Merchandizing for the GIMP.

Hi all.

At LGM we threw some ideas around for Gimp-Merchandizing.

I am a little bit involved in this, since the company I work for -
kernel concepts - has a lot of experience with doing these things for
various free software projects. I am usually the person, preparing
artwork provided by the projects into something suitable for the product
in question.

While I am convinced that we do a good work there and I'd very much
welcome doing stuff for the GIMP please understand that I want to leave
the selection of a partner for merchandizing stuff to you, by no means
should my involvement with the GIMP imply in any way that GIMP should do
the stuff with us.

Having said that, here are some ideas what we have done already and what
could be explored. Also have a look at our shop, where some of the stuff
we have is presented:

http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/product_info.php?cPath=22_30&products_id=75

Options:

- T-Shirts and hoodies. We prefer silk-screen printing for T-Shirts,
which gives a great durability of the shirt. It might be possible to
create special effects like e.g. night-glow paint or colors with
glittering stuff in them. (we did this for some LinuxTag-T-Shirts, but
this may have to be re-evaluated, since our printing-provider recently
changed his color-source)

- Mugs. We prefer silk-screen printing for the mugs. The openstreetmap
mugs we did some time ago are done in some sort of transfer-print, and
it turned out that the quality is not as good as we expected. We also
have done some frosted-glass mugs, which can be printed on in "clear".

- Pins. In fact we did a Gimp-Pin as the very first pin and grossly
overestimated the "sellability" of a gimp pin. As a result we're now
sitting on 100's of Gimp pins, which don't sell. So there might be an
option for a special deal :)

They're silk-screen printed in 5 colors and beautiful. These are
something I hand out frequently on community events, unfortunately I
did forget them at this LGM.

- Stickers. We have a contact, who creates stickers with an epoxy cover,
pretty much as you know them from PC case stickers. They are not cheap
but can be manufactured in small quantities and can be arbitrarily
shaped.

"Regular" stickers for distributing are something we still need to
evaluate a bit. We once created a set of custom shaped linux penguins:
http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/images/tux_aufkleberbogen.png

However, creating a custom shape for "mass-printing" stickers is
expensive. It might be possible to ask for a "standard" layout of a
page full of stickers. We did not do this yet, but it should be fairly
easy to figure this out.

- Keyrings and other small stuff: the guy creating the epoxy-stickers
also offers products, which provide a place for the epoxy stickers.

Some of you know the key rings with a shopping-basket-chip I handed
out to some people. This kind of stuff. This could be an interesting
option, since there is no setup cost and manufacturing can happen in
fairly small quantities.

- Pens. For the FSFE we did a pen with "analog printer" printed on it.
I wonder if it would make sense to have "real world" brushes and/or
pencils with some reference to GIMP on it.

- Ties. Michael keeps asking for them. We once did a Tie with the
BSD-Daemon on it. They're not cheap, minimum order is about 40, and
I am not *that* happy with the quality, they feel a little bit weird.

- We also evaluated pins with blinking LEDs on them. Unfortunately we
tend to care about regulations in Germany and when confronted with the
requirements for the "Elektro- und Elektronikgerätegesetz" our
supplier promptly retracted his initial offer, remarking "oh, you're
the first one to ask for this"...

Please feel free to continue the brainstorm. We're not scared of new
challenges :)

Tomorrow LinuxTag is starting again in Berlin and kernel concepts again
manages the merchandizing booth there. Feel free to drop by (I'll be
there on Friday and Saturday) and evaluate stuff.

Bye,
Simon

On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 16:32 +0200, Simon Budig wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> At LGM we threw some ideas around for Gimp-Merchandizing.

Since I haven't been at LGM, I have trouble to understand the motivation
for doing GIMP merchandising.

You are certainly not doing this for the money, are you? We have a
steady flow of donations coming in and basically nothing to spend this
money for.

Perhaps someone can explain why the GIMP developers should even care
about merchandising. There are other parties who are interested to do
GIMP merchandising (freewear.org for example) and willing to organize
all of it. This failed because we aren't even capable of adding a link
to their products on the gimp.org web-site. What makes you think that it
would work better if we did this all by our-selves?


Sven

On 6/9/10, Sven Neumann wrote:

> Perhaps someone can explain why the GIMP developers should even care
> about merchandising. There are other parties who are interested to do
> GIMP merchandising (freewear.org for example) and willing to organize
> all of it. This failed because we aren't even capable of adding a link
> to their products on the gimp.org web-site. What makes you think that it
> would work better if we did this all by our-selves?

One of the things discussed at LGM was moving all project's domain and
subdomains to a single dedicated server. We have a person willing to
do the migration and a person to create a new website.

Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org

On Wednesday, June 09, 2010 20:19:03 Sven Neumann wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 16:32 +0200, Simon Budig wrote:
> > Hi all.
> >
> > At LGM we threw some ideas around for Gimp-Merchandizing.
>
> Since I haven't been at LGM, I have trouble to understand the motivation
> for doing GIMP merchandising.
IT was discussed and two reasons dominated.

a) Promotion material for the fun of it. Cheap giveaways, like Wilber stickers
you can give away at local meets for fans to show their love for gimp. It
boosts the fun index of the project sky high. Heck, I wish *I* had some to
stick on my laptop lid. When I finally get a decent printer I might print some
paper ones but... Real stuff would be way cooler.

b) Something a little bit better as a token of appreciation. Google gives the
GSOC students shirts... It would be rally nice if we could give them a nice
little mug with Wilber on or something.

And If someone wants to buy the items, that should ye,s be an option too but
it wasn't really the aim.

