Animal Writings

For the web site, I had this idea of a home page with a world map and all sorts of fun icons dotting the page to represent different parts of the world. That proved to be a) too much trouble and b) too crowded. So I just put up a simple map of the world.

We needed a logo. A chocolate chip cookie is the same shape as the world (on a two-dimensional surface), so it practically designed itself. With my almost total lack of knowledge of Photoshop, I created a simple header with the logo, a title, and some green and blue (earthy!) background. It looked el cheapo and garagey; the edges of the letters looked like they were covered in sprinkles.

I made a main menu—none of the menu picks linked to anything. I threw up the first words that came to mind on the home page. I didn't even have the dates of the event at first. Oops.

With this bare bones web site I started sending out emails. Of course my plan was to improve the site as we went along, but for the moment I just wanted to send out a few emails and see what kind of feedback we got.

Our intention was (and still is) to contact all kinds of organizations, but we figured the "core" group would be grassroots animal protection and vegan advocacy groups. Since there's no handy site that lists all of these groups, with links to main email contacts—and is current—I just started using GoodSearch and links to see where I ended up. I started drifting across the net, finding groups and either sending them emails or filling out the contact page.

One of the first groups I contacted was the Toronto Vegetarian Society. Shortly thereafter I got a reply from them: They mentioned the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale on their podcast. Yay! We were on our way! And also, I now present the Toronto Vegetarian Society with a Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale Official Certificate of Appreciation and Awesomeness.

Labels: GoodSearch, Toronto Vegetarian Association, Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale