About this project
Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection
£135,146
3,732
Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection will be the ultimate retrospective of Mr Bingo’s hugely popular Hate Mail project. Since 2011 Mr Bingo has sent 928 vintage postcards skillfully emblazoned with offensive messages to (mostly) willing recipients. The book will be a bloody lovely, high production volume showcasing 156 postcards from the Hate Mail project, selected by the artist. Essentially, it’ll look like a pretentious art book but without the pretentious price tag.
Hate Mail was conceived in April 2011. Late one night in my studio, alone (and a bit drunk), I was suddenly overcome with an urge to send somebody a vintage postcard from my personal collection, amassed over many years from visits to provincial charity shops and car boot fairs. I stumbled onto Twitter, declaring ‘I will send a postcard with an offensive message on to the first person who replies to this’. Within a couple of minutes around 50 humans had replied. The winner was a Jonathan Hopkins from Forest Hill, who was rewarded with a postcard which read ‘Fuck you Jonathan, fuck you and fuck your shit legs’ (accompanied by a drawing of his legs). I don’t know what Jonathan’s legs look like, or even if he has legs.
I fired the above photograph of Jonathan’s postcard into the pipes of the internet and as a result, began to receive requests from people all over the world, eager to be verbally and visually abused via the medium of the postcard. A few days later I opened a service, enabling strangers to pay me to tell them to fuck off, and Hate Mail was born. The service proved so popular in its first week that I couldn’t keep up with demand and had to stop doing the fucking things. Since its inception four years ago, I’ve reopened the service nine times with all editions selling out in minutes. I’m happy to announce that as part of this campaign to create Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection, and for the first time this year, over 100 original Hate Mails are on offer, including the covetable 1000th Hate Mail edition. Hooray!
Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection will be a retrospective of the project, collecting together 156 of my favourite postcards. It will be a book equally at home next to your toilet or on display in a twatty, chin-stroking art gallery.
(If you're not interested in nerding out on paper stocks or printing techniques, maybe you can skip the next bit and just look at the pictures?)
Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection will be printed and bound to the highest standards by a renowned art book printer in Italy. Clothbound, foil stamped and comprised of the finest German book paper, the finished product will be a sumptuous art object, the kind of thing that some cunt in West London would be proud to get out at a dinner party. For those of you who may be thinking ‘Hang on a minute, this bloke draws cocks, what does he know about making books?’, RELAX. The production and design of the book will be handled by Darren Wall, a London-based art director and publisher with over a decade of experience in design for print, so the chances are, he won’t fuck it up.
Specification
- Clothbound casing with gold foil blocking
- 135mm x 190mm
- Hardback
- Litho print
- Approx. 320 pages
- If you drop it off the Eiffel Tower onto someone below, it’ll probably kill them
- To give you an idea of size, it’ll be bigger than a mouse but smaller than a human head
All specs may be subject to change/improvement as the project evolves.
Every person who backs this Kickstarter will have their name included in the book as a Benefactor (I don’t know what this means). Your name will be included in any subsequent reprints of the book, serving to honour your part in making this fucking thing happen. Please note, this is optional, if you’re weird and want to remain anonymous, that’s fine.
Rewards are fun, and to be honest they’re one of the main reasons I wanted to crowdfund Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection. (The other reason was that I really needed to make a rap video).
The rewards on offer range from copies of the book itself and go right the way up to being my friend.
For those of you who get a kick out being told to fuck off, you're in luck. I can do that for you on the internet, in a book or on a postcard depending on which button you press. If that’s not enough and you need some kind of fucking ‘experience’ then you can click on some of the other buttons. Personally, I’m looking forward to getting shitfaced on a train with some of you and spending a weeknight helping you learn to draw a real life stripper.
Who knows, we might even end up being friends. Actually no, see reward number 16, you’ll have to pay for that.
Making a book doesn't have to cost £35,000. I don't want to make a cheap book though. The funding goal covers picture research, image clearances, retouching, design, colour correction, printing and shipping. I could do some of those things myself but I'd rather pay professionals who'll do it perfectly. The main cost is printing: our chosen printer isn't cheap, they’re bespoke and old fashioned and they're one of the best in the world. It’s the kind of place where you might see a cool old man in an apron that smells of cigarettes with a pencil behind his ear, you know what I mean? I firmly believe that if you’re going to make something, don't make it ‘good enough’, make it fucking amazing. So with Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection we will cut no corners and spare no expense.
We're half way through the campaign now and it's all ticking along nicely, so I thought it was about time I introduced some fucking Stretch Goals. Here's the plan...
- £95K - A digital download of the Kickstarter rap for every backer. Listen to the song on a train on your personal stereo or enjoy it in the comfort of your own home in the bath or at a BBQ or disco.
- £100K - Every backer will receive an 'UP YOURS' bookmark. Matching the quality production of the book, this is a heavyweight (approx 350gsm), die cut, foil stamped lovely thing. Useful for marking where you are in a book and also suitable for holding in the face of smaller animals such as weasels, stoats and ferrets.
- £150K - I will get my mum the boob job that she's always wanted. Surgery will take place in October so she has them done in time for Christmas which would be a real dream for her.
Directed, shot and edited by Oldie
DOP - Rex McWhirter
Director - Luke Alexander
Assistant Director - Jowey Roden
Focus Puller - Michael Hobdell
Production Assistant - India Bradshaw
Assistants - Craig Nash, Claudia Rocha and Ernest Wereko
Beats - Eli Sostre
Recording & Mix Engineer: Rhys Downing
Thanks/BIG UPS: Greedy, Auberi Chen, DC Scribbla, OUST, Martin Olley, Koto, The Wenlock Arms and Kev the postman.
Risks and challenges
There is a risk I might take all the money and just run off with it. I don't know where I’d run to though, I barely leave London and besides, I’m too addicted to social media now to just ‘disappear’. Anyway, I'm making a book. It's not that hard is it? It’s sticking bits of paper together in the right order and wrapping a cover around them. I think it'll be okay.
There is always the risk that we could miss our production deadline so you’ll receive your book a few weeks later than expected. That's not too upsetting is it? If you are upset at any point and wish to make a complaint, send me a fucking postcard.
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Funding period
- (27 days)