A lot of Entoforms have been sent as perks to the people who contributed to the crowdfunding campaign. A bunch of new ones have been developed/grown, and are on their way. I will update the website soon, because the catalogue is behind somewhat.

But the biggest news is that there’s an exiting exhibit coming up in October. I can’t give any details yet, but it’s got me all nervous. For that exhibit I want to show the Entoforms as more of an interactive installation. And to that end… Tim from blendid helped me out with a big red button! It’s actually a hacked usb numpad connected to an industrial button, and every time you press the button… it’s as if you pressed a 3! I’ll make my system respond to that so it starts growing an entoform whenever anyone presses 3… It’s really fun… thanks heaps Tim!

More news soon!

We also have a winner!

I had a small informal competition running. People who posted a tweet, had a chance to win their own unique custom Entoform! And the winner is: Eduardo (@elabx) from Mexico City! I’ll send you a message a.s.a.p. so we can figure out what you want!

It’s been a blast

Thank you all for an incredible experience. The Campaign may be over, but for the Entoforms it’s only the beginning. Stay in touch, and keep your eye on this space!
Dolf (macouno)

But first… there’s still a few days to go… so… if you have been thinking about contributing, and getting your own Entoform, go now! You can still win one by posting a tweet even…

Why crowdfunding?

I remember hearing about crowdfunding during the creation of Sintel. I think Colin Levy, was the first to tell me about it.  And of course it sounded familiar, because let’s be honest… the Blender Institute has been funding projects this way for quite some time already! It’s a grand idea, and right in line with open-source and creative commons… which I like!

Then Colin showed us all how to run a successful campaign, getting the money together for his short film. Well… that of course gave me something to think about. I’ve been spending a lot of time, trying to come up with “less commercial” ways to make a living from my art, and this seemed great!

Where to fund your project.

I spent some time browsing the internet, looking for places to host my campaign. You don’t really want to go reinventing the wheel… Kickstarter.com is easily the best known place, with the most traffic… but it has 2 big downsides. 1 You don’t get your money until the campaign finishes, and only if you reach your goal, and 2 you have to be an American to start a project on it. The first point seems really logical, and I think is great for a lot of projects. You don’t want to give away your money to someone who isn’t going to spend it on what they said, because they didn’t get their entire budget. But in my case… I’d already been working on the Entoforms for 6 months or so, and was going to use the money for the project no matter what… so… it actually made sense for me to just get the money straight away. And in relation to the second point… I’m Dutch, so… yeah…

The one that I ended up going for is indieGoGo.com. It seemed nice, and allows for world wide participation. They also pay off straight away. They do have a little trick though… they deduct 9% from whatever you get, and only if you reach your goal, do they give you 5% back.

One thing I did notice… and found out the hard way. Fine art projects are the hardest to fund! Movies/music/books even trips are much easier to fund that art. Even though I didn’t reach my goal in the end… if I compare my project to other similar art projects… I did rather well!

Starting a campaign

I had a look at other people’s campaigns before I got started, and the first thing you see is.. you need a cool video! So I asked Ali Boubred (the dude who made the docu about Sintel‘s creation), who I really dig, to make a small video with me. I wanted to not just do an intro for the campaign, but also something that I could show as an intro to the Entoforms in general… I think that was a mistake! I really like the video… it turned out great (of course not how I expected, but great anyway), it worked somewhat… but I think you’re better off creating a video specifically for your campaign… Not just explaining what your project is, and use the text for the rest. Name the website where people can donate in the video, and tell them what they get in return!

I have to admit, standing in front of a camera and trying to make sense is… well… hard! Really hard! But also completely worth it as an experience. And I still owe Ali big time for helping out.

Set your goal

I calculated that to fund the entire initial stage of my project, I needed 10.000 Euros. And… as it turns out, I only generated about a 7th of that amount with the campaign. But, I’ll tell you what… I still think the math is correct. It’s basically how much I’ve invested myself so far… and through the campaign I got a little money back from the community, which is awesome… I think it’s important to be honest about your goals. You can’t go asking people for less than you need, and expect them to pay more.

Perks

One of the best parts of a crowdfunding campaign is it’s perks. When people donate to your project, you give them a present in return. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is to be really clear in my description of a perk. And… not be afraid to add a couple new ones mid way through.

I got it wrong there as well… my cheapest perk was $15 for a set of post-cards… no one went for that. People either wanted an Entoform, or nothing. That’s an important lesson… I wouldn’t go in for a card either, website credit maybe, but not a card. So it’s a good idea to offer people stuff you’d want yourself.

Getting attention

I’m the first to admit it… I’m not the most introverted. I don’t think anyone’s described me as “shy” in the last decade or two. But my oh my… do I hate asking for help. And that’s exactly what Crowdfunding is about. You are asking people for help, and attention all the time. So you best make sure you’re prepared to. For me… I felt like hiding behind the sofa every time I pressed “send” for another e-mail, going out to some blog.

But… it works… Find people who write stuff that relates somewhat to what you’re doing, and send them an e-mail! Because they need content too, and they love getting it handed to them. See the list of articles about the Entoforms, most of those were the result of me sending a personal e-mail to the editor/author. I didn’t spam them of course… I sent them a nice/honest e-mail explaining what I’m up to, and why I thought it might be interesting to them.

Also… here’s a big trick! Find projects like yours and see where they were published! Then write to those places!

Do’s

• Do make a video with you talking about your project (even if you’re not crowdfunding).
• Do offer people perks that you’d like to get yourself.
• Do be honest about your goals and set them accordingly.
• Do ask for attention a lot!
• Do release news updates regularly (twice a week as minimum)
• Do run a campaign that’s 2 months or shorter (2 is plenty, longer becomes a pain)
• Do have a little competition where you give away stuff too.
• Do e-mail everyone you know, and lots of people you don’t (but write every e-mail yourself, and make it personal).
• Do use Google blogsearch to find people to write to about your project.
• Do find out where your competition got published.
• Do be incredibly bold in showing you’re doing a campaign… subtlety is nice… but doesn’t work well here!
• Do get banners up on every website you can (but don’t spend money on it, because banners are a crappy way to advertise).
• Do get all your friends and family involved.
• Do find the right crowdfunding platform for your project!
• Do run a campaign, it’s scary, but a great experience!

Conclusion

It has been a whirlwind 2.5 months for me. I’ve enjoyed it. Personally… I found it somewhat of an emotional roller-coaster. Every time I got picked up by a major website I thought “the ball would start rolling”, and then a few days later I realised nothing much happened. I had more ups and downs in the last 2 months than in the previous 2 years… and that includes working on Sintel! I’ve learnt more about myself (and how to run a business) during this campaign than well… in rather a long time.

So… would I call it a success? I didn’t get close to reaching my goal financially… I did end up with a series of Entoforms large enough to exhibit. I learnt a great deal. I made lots of new connections. I got to develop my project further, and got tons of feedback and ideas.

Lets put it like this… Will I be running another crowdfunding campaign in the future?

DEFINITELY!

An Entoform for every capital city

An Entoform for every country

Here is what you have to do for a chance to win!

• Follow @macouno on twitter
• Tweet the following message (the bold text):

  I am entered to win an Entoform from @macouno. Go to http://www.indiegogo.com/entoforms to contribute and enter as well