Hey backers, Upon posting the last update a number of you weighed in that you have not received your rewards for one reason or another. With that notice, I began looking into it and locking down orders, confirming addresses, and having those pushed through to the warehouse. In total, there were about 87 of you affected in total (including the black apron backers). Now incomplete or unshipped pledges aren't necessarily something new about a campaign, there are always a handful of backers that are held up for one reason or another. Though what makes this sting a bit more was the time-sensitive nature of calendars and coffee, and it being practically impossible for backers to reach me through the project and having to resort via communications in other platforms.
Retrospectively, with this year's (2023) calendar, I tried a whole bunch of things:
a new platform (which pushed back our launch date, and cause a headache of communication problems that wouldn't have happened in another platform, i get no notification on comments or discussions aside from ones i directly create, nor am i able to respond to nested comments)
A coffeecollaboration (which worked out ok, if everything else didn't get pushed back)
Gold foil (which didnt work out due to the plant not understanding gold foil printing vs gold ink and that mistake happening amidst the rush of just trying to get them asap.)
Art prints (art prints themselves worked out ok, the gold foil made it a little complicated, in regards to timing and packaging, but the originals I feel like might be better done with a different system.)
Overseas production (on its face a good thing logistically, however only really possible with more time, and sadly enough this project had everything but time)
That said, at this point, everyone remaining should have an order import notice from Metal Weave Games, and if not by the latest tomorrow, with tracking to come with it as well (at least what the warehouse is telling me)
Now, I know getting a calendar almost 6 months later feels pretty shitty, and I frankly agree with that. If we're continuing to leverage Backerkit as a platform (at least as an experimental one), we can look to launching the 2024 calendar in this space as well. The one thing that Backerkit does offer is special/hidden pledge levels. To help make up for this rocky project finish, I'm going to offer all impacted backers special tiers for 2024, reducing the price of the Calendar (and any subsequent calendars), based on when you received your rewards, with the base calendar price moving to $20, the special tier for everyone in this project will be as follows:
Jan/Feb -25% ($15)
March/April -50% ($10)
May+ 80% ($4)
This feels like the best I can offer, without going into a rabbit hole of trying to give away free digital downloads , store discounts or something else, especially as the scale of those affected varies and the things people want vary greatly as well. I can only do better by continuing to do manage better next time, and this might not be good enough for some of you, I understand that.
Anyways, I do try and check comments a few days after posting, but until Backerkit implements a notification feature, if I don’t respond to your comment, the best way to probably get a hold of me is via email, [email protected]. Andreas
[Black Apron Backers] Well this is unfortunate and awkward
1
0
47
about 1 month ago
by Baby Bestiary
Well... this is unfortunate and awkward.
This update is really only for the Black Apron backers, but since i dont really have any other means of reaching out to them in a concerted method without addressing the comments in the project, this is about the best way I can adress it.
It was just brought to my attention that our highest tier backers, Black Apron, errored on their order import, and as a result none of you have your rewards (aside from the originals which were shipped recently). Furthermore, as a result of Backerkit Crowdfunding being in its infancy, there is no mechanism for creators to get notified of comments in their projects (feedback that I've escalated). I only come aware of this recently when a backer reached out via email to inquire about the rest of their rewards.
Nevertheless, its shameful and your rewards are far past due and for that I sincerely apologize. Though, I can imagine that does little to soothe your frustrations with how much you spent, to which I totally understand.
Since there are only 11 of you, I will be reaching out to you individually to determine the next course of action to right this wrong.
For those who do have your calendars and you read this whole update, I do hope you're enjoying them.
I hope you are all having a good year so far, Andreas
edit: There appears to be a few others who have not recieved their rewards (from address locks to survey), working through those as well.
Just a quick update, The gold foil art prints have finally arrived at the warehouse (and they are all beautifully shiny gold printed) and they will be promptly shipped next week (or have already been shipped Friday). Sorry they took longer to get produced than expected, CatPrint kept coming back with resolution images, and then I had to wait for the proofs to arrive.
