Brief: Write about your favorite project from last year's EPD class. Compare it to the project that you backed recently. What do you want to do similarly and differently from each campaign?
When it comes to the 2016 EPD class, my favorite project was the rüT Terra Cotta Hangersby Jason Vaccarello. Designed to hold plants on wooden decks and patios, the hangers utilize simple materials to perform a difficult task.
Credit: Jason Vaccarello
It was during the Kickstarter launch party at Lost Arts that I was first introduced to Jason’s project. After experiencing all the other great projects from the 2016 EPD class, rüT stood out to me the most because it aimed to solve an existing problem. After talking to Jason, I learned that rüT was constructed from a single sheet of steel and bent to hang pots and plants on the standard sized balusters of a deck or patio. The simplicity of the product was very convincing as it used limited materials and a single manufacturer to create each unit.
Although I have never backed a project on Kickstarter, a project named Stayhold showed many similar characteristics to rüT. Similarly to Jason’s Terra Cotta hangers, Stayhold uses limited materials to create an effective productive. While rüT used sheet steel and a metal bending process, Stayhold uses a high intensity plastic. Both projects also share the idea of avoiding assembly and clearly explaining the function, making each Kickstarter campaign clear and convincing.
The biggest difference between rüT and Stayhold is the target audience for each project. While Stayhold tries to address a problem that is wide spread, rüT tried to address a less common problem due to the limitation of individuals who live in households with decks. The audience for Stayhold includes an enormous number of individuals who own vehicles. While as of 9/26/17 the project has not yet reached the goal of $23,722, it has already achieved $11,705 in funding. It will be interesting to check back and see if this project will be able to reach the goal and go into first production.
Final take (what I learned):
_ Address a large audience for best support results
_ Clear and concise = effective
_ Use of Gifs quickly explains problem or function or both
_ Record all steps such as drawings, prototyping, etc.