That Kickstarter. Man! I thought I had it figured out. I’d written up a project before for a store I once volunteered for years ago . . . a store close to my heart and similar to the one I plan on opening. But things are different now. This store is different. I’m different. And so, when it came time to create the Kickstarter, I had to start from scratch.
First, I had to figure out my ‘angle’. I mean, what was I asking for here? Why are people going to give ME money to open a store? Seriously. I really had to ask myself that. And what it came down to was the people. The makers. The artists. The community. And so I wrote the text for what would eventually be my video and it very much revolved around the people, the stories, the community I want to serve with this store.
But that wasn’t it. That was just the VOICE OVER for the video. What about the actual visual component? What about rewards? What about the financials? How much money did I need? How much did I want to ask for? These two things weren’t necessarily synonymous. Slow down, slow down, let’s start at the beginning.
The Video
I decided I wanted the video to primarily focus on my makers. Why? Because, remember, that’s what this is about. It’s not about ME. It’s never been about ME. BUT, people want a face to their project. They want a human being. And so, I am that human being (I think!). So, I decided to frame the video with myself speaking at the beginning and end, and have the brunt of the middle be photos from all of our awesome pop-ups, to illustrate just what the shop would look like in the end, and who this was benefiting. And that was that. Well, sort of. Then there was that pesky little thing called music. You can’t have a Kickstarter video without music. You just can’t. Why? Because Kickstarter is an arts based project – and music . . . well, it just completes the circle. And so, I knew immediately who I wanted to ask for permission to use their music: Follies. I’d had Kate play at a pop-up event in August and I adored her work. I knew it would fit perfectly with my aesthetic and the video, and so it did. And that was that. Oh wait, just kidding. My favorite part!!
Our Logo Reveal
Months ago I knew I wanted the remainder of our events posters to be consistent, by a single voice and I knew I wanted our logo to be a wreath to represent a bajillion things that wreaths can represent: community, healing, health, wealth, art, family, growth . . . and so I sought out my friend Katie Vernon to design our store logo and the event posters that would come before. She came up with an AMAZING cohesive idea that I was just . . . blown away by. Basically, (to make it short) our first event was at an event sponsored by Bloom Magazine. And so, our event was called Gathering in Bloom. She would illustrate a line of flowers just blooming out of the ground. Then, our second event was to be the Bloomington Open Studios Tour wherein artists would show how their work was made/demonstrate so to speak in their studios. The poster then would be those same flowers all mixed up and being cut up into pieces in preparation for something later. THEN (are you ready!!) the final reveal would be those SAME FLOWERS (I know right?!) being transformed into the wreath that would then be our store logo. And so, it came to pass, that this video was made from our posters and the joy of Flipagram. And after I made it I just couldn’t not include it in our Kickstarter because I just thought it was awesome. Maybe I’m a bit biased though. (there’s more . . . to be continued…)
Gather 