Comics in Scotland have experienced a remarkable surge in popularity in recent years, captivating both local audiences and international fans alike. Edinburgh Comic Art Fair provides a platform for emerging talent to showcase their work and connect with a passionate audience.
Whether through traditional print or digital platforms, Scotland's comics industry continues to push boundaries, encouraging creativity and fostering a sense of community among fans and creators. This is why Creative Scotland created In The Frame, an annual one-day gathering of comic book and graphic novel creators.
I was very pleased to join in again for a second year, sharing tips for launching a crowdfunding campaign for Comics creators.
Creative Scotland recently released this resource for Comic Creators in Scotland, where I shared our Top Tips for running a crowdfunding campaign.
Crowdfunding Lab with The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Rosie Mackley, BA Modern Ballet graduate
We’re kicking off a new project with The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as part of their new Innovation Studio project!
We are providing the opportunity for 5 RCS graduates and alumni to learn the skills and knowledge to develop and manage their own successful crowdfunding campaigns.
RCS Innovation Studio is a two-year pilot project which will facilitate new opportunities for knowledge exchange (KE) at the RCS. Through a series of workshops, panels, online discussions, and interdisciplinary collaborations and seed funds, Innovation Studio will support creative experimentation, skills development and collaboration. The project hopes to generate new practices and pave the way for a future Centre for Innovation at the Conservatoire.
Guide to Crowdfunding with Newspaper Club
We’ve written a guide to crowdfunding for Newspaper Club. We wanted to create a guide that would help people get the most out of crowdfunding. Alongside our eight (!!) years of knowledge working on Kickstarter and other platforms we chatted with 2 creators who had used Newspaper Club in their campaigns.
Hop on over to Newspaper Club to read this (FREE) Guide to Crowdfunding.
Searching for an alternative funding model
Earlier this year, Make Works approached us to see how they can improve awareness of how people can support the Make Works platform.
Make Works is a factory finding resource where you can discover incredible makers, manufacturers, material suppliers and workshops. They create beautiful videos and a platform for manufacturers to showcase their work. It opens up the often hidden ways to work these manufacturers, which is especially useful for small makers.
We went off to investigate a bunch of different options for Make Works, and discovered Patreon. A crowdfunding platform with a twist; the idea is that people who really care about your project being out there in the world become a Patron, and support it in small amounts each month.
Fi at Make Works loved Patreon's open approach so we reached out to them to start building their campaign. We worked with Patreon and Make Works to create a campaign page that would ignite their community's passion and make it as easy as possible to support Make Works.
Make Works have written a great article about why they are looking at these alternative funding models, and how this applies to other not for profit organisations who don't quite fit that traditional VC funding model.