Part of the role of Fedora Ambassadors are to be advocates of the Fedora operating system and the project community. Advocacy and representation takes a variety of forms all over the world. Ambassadors attend trade show conferences, universities, and local meet-ups to spread the word about open source, Fedora, and the awesome things Fedora can help them accomplish. At these events, there is often an important need for merchandise or printed items. These can take a variety of forms, such as with t-shirts, stickers, pens, posters, banners, brochures, and much more.
If you are an Ambassador preparing to go to an event in your region, there are a few steps you should be aware of in order to request art assets or produce printed materials for your event. The following page is a guide to help introduce you to the steps needed to request and print Fedora-branded items, materials, and more from the Design team.
Discuss with your region
The first step you should take before requesting any design assets or trying to create any products is to talk with your region about the event and the needs, requirements, and budget for any artwork assets created. This should be done well ahead of time for an event so as to give time for planning and discussion over any budgetary concerns or ideas for what is needed.
You should make sure you contact your region's treasurer and storyteller specifically in your discussions. Does the artwork or materials you need align with the Fedora Project's Foundations? Does it help tell the story of Fedora and bring people in? How will these designs or materials be useful to you as an Ambassador in the field?
Being aware of the budget for printed merchandise ahead of the time will greatly help the design process, but it is not required this early yet if you do not have the information.
Open a ticket with the Design Team
Once you have consulted with your region and discussed it at a meeting or on the mailing list, you should file a ticket on the Design team's Pagure. The ticket should be filed ahead of time of the event, so as to give the designers plenty of time to work on your design and meet the requirements.
When creating a new ticket, make sure to fill out all fields in the ticket template. This step is extremely vital and important to making sure your ticket is completed as quickly as possible. All of the fields are important and used by the Design Team, so it is in your interest to take the time to fill out the ticket template as detailed and fully as possible. If you do not add all of the information available to the ticket, your ticket may not be completed on time for an event.
This is a good time to work with the Design Team on the final product. Being detailed in your requirements will help create the vision for what needs to be created. Some useful information to include in your ticket...
- When is this needed by?
- What is it for?
- What do you hope to use the deliverable for?
- What region of the world are you in (for printing purposes)?
- Are there any budgetary concerns to be aware of (e.g. colors / fabrics / other printing-related information)?
File a ticket on the Design Team Pagure HERE!
Example Template: Print/Swag Design
Take a look at the following template regarding a ticket for creating printed / swag design for an event. If filing a ticket for physical materials or merchandise, you will need to gather all of the information below (or best guess) either from your region, your preferred printing company, or elsewhere.
* Deadline for design to be sent to printer * Deadline for items to be shipped and ready to hand out * If you can, please provide us with example photos of items that are similar to the result you're looking for * Printer contact information if available '''If you need printer recommendations, please include that in the ticket Include any text or content needed''' * Is this for an event? * Location, date, and website/wiki page for the event * Is this in a language other than English? '''Size requirements, can be standard paper size or width and height''' * For apparel or products * Apparel or product type * Number of colors to use * Background color of the object * Print or embroidery * Print area size (printer can provide this) * Templates (if provided by printer)
Contact vendors
Once you have a deliverable product from the Design team (or at their advisement), you should reach out to local vendors for printing or creating your merchandise or item(s). The Design team is not responsible for handling this part for the Ambassadors, but they should be kept in the loop about any specific questions regarding the printing process, design concerns, or anything else regarding the printing / production process. Other members of your region should be able to help direct you to places commonly used for creating products or items for events.
Regions are encouraged to keep the vendors page current and updated for their region. In addition to making it easier to keep records about vendors used for other Ambassadors, it also makes it easy for groups like the Design team to understand unique specifications or details about a vendor you may use.
Get feedback
Once you are close to finalizing your order, make sure you pass along any details or information back to the Design team in the ticket for your request.
Why is this important? When it comes to the final production process, there are several variables that can affect how the final item comes out. Every region of the world has slightly different specifications or small differences in how something is produced. It's useful and helpful to keep the Design Team included on these discussions so that the Fedora brand is always maintained and represented correctly. When it doesn't happen, it can result in odd instances, such as the purple DVD covers from Fedora 16 (you can read more about this in the CMYK page).
The Fedora 16 DVD covers weren't properly color managed, and came out purple instead of the intended Fedora blue.
Print product
Once you receive the final approval from the Design team, go ahead and move on to printing or creating your items!
Close out ticket
Once the order is finalized, follow up on the original ticket filed in the Design team Trac. Post any final updates to the ticket about the status of the order. Is anything else needed from you? Do you need anything else from the Design team? If not, make sure you let the team know that the ticket can be closed.
Improvements to this page
Have any concerns about this page or see any information that is incorrect? Needs to be updated? Please contact the CommOps team on their mailing list if there are any significant problems or if the page needs clean-up. Otherwise, feel free to improve this guide based on actual experiences or what would be desired to improve the process for Ambassadors and Design team members alike.