Corporate Cd`s Underrated Commodity??

When we talk about Flash projects we all seem to relate it to Websites. But there is also another area of reoccuring business, and that is Producing CD`s for large Corporations.

I feel its very underrated as its one side of development that is growing rapidly since many large corporations are shifting their customer base towards computer transactions or passing their information via the Net, Thereby necessitating Tutorials on how their New Program works or what products they are offering.

Is any one currently producing CD`s for the Companies, or is any one else focusing on this aspect of development?

Tony

i agree, in that a few years ago it was common for companies to produce CDs to showcase their portfolio , their services etc.

Where I work at the moment , we produce CDs mainly for internal communications and use and for training purposes. I think companies have realised that with the web they can reach a wider audience, rather than a niche market, which is why they prefer going for a coprorate website --disadvantages of that in my opinion is that it becomes increasingly difficult to target and promote yourself effectively which is why we see so many 'generic' corporate sites these days.

What do you all think?

A:)

Normally when scoping a client, we send a sample of what we can do for them on a CD, normally just an intro and maybe one or two pages (a shell of a site if u like). This is brilliant because we can create 'big fat' animations using bitmaps, jpegs with lots of tweening and lots of 'file size hungry' effects. This impresses the client as there is no degradation or slowdown because his CPU is running an executable. But is it really impressing the client or fooling him into hiring us to build the site. When it comes to the actual site, out go the fat graphics, the bitmaps etc, in come the simple links and rollovers, scripted navigation systems etc. In the long run, it is not me thats bothered, I still get paid at the end of the month, its the client that must be wondering 'what happened to the 3d spinning logo effect?', its in the recycle bin mate, along with all the decent fonts and the huge wav file!!!

We have also started making games for these CD's as they run very smoothly on Cd as opposed to the web. see for yourself, we made a christmas card (www.intereurope.co.uk/christmas) CD-ROM to send out to clients. As we couldn't make enough for demand, we decided to post the card on the back of our site. Check it out now and the snowman game runs dreadfully slow, even on cable, it just is not made for the web, I used lots of movies with lots of movieclips and lots of scripting, just no good. (It is very fast on CD, you'll have to take my word for that!)

A lot of our clients now are requesting CD's that they can use for presentations and the like. P&0 ferries currently use one of our CD's for simple 'about us' presentations around the world. It is informative, nice looking and fast. With the latest developments of flash, the creation of CD-ROM's is an ideal media for the designer, possibly even as much as shockwave with the release of Flash 6 :)

CD-ROM still is the Director domain, but I see more and more Flash productions for CD. I think Flash can do a lot and with a tool like eXeScope you can deselect the right mouseclick menue and the esc key (Don't forget the quit button - fs command quit) so it looks really professional like a whole aplication and without the macromedia logo at the end.

Just recently i did a promo for the company i work for in flash and we were going to sell them on the idea of the business card sized cd's. They could put them in pamphlets and to start we could even burn them ourselves.

I think CD executables open other doors for flash design because your not constrained by size, even the biz-card cd's hold 30 to 50MB and that allows for alot of pictures and sounds that you would have to leave out or compress to lower quality on the web.

Flash 5 is much more powerful with actionscript, but i agree with subway.. when it comes to making multimedia on cd's director is probably a better solution.

The best thing about CD-ROM is the delivery of my resume on it. I am developing an Interactive Resume 2001 - I intend to update it every year. Since I am really looking to be part of a large design team and not just a one-man development firm, I think that really works well. You hand over a folder that has your 2-page BW resume in one pocket and your Interactive Resume (done in really PHAT Flash) in the other pocket. These people are hiring you for your creativity - why not show them what you can do when there are no limits, and reference them to your web work to show them that you can also work within bounds. CDs rock - 640mb of space to play with, and CPU speed delivery... :)

Let's face it...it is still not really possible to get full stereo sound, incredible moving 3D effects, rich bitmaps, etc. and squish it over a 56K dialup. But that level of rich content delivery is where we are going - imagine 2-4 years from now when Cable/DSL access start to become the standard and not the norm... :)

Quote:

