The Chromatic Fates Tarot

Chromatic Fates: Two of Wands, Pins, Vector Foils
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 01:18:37 AM

Hello backers!

We have a few exciting updates for you! The first of which is that our enamel pins are being ordered and we’ve gotten our first little video preview of a test print with the Rainbow Metal. You can see that below:

The second update is that our last three cards are wrapping up, the first of which is TWO OF WANDS! The Two of Wands represents the beginning of a long journey and the first steps along the path. This is an exciting time but it can also be daunting or overwhelming. If you identify strongly with the Two, you’ve moved past the idea stage of a project or endeavor and you’re ready to lay the tangible groundwork to make your dream a reality.

Two of Wands was illustrated by Jennifer Peig! If you’re a Twitter-er, Jenn is on Twitter under @jennpeig.

Our gold-foil process for the fronts of each card is coming along steadily, if a bit slowly- the process involves cutting out shapes from the original raster artwork in photoshop, and converting those shapes into paths in Adobe Illustrator, which will then all be sent to our manufacturer and used to create a metal mold that will stamp the foil onto each card face. You can see an example of the Three of Coins here, mid-process, where I’m lining up the vector shapes with their placement over top the card art.

That’s all the project updates I have for now! I want to apologize for how much time has elapsed between Backer Updates. I know that there have been a few instances of surveys not being correctly sent out, and I’ll make sure to address those ASAP. For now please go to the Survey Recovery Page if this is you (https://chromaticfates.backerkit.com/), which should be able to help re-send survey emails if you’re still having trouble.

The Backerkit Preorder Store is closing down soon and addresses will be locked, but I won’t be having your cards charged until the end of this coming week, Friday, just in case funds have left accounts and need to be re-secured on a paycheck day. 

Our next update will be about THE BOX, The Six of Cups, and more about foil. Thank you again for all your kindness and patience. 

Surveys are Sent!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 17, 2021 at 01:56:30 AM

Happy Friday everyone!! I apologize for the slight delay, I know I wanted to have surveys sent out a few days ago but our Backerkit page is extra locked down now with more precise inventory and everything is good to go! The surveys should be arriving in your inbox soon from Backerkit.

You may have some questions! Here are a few answers.

Q: How long will the preorder store be open for me to buy add-ons?

A: We are dealing with very limited inventory counts, so my estimate is that the stock will only be available for about two weeks. That’s just a guess though! I will update the Backerkit store with a countdown timer when appropriate.

Q: Can I have my card charged ASAP so I don’t lose track of the funds?

A: Yes, this is possible, but for my sanity I’m going to ask that you wait until Monday afternoon to send me that request.

Q: How long do I have to lock in my address for shipping?

A: Much longer! We will be locking in addresses for the Early Bird tier backers first, when we’re ready to start shipping them- hopefully around late October. Then will be the Collector’s Editions and Canvas/Acrylic Print tier backers, and everyone else’s address will be locked around January 1 2022. You will have plenty of notice.

Q: Can I buy decks for wholesale through Backerkit?

A: Unfortunately no, we’re still not doing wholesale ordering. Maybe someday we’ll have a second run of the deck but there won’t be a discount for buying multiple decks this year, and the deck limit is capped at 2 for Backerkit orders.

Q: Are the decks the same quality as the ones in the Kickstarter?

A: Yes. All decks will be the same. This limited stock is considered part of the Kickstarter’s limited-run order, which is why the inventory is restricted. They will look just the same as the Kickstarter-backed decks. We wanted to give everyone who had card or bank problems last month a chance to secure Chromatic Fates.

Q: Will adding things on affect my shipping ETA if I’m an Early Bird backer?

A: Only if those add-ons are for some reason delayed. Currently we are not expecting any delays, but Covid still has a high potential to wreak havoc with shipping. If this happens there will be shipping options available to you and we’ll let you know. There is also a small number of backers who switched from Early Bird to another tier- we’re going to do our best to maintain your first ship date.

Q: Will there be a Local Pickup option if I don’t want to pay shipping?

