The Amazing Kickstarter

Ok, so it's my son's graphic novel and clothing line design. But other than sheer maternal pride, why have I been showing this to my students?  Here is the link to the actual page.

1. Culture. They are sooooo lucky to have crowd investing (and the internet) available to them when they have a  fantastic creative business idea. (If only this had been around when I was in my 20s...)  Students need to be able to compare their culture to those of the past in order to appreciate it and to see what could come in the future. They need to understand the effect facebook, twitter, Kickstarter, etc. have on spreading ideas, and just how much they could benefit from them.

2. Careers, folks, opportunity. Are you creative? A budding entrepreneur? How are you going to be true to yourself after graduation? Explain how Kickstarter works. Show some successful examples. There is a link to the "most funded". One graphic designer designed a deck of playing cards. He asked for less than $7,000 but he already has $77,000 and is just half-way through his time on Kickstarter. Another was a sculptor who was accepted to be part of a show and wanted to raise $27,000 to cast his sculpture in bronze. His video was so moving. I wanted to help him, but I found it the day after it was over, and he succeeded. Don't let anyone tell you your idea isn't going to work.  Give it a try. Maybe it will.

3. There are many visual art examples you can show in the classroom. My son's is a graphic novel with a clothing line that creates teasers to the next edition of the novel. I have spent hours looking at others and am so amazed at how many creative, inspired, hardworking folks are out there. I think I will have students collaborate to come up with a creative business idea, video and plan on how they would promote it in addition to just placing it on Kickstarter.

4. From this video you can see a little of how a graphic novel is created. Ideas constantly recorded in skechbook, pages drawn and inked by hand (which is most of what you see on the above video), color added in Illustrator and Photoshop. Of course, the hardest part is tapping into your inspiration for the idea.

4. The marketing teacher at my school never heard of it. Things happen so fast, we need to help each other be aware of the great things out there.

5. Maybe this will give them hope that there is a career for artists.

Thank you for tolerating my maternal bragging. Check out the amazing creative people on Kickstarter, if you haven't already.