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Originally posted by GreatGooglyWoogly
The best thing about CD-ROM is the delivery of my resume on it. I am developing an Interactive Resume 2001 - I intend to update it every year. Since I am really looking to be part of a large design team and not just a one-man development firm, I think that really works well. You hand over a folder that has your 2-page BW resume in one pocket and your Interactive Resume (done in really PHAT Flash) in the other pocket. These people are hiring you for your creativity - why not show them what you can do when there are no limits, and reference them to your web work to show them that you can also work within bounds. CDs rock - 640mb of space to play with, and CPU speed delivery... :)

Let's face it...it is still not really possible to get full stereo sound, incredible moving 3D effects, rich bitmaps, etc. and squish it over a 56K dialup. But that level of rich content delivery is where we are going - imagine 2-4 years from now when Cable/DSL access start to become the standard and not the norm... :)

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resumé as in portfolio you mean?
that's a good idea ggw. Strange how easy it is to forget
that there is more to the pc than internet.

my first flash publication was a cdrom but i never tought
about selling it to clients as a second promotional means.
let's say there is a shop and it sells kites.
why not suggest to make a cd they can sell to clients.
they can even make profit on it and it is an easy way for them to catolog their shop.
i didn't even think about using it for my own promotion.

Eddie

Quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie Hillegers

resumé as in portfolio you mean?
that's a good idea ggw. Strange how easy it is to forget
that there is more to the pc than internet.

my first flash publication was a cdrom but i never tought
about selling it to clients as a second promotional means.
let's say there is a shop and it sells kites.
why not suggest to make a cd they can sell to clients.
they can even make profit on it and it is an easy way for them to catolog their shop.
i didn't even think about using it for my own promotion.

Eddie

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Thats what I like to see....good thinking Batman..:)

Tony

Yea, Eddie a CD for sale at a Kite shop is a great idea! You could even do some high res photos as maybe a flash screen saver program on CD. As for the resume, most designers have enough portfolio content available on the web that they can just reference potential employers to that. I am a Proposal & Contracts Manager in the middle of a career change. I have tons of really great business and contracts experience, and I am a fine artist, but I only have one site out on the web. So for me, a CD is the best way. Besides, I am looking to lead development teams, so I need to highlight my experience in management and in creative design.

I just sent in my resume to about 10 area graphic studio's
to try to get my first Graphic design job. It's only been a week, so no word back yet. But, I feel (as I have read in so many articles) that to impress a prospective employer, why not show what you can do. I think someone mentioned the same idea in another post on this thread.
I did it in LM with about 10 links, mouseovers, some sound, 3D, and all the sites, graphics, and personal info.
It came out great. I hope it makes me stand out in a crowd.

If anyone wants a simple CD autorun file, Velez the Swish Moderator has a easy little set of file. I used it on mine an it works great.


Rogue

I did a CD for the company i used to work for - to echo what's been said, it just allows you to play with more MB's - I used a lot of 3d - big ol bitmap, and such, that I wouldn;t dare putting on the web. With the little business card sized CD's becoming popular hand outs for companies at trade shows, I certainly think it's worth advertising that one is capable of undertaking such a project if indeed one is.

I started using Flash to do school projects and find that it is very good. No one else uses this idea and the teacher thinks it is amazing and I benefit a lot when it gets to marks.

I also enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about streaming (http://board.flashkit.com/board/show...threadid=90252) because everything is already there and I can place as much music, graphics etc. as I want without having to worry that someone is going to come along with a 14.4kbps modem and try and download it.

Presentations have been overlooked way to much in the Flash world.

We've been doing corporate cds using flash. Our own CD is a combination of Flash and Director projectors.

becasue of teh relatively small size fo flash files, a lot of our clients go for the new biz-card sized Cds.

Do you now anybody else doing Flash-based CD work?

hi all

I must admit that I have never done an offline production.
But I have thought of making a CD to give a way also, as my portfolio grows and grows and I'd like to give future clients the chance of seeing what can be done, not necessarily putting big fat graphics on it (which is nice also) but just to let them know about all issues regarding webdesign with me etc..

I don'T even know how to create a CD so it will autostart when the CD is inserted.
Does anyone know? Fill me in I am eager to learn.

Also I have seen the little custon give away credit card type of thing CD's, haven't found someone who makes them actually. Any places or hints would be appreciated,

thanks
iCEBERG

Ya know, you could build your CD to autorun, or you could just put your main HTML file there in the root directory of the CD and put a single line of instructions on the jewel case cover - Insert the CD and run "Index.htm". That would do it nicely.