Eggs-cellenté Kickstarter Graphics
Free tools and apps to help tell your story.
I ran a Make 100 project on Kickstarter to cook and pop 100 eggs in Brooklyn. Find out what that is and why I’m so excited to make breakfast for 100 lucky folks. I’m also using this project to illustrate some points I made in my Kickstarter Creator Hangout video on how to create and promote projects.
In a short series of posts, I hope to illustrate how I personally build community through social media, metrics, and straight up talking to people. It sounds like a lot of time and effort but it’s worth it to me (and to the success of my projects!). If you have any questions or use any of my advice, tweet me @Randwiches.
Pretty pictures aren’t vital to successful campaigns. You can convince someone with only words, for sure. But to communicate your story more clearly and illustratively can tip someone to decide whether or not to support you. Showing what you want to accomplish in either photos, mock up or drawings don’t have to be Louvre-quality (good on you, if it is).
Visual communication in cooperation with wise words convey seriousness and commitment to a project. I’ll show you what I mean.
Examples on Kickstarter
Brooklyn bakery bar Butter & Scotch illustrated a mock up of what their store would look like and accompanied it with a bullet point list of their industry experience to show they were capable of fulfilling the needs of their project. They also consistently used illustrations of themselves throughout the campaign so you’d recognize them IRL.
Board game Guts of Glory used scans of handwriting to create headers for their campaign story. It matched the look of the box design and re-used artwork already made for the project to add color and personality.
The Museum of Food & Drink (MOFAD) made a timeline of photos from past events to show what their previous programs looked like. It appeared above their mission statement and 501c3 status, which conveys legitimacy.
What do these have in common? A point of view and visual brand. They have consistent colors, font and voice throughout. They are making it easy for you to understand their position.
“But wait,” you say, “I’m not a designer and don’t have money to hire one. I don’t know where to start!” Not to worry, not to worry. There are free and easy resources available.
Stock Photos
Don’t have a nice camera on hand? Use free stock photos. Double check the website’s terms of service before you download anything. Some require you to link back to where you got it or mention the photographer.
Speaking of which, on all other websites ask photographers for permission before right-clicking and using their photos. Even if it’s on Flickr or 500px. Some people have Creative Commons badges. There are different levels, but they communicate how you can use their material.
I mostly use Pexels and Unsplash for high quality blog images. All you need to do is search for what you need. Here’s what comes up when I type ‘eggs’ on Pexels.
Product Hunt has a list of free and paid stock photo services you can try, too.
Giphy
Need a GIF? Giphy.com is an animated GIF search engine. Of course, I searched for eggs. They also have an integration with Twitter and Slack if you ever need a snappy comeback.
Your Own Photos
Use your phone’s camera. Most people won’t notice or care if you keep it in focus and well lit. How do you do that? When taking a photo, tap on the screen to make sure your object or subject is in focus. If you can, turn on the Grid feature to make sure you’re centered. Tap a few times in different spots to see how the focus changes.
When you’re working with natural light, make sure it is shining on your subject, not behind it (when that happens, it is called ‘backlit’). If you care to learn more, I have advice about food photography on the Kickstarter blog.
On iOS you can crop, adjust and edit your photos. But for quicker editing, use filters on Instagram, VSCO, Mextures, or Snapseed. You don’t have to post to an account, but save the photos for your use later.
Pablo
Pablo is a free web tool to add words over photos. You can choose from their connected free stock photo library or upload your own photos. This is how I’ve been quickly creating Egg-Centennial graphics. Note that the tool is pre-set to add a low-contrast filter on all photos. This allows the text to pop out more. Play with the settings on the right side to see what will work best for the colors in your photo.
Another app you can use to put words on your photos is Over.
Photoshop
This is for the more advanced content creators. Adobe Photoshop is available for $10 a month on Creative Cloud. There is a 30 day free trial if you know exactly what you want to produce. I use Photoshop to make GIFs from my own photos and video grabs of TV shows (S10E5, if you must know). Here are few tutorials from Adobe and Digital Trends.
iMovie
I made my Kickstarter video with iMovie. It comes free with all new Mac computers. Honestly, I didn’t know how to use it when I opened it. The top left panel had a big button that said ‘Import Media’ and so I simply added an Instagram video that already had music on it. You can also drag any files from your desktop to this app and they’ll just ~appear~. I dragged a couple photos I wanted to use and next, it was just a matter of adding a voice over.
In the top right preview panel, there is a small microphone icon you click on. Make sure the player is at the beginning of the video and then hit the red record button to start. It will count you in. It’s ok to read off a paper or notepad file, I totally did. Then there was a dance of scooting clips around to match the audio cues.
And if you don’t have iMovie, a webcam video is fine. If not that, a camera phone video is great. Just remember to record horizontally so it will fill Kickstarter’s dimension requirements. Don’t have any of that? It’s ok! Take a really nice photo and use that as your lead image.
To recap: express your unique point of view; take advantage of free stock photos, attribute photographers and sources otherwise; keep your photos in focus and well-lit; make sure your images are augmenting your story, not overpowering it.
If you’re a Kickstarter creator, check out my previous posts about how Referrals work and how I talk about my campaign.