For the Black Apron fans, look for an email from me about getting everyhting finally sent out.
And for those who are curious, I do have extra bags of coffee, as well as art prints for those who are curious (I should be able to get those up on our website with a good discount for you all next week (once I have the final remaining print counts). Andreas
Hey backers! I hope you all had a happy new years day celebration. Theres been crazy rain and flooding here in California, and I hope everyone is staying warm and dry for the end of the holiday season.
Shipping update, I'm going to get an update on Monday/Tuesday when they'll actually arrive, but the calendars have shipped and are en-route to our warehouse. Im hoping that they arrive this week for the warehouse to start fulfillment. The warehouse already has everything else (owlbears, magnets, coffee, and mailers) so once in, they should be getting things out pretty quickly.
Problems with Gold So this is gonna likely be a bit long. Simply put, I was aiming to get shiny gold-ink placed on all art main pages of the calendar as we had initially hoped to get with our stretch goal. I went through the process with proofs and so forth, and even opted to go with a printer that could deliver it to us. But when I got my advanced copy Thursday night, yes there was a separate gold ink layer on the art pages, but they were not reflective... Now don't get me wrong, the calendars look great, and they're gonna work great, but it wasn't the gold foil that I was really pushing for. So on Friday, I talked with the printer (and they pushed us towards using that gold ink, and missed the fact that we were looking for reflective gold ink.) Problem is, the calendars are already on a plane over to our warehouse. So there is no way they easily rectify the problem without having to ship the calendars back or make new ones. Unfortunately, there was no way I was able to catch the issue beforehand. Because we are running so tight in our timelines (could even say overdue), I asked them to ship both the advanced copy and the full inventory of calendars asap (at the same time). Nevertheless, its been quite frustrating to get everything together. That said,
TLDR: There is a layer of gold ink on the calendars, but its not reflective as I was aiming to have done. the Calendars still look great tho. So the only things that are getting reflective gold is the Art Prints since they're being produced by CatPrint, which is where we got our initial gold prints from. (CatBat originals wont have gold ink since they are the coffee-stain originals).
Charging Cards: Your orders are currently locked down, but I still need to charge them, I was planning on doing so this wednesday/thursday. If that will be a problem or if you need your address updated please reach out to me asap. Also if the above news is distressing and you want to get a refund, I will happily oblige, just reach out to me, [email protected].
GoldFoil Originals Working my way down the list in order, we're only about a quarter through the list, if you're one of these backers feel free to look for an email called "CatBat Original" from [email protected], and we'll be having those originals shipped out shortly. Thank you Thank you so much for your support, its been an honor to create another amazing year of calendars, and albeight we wanted to try something new, we learned a lot about this experience of sourcing and timing for getting something like this (a entierly gold-foil/inked calendar printed and the time it would take to produce one) for future projects (even if we dont do that on our next calendar.) In retrospect, it seems like we'll need to be crowdfunding our calendars earlier in the year (with using backerkit we were pushed back a little bit which may have given us more time that we needed), but even launching as early as August/September would give us a much better lead time to ensuring everyhting is produced and out before the holiday season.
Thanks again, and I cant wait for everyone to get their calendars and coffee. Andreas
(below are some pictures of the advanced copy I received).
Hey Everyone! Just wanted to give you and update on how everything is going. PDF is sent out, sorry it took awhile, i thought it was set up so that when you finished backerkit you'd have access to it, turns out the distibution still had to be run. Magnets and Coffee are already at the warehouse ready to go (i dont have any pictures of the coffee, but theres a lot of it) And the magnets came out adorably
Magnets
Calendar
So the calendar is still being printed and prepped, I haven't gotten a final proof yet, I expect an early copy to arrive hopefully this week (fingers crossed) and the full shipment of calendars to likely arrive last week of December (should be leaving the manufacturer this week, being airshipped to the US which is kinda crazy).
