Personalized rock songs, customized storybooks, and tweets transformed into comic strips.

These are just a few of the rewards we’ve seen emphasizing the spirit of backer-creator collaboration that’s always been at the heart of Kickstarter. Now, we’re putting this type of collaboration front and center with Commissions, an open call for projects that invite backers into the creative process.

Versión en español a continuación.

Since 2008, Designaholic founder Jorge Diego Etienne has been on a mission to showcase and promote design in Mexico through articles, columns, and critical essays. The Mexico City-based blog recently held an open call for projects from local designers, selecting seven to receive coaching from Kickstarter’s team in Mexico. The projects will also be part of an exhibition at the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño festival in Mexico City in October.

We asked Etienne to tell us more about the projects he selected, all of which are now live on Kickstarter.

The World Maker Faire takes over the New York Hall of Science in Queens this weekend. Occupying the grounds of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, it channels the optimism of those historic events — the belief that bringing people from all over the world together to share ideas can help shape a better future.

Here at Kickstarter, we feel a special kinship with the folks behind Maker Faire because they share our own expansive definition of creativity. At the fair you’ll find roboticists, artists, crafters, chefs, electrical engineers, amateur inventors, game designers, musicians, and many others enthusiastically sharing their creations with the curious crowd.

Here’s a sampling of the dozens of Kickstarter creators who will be displaying their projects at the 2017 World Maker Faire on September 23 and 24.

 

Back in May we told you about Hardware Studio, a new initiative from Kickstarter, Avnet, and Dragon Innovation that’s aimed at supporting hardware creators. Today we’re very happy to tell you that Hardware Studio is live at… hardware.studio.

We’re kicking it off with some advice from people who know a few things about hardware. Eric Migicovsky, founder and CEO of Pebble Technology, writes about lessons learned from his Pebble experience. And Dragon CEO Scott Miller, who also helped build the Roomba, runs through the steps in the journey from idea to manufactured product.

As of today, Dragon and Avnet are accepting applications for Hardware Studio Connection. Kickstarter creators who participate in that program will receive personal advice from Avnet and Dragon engineers, among other benefits.

If you’re thinking about running a hardware project, or are already deep in the planning stages, we hope you’ll find Hardware Studio useful. Read on for an excerpt from a Hardware Studio post by Kickstarter's Design and Technology team about the thinking that went into the initiative and the ways that it can help creators plan ahead before they launch a project.

Earlier this year we announced a trial run of a new Creators-in-Residence program. As part of Kickstarter's mission to help bring creative projects to life, we welcomed three teams of filmmakers into our office as they worked on completing their films. We loved working alongside them and learning from their process as they filmed new material, edited footage, and shipped rewards to their backers.

Today we’re announcing a second group of residents that joined the program a few weeks back. Joining us in our Brooklyn HQ for the next three months are:

“The Making of Products should:
Invite chance and improvisation so that every product is different.
Use experimental processes but be simple in their form.
Be enjoyable and challenging.”

These are a few of the principles that guide Granby Workshop, the architectural ceramics studio founded by Turner Prize-winning design collective Assemble. The workshop grew out of a larger effort to revitalize Liverpool’s Granby neighborhood, producing distinctive architectural materials to renovate local homes and creating new manufacturing jobs within the community. Check out this video to learn more about their process and story.

(Scroll down for the English translation.)

日本のプロジェクトを世界に向けて。

Kickstarterは、日本のクリエイター向けにサービス提供を開始しました。アーティスト、作家、映画制作者、ミュージシャン、デザイナーなど、様々なクリエイターが世界に向けてプロジェクトを公開し、Kickstarterのグローバルコミュニティから、プロジェクト資金を募ることができるようになりました。

Projects of Earth began with a question inspired by the Voyager Golden Record: What would you create to represent life and culture on Earth in 2017?

With the launch of this initiative, we hoped to create a showcase of human imagination, and thanks to you, that vision has become a reality. Today we’re extending a huge thank you to the 120+ artists, designers, musicians, and makers from around the globe who answered this question through their own creative projects. The one-minute video below offers a glimpse at their unique ideas — from paintings of our technological future, to an all-terrain Earth rover, to a dance homage to American cinema. Take a look: