A Real Page Turner

Our art director Lawrence tackles his 3rd personal Kickstarter.

By Peak Design

OKAY, NOW YOU DO IT

It's probably a safe bet that you are at least a little familiar with Peak Design's storied relationship with Kickstarter and crowdfunding (6 successful campaigns, most-funded active company in Kickstarter history, etc ,etc). The ability to harness financial and creative capital from enthusiastic backers has been our lifeblood since the inception of Peak, but less known to our crowdfunding community is the personal relationship many Peak employee's have with Kickstarter.

Our art director Lawrence Lander (@larrybirddog) is in the middle of his third Kickstarter, 'Myth, Place, and America: 3 Books of Photography and Design'. The campaign aims to self-publish three separate books of his work. He recently sat down to tell us a little about his project and his approach to crowdfunding.

LET'S START WITH THE BASICS

PEAK: Introduce yourself for our readers in case they don't know who you are.

LL: My name is Lawrence and I'm the art director here at Peak Design. In short, my job is to make us look good. Graphic design, web design, product photography, lifestyle photography, photo editing, to name a few major tasks.

What's this Kickstarter all about?

It's about a handful of special places that I have spent time inhabiting, moving through, documenting, and reflecting on. I've created three separate books that are distinct and (I think) beautiful collections of work. Those three books are:

'To Live and Die in Brewster County' - an essay of black and white photographs and hand-made maps of Brewster County in far west Texas. This book documents the intersection of rugged landscape, stubborn people, and the convoluted history of the American West.
'Every Part of the Animal' - an assortment of images collected over many thousands of miles on the roads of America, especially those in and between California and Texas. Without getting too silly and poetic, I'd call this my own quiet contemplation on the American road trip.
'The Block The Beast The Tower' - an in-depth exploration of San Francisco and the myths that inhabit it. I wanted to experiment with graphic design as a way of talking about and exposing myths and stories, and San Francisco became the laboratory in which I did that work. This was my graduate thesis when I got my masters in design.

Whew.

Yeah, whew.

Long time coming

Why did you decide to fund these books through Kickstarter?

I just want to share my work, and this has become my favorite way to do it. I can determine the minimum amount of money it would take to make an item at the standards I have set for myself, and then I can seek out backers excited to be an audience. Kickstarter has been a fantastic way for me to organize my thoughts and goals surrounding a project and to clearly spell out why I wanted people's financial assistance. Kickstarter has allowed me to put economies of scale to work and produce higher-quality projects than I would otherwise be able to by getting an injection of capital right before production.

How long have you been working on these books?

I started taking pictures for what would become 'To Live and Die in Brewster County' in 2008 while I was still getting my undergraduate degree in photojournalism at the University of Texas in Austin. At the end of my studies and then for a number of years after graduation I was pretty restless and avoided any sort of traditional 9-5 job. I took on all sorts of freelance work and also spent time as a cowboy boot salesmen, all the while throwing the bulk of my creative energy and resources at my yet-unnamed Brewster County photo project. It's just been in this last calendar year that I've felt the Brewster County collection is complete and ready to share.

'Every Part of the Animal' is less of an organized project. Those images gathered over time (also starting roughly around 2008), the souvenirs of untold miles driving around the country, especially between my native Texas and adopted home of California.

'The Beast The Block The Tower' was from my graduate studies at California College of the Arts. The project took a year to complete, from Fall of 2014 to Spring of 2015.

Do you think that someone would need to be familiar with the places in your books to enjoy reading them?

Absolutely not! I'd like to think that the books themselves create a miniature version of the places that I am trying to reflect on and make them accessible to anyone, anywhere. I think that I've done a pretty good job of finding and documenting the weird little quirks and moments of poetry that exist in the places that I cover in these books. I want to share the way I see the world just as much as what it is I'm seeing.

What makes a good collection of photography or design?

That's a good question and I won't claim to know the answer! I'm going with my gut on these. To me, balance and rhyme are the building blocks of compelling photographs and graphic design. Each picture or design needs to feel confident on its own and multiple pieces feel like they make sense together in their pacing and order.

I think that good photography is about more than technical proficiency - it's about capturing moments of subtle tension and thinking about unique ways of expressing physical space. I think that the sooner a photographer embraces the subjective nature of the medium, the sooner they really start to interact with their subjects. You aren't capturing the truth as much as you are entering into a conversation.

Any parting wisdom for folks looking to start their own Kickstarter of creative work?

Have reasonable goals! Don't think of Kickstarter as a referendum on the quality of your work! It is way more a referendum on your marketing and self-promotion skills. I would also say that my current Kickstarter isn't really specific enough. If I did each book on its own and really got hyper-focused with each potential audience and my marketing around it, I'd probably get a few more backers. That's no big deal to me, but maybe it is to you! Think about your audience when you are building out your campaign.