Hi Everyone - I'm a noob here but I wanted to introuduce you to my Kickstarter deck that I'll be launching on 13th October. It's a simple project with a low goal (£500ish) and it reproduces some long-lost library promotional posters from the 20s, 30s, 40s, & 50s. Check out the page at www.libraryloverscards.com and I'd love to hear your comments on the concept. I'll be releasing more images of the cards in the run-up to launch on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Word-Nerd-Games-1182032188491220/timeline/) and the newsletter (subscribe at www.libraryloverscards.com ). I'm hoping to appeal to booklovers and library nerds (like me) as well as card collectors and vintage design fans.
Cheers - looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Dan :¬)
I took a quick look at what you posted. Honestly, and I'm not out to be cruel, it's not very exciting.
The nature of the deck may be the problem. You're taking artwork from the distant past, art that's old enough that most people alive today has never seen it - but it's not Picasso, Renoir or Van Gogh - it's WPA promo posters and advertisements. It's not to say the art is without value, but it doesn't have the same resonance. If you did something vibrant and new in the style of such art, you might be on to something more interesting. Perhaps court cards in an Art Deco style holding library books? I don't know - but anything other than reprints of old advertisements from generations ago. You're not going to find as much interest, I suspect, than you would if you used original art. It can be art in the style of the old posters, but something fresh and new will be more eye-catching in this case, especially looking at the bland color palette of the posters you've put on your sample cards on the website. Even a refresh of the artwork with brighter and more vibrant colors might be an improvement.
The one plus you have running in your favor, should you opt to proceed with the project as is, is that you have the budget down to about 500 quid - in the ballpark of 700 dollars American, give or take, depending on the prevailing exchange rate on a given day. That's a real shoestring budget, but if you can indeed deliver on a budget that small, you won't require a huge number of interested buyers in order to hit your goal - but watch the price point, as deck collectors will pay top dollar for premium decks, but most decks made in such tiny print runs don't fit that bill. You just need to insure that you've covered every single base in terms of what needs to be paid for, from the first postage stamp to the last padded envelope and everything in-between. I've seen many a wide-eyed deck designer forced to dig deep into their own pockets because they miscalculated what they needed to deliver on a project and funds ran out around the time the decks started going out the door.
The final caveat I have for you - the bulk of the modern deck market consists of kids, mostly male, under the age of 25. It's not exclusively the domain of the young, but they do make up the lion's share of the dollars spent. When's the last time you saw one of them crack open a book they weren't assigned for homework? It's a rare event. Pushing a deck with artwork from ads promoting libraries to them is about as likely to succeed as trying to sell Windows 95 using TV ads during the 2016 Super Bowl. Your potential market is more narrow, largely outside the normal deck collector base, and your focus on it has to be that much sharper. Find websites catering to bibliophiles and push it like the latest prescription drug to them. If your ad campaign was a car, you'd have to drive it like you stole it. Make sure everyone who loves a book, any book, knows you're making this deck. If you know anyone at Barnes and Noble (largest bookstore chain in the US) or its British/European counterparts, get this deck in front of their buyers - perhaps you won't even need a Kickstarter campaign in the first place.
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