Kickstarter

Thank you, so much. 

How cool is this? Frankly, I never expected we'd get this far - just over 300% and nearly 500 backers. It wasn't that long ago that I was brainstorming what to do when (not "if") this Kickstarter failed. Thanks to you, it's succeeding amazingly. 

I don't have a 300% stretch goal to announce. I know it'd be awesome if I did but this past week I was so locked down in crunch mode to get this sucker to the printer, that work above and beyond the book was unthinkable. The good news is - it's at the printer! 

I delivered the files mid-day Monday and was very excited to go home and crash. Alas, it was not to be. There was a hiccup on one file and I ended up working late Monday night and redelivering on Tuesday - today. All that being said - it's at the printer!

The project I delivered turned out to be 22 separate PDFs and involved a fair amount of file wrangling and double-checking but I think it's all accounted for. Next step is printed proofs that I'll go over with a fine-toothed comb and then the print run begins. I don't know how quickly the proofing process will go but one of the main reasons I wanted to work locally was so that it would be as simple as possible. 

And here's the final word on the art cards/postcards - they are officially "go" with 2-sided printing & heavy paper stock. My printer and I looked at a couple papers, balancing weight and texture, and landed on one that I like a lot. I hope everybody who ordered them does too (I have not capped adding more cards/postcards to orders but I did order a limited number. I'll update if theres a run on them and quantity looks iffy). Attached at the bottom of this update is the flip-side of the postcards. I went a bit crazy and designed the heck out of these, then rethought what I was doing and pulled way back. Now they're simple, yet fit into the aesthetic of the whole project. Essentially I realized that the front was for me to put 'bots on, but the back, that has nothing to do with me. That's all you and whatever you want to write there. I hope ya'll dig that decision. 

Next step, though tonight I'm not working on the book, will be to finalize the patch design and send it off to get sewn. Tonight I'm cleaning the kitchen. It's an understatement to say that I let dishes slide during this last push. It's not pretty in there :)

 My goal is to finish design on the patch by Friday and send it off before the weekend. At that point, we'll be cooking with gas - books at the printer, stamps already done, stickers printing now, patch being sewn - then I start drawing 'bots! Back where all this began however long ago it was when I drew my first botanical 'bot. 

Also attached to the bottom are a couple nerdy pics I took as I dropped off the files. One is the trusty robot USB drive that transported the book - did you really expect anything else? The other is from inside the print shop - not a great picture but I was trying not to be too annoying as we were finalizing numbers & papers. Still, you can kind of see some of the other amazing books this place works on and the box of cookies I brought with me. When you're dropping off 22 separate PDFs and specifying different papers and asking way too many questions, it's nice to bring cookies. 

What's not pictured is the parking ticket I got when I was there. Meter readers are brutal in Hollywood. 

Lastly, though totally not lastly, I wanted to point ya'll at another really cool Kickstarter project

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1341118219/desktop-gremlins-vol-1-premium-papercraft-art-book?ref=live

It's a book of papercraft creatures and though I don't see any 'bots, there is an octopus and that's enough for me!

Alright gang, stay in touch and be well. And thank you all, one more time, for everything.

B