A: Yes- the city will be Seattle, Washington. More details will be available for this later this year if you’re interested.

Q: If shipping goes up in January will I be charged more if 2022 is my shipping ETA?

A: Nope! I am planning for this and will be covering extraneous shipping with the Kickstarter funds. Hopefully this ”incidental fund” will be minimal.

Q: When is best to have my survey in by?

A: If surveys are completed at your earliest convenience, it’ll make everything run much smoother. Every Kickstarter ends up with some stock that is rendered effectively undeliverable because of AWOL surveys- don’t let this be you! 

Q: I don’t see the survey!

A: Give it until Monday, check your spam folders, then feel free to let us know and we can have them resent.

Q: If I forget about all this will you remind me?

A: Yes! Don’t worry, I will do everything in my power to remind people about surveys as time goes on later this year.

Q: Can you remind me what I’m already getting if I backed the Collector’s or Canvas/Acrylic Print Tier?

A: You will already be getting the: pdf guidebook, altar cloth, enamel pin, 7-count sticker pack, and velvet deck bag. So only add these items in Backerkit if you’d like another!

If your question hasn’t been answered, please feel free to ask. Thank you as ever for supporting our project! Next Friday we’ll be sharing some artist spotlights and hopefully some prototype photos of our enamel pins.

Have a great weekend and see you then!

-Stephanie

Update on Surveys and Add-Ons
almost 3 years ago – Sun, Jul 11, 2021 at 11:30:01 PM

Hi backers! I have great news! My Backerkit project profile has just been submitted for review, and this means several things are on the horizon.

For those of you not familiar with Backerkit, it’s a great little service that enables me to collect shipping costs after the Kickstarter campaign ends, which means the most up-to-date shipping estimates per country that any human being can reasonably achieve. Because the UK and a lot of other European countries just recently (on July 1st) changed their VAT costs and rules, this has been incredibly delicate and tricky to figure out. I apologize for the delay in getting information to our overseas backers! I’ve been pulling my hair out a bit over the learning curve here, but I’m much more knowledgeable now, and owe fruit baskets to several people at White Squirrel, our fulfillment partners who’ll be helping with packages in January, and the Backerkit team for working with me so closely.

Anyway, with all that wrapped up I’m on track to meet the commonly advised milestone of sending surveys out two weeks after a campaign ends (this lets everyone adjust payment sources if they’re having payment info issues, etc), and my current estimate for when those will start showing up in your inboxes is the 14th after Backerkit has given the pre-order store the all-clear.

The preorder store that is going live in a few days is fairly limited in quantity, it’s meant to be a nice way to nab some add-ons that you may have missed out on during the campaign due to things like glitches in the Kickstarter system. You’ll be able to add an altar cloth, pin, sticker pack, the full-color pdf guidebook, and the deck bag. Please keep in mind that if you pledged under the Collector’s Edition or the Canvas/Acrylic tier, you are already going to be getting one of each of these add-on products, so don’t overcharge yourself unless you want doubles for a friend.

I am REALLY excited for this step! I’ve been crunching numbers all night, coming up with shipping profiles for a global marketplace and calculating weights for several items has definitely been a challenge. It’s really cool seeing it all come together, even if it’s a bit intimidating too. 

Aside from the impending preorder store and backer surveys, what can you expect to see from us? 

I’ve gotten a final inventory count and quote sheet from our manufacturer, which means I can do a lot of ACCOUNTING (so fun ;__;), but more importantly get money into the hands of our hard-working artists. Thank you for supporting us, truly, it’s a great boost, and one segment of future updates here will be a much deeper dive into the work that we’re doing and who we all are as people and working artists. Several people have asked about where to find paper art prints- that’ll be part of these updates too.

Before we can send off the order to the manufacturer, our box design and card-front foil designs need to be wrapped up, as well as some color correction so the cards are as readable as possible. The ”little white booklet” needs to be formatted as well- this is the little paper reference guide that’ll come with the decks. So there are a lot of things to do! But hopefully it will all go smoothly, and you can get a series of quick glimpses into the process of producing an indie deck.

