EDIT -
PURCHASING FINAL PRODUCT HERE
Final Product:
EDIT:
Thank you so much everyone!! I am so excited that my project is funded!!! :D
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who helped me making this happen, and a special thanks to my dear friends Brenda Bae, Jana Schirmer & Mathias Verhasselt, Jessica Smith, Lynn Chen, Anne Charlotte Fraisse, Avyshek Sobhee and of course my boyfriend Ben Mauro - without encouragement and support from you guys, this project won't happen. Thank you so so so much!!
Please scroll down to check the stretch goals! :D
Hello there, welcome to my Indiegogo page and thank you for stopping by!
My name is Yangtian Li and my friends call me Tian. I’m a freelancing illustrator and concept artist. I was born in China and I went to Australia and Singapore to study and work, now I am freelancing for video games while traveling.
My Iron Ladies project started end of last year when it was October, during an online event “Inktober” initially hosted by artist Jake Parker. so I thought I would give it a shot and draw a little ink drawing everyday. At that time, I had some kraft paper in postcard size that I really liked to use, so I did my ink drawings in these. I happened to be at Paris during that time, visited the amazing Army museum there and I was very inspired by all the beautiful armours they displayed there. I have always been drawing fantasy characters and especially female characters, so I just started doing a couple of these female knights on my kraft postcards.
Visit IRON LADIES to see all of them!
After that, some of my friends started asking me if these were for sale, and some were asking if I wanted to make an art book out of these. I didn’t think these are the right drawings for an art book, but since they are drawn on postcard paper anyway, I wanted to make printed versions of them which are basically identical to the originals, and I think kraft paper has a really nice retro and handmade touch to it that I really love. They are also quite durable and so I thought as a postcard it would be perfect.
Since then, I have been researching and designing these postcards, and I have made various samples with different printing studios to find the best way to do this project. It actually didn’t go as smooth as I expected, because printing white ink on kraft paper is very difficult and not many printers are able to do it. Most of them will require screen printing which can cost a lot! On the other hand, because I am only making an order of 1000 sets of 40 cards (so 40000 in total) for now, bigger printing factories are not willing to take this order for their trouble. However, after many attempts, I have gotten a sample that I am quite happy with.
The other thing is, the printed version will not have the golden parts like the originals, due to many different constraints, such as it requires vector files to print golden foils, also it won’t have the hand painted quality like the original cards. So sadly this is not achievable - However, the golden parts are really like “the cherry on top” in my opinion, and I think the black and white ink are strong enough by themselves.
Therefore, I come up this idea that for a limited number of these postcards, I will paint the golden parts by hand and sign them. So if you are an enthusiastic art collector, these postcards might be just right for you. They are basically “semi-originals” and extremely limited (25 sets + 100 single cards, please see perks for more information.)
Now this is where I need your help, I am asking for US$6600 to get this project come to life. $3600 will be used for printing the cards, $1700 will be used for packaging, $700 will be used for shipping and handling, while $600 will be used for the transactions fees charged by Indiegogo, Paypal and my bank. This is the lowest budget I can get and if I can’t make $6600, the quality of the project will definitely suffer and I would rather not doing it at all. Therefore, this project is fixed funding, which means if I can’t make $6600, you get your money back. :)
Here are the originals for Platinum Tier! - ALL SOLD OUT!
I still have many ideas for extra perks and stretch goals, and I will reveal them if we can make it to my initial goal! Thank you so much and I sincerely hope you can help me to make this happen! And if you like my project, please share it and help me spread the word! <3
EDIT 1: Initially I wanted to make real stamps, but they will be country limited. So I thought some stickers that looks like stamps would be cool! If you are sending the card to a friend I think having a sticker like to go with the card should be quite cool. Feel free to send me things that you are interested in for a stretch goal! I'd love to hear that and if possible making it happen too. :)
The stickers will come as 5 sets, while each set has 4 of them, so a collection of 20 stickers. I'm working on the rest of them so here is only one as an example.
For people based in US, I will also upload these stamps to my Zazzle store after I finish all of them. So you can buy the actual stamps if you want! :)
EDIT 2: First stretch goal was unlocked so much faster than I expected! Thank you so much everyone!
The second stretch goal is a collector's coin! I figured that let's do the whole "post office stationery collection". :D hope you all like it!
EDIT3:
Second stretch goal was unlocked while I was asleep again! I guess if I want to update on time I have to sleep less. :P Again, thank you so much everyone! Now I'm going to design the back of the coin and will order my sample soon when I'm done with the design. This is so exciting! I love coins and I think this little bit of metal really adds a nice touch to the collection, especially when it's named "Iron Ladies".
So here is the Third stretch goal, with $9500, we will have a packaging upgrade, for everyone who has the full box collection. Originally, I was going to use black card paper with gold foil, it's not bad looking but I think with hard and thick paper board will really enhance the overall look and quality of the box. We will also add gold wax seal onto the box for a real vintage look. Apparently my money spending ability is higher than my money making ability, sadly! :P Hope you like this idea and let's make this upgrade happen! :D
By the way, for the 30 deluxe editions (the cards with my hand painted golden parts for tier titanium and above, they will have a different packaging. but it's a secret for now :3 )
EDIT 4:
3rd goal is unlocked!! Thank you so much!
Now we can upgrade the packaging to a thick paperboard and the wax seal! woohoo!
I'm sorry, but I have thought through and decided not to pursue another stretch goal. There are still quite a lot of work to do with what we have so far, and I would like to focus on the quality and the delivery of what I promised to you. :) Thank you for all your kind support and I'm looking forward to deliver a good product to you!
Q&A
Q:Why are you doing this project?
A:Well I like to draw! I've always wanted to have some physical collection of my drawings, but if I do them as paintings it takes forever. So a rather small project like this is more achievable for me because as you can see I have not and possibly won't make money out it, so most of my time need to be spent on working for clients.
Q: Why don't you sell it on print platforms like Society6 and such?
A: Most of them don't offer kraft paper, even if they do, they can't print white ink. So doing it by myself allows me full control of the paper, and of course, packaging. I want to make sure the collection looks good inside out!
Q: Why are you so obsessed with kraft paper? Can't you just print on white paper? problem solved!
A: I tried it, and I didn't like the sharp contrast that was created using white paper. I also didn't think they have the right look because the drawings were done on kraft paper and they maintained some textures from using this medium. I think you will understand once you receive the kraft cards! ;)
Q: What happens if you don't achieve your goal?
A: I will think about it then! For now let's hope I do achieve my goal. :D
Q: Why does it take so long? September?? I thought your drawings were done!
A: Yes, more than 40 drawings are done, but I'm considering replacing some of them because I think some of the earlier ones were not very consistent compared to the later ones. Also, I need to extract all the ink lines out and separate the black and white lines in Photoshop after scanning them. That is a lot of work too. I am still getting samples from different studio to find the best, and I need some extra time in case any printing goes wrong.
Q: I saw you have shipping fees allocated in your budget, so why do you charge extra shipping from me?
A: This shipping fee in my budget is for getting the products to me first, before I send it out. Most likely, my packaging and cards will be printed at different places, and I will need to also assemble them, do the golden paints, sign and number them before I ship them out.
Q: What does "EARLY BIRDS" mean in your perks?
A: I'm hoping to make 1000 sets first and these will be the first edition, with a numbered certificate. After these early birds options are out, I will put up regular ones, and these regular ones will not include the numbered certificate.
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Email me: mail@yangtianli.com