Two Thirds Through
The Kickstarter campaign for Designed in California has just 10 days left to go. As I am writing this, 1,963 people have backed us, bringing in over $185,000.
The success of this campaign has passed the point that I am able to truly understand. I have been blown away by it. I feel so fortunate that we have such an incredible audience who believe in us, and what we want this show to be. I feel like I have lost the ability to adequately express just how thankful I am.
The success we’ve had so far is enabling us to take bigger swings. We now have the resources and confidence to invest in making this project the very best it can be. Whether that’s working with a composer on original music (with variations), multiple illustrators and designers to produce campaign and podcast artwork, committing to a video version of the show with a higher production value, and much more.
On Friday, Jason and I had our first dedicated production meeting since launching the campaign. Back when we decided to start this project, we sat down and worked on a series of topic ideas to make sure we had enough content for a year (we ended up planning enough for many years), and then turned our attention to making the Kickstarter a reality. Almost all of our discussions and planning since then have been about the campaign itself, so it was exciting to finally turn our attention back to launching and producing the show.
It was wonderful to be able to look ahead at some of the things we want to do and know that they are achievable. We can now go through and divide all the work, allowing each of us to focus on what we do best, and make this project the best it can be. I am expecting to spend more time in project management software than I have in quite a while. The production workflow for Designed in California is unlike anything I have worked on before, and I am very excited for the challenge.
This Kickstarter campaign has absolutely been one of the greatest achievements of my professional career. We had an idea, worked hard to make it real, and have been overwhelmed by the response. It’s such an incredibly rewarding feeling.
You can still back the campaign until July 1, and we will be publishing our final episode of the preview series this week in the Upgrade feed, along with a special Summer of Fun segment in Monday’s episode where we’ll be joined by John Siracusa. This will serve as a preview of one of the first series we plan to produce when the show launches.