As for something to show proof-wise, I did receive these potter proofs and i created this video, I meant to share it, but things have been crazy with the holidays. Just a note, the proofs in the video were to just show how the print looked with the gold placement (you can see that here).
Other Things
Art Prints - they have been ordered (with the gold foil)
CatBat Originals - sorry for the delay, but Ive started reaching out to backers in order to get their preference
Backerkit Locking Down - Locking down orders so that we can get the addresses ready and prepped with the warehouse. (if there are any changes to be made, feel free to email me at [email protected])
I'll hopefully have another update this week with an advanced copy of the calendar. More to come very soon! (its a bummer that the gold foil pushed out production so far, but we can take this as a lesson for future calendars if we ever do something with this much gold foil in it). Also happy holidays, Andreas
Hey Backers, I apologize for the delay in updates and not having gotten everyone into backerkit yet. Simply put there was some chaos in figuring out a manufacturer for the calendars, that wouldn't end up with us losing a lot of money.
So long-ish story, I had an initial quote from CatPrint, but i knew it was flawed, but i thought it was only because it was a lack of pages, so i multiplied it out and estimated that calendars would cost us somewhere around ~$8, an expensive calendar, but it would be worth it. Once the campaign concluded I went ahead and finished the calendar (and its beautiful!), and then immediately began working with the printer to reaffirm the quotes i had previously gotten. It took a week to finally get a full quote from them, and they told me it would cost $15 per calendar, a bit more than we are looking to pay, and would actually put the project in the red. And to make matters even more difficult, they told us it would take 5-6 weeks to make the calendars. So with that new information, I reached out to my printer who does my books. I know they can make the calendar at a cheaper rate (heck they can make 1000 one-hundred page books for $3-5/copy), so the question came, can they do i faster and will it still be cheaper if they air freight the entire order to the US? With some back and forth (and its helpful that the files are done at this point), calendars came out to $2.5/calendar (lower than i expected), but with air freight would add another +$2-4/calendar, which puts it cheaper and as fast as CatPrint. So, now everything has been submitted and is moving.
Bonus Art Print is actually going to be printed by our overseas printer and have them inserted into the calendar. (ordered 2k calendars)
Magnets, have been ordered. (ordered 1700 of magnets, 3x designs)
Coffee, a rough number has been given to Found Familiar so they can add it to their production schedule.
Art Prints, going to have to wait to order those until after everyone is in backerkit, but it shouldnt take too long since we have all of the art files completed, but the sooner i order them the better.
Timeline So in all honesty, things are gonna be closer to shipping out mid-December, and unfortunately that all based on the timing of the calendar, so right now my goal is to get our warehouse equipped with everything so they can prep as much as possible (getting them coffee and the prototype calendars early) so that they can get packing materials and start getting packages prepped, to reduce turnaround time when the calendars arrive.
Backerkit has been ready to import backers into, but i was worried about shipping numbers (as well as what the cost of an additional calendar should be outside of the campaign), esp given the situation above. Anyways, now that the cost of calendars has been figured out, I'll be able to get everyone inside backerkit and we can get numbers finalized and going.
Again, I'm guessing shipping will commence either mid-late december, so it is very likely shipments will arrive as late as early Jan (unfortunately). This is the first time I've ever printed the calendar abroad, let alone for a cost reason, as well as the first time we're doing gold foil printing. Thanks for bearing with me and these crazy times. When i get proofs, I'll be sure to share them when they come in.
Goal: 1,000 backers reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has supported and shared this campaign so far! I wanted to say thank you for everyone who has pledged so far, because we've locked in the small art print (thinking postcard size) to go with every calendar.
Also, we are only 4 days away from the campaign ending! And less than 100 backers away from ✨Gold Foil✨ printing on every page for everyone who has pledged for a physical calendar!
If 100 of you can get just 1 friend to pledge, we will reach our capstone community goal!!!
