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unknown

Here's a Typophile-only link to check out a sneak peek of DEFCON, our first retail release. The actual release won't happen for about a month.

www.apollo26.com/DEFKON/index.html

The link is not to be reposted anywhere permanent because it's going to expire at 2 a.m. PST.
The goodies, PDF, pricing and buy links have been disabled. We are going to be using KAGI for e-commerce.

I'd love to hear feedback, but what I really WANT is criticism. Yes. This sneak preview is only here at Typophile so please be critical. This will help IMPROVE the final product. If you miss it today, email me bjharvey@apollo26.com and I can give you a fresh link.

I've already shown this to some people and received a lot of questions, so I'll just answer a few.

WHAT'S A DESIGN KIT?
This is answered in the intro. Essentially, a Design Kit is a collection of Digital Elements.

WHO IS THIS FOR? WHO'S GOING TO BUY THIS STUFF?
We have in mind a bunch of different demographics that could use our Design Elements and we will target those people within the next month, at least to make them aware of our product. Having worked in and around the Action Sports Industry (surf, skate, moto, etc), this promises to be our most interested demographic. But we realize that this stuff is not for everyone. We are at work on several more Design Kits, including Musica Electronica, Bad Ass Mofo, and Made in Japan. Our niche is a counter-culture niche.

WHERE DID YOU GET THE PICTURES?
We took them. Now what to do with all these gasmasks? The vector art was created from scratch as were the fonts. A third vector technician has also joined us and is working on some of the other Design Kits.

WHY ONLY 199 DESIGN KITS?
We'd like to make them 1) available and 2) scarce.

HOW MUCH IS IT GOING TO COST?
We have a pricing structure in mind, but we'd love to hear suggestions.

WHAT EXACTLY IS INCLUDED?
Everything you see plus some more stuff, and sounds that we created on our Korg synth.
We'll have a complete list intact when we launch Apollo 26.

WHY ALL THE FLASH MOTION?
We could show everything static but we didn't want tiny gifs. I don't know how rampant piracy is, but we wanted to give the copycats a moving target. The Flash movies aren't exactly Mike Cina quality, but they are a start.

THE FLASH MOVIES RUN REALLY SLOW OR REALLY FAST ON MY MACHINE
We are trying to find a happy medium. For computers with processors >500 mhz, the Flash movies go to0 fast. We need to space out some areas where the text appears too fast. If you have anything below an iMac, I'd love to hear how your computer handles the Flash. We haven't yet tested in an OSX platform, but I would guess that it would speed it up. It actually was built on a Mac, but runs better on Windows.

ARE THE FONTS GOING to feature a full character set?
Yes.

DOES THIS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH 9/11?
There are no specific 9/11 references, it's more our Elemental take on the state of our world.

WHAT DOES THE WORD 'DEFCON' REFER TO?
Defcon is the Defense Condition of our country, referred to in numbers ranging from 1 to 5.

IS THIS A NEGATIVE TAKE?
We couldn't be more positive that it's not intended to be negative, these are just design elements and we happen to be very positive people, with occasional visions of bad things.

bj

By the way, as you can see we are keeping the name. CS was nice and wished us good luck.

unknown

Hey BJ,

It's really a very engaging interface and a great way to present your design kit. Since you're looking for critique, here's my take . . .

For the average consumer who doesn't have the benefit of your post to read, you never actually come out and 'show' or explain the whole kit which I can imagine is an impressive gathering.

I'd like to see the design kit sold in a metal spy or military suitcase with a black spongy foam lining that has holes cut out for a CD case, the shrink wrapped tee with the biohazard sticker sealing the bag, and a printed laminated 'manual' just to name a few . . .

The entire demonstration is great but it lacks real call to action that would get people to make a purchase. Show 'em the entire kit, explain the pieces, present the price, make sure you spell out in the animation before you show any elements that this kit comes with 'X' clip art elements, THEN show the clip art . . .

Check out www.houseind.com - they show the kit, the tee, the vector art, the fonts and engage you to place an order, that's ideally what you would want to present to your audience to make some sales. . .

The only long term problem I forsee is you will still need a uniquly branded Apollo26.com website that features AND promotes each design kit. You DO want your audience to know that DEFCON is the name of one of your products, NOT your company . . .

Otherwise, I can't wait to see the final release! Good work so far!
Stuart :D

unknown

Stuart, thanks for the feedback and great ideas.

Just to clarify, the DEFCON interface is going to pop-up from the DESIGN KITS portion of the Apollo 26 site, which is still being constructed.

A few things: the collector's tin packaging is going to be screened with a red UPC/stars logo (its one of the first images in the intro), but we haven't taken the product shots. The spongy lining is a good idea. Actually, the closest thing to one of those cool boxes is a photographer's box. The lowest wholesale price we saw was $18.00. Out of our price range, but our Made In Japan Design Kit is going to come in an old school metal lunchbox.

Yeah, we're going to outline everything that people get...on the PDF and Goodies pages. I disabled those because they are incomplete. We're a ways off, but thought I'd get some initial feedback. July 26 is actually too soon.

Any suggestions on pricing? And the 199 figure?

bj

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