Typically product design is a corporate-dominated market, but Kickstarter products were made by real people we met in homemade videos. In project updates they shared the thrills of achievement and the headaches of learning-as-you-go. Backing a product was as much an experience as it was making a purchase. The process was part of the reward.
When product design was a hit, it was a hit — more than 30 product design projects raised six figures in 2011. Coffee lovers marveled at the Coffee Joulies. Filmmakers rallied around CineSkates. The Camera Capture Clip found support from thousands of photographers. The Revolights and TiGr were hits with bicyclists. The PadPivot landed in Best Buy. Windowfarms made anyone an urban farmer.
Designers with off-beat products also made an impact. There were wooden desktop trebuchets, a three-stringed guitar, and an annual clock. People backed jellyfish tanks, imaginary marching bands, physical GIFs, LPs lasercut into 3D dinosaur puzzles, and an alert system for the International Space Station. The Design category was anything but predictable.
At the core of Design were the makers. They made stuff so other people could make stuff, whether it was an arduino mod for game designers, a modular system for solar-powered electronics, a 3D printer, or the irresistible Twine. Their projects turned backers into creators.
Projects turned backers into manufacturers, too. They commissioned thousands of Cosmonauts, HexBrights, and Elevation Docks from manufacturers in the US and around the world. Their pledges reopened factories and launched small businesses along the way. In 2011, “mass-production” didn’t just describe the assembly line’s output. It described how the crowd made it happen, too.
Comments
Nice summary but links to things aren't NEARLY as much fun as little pictures of the things themselves I reckon
I'm so excited about Kickstarter! It's the perfect playing field for creatives to make their imagination reality. I'm currently working on my first Kickstarter campaign. I love reading the success stories because it inspires as well as teaches. Much success to Kickstarter in the coming years.
Joe W.
glad to have been a little part of all this.... Ann s.
...crawl,walk,run,fly,sour,orbit !!!!!
한국에도 이렇게 활성화된 공간이 있으면 하는 생각을 합니다.
I just want to start raising money for my project
In what has been a difficult period for our economy Kickstarter has re-kindled the "American Dream"
Bravo!
Steve Resta
I've contributed to two ideas in 2011 The Art of the Patent by Kevin Prince and the Sam Grdon's Oona! Totally satisfied with both products too. Next month I'll re-submit a brand new product (never before invented), one that KickStarter rejected as a concept in 2010 but that I went and invented anyway. Now it is nearly complete and very favorably received in early market testing. With any luck I'll convince the KickStarter team to feature it and give it the kick start it needs.
I honestly believe that the platform you have created with Kickstarter is the solution to our economic problems, and many social and environmental problems associated with 'blindly' inventing in mutual funds and the like. I love that the people decide who and what to support. Thank you Kickstarter, please keep growing and spreading around the world!
*investing (inventing is on my brain it seems)
Greg, I have to disagree. Look at Steven's comment. I think Kickstarter has been much too focused on Design and not enough on innovation. You see plenty of products where people are taking commonplace items and customizing them in colors or finishes. But I have heard from a number of people (and it was my own experience) that truly innovative products that don't involve design or Arduino or 3D printing are being turned down as "inappropriate". Crowd-funding is something that could really propel invention and innovation - it's a shame that Kickstarter is discouraging it (despite what they say here). No design, no love.
It is amazing the successes people are having through kickstarter, and I love the great ideas and products that are being funded through it. Creating something that is innovative takes not only money, but time and lots of hard work. 1% inspiration - 99% persipriation. Even the very successfully projects such as the a-pen and the cosmonaut has had a really tough time delivering on the goods after being funded so it is appropriate for Kickstarter to limit projects that are not fully developed. What I am learning from Kickstarter is that clear message and promotion is perhaps even more important than the idea or the project for it to be realized.
Kickstarter AWESOME platfomr to place your idea or designe out to the market.
Well done to the creaters.
Thank you Kickstarter!
Wow! More jobs in a failing economy? Doesn't get any better than that. If a site like kickstarter.com did not exist, how would they have been able to do it?
kickstarter very good plateform where we can place our idea's
As I was searching for a helping hand KickStarter.com was there to guide my idea into a new marketplace and pull me out of a deep pit i was in and gave me light to express my ideas show the world that we have options. Kickstarter has open my door in inventing a Hybrid System that turns a 1967 Chevy into a fuel saving Hybrid. I am saving old used cars from the Junk Yard, but I need your help project stopped due to lack of funding I am almost there need a bit more time to test the engine and drive it to California with news coverage and KickStarter as my Sponsor. wow thanks Kickstarter.com for your support on American Inventors like myself to create jobs right here in the USA. ''Ask not what your country can do for you'', Ask what you can do for your country''. Thank you