Crowdfunding Focus: Creative Graphic Publications

It seems there is a never-ending stream of books and graphic endeavors crying out for crowdfunding on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. I found the following print projects—all of which have been fully-funded—to be tasty pieces of graphic eye candy.

Philographics

Philographics is a collection of minimalist designs depicting differing schools of philosophical thought. The project was funded in May 2013 with over £65,000 and is now available on the creator’s website. Available as a paperback or set of posters—the hardcover version and postcard box are currently sold out—each philosophical camp is depicted using simple shapes accompanied by a brief description.

The designs melt down often complicated concepts into easily understood ideas, conveyed by way of a few basic patterns and icons. Deductionism, for instance, is conveyed by a set of concentric circles representing its tenets of first theorizing, then testing. The circles further create the shape of a target—and even further—a magnifying glass, the modern symbol for search. Less profound is Optimism, the best of all possible worlds, represented by a circle and a semi-circle. The yellow orb depicts a sun(ny disposition) and the semi-circle a smile. I admit, I don’t understand all of them (Rationalism as a circle on a grid?), but I adore the idea of distilling down a complex concept into a simple graphical representation. Minimalism at its best.

Pop-Up Art Book

Who didn’t love pop-up books as a kid? I used to spend hours trying to figure out the mechanics of unfolding pages, paper levers, and hidden panels in mine. The crew at Poposition Press must have been similarly obsessed and are releasing their second pop-up book. This second 3-D book was fully-funded on Kickstarter in January.

The book features art by six artists that work in the comic, street, and contemporary art worlds. Each artist has one spread with a piece rendered in 3-D pop-up style. Other editions of the book include the Artist Edition which includes a bonus pop-up page of one of the artists, and the Master Edition featuring two pages from each of the artists. Backers of the project—which raised over $22,000—had the opportunity to pledge more and receive additional products, ranging from stickers to individual pop-up prints. Even if you weren’t a backer, you can pre-order one of the book editions on Poposition Press’ Pop-Up Art Book site.

The Experience Journal

With all of our electronic gadgets, we often lose sight of the fact that digital isn’t always better. Wanting to approach recording of experiences in a more a hands-on manner, design student Hanna Yoon launched the Experience Journal on Kickstarter in April 2014. The concept being that the tactile act of putting our creative ideas to paper (as opposed to pixels) enhances the creative process.

If details are to be captured and recorded, they must first be carefully observed, something that is missed when snapping a digital picture. The journal—with both “guided” and “open” framework pages—trains the creator to be more observant by recording details of the spaces he or she inhabits. There are areas for indicating interior and exterior details, lighting and furniture, even a space’s ambiance. The last section is a series of pages with a dot-grid for free-form creation.

The project had an initial goal of $2,500 and over $10,000 was pledged in April 2014. The journals are for sale on Yoon’s site. She even encourages users to contribute photos of their finished creations to her Tumblr page.

>