Hey all,

Below is the latest design added to the campaign, as well as end of campaign information!

Queer Enough Design

Now that the campaign has ended Backerkit will begin charging cards for pledges. Within the next 1-2 days you should see a charge from SNARKYCO on your statement, however, sometimes it says BackerKit.

Failed Payments
If your payment fails, BackerKit will attempt to charge your payment method a few more times in the following days. If your payment fails every time, you will still be able to pay for your pledge within your survey to get your rewards. If you have a failed pledge payment you will still receive your survey and you can update your payment within the survey to ensure you still get the pledge level you choose and freebie items.

Surveys
In roughly three weeks you will receive a BackerKit survey, sometime between July 16th-19th. I will also send out an update before surveys go out. The purpose of the survey is to choose the designs you want for your pins, provide your shipping address, and pay for shipping. The survey will also have an add-ons section and that is where you'll find other items like stickers, tote bags, bookmarks, extra pins, etc. Add-ons are entirely optional.

EB Tier Upgrade
If you are an Early Bird Backer and you want to upgrade your EB tier to include more pins, please email me at [email protected], with the name and email associated with your pledge and what tier you want to upgrade to. You can switch from one EB to tier to another EB tier, but you cannot switch from a regular tier to an EB tier. You can switch your EB tier all the up until surveys go out.

If you have any other questions please email me at [email protected]

And again, thank you all so much!

Cheers,
Liz

Hey all,

Project Update

Just a quick update since the campaign is almost over! I'm currently working on the Queer Enough design and will have that posted later today or tomorrow. That design will be unlocked and available as an option for your pledge level pins.

Just a reminder if you're in an EB tier and want to switch to higher EB tier for more pins, please email me at [email protected]. In the email include the name and email assocaited with your pledge and let me know which EB tier you want to upgrade to. Just note you can switch from one EB tier to another, but not from a regular tier to an EB tier. The EB tiers were only available within the first 48 hours of the campaign.

Project Feature: Wild Earth Dice

BackerKit does a really great job fostering a supportive community for creators. During each one of my projects I like to feature other creators who are running projects on BackerKit. The projects I promote to my backers are projects I've backed myself and creators that are genuinely awesome people. I'm not a dice collector, but when I saw this collection I had to get my hands on one of the giant liquid core d20. I can't wait to have it on my desk to give my hands something to fidget with, and my adhd brain a shiny beautiful object to look at daily.  

If you're a dice collector than this is the project for you. Embark on a journey through the cosmos with Visions of a Thousand Galaxies, a stunning collection of liquid core, sharp-edge dice that draws inspiration from the captivating colors and mesmerizing sights of the universe.

Hey all,

Just dropping a new unlocked design. I did read the comments and I am working on a Queer Enough pin, but it's still in the works.

These cakes are 1.6 inches in width and come in a gold plated or a black nickel plated. The gold plated features black glitter, and the black nickel cake features a white holo glitter.

Hey Y'all,

Project End Update

The purpose of this update is to let you know that I am moving the project end date from July 9th to July 1st at 4PM EST. For the longest time Kickstarter has set the industry standard, which was that campaigns would run for 30 days. Since switching to BackerKit and experimenting with timelines we've learned that shorter campaigns seem to be more beneficial. My cross collaboration partner and I have decided that by ending a week earlier, we can start the manufacturing process earlier, and therefore delivering pins earlier than expected. The campaign will now end on July 1st and you'll be charged shortly after it ends for your pledge level. Aside from the end date, nothing else about this campaign is changing. All designs are still unlocked, and each pin will receive both of the free items. I will still be adding 1-2 more designs before the campaign end as well. 

Increasing EB Tier

For each campaign, as more designs become unlocked, we offer Early Bird backers an opportunity to upgrade their early bird pledge. Early Bird tiers are the pledge levels offered in the first 48 hours of the campaign.

If you pledged into an EB tier but want more pins, we can move you from one tier to another. (example: you pledged EB 2, but want to switch to the EB 5) Keep in mind you can switch from one Early Bird tier to another, but not from a regular tier to an EB tier.

If you'd like to upgrade your Early Bird tier, please email [email protected] with your name and email associated with the campaign, and what tier you're currently in, and which tier you'd like to upgrade to. Please note that we may take up to 1 week to send confirmation of your pledge change. You upgrade your EB tier at any time, up until surveys go out.

We make the switches manually and you'll see the change reflected in your survey, and within your survey you'll be able to pay the difference.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Okay so I'm back with some updated designs for the Respect Pronouns Pin. Both designs feature the same saying, but in two different designs.

