Post by Brian Germain on Sept 27, 2006 19:01:50 GMT -5
Greeting Everyone and welcome to the first installment of the MySpace Dark Elf Designs Blog. You may be saying to yourself what the heck is Dark Elf Designs anyway? This is where I would like to tell you a little more about Dark Elf Designs and what it is what we do and what we stand for. It is no seceret that comics are a larger part of our pop culture community now than ever before, much in oart due to the fact of the ever growing successful box-office franchises that have hit the mainstream lately, as well as the ever growing amounts of beautiful artwork that we find in the comics of today. Dark Elf Designs is a Creative Community and by community we mean a group of people who meets either via web or in person to share goals, hopes, dreams, techniques, experiences, professional tips, ticks, and so on in the effort to promote Dark Elf Designs not only as a group community but also as a viable business place and well respected small press publisher and talent firm. Our Current focus is on comic books and graphic novels, but we are diversified into models, photographers, musicians, and so on. Many of our members are writer/ artist/ creators, while still others have multiple talents as well such as music, web design, etc. The purpose of that really cool Dark Elf head Logo you see at the left of this blog is to make sure that Dark Elf Designs is highly recognizeable and the repetitive appearance of the same logo is part of our effort to promote Dark Elf Designs as a company. Promotion of the logo and the company has resulted in many very positive things one of which happens to be the subsequent promotion of Dark Elf's individual members. In other words if you are a member of the Dark Elf Designs team and you look good on paper ie; artwork, resume, writing skills, then it translates into making Dark Elf Designs look good. In the same reverse situation if Dark Elf Designs is adequately promoted properly then it makes you as a member of the team look good as well.
Why do we need models, musicians, and photgraphers, and web designers, and flash designers, and graphic designers, you might ask , as you might think it only takes a writer and an artist to make a comic book or graphic novel and there you would be right and wrong at the same time.
Here's a little bit of a hard to follow explanation then I will try to clarify...
(1.) Photographers need Models, without them they are photgraphing landscapes, still life, or animals, or news type photos of people, which some and many do and even do successfully, however you can see the need for models for some photographers and you can therefore see why point (2.) exists.
(2.) Models need Photographers, so much is this union blessed that it is often akin to an artist/ writer teams. in Fact as many artists and writers will collaborate equally on a project many models and photographers are willing to do TFP (Time for Photos) trades in which the photographer charges the model for his services by keeping the orignal photos and the model charges for her time byy getting copies of those said photos to put in her portfolio
Which Brings us to...
(3.)Artists need photo reference this includes models and anything that a photographer might like to take pictures of, sometimes artists use photos directly in there work by altering them such as with Wizard Magazine's "Comic Babes" contest from a few years back. as well as using photos in multimedia pieces and using live photos as comic backgrounds sometimes.
sometimes photgraphed models are needed for pinup art or sometimes photos of a band and or models are needed to make thing like posters for Bands, and/or CD covers. Which Leads me to...
(4.) Musicians need Artists, Photographers, Videographers, and sometimes Models, In order to help promote their band in a creative and well thought out manner. Flash artists and graphic artists help promote them on the web and Models appear in nearly any video worth it's salt. World Wide Web a.k.a. Internet promos are best choreographeed by Graphic Artists and...
(5.) Web Designers, these guys are the glue that hold the net together, they are the visual stimuli by which we stay or surf when it comes to the net. if a site is pleasing visually and has worthy content (often consisting of things created by Writers, Musicians, Photographers, Graphic Designers, videographers, Artists and even Models) then we tend to stay there longer and read more.
Now as you can see all these professions can relate to each other in some way shape or form whether it is as simple as an artist getting inspiration from a Model or Musician, to even promoting a comic book by selling an accompanying CD that is inspired buy the comic itself or vice versa.
