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As Crowdfunding Gets Crowded, Designers Must Evolve. Here’s How to Tackle Crowdfunding in 2022

Core77 is excited to announce a new monthly series of webinars launching at the end of February. “Crash Course” is a free, monthly series focused on delivering tactical, hands-on knowledge to working industrial designers and other creative professionals.

Each episode will feature a subject matter expert sharing their hard-won knowledge on a specific topic in detail, including actionable tips and tricks that can be put to immediate use. Hosted by Core77 Senior Editor Rain Noe, episodes will cover a wide range of current technologies, trends and knowledge crucial for today’s creative professional. Presentations will be 30-45 minutes, with a 10-15 minute live Q&A session at the end.

Our first episode, airing later this month, tackles how crowdfunding has changed in 2022–and how designers can adapt to those changes. Independent designer Craighton Berman has had 15 projects successfully Kickstarted from 2010 to present day, and he’ll walk you through how he stays ahead of the curve.

Episode 1: Crowdfunding for Designers in 2022

Kickstarter has become a standard way for designers to launch ideas, and it’s even become a viable path into forming an independent design practice. But we’re a long way from the Gold Rush days of 2010, when good ideas alone were enough to land millions of dollars in funding. Over the years, crowdfunding has become…crowded. How can you cut through the signal noise of overproduced pitch videos, lame projects, high-profile failures and promotional fatigue that has inundated the platform?

Crowdfunding still matters, and it’s still viable. The key to finding success with it is understanding how crowdfunding has changed, and how you need to approach it in 2022 to achieve your goals.

Back in 2010, Craighton Berman was one of the first designers to successfully Kickstart a product. Since then he’s successfully launched a total of 15 products on the platform, with the most recent being last year. (His successes enabled him to found home goods company Manual.) Berman’s seen firsthand how the platform’s demands have changed over the years, and as a former Lead Instructor for a masterclass service on crowdfunding, he’s the perfect person to explain these changes to other designers. So we asked him to put together a Core77 Crash Course on the subject.

Join Berman as he explains how to approach using Kickstarter in 2022, and why you should still consider using it to build your independent design practice. Some of the takeaways will be:

- Calibrate your intentions. Do it for the deadlines, supporters, momentum and accountability—the money should not be the main focus

- Push storytelling and ideas beyond the expected, because that’s what keeps crowdfunding fresh

- Create sustainable financial models to start, seek profitability afterward

- Advertising has ruined metrics: Build your own audience

- Beware of consultants: if they knew the secrets, they’d be running campaigns of their own

Episodes will air on the final Wednesday of each month, with the first episode on February 23rd at 2PM EST. In addition to being part of the live Q&A sessions, registered participants will have access to the videos after the event to review and deepen their impact.