Arkham Sanitarium Prop Package

The long development process that started back in late May is now heading into the home stretch.

First off, this is the revised Arkham Sanitarium logo in it's monochrome and color versions. You'll notice that it's not all that different from the previous iterations, but my stubborn ego finally accepted that those of you suggesting a more traditional shield shape were right. As always, your suggestions and comments are most appreciated. If I'd listened to you more in the first place this would have been done a month ago. Heh.





That brings us to the next part of the project- production. In the past I've gone ahead with ordering everything and then hoped for the best. That approach has worked thanks to your good graces, but it's also limited what I can do because of the significant up-front investment required.

For this project I'm going to be doing things a little bit differently by funding the project through Kickstarter. In case you're not familiar with them I'll quote from their FAQ:

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.

We believe that...

• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

All-or-nothing funding?

Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands.

Why?

1. It's less risk for everyone. If you need $5,000, it's tough having $2,000 and a bunch of people expecting you to complete a $5,000 project.

2. It allows people to test concepts (or conditionally sell stuff) without risk. If you don't receive the support you want, you're not compelled to follow through. This is huge!

3. It motivates. If people want to see a project come to life, they're going to spread the word.

In essence I'm going to be looking for pledges to fund the project to the tune of around $1250. That breaks down to 50 pledges of $25, which I think is more than doable based on past efforts. You can donate less or more than the targeted $25 amount, but everyone that donates at least $25 will be rewarded with one of the Arkham Sanitarium prop packages.

So what exactly will be included in the package? At a minimum there will be one Arkham Sanitarium embroidered uniform patch, one cloisonne lapel pin, two different vintage-style postcards, and a pocket notebook. As the project develops I'll be adding more items like patient file cards, photographs, and ward passes based on period examples.

Please keep in mind that those are just the items planned for the reward package. Straight paper props like patient admission records, treatment charts and the like will be part of the project, but they'll be released for free as PDFs under the usual Creative Commons license. Printing out documents on plain paper is easier and cheaper to do yourself. I want to concentrate on items that aren't easily reproducible at home.

So there you have it. I'm really excited about the possibilities this approach offers. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.