymnasium. A campaign to renew the DU interest in Native student support as well as curriculum (even if it’s just one class) was also suggested. Dialogue with Johanna Leyba, CME Director, will start this campaign.
6. There is an official NSA Outing to Rodizio Grill for dinner on the MLK holiday (Monday, January 21). We will meet at CME @ 5 PM to travel together via Light Rail. Send an RSVP e-mail to Leo. Don’t forget your RTD passes!
7. Lastly, NSA will now meet every other Tuesday evening, 6 PM @ CME. Next meeting: January 29th

Thanks for an awesomely productive meeting! It was good to see you all. Have a good rest of the week.

-Whitney-

We also messed around with what we could have as a homepage before even starting to work with the site itself.  These are the sketches with different types of link graphics.  Ultimately, we did not decide to use any of them but we thought what we ended up choosing in the long run was better.  In the first of these, with the small whirlwinds, they would spin as the mouse hovered over the link.  In the second one, the dots would fade in and out and on the third one, the circles would start in the center and fade outward.  In the final idea, they would simply change color as the mouse hovered over the link.

More Web Ideas

We decided we liked the idea of having an image that ran alongside the website and these are the ideas we were working on before we decided against having them on the site for the sake of simplicity.

Logo With Specified Color Choices

At the first meeting, we made sure to get the group to let us know what colors they wanted to use for the logo and the entire site, for that matter.  We had found the whirlwind symbol, which everyone loved right away so we knew we were going to be building off of that.  We did want to incorporate the circular design because that was important to the organization as well.  At first, we tried using feathers, another representation of the group, however, they made the logo a little to much for what it needed to be.  Then, we began working with the dots and those obviously made it far too busy.  We finally decided on keeping the whirlwind and the text separate, but connect them using a circle.  This worked extremely well except for one thing… the circle was too crisp in comparison to the whirlwind.  We wanted more of a brush stroke look so we just made our own half circles in Illustrator in the same way we made the whirlwind symbol.

First Few Logos

These were the first few logos we designed without having been told what colors the organization wanted to use or what kind of look they were trying to go for. Also, we started working on the site and this was one of our original ideas for a graphic that would span the length of the site.  Many of the elements in these logos were used in the final design however the most important thing about these logos is that they were not made on the basis of a brand that had already been created.  We have been working from scratch and there is much more opportunity to create when that is the situation.

Link To Brand Spankin’ New Website

http://mysite.du.edu/~afeight/Bright_Pixel/index.html