The Path Of Crowdfunding

The Kickstarter for the new Fantasy Trip solo adventure, Path of Mastery, launched last week, and I decided that makes this as good a time as any to talk about all the work that goes into the visual assets for the crowdfunds we do.

I've long since lost count of how many Kickstarters, Backerkits, Indiegogos, etc. for which I've designed the graphics.  (A bit ironic, since I strive to make each one memorable.) This means creating strong visual themes that will make the project stand out on the crowdfunding platforms and leave a strong impression with anyone who visits the page. Each campaign needs graphics for pledge levels and add-ons, as well as nameplates to organize the sections, a strong main image to help everyone understand what they're backing, and various other images to add a little spice.

Usually I start with the visual identity of the product itself and build graphics based on that. This was the case in the most recent Backerkit: Last Train to Bremen. The game itself was full of cool visual elements: woodcut-style frames and graphics that could easily be repurposed for the campaign. Another recent project, Dahlia's Diversions for Peculiar Parties, was quite similar. I worked the floral patterns from the box into all the graphics I could, while toning them down to the point that they didn't distract from the game on offer. The campaign was about to launch when it occurred to me that the same floral patterns could make interesting borders. I still had enough time to repurpose most of the graphics with new floral frames reminiscent of fancy stationary. It was a small touch I really liked, and it was very much in keeping with the theme of the game.

But not everything we crowdfund has assets ready to go. Our Fantasy Trip line has a visual identity defined by old-school minimalism – lots of text and a few sporadic pieces of black and white art. Definitely great for a nostalgia kick, but it doesn't lend itself to the attention-grabbing campaign graphics I want to make. But hey, getting creative is one of the best parts of the job. For many of our older campaigns, I took to our archive of old-school line art by William McAusland. Adding some color and texture to his banner and stone wall illustrations while enlarging as needed gave me enough to create a few campaigns-worth of assets.

Which brings us to the latest campaign. For this one, Darryl (our Kickstarter manager, if his constant presence around the campaigns hadn't tipped you off already!) wanted something a little different. After trying a few things, I settled on some more simple graphic borders with geometric flourishes on the nameplates. And since I can never resist a good texture, there are plenty of those throughout!

And speaking of Darryl, he's always there throughout the process, helping proofread and organize everything I make. This includes reminding me I still haven't made that one graphic that I also forgot to make for the last three campaigns, and always pushing me to make something a little better and a little more interesting. He has a new idea for a graphic he'd like made in every new campaign, all to the goal of making the campaign that much more interesting than the last one.

If you've read this far in our behind-the-scenes peek, I hope it will encourage you to take a deeper look at our graphics whenever you check out our latest campaign! 

-- Ben Williams