It's unfortunate the last design was lost, but hopefully you enjoy these new ones more!


Beautiful Day Pin

The Beautiful day pin features a similar retro character as the last design. This time around I went with a sun instead of a heart, because it kind of goes with the beautiful day theme. This pin has a translucent blue sky (meaning light will pass through the blue parts), and a glitter accented sun. The text will be opaque white and screen printed over the blue.

Respect Pronouns

For those of you who aren't a fan of the retro character, you can get the same saying on a simpler design. The respect Pronouns design comes in either a silver or gold plated with black glitter, or a black nickel plated with white glitter. The stars on each of these designs are screen printed. 

Hey all,

I am once again asking for your design ideas! I have been in a real design rut lately, and I can't seem to shake it. It's not that I am not passionate about this campaign or these designs, but work/life has been busy and stressful and the creativity is just not flowing. I'm also in the process of switching up ADHD meds, and that has been a fun little choose your own adventure (not in a good way either). 

I've attached a poll with some design ideas, please feel free to vote in the poll, or leave a comment with any ideas. I have read the suggestions from the last post and I love them, and as you can see some of them were added. Keep in mind that BackerKit only allows you to choose one option on the poll, so feel free to state your other options in the comments.

Here are some challenges I'm running into in terms of designing for this campaign:
- Some suggestions are very specific - this isn't a bad thing though, it's just that in terms of pin manufacturing and minimum order quantities, I have to ensure a design is going to sell enough to be able to meet the MOQ.
- Creating a pin specific to one identity/orientation causes some guilt? Someone may request a pin that's specific only to bisexuals, or nonbinary folk, etc. - and I'm not opposed to making those pins, but I then feel like I've left out other identities and orientations. But hey, if you really want a specific Bi pin (just an example) just keep leaving a shoutout in the comments and maybe I can make it happen. Even if a design doesn't make it to this campaign, it doesn't mean the idea doesn't go on an ongoing list for future pins.
- It's really hard to make a pride pin without throwing in all the colors of the rainbow, and I don't want every single pin to just be a rainbow. ಠ_ಠ
- Pronoun pins - I'm still thinking about it, but it's complicated. I just don't know how to make one for all the possible combinations without leaving some out.

Design Re-colors

I am putting another poll together about possibly taking a previous design and doing a recolor for all the orientations/identites.

Let me know what you want to see and I'll see what I can do to make it happen!


 

Yesterday I posted an image and asked everyone to vote on whether they wanted to see it as a pin or not. If you checked out the poll then you know the majority was yes. However, later that day I accidentally closed that file in Illustrator without saving it, and lost the entire design (not a fun time). This means I lost my vector, which is what the factory uses to make pins. Now it's not possible for me to recreate the design, and I'm going to, but slightly differently. The wording is the best part and the essential part of the design, the cartoon character was me trying something new. I'm not opposed to the cartoon character, I thought they were cute, but I wan't to rework the design. Sooo, I'm going back to the drawing board and when I come back I'll have a newer design (with the same wording), and fully fleshed out sticker designs as well.

Please don't ask me why I didn't name the file and save it before closing the tab...

Hey yall,

Welcome to the Queer & Here campaign! Thanks for backing and coming along for the ride!

I want to explain a little about the designs in this campaign, because it's slight different than my previous campaigns.

Pin Designs!

This project is starting with one main design, that comes in 23 identities and orientations based off of flag colors. As you know, there are many, many, orientations and identities. I tried my best to include as many of them as I could, but it's very possible I'm missing some. Some have multiple versions or color options. For example, there's the Poly flag, with black, red, blue, and the pi symbol, and then there's the newer version with purple, white, blue, pink, and yellow. I chose to go with the colors of the new flag based off of past data and comments from previous backers. There are also some flags that have controversy around them due to the meanings or the creators, and in that case it was hard to judge which flag to use.

You'll notice there is no Bigender flag, which was due to the controversy surronding it's creator, and because there are multiple versions of the flag. If you'd like to see a bigender option, please let me know which flag you want to see.

The other matter in terms of creating a color variant for multiple flags is manufacturing quantities. I have to be able to order a minimum order quantity of a color variant. As an example, if there are only ten orders for one variant, I still have to order 50 of them, which means I have to ensure I have enough funds to be able to offer so many options.

I'm open to suggestions!

If there's an identity that's missing but you want to see, please feel free to make a suggestion. I can't guarantee it will be included, but I will try. If there's a controversy around one of the flags, please let me know, as I'm not familiar with all of them. I identify as pansexual and am part of the Queer community, but that doesn't mean I am familiar with all the nuances of every identity or gender orientation. Please feel free to let me know!