I have said all of this and you have read it all and are still confused, well if you are then maybe I need to delve a little more...
if all these Jobs are intertwined creatively then how do all these people get in contact with what they need? This is where Dark Elf Designs comes in, Being a community of the aforementioned creative Talent we have a spot on the web to promote ourselves to outside sources and to get in contact with each other for various reasons. Imagine if you will a Super-Heroine who is based on some photos of a Dark Elf Designs member who was a model, taken by a Photographer that was also a DED member, and we turned the Super-Femme into a charcter based Flash Cartoon with Flash Designers who were DED members, and the cartoon had a soundtrack done by our very own Musician DED team member. Cuts out alot of running around the web to find what were looking for, not to mention that in that there is power in these numbers as each member is advertising said project that they worked on. Aside from tapping into a large Talent pool they are all working on spec. for the most part. One of the strengths behind Dark Elf Designs being the entity that it is, happens to be that with the large number of members it can afford us the ability to keep our prices more economically competitive than many other companies with similar sizes and budgets.
We never ask for anyone from Dark Elf Designs to pay us for publishing we are not a pay for publishing company. People have been offered the ability to help foot the bill for their printing in past however as it helps get their book on the shelves that much faster. If we got all the members to chip in 10 bucks here or there we'd be printing alot more often, and it would just be a smart thing to do but that is not something we require.
I have been asked "What is the approved member to turned down ratio?" and "Can anyone join?" and the answer is difficult to say on both fronts. We don't need selfish Artists that are "in it for the money" we certainly don't mind hiring Talent who are wanting to make a little money however. Even the Pros that are making mega-bucks do freebies from time to time and the name of the Dark Elf game is "Exposure". Sure ultimately are goal is to make high quality products and finally money. But to me creativity should never be stifled because of greed. We have already had several members published in well known areas and several are recognized by fans or esteemed organizations. we don't need Talent that is steeped and basted in it's own ego, and we don't take everyone who walsk through the door. however there have been more that were allowed to join and less that were turned down, but we do think that those who don't belong with DED will help weed themselves out in time. And those who believe in what DED stands for will stick around and through Hard Work, Dedication, Integrity, and Creativity they will strive and succeed in getting to where they are going.
Ok if you are still wondering what Dark elf is and you are confused as to what it entails to be "An Alliance of Creative Talent" then I only have one last explanation to give... I believe pert of the reason that many people are confused as to what Dark Elf Designs really is, is due to the fact that it is somewhat confusing, because while it is one said thing it is also many, and the reasoning behind this is because I wanted to leave Dark Elf Designs Rooted in the fact that it is a Production Company and yet keep it as mutable and open to change as possible. Why is it so vague and mutable? Robert Kiyosaki self made millionaire said in his keys to being successful said that for a person to become successful he must be "open to change" and I believe that for Dark Elf Designs the same thing can apply to the company itself. so if you want to cram it all in a nutshell with a label on it then Dark Elf Designs is "An Alliance of Creative Talent, who have joined together for the purpose of self promotion through numbers. We are a community of individuals that are grounded in the arts with a current focus on Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Illustration. I However choose to think of us all as more than "just labeled nuts".
Sincerely,
-Brian Germain
Owner/ Editor-in-Chief
Dark Elf Designs LLC
www.darkelfdesigns.com
Why do we need models, musicians, and photgraphers, and web designers, and flash designers, and graphic designers, you might ask , as you might think it only takes a writer and an artist to make a comic book or graphic novel and there you would be right and wrong at the same time.
Here's a little bit of a hard to follow explanation then I will try to clarify...
(1.) Photographers need Models, without them they are photgraphing landscapes, still life, or animals, or news type photos of people, which some and many do and even do successfully, however you can see the need for models for some photographers and you can therefore see why point (2.) exists.
(2.) Models need Photographers, so much is this union blessed that it is often akin to an artist/ writer teams. in Fact as many artists and writers will collaborate equally on a project many models and photographers are willing to do TFP (Time for Photos) trades in which the photographer charges the model for his services by keeping the orignal photos and the model charges for her time byy getting copies of those said photos to put in her portfolio
Which Brings us to...
(3.)Artists need photo reference this includes models and anything that a photographer might like to take pictures of, sometimes artists use photos directly in there work by altering them such as with Wizard Magazine's "Comic Babes" contest from a few years back. as well as using photos in multimedia pieces and using live photos as comic backgrounds sometimes.
sometimes photgraphed models are needed for pinup art or sometimes photos of a band and or models are needed to make thing like posters for Bands, and/or CD covers. Which Leads me to...
