Q&A About The Portland Tarot Kickstarter

Q&A About The Portland Tarot Kickstarter

Posted by on Apr 30, 2013 in Kickstarter, Stories | 0 comments

I’ve had chats about the project Kickstarter in various venues, and there are two questions I often see asked about the project… While I do cover my reasoning in my Kickstarter, I figured it was worth covering these topics in more depth here.

Q. Why are you fundraising before the deck is close to complete?

A. The style of artwork that I am creating has some overhead involved that I have been covering out of my own pocket awhile. An expensive studio bulb needing to be replaced, more involved shoots that need hair, costumes or props, and other sundry costs come up. If the cash flow isn’t there, then the momentum can be disrupted. Because so many folks were eager to see the deck completed, I wanted to keep things flowing and prevent having to drag the project out over a longer time period in order to wrap it up.

I could have simply done a Kickstarter for these costs and not lumped in printing, but trying to run two separate Kickstarter campaigns did not feel like a valuable use of my time. The beauty of doing both fundraising endeavors at once is that I save myself some time that I can put back into finishing the deck quickly. And I also know exactly what the final product will look like early on, which also saves time in production.

Q. Why is the budget so high? Is it because you are covering your time, too?

A. The budget is high because I am printing the deck locally. I believe very strongly in the sustainability of keeping it local, and the quality product that I can deliver by being able to work closely with local vendors who are committed to excellence. There is absolutely no money left over in the budget to cover my time. Unless I get money in excess of the budget, I will continue working on the project as I have so far, between a combo of taking a day out of my usual work week (something I can do working for myself), and working on evenings and weekends to take all the photos and put the illustrations together. It’s worked so far, and because I am so passionate about this project I am happy to continue in this fashion.

I could have started out with a lower budget with a product that I had printed overseas, but I chose not to do that, because it really felt out of sync with the vision for the project. Having a Portland deck not printed in Portland did not feel right to me.

I would certainly welcome some extra income to put toward my time! But for now I would be content knowing that I got the funds needed to make the deck the best it could be, in alignment with values I hold dear.

I hope the above answers help folks make sense of my reasoning for starting now! Plus, it’s always more fun to share a big adventure with new friends.