Other Pin Designs

Live designing - During this campaign, based off suggestions or comments, I may be doing what I call live designing. Live designing is when I read feedback from the current campaign and I start designing on the fly, adding new designs as current ones become unlocked.

At the moment the only other pin design option (aside from the main design) are the Trans Rights Daggers. I am hoping to add other designs, but again, I am up for suggestions! I am trying to keep the other designs more general to pride and the whole queer community, so if your suggestion or request is super specific it might not fit.

If there's an image or a saying you want to see, let me know!

Some suggested sayings I've got that might get a design:

"Queer AF"
"Move, I'm Gay"
"Gay Agenda"

Pronoun Pins
I am considering pronoun pins, but wasn't sure how popular they would be? This is another instance of, there are so many combinations that I have to ensure I have enough funds to be able to include them all.

Stickers
 
There will be stickers available as add-ons within your survey when the campaign is finsihed! Check back towards the end of the campaign to see the sticker designs.


Just a note...

No Homophobes, Terfs, or Prejudice Allowed
Over the last six years I have designed over 200+ pin designs, on topics of mental health, pop culture, chronic illness, women's wrights, queer pride, body neutrality, and books/reading. This means I have amassed a large audience of pin lovers over the years. The Snarky Company strives to create an inclusive and safe environment for all art and pin lovers. That means, that homophobes, terfs, or any other prejudice won't be tolerated during this campaign. If there are any hateful comments or anything I deem inappropriate, I won't hesitate to cancel your pledge and block you from this campaign and any future campaigns. I've done it before on my mental health projects. If I cancel your pledge due to inappropriate behavior or comments, I'm not taking your money, and I don't owe you anything, which means you can be blocked from future orders and campaigns. Sorry, but here in this space, you're not entitled to your opinion if it's hateful, bigoted, or prejudiced. Just remember, no one's forcing you to back a project about a topic you don't support. 

- Liz
The Snarky Company

Hey yall,

I've been reading your comments on the last post, and I have been taking in all the information. So here's the updated situation with adding new designs. Please feel free to keep adding comments here!

Demiromantic Flag Color Rep

I will be adding a Demiromantic variant to the main Heart & Dagger design. This is what I mean when I say there are many so many representations, and sometimes, as a person with ADHD and general disorganization, I miss a few. Thank you to the backers who brought this to my attention and requested it. Please keep an eye out as it will be up in the next few days.

Ally Pins

I didn't expect to get so many requests for Ally pins, but you all pulled up and let me know. I'm currently working on a few Ally designs. One design will straight up say Ally, and another will say "You're safe with me" You can peep the silhouettes of these designs in progress. I know the silhouettes aren't super exciting, and not every one of these will make the cut, but I just wanted to show you that they are being worked on!

Pronoun Pins

All I can say about pronoun pins is...I'm figuring it out. There were many requests for pronoun pins. If I create a pronoun pin keep in mind it's probably going to be low key and simple. What I may do is create pronoun pins with the most common ones (she/her, he/him/, they/them, she/they, "any", and so on). However, while I am creating the most common ones, I may take requests for other options as well. I am trying to make this happen, I just need time to figure out how I can get it to work with factory minimum order quantities. If I can't make it work for this campaign, there's no reason to say it can be done as it's own seperate campaign in the future.

Keep an eye out on updates so you can see all the new designs as they are revealed.

Cheers,
Liz

Hey Y'all,

I came up with this design on a whim last night, and wanted to know if y'all think it should be added as a design. As you can see it's not done in my usual tattoo flash style, but just trying something new.

Hey yall,

I just wanted to thank everyone who has pledged to the campaign so far, and let you know we are fully funded, and all available designs have been unlocked!

We've also hit the 300 backer achievement, so each pledge now comes with a free 2.5" Vinyl Queer & Here sticker.

There are just over 24 hours left to grab an Early Bird tier. EB tiers come with a free sticker (design TBA), as well as a free extra pin, of your choosing, from all unlocked designs. As an example, if you back the 1 pin EB tier, you will actually receive two pins, and you can choose from any of the unlocked designs. EB backers are getting a lower per pin cost price as an incentive to back within the first 48 hours. 

I have been reading your suggestions from the last post and I am currently working on new designs. There seems to be several requests for pronoun pins, and although I haven't yet figured out how to do that, I'm going to work on it today. Once new designs are posted I'll add them to the page and send out an update. 

Cheers,
Liz