(4.) Musicians need Artists, Photographers, Videographers, and sometimes Models, In order to help promote their band in a creative and well thought out manner. Flash artists and graphic artists help promote them on the web and Models appear in nearly any video worth it's salt. World Wide Web a.k.a. Internet promos are best choreographeed by Graphic Artists and...
(5.) Web Designers, these guys are the glue that hold the net together, they are the visual stimuli by which we stay or surf when it comes to the net. if a site is pleasing visually and has worthy content (often consisting of things created by Writers, Musicians, Photographers, Graphic Designers, videographers, Artists and even Models) then we tend to stay there longer and read more.
Now as you can see all these professions can relate to each other in some way shape or form whether it is as simple as an artist getting inspiration from a Model or Musician, to even promoting a comic book by selling an accompanying CD that is inspired buy the comic itself or vice versa.
I have said all of this and you have read it all and are still confused, well if you are then maybe I need to delve a little more...
if all these Jobs are intertwined creatively then how do all these people get in contact with what they need? This is where Dark Elf Designs comes in, Being a community of the aforementioned creative Talent we have a spot on the web to promote ourselves to outside sources and to get in contact with each other for various reasons. Imagine if you will a Super-Heroine who is based on some photos of a Dark Elf Designs member who was a model, taken by a Photographer that was also a DED member, and we turned the Super-Femme into a charcter based Flash Cartoon with Flash Designers who were DED members, and the cartoon had a soundtrack done by our very own Musician DED team member. Cuts out alot of running around the web to find what were looking for, not to mention that in that there is power in these numbers as each member is advertising said project that they worked on. Aside from tapping into a large Talent pool they are all working on spec. for the most part. One of the strengths behind Dark Elf Designs being the entity that it is, happens to be that with the large number of members it can afford us the ability to keep our prices more economically competitive than many other companies with similar sizes and budgets.
We never ask for anyone from Dark Elf Designs to pay us for publishing we are not a pay for publishing company. People have been offered the ability to help foot the bill for their printing in past however as it helps get their book on the shelves that much faster. If we got all the members to chip in 10 bucks here or there we'd be printing alot more often, and it would just be a smart thing to do but that is not something we require.
I have been asked "What is the approved member to turned down ratio?" and "Can anyone join?" and the answer is difficult to say on both fronts. We don't need selfish Artists that are "in it for the money" we certainly don't mind hiring Talent who are wanting to make a little money however. Even the Pros that are making mega-bucks do freebies from time to time and the name of the Dark Elf game is "Exposure". Sure ultimately are goal is to make high quality products and finally money. But to me creativity should never be stifled because of greed. We have already had several members published in well known areas and several are recognized by fans or esteemed organizations. we don't need Talent that is steeped and basted in it's own ego, and we don't take everyone who walsk through the door. however there have been more that were allowed to join and less that were turned down, but we do think that those who don't belong with DED will help weed themselves out in time. And those who believe in what DED stands for will stick around and through Hard Work, Dedication, Integrity, and Creativity they will strive and succeed in getting to where they are going.
Ok if you are still wondering what Dark elf is and you are confused as to what it entails to be "An Alliance of Creative Talent" then I only have one last explanation to give... I believe pert of the reason that many people are confused as to what Dark Elf Designs really is, is due to the fact that it is somewhat confusing, because while it is one said thing it is also many, and the reasoning behind this is because I wanted to leave Dark Elf Designs Rooted in the fact that it is a Production Company and yet keep it as mutable and open to change as possible. Why is it so vague and mutable? Robert Kiyosaki self made millionaire said in his keys to being successful said that for a person to become successful he must be "open to change" and I believe that for Dark Elf Designs the same thing can apply to the company itself. so if you want to cram it all in a nutshell with a label on it then Dark Elf Designs is "An Alliance of Creative Talent, who have joined together for the purpose of self promotion through numbers. We are a community of individuals that are grounded in the arts with a current focus on Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Illustration. I However choose to think of us all as more than "just labeled nuts".
Sincerely,
-Brian Germain
Owner/ Editor-in-Chief
Dark Elf Designs LLC
www.darkelfdesigns.com