Time is quickly running out 😬, so If you can please share this project with your groups and your networks!:
Not only are we quickly approaching $25,000 for our final voted stretch goal, but, we're also so close to reaching our community goal of 1,000 backers! If we unlock this, we'll be doing ✨GOLD FOIL PRINTING✨ on every art page of the calendar!!
But, we only have 9 more days to make this happen!
We are less than 200 backers away from reaching this goal, but to reach our goal of 1,000 backers, we'll need your help to get us there, and every little bit of support helps! If even just a quarter of you know a friend or can get someone to support the campaign (even at the lowest level!), we'll be able to reach this awesome goal, which would make this the most beautiful calendar we've ever produced!
A little coffee coverart!
Hey everyone!! we've got 13 days left of the campaign and I'm super impressed with how well everything has gone so far.
Two pieces about this update,
The piece above is the 'current' cover of the calendar (in a weird stroke of inspiration, I have another idea for one but we'll see what Cat comes back with. If that piece comes back great this will then be the second page of the calendar (with the credits and thank you backers section).
In this update there's a poll which I want to see what the 4th item will be when we hit 25k, if it will be a magnet, or something else.
And finally, we're only 276 backers away from our 1000 backer goal of unlocking gold foil printing on all the art pages of the calendars (currently just limted to art prints and the cover of the calendar)!
Thank you again for all your support and over the course of this next week I'll be updating the new layout of the calendar (and be able to show off some of that soon)!! Stay Hydrated! Andreas
Goal: $20,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
Hey Calendar and Coffee Lovers! I apologize for the delay on the update, but we have cause for another celebration!! Not only did we hit our 20k goal, adding a third magnet to the rewards, but I also got proofs of the poster prints featuring the gold foil accents. This, is what the calendar art will look like if we unlock the 1,000 backer goal.
It's also important to remember that we do have addons for additional calendars and posters that you can add to your pledge!
+1 calendar (+$15)
Art Print 16x20(+$20)
Coffee and Art Print!
Owlbear Plush not included
Thank you again for all the support and don't forget to share so we can hit that 1k backer goal!! Andreas
Goal: $16,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
Wow, I didn't expect us to get to these stretch goals so quickly!! (but here we are!!)
This means we've unlocked our second magnet to accompany your calendar! (at which now I gotta get Cat working on those).
Our final magnet will be unlocked at $20,000! (at which point I'm thinking of doing something other than magnets to accompany calendars). For our capstone goal for gold foil printing, we'reat 560 backers out of 1000 (so almost halfway there!!)
Also, I should also be getting proofs soon of what the gold foil prints will look like, so stay tuned for those soon too! Thank you again for all the support!! Andreas
Goal: $12,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
Wow, I went to bed and woke up to some coffee (of course) and seeing that we've passed our first stretch goal! This means we're going to include a refrigerator magnet with every calendar. But! the art hasn't been done yet, I'd love to hear what you'd like illustrated for the magnet!
The next magnet will be unlocked at $16,000! And also, for our capstone goal for gold foil printing, we'reat 483 backers out of 1000 (so almost halfway there!!)
Thank you again for all your support and if you love the project, please share it with your peers:
Also as promised, here is the full lineup of creatures and their art/sketches: Which are your favorites? (these are cropped to be square, just for Instagram), but they'll be full width
Goal: $8,500 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
I am excited to announce that we just hit our funding goal!!
I want to thank everyone who has supported us so far, we couldn't have done this without your support.
Our first stretch goal, is at $12,000, where we will make and provide a magnet with each and every calendar.
Looking down the road, we have a capstone achievement of 1000 backers (currently at 300). If we hit that goal, we will do gold foil printing on every art page of the calendar! We'll need to work together and share this project as far as we can get so we can reach that goal!
Thanks again for all your support in making this project come to life. In the next update, I'll share the full lineup of creatures and their art/sketches.