> You are certainly not doing this for the money, are you? We have a
> steady flow of donations coming in and basically nothing to spend this
> money for.

This was proposed as a way to do something with the money that would be fun.

> Perhaps someone can explain why the GIMP developers should even care
> about merchandising.
Im speaking for myself here I guess, but Id like to have something to show off
what I do as a hobby ... and spread the Wilber love around.

-- Alexia

On 09/06/10 19:43, Alexia Death wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 09, 2010 20:19:03 Sven Neumann wrote:
>> On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 16:32 +0200, Simon Budig wrote:
>>> Hi all.
>>>
>>> At LGM we threw some ideas around for Gimp-Merchandizing.
>>
>> Since I haven't been at LGM, I have trouble to understand the motivation
>> for doing GIMP merchandising.
> IT was discussed and two reasons dominated.
>
> a) Promotion material for the fun of it. Cheap giveaways, like Wilber stickers
> you can give away at local meets for fans to show their love for gimp. It
> boosts the fun index of the project sky high. Heck, I wish *I* had some to
> stick on my laptop lid. When I finally get a decent printer I might print some
> paper ones but... Real stuff would be way cooler.
Yeah! I have a wilber sticker! Woot, Cool , loads of fun. My life just
seemed empty before , how did I live? Yeeha! WOOT again, merchandising
is FUN!
>
> b) Something a little bit better as a token of appreciation. Google gives the
> GSOC students shirts... It would be rally nice if we could give them a nice
> little mug with Wilber on or something.
>
> And If someone wants to buy the items, that should ye,s be an option too but
> it wasn't really the aim.
>
>> You are certainly not doing this for the money, are you? We have a
>> steady flow of donations coming in and basically nothing to spend this
>> money for.
>
> This was proposed as a way to do something with the money that would be fun.
Merchandising is usually a way of MAKE money not spending it. Paying
for everyone to go out for a few beers sounds more like fun.
>
>> Perhaps someone can explain why the GIMP developers should even care
>> about merchandising.
> Im speaking for myself here I guess, but Id like to have something to show off
> what I do as a hobby ... and spread the Wilber love around.
What, you print mugs for a hobby , cool!

There seems to be something fundamentally disingenuous in all this
merchandising bullshit.

I would have thought the best was to promote GIMP, if that needs to be
done , is to show off what can be done with the software, not printing
mugs , tee-shirts and balloons.

I don't think gilbert is particularly good example of what can be done
with GIMP and I find this silly mascot rather demeaning and irrelevant.
Hardly the focal point of the project.

I recall seeing some really impressive computer art that was done with
blender. Real art, like as in paintings, not just pulling ellipses and
triangles around. It was hard to believe it was done with a computer.

It would be more inspiring and more of an accolade to GIMP to show some
really top class work created with it rather poncing around with a gimp
flavoured handbag and a sticker on your forehead.

Perhaps any promotional effort should be made to relate to the project.

On 6/10/10, gg wrote:

> I don't think gilbert is particularly good example of what can be done
> with GIMP and I find this silly mascot rather demeaning and irrelevant.

His name is Wilber and he says he loves you anyway.

Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org

On Thu, 2010-06-10 at 01:21 +0200, gg@catking.net wrote:
> It would be more inspiring and more of an accolade to GIMP to show some
> really top class work created with it rather poncing around with a gimp
> flavoured handbag and a sticker on your forehead.

Get real, who wants handbags, we are talking about wilber ass tattoos
and GIMP branded dildos!

Seriously, what bad crack did you smoke before writing that response.
What harm does it do if somebody produces some GIMP stickers and mugs?
Don't we have more important things to discuss here?

This is like the *typical* mailing list bullshit discussion. A complete
irrelevant garbage topic where everybody feels like they can have a
relevant opinion. I would wish for that kind of participation when
it comes to really important issues.

(and no, I don't address you personally here gg in the last paragraph,
only in the ones above)

annoyed regards,
--mitch

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 1:43 PM, Alexia Death <alexiadeath@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday, June 09, 2010 20:19:03 Sven Neumann wrote:
> >
> > Since I haven't been at LGM, I have trouble to understand the motivation
> > for doing GIMP merchandising.
> [...]
>
> b) Something a little bit better as a token of appreciation. Google gives
> the
> GSOC students shirts... It would be rally nice if we could give them a nice
> little mug with Wilber on or something.
>

I've always found T-shirts to be infinitely more useful than most of the
other baubles I've received. However, I certainly like the idea of sending
"Merged" shirts to GSoC participants, presuming the code gets merged. They
could also be used as rewards if anyone wanted to assign bug-bounties to
bugzilla entries. It would be nice if whatever design this "Merged" graphic
would be also shows support for the efforts of translators and documentation
writers.

Chris

On 09.06.2010 19:19, Sven Neumann wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 16:32 +0200, Simon Budig wrote:
>> Hi all.
>>
>> At LGM we threw some ideas around for Gimp-Merchandizing.
>
> Since I haven't been at LGM, I have trouble to understand the motivation
> for doing GIMP merchandising.
>
> You are certainly not doing this for the money, are you?

Please note that Simon is responding to my request from the GIMP meeting
to present an overview of merchandise items in the categories "give-away
bulk", "give-away specific", "standard merchandise" and "surprises"
(like the ties).

Do you remember the - not terribly serious - short discussion we had
about this at your place during last congress? That was the much more
serious continuation.

We've been very careful to leave this at a "present the options, decide
later" stage - mostly because many of the GIMP developer's haven't been
able to attend LGM. But everyone agreed that we want stickers, at least.


Regards,
Michael