So i have an idea for a website and i’d like your honest opinions.
The
website would be a catalog of downloadable/printable
outlines/templates. Maybe fins and skateboards too. Just thinking out
loud here.
I have over a hundred refined templates (all shapes
and sizes) that i’ve been creating over the years for personal use, for
friends (real and over the internets), and because it turns me on. I
know anyone can download any of the available free outline programs
(akushaper, etc) and print their own…but i have all these shapes
(not hack jobs, i assure you) already created.
A couple questions that come up:
Would
you backyarders dig something like this? Set it up on a donation basis?
Would you pay a small fee for each ready-to-print download (PDF)?
Couple bucks? Maybe a couple more if you want me to customize an
already existing one? Is that lame? Maybe offer them for free and then
a couple bucks if you want me to tweak/customize a template for you
(give me your dims sort of a thing).
A part of me wants to just
put it up for free, but i’d like to at least break even on setting up
and running the site and also continue creating these.
I think this has the potential to be a cool resource.
I
know the idea of sharing templates is taboo. Alot of people are very
protective of their shapes and ideas. I can respect that. Alot of my
shapes are “inspired” by other shapes and popular fashions/trends, but
we all know there are about a dozen other factors that go into making a
board come to life, and that all shapes and designs are borrowed
essentially. That’s one thing i want to avoid with this however, people
thinking that i’m claiming certain ideas or designs. None of the
concepts are original, but i did create these myself.
I would be definitely interested in easy downloadable templates. You can never have too many. If they are ready to print and already scaled then a couple bucks wouldn’t be out of line. Or you could set something up and maybe pay a few bucks to get a set of them or something like that. You should charge a small fee for rescaling or tweaking outlines though, because like they say time is money and you are going out of your way to produce a one off. Or I guess free for the orginals then a fee for tweaks.
Hey jjlam - I think a ridiculous amount of people would be interested in that site. I know I would. Have you considered allowing users to donate or submit their templates as well? - kind of an interactive/open source template site? Seems like a lot of the work could be done for you by the users themselves.
Sure, it would be work to create and maintain, but like Pico points out - there would most likely be a good deal of traffic and allowing adverts on the site may help compensate for your efforts.
i’ve actually already started putting together something like that in conjunction with a surf/skate blog. if you’d like to collaborate on something, by all means feel free to shoot me a msg.
Yes, many many ideas still brewing. I assure you the downloads/printouts will be cake. I plan on having a video/tutorial section to show a start to finish (computer to masonite) process. And yes, more sections will undoubtedly be popping up along the way. A ‘classics’ or ‘retro’ section would be sweet. I was also thinking of creating a section named ‘inspired by’ to put up my versions of known popular shapes (new and old).
I’m moving forward with this idea and wanted to share what i’ve come up with so far. My plan is to offer all these templates for FREE. Each shape will have anywhere from 3 to 5 sizes available to download (for example, a fish outline will range from, say, 5’4 to 6’2 at 2in increments), putting that at around 100+ free outlines. I will also make myself available for custom outlines for a small fee which i’ll probably set up through paypal. If i get enough custom shapes, i plan on making those available on the site as well as free downloads to whoever they my suit. I have a lot of ideas about how i want the site to be laid out, but i also want to get this up as fast as possible. Here are a couple screenshots of what i have so far, including my new logo i designed!
top idea…would be great if people were submitting their own as well. would love to get a template or two for some old twin/single fin shapes…yeh ok there is more to a final shape than just the outline, but at least a good outline gives you a good start to making something half decent…
I'd also find a site of templates another good tool... potentially, depended on how easy it was to print it out and align the parts of the design. Check out Greenlight http://greenlightsurfsupply.com/templates.aspx who already do something similar. More outlines, especially the quirky ones that aren't easy to track down wold suit me. I make my own blanks so a site of rocker templates would be f****ing sweet too. Financially, start it, make it viable (popular) go to a surfboard materials supplier and sell it to them either as a whole, advertising or per referral.
