#KickstarterFest Creators
Kickstarter’s Summer Festival is happening on Saturday, July 30th at Fort Greene Park. There will be musical performances, endless food trucks, and even a life-sized game of Exploding Kittens. We’re coming together to celebrate how original ideas develop into artistic pursuits, successful creative businesses, inspiring non-profits and much, much more. We went to visit a handful of creators participating in this year’s festival. Learn more about their projects below and then come meet them IRL at #KickstarterFest.
Booklyn
Booklyn is a non-profit arts organization based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Their mission is to promote artists’ books as art and to assist artists and organizations in documenting, exhibiting, and distributing their artworks and archives.
Booklyn launched their first Kickstarter campaign — Booklyn Artist Alliance: The Next Decade — in 2009 to support the cataloging of our organization’s archives. According to creator Maya, “Once we met our funding goal, a team of librarians went through each and every book, print, zine, sketch, postcard, and artist file at Booklyn. They moved each item into an archival box or folder and created a comprehensive listing of the whole collection. Because of their efforts, and the support of our backers, our archive now rests in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. where it will be preserved for future researchers and artists!”
Their second Kickstarter campaign, booklyn.org 2.0, was completed in 2012. For this project, Booklyn asked backers to support the creation of an artist book database. Over 154 people helped the non-profit reach their goal, and today the database is online and open to the public, showcasing images and information on hundreds of artists’ books.
Brewla Popsicles
The creators behind Brewla Bars used Kickstarter to transition from farmer’s markets to grocery aisles. “Having grown up in Southern California, the bell of an ice cream truck was a year-round occurrence. After realizing how artificial and bland the ice pops of our childhood were and being amazed that nothing took their place, we decided we would fill the void and make a better ice pop — one that’s great tasting and healthy, says co-founder Daniel Dengrove. He offers the following tips to aspiring Kickstarter creators:
1.) Get the video right: It doesn’t have to be a high-budget feature film, but it needs be authentic and your message needs to be clear and simple. Watch videos for various campaigns to get a sense for what works or doesn’t work.
2.) Get the rewards right: If people are interested, they will want to purchase your product. So lead with rewards that are centered around your product. If your product is prohibitively expensive to deliver, you can try creating branded swag but you will want to create unique designs that people will find attractive.
3.) Promote. Promote. Promote: Tell everyone you know about your Kickstarter and then ask them to tell everyone they know. See if any of your friends can help you spread the word. Do not be shy.
4.) Keep potential backers updated: Remind them when your project is ending to create a sense of urgency. Think about adding new rewards or price tiers to entice customers you may have initially missed. And share news about your progress, being sure to include any major wins like press coverage.
Boneyard Pets
Creator Eric Winston started Boneyard Pets in his Brooklyn-based studio, and it’s inspired by the punch-out balsa wood dinosaur puzzles he had as a child. However, his modern designs are updated with bright and exciting materials and a massive increase in scale. The colorful dinosaurs, which include favorites like T-Rex and a Pterodactyl, are fun for children (and adults!) to put together.
Hybycozo
Before creators Yelena Filipchuk & Serge Beaulieu head to Burning Man, their life-size light sculpture will stop by #KickstarterFest. Watch our latest Creator Hangout with the creators of HYBYCOZO.