That’s about it for now! Thank you for all your support and patience. If you’re curious about specific shipping estimates go ahead and read on from here!

Here are shipping estimates by region. We’re going to be prioritizing keeping weight down as much as we can- as you can see it matters mostly to domestic packages here in the US. Shipping costs have definitely gone up recently, but even if they rise again the costs will remain the same for all backers regardless of whether they’re getting an Early Bird ship date in 2021 or a ship date in early 2022. Almost everyone will fall into the 0-16 oz range here!

Also a note about VAT collection for the UK and the EU: I’m still finalizing some details anout the UK, but we will likely not be including EU VAT amounts in the normal payment. I know this is a pain for a lot of people and I’m sorry, it was a decision made after talking to the much more experienced fulfillment warehouse folks. I can only promise that we’re working on a special thank-you add-on for backing a project in the US during this time.

Thank you everyone! I am planning weekly updates going forward from here. The next one should be less tech-business heavy and have much more art!

Have a lovely weekend!

—Stephanie

Kickstarter Wrap! Thank You for Chromatic Fates!!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 03:13:38 AM

WE DID IT!

Thank you to everyone that supported and backed the Kickstarter for The Chromatic Fates Tarot deck!! We reached an incredible 94k right at the last second of the campaign, it was exhilarating! We couldn't have done this without each and every one of you, and we cannot wait to see our decks make their way into your hands.

What Comes Next?

With the campaign wrapped up, several things are launching into motion! 

• We have manufacturers to correspond with for about four or five products, and you'll be seeing proofs of the add-ons as they come in, as well as the deck itself. 
• We have VAT taxes, foreign and domestic shipping to add to Backerkit, as well as the add-ons that were unlocked in the last day of the campaign and then surveys will be sent out to all backers.
• We've got three Tarot cards that haven't been seen yet AT ALL, which is really exciting and I hope you're going to love them- look forward to Kickstarter-exclusive sketches and glimpses into the processes for these cards: Six of Cups, Two of Wands, and The Empress.
• We've got design work to do! Foil details, the luxury box's gilded cover design, and our Collector's Edition linoleum-printed certificate of authenticity are all behind-the-scenes processes to look forward to seeing.
• We're going to be doing livestreams among several of the Color Tarot Project's artists!
• We're going to spotlight several of the project's artists individually with some Q&A interview questions, sketches and portfolio highlights!

There's a lot yet to be done, but we're pumped and ready to start working, and none of this would be possible without such an amazingly enthusiastic Kickstarter campaign! Thank you wonderful backers!

A quick Q&A addendum- for those who are joining us in the final days, you may be wondering if all deck upgrades (foil, the luxury box upgrade) are included- Yes; all tiers that involve physical decks (everything but the tip-jar tier) will be upgraded. 

The velvety deck bag was a very recent add-on that was unlocked via a stretch goal- if you didn't get a chance to see this option in Kickstarter itself, it will be included in the Backerkit surveys.

We've had some questions about purchasing for wholesale. Unfortunately we won't be selling decks wholesale, it's purely a logistics issue. The decks purchased through Kickstarter are exclusive; some artists may choose to sell their decks afterwards, but Chromatic Fates is going to be exclusive to this campaign! 

Have a great week everyone, good luck beating the heat, and thank you once again,

-Stephanie, and the Color Tarot Project

The Last Week! Altar Cloth, Pet Tarot, and Shipping News
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 09:24:40 PM

Hello wonderful backers! I know it's been a little bit since my last update, but I have a few announcements to share!

First of all, we're honing in on our 80k Stretch Goal, the custom velvet or plush deck bags, which I'm hoping we'll achieve so we can round out the super luxurious package of deck enhancements. The next stretch goal at 90k is the Livestream (or, more likely, a series of Livestreams) amongst the artists. I'm really excited for this because there are just so many incredible artists working on this project, and each piece was tailored as much as possible toward their interests and specialties. We'll be releasing some written interviews and Q&As, but seeing the artists themselves talk and draw and interact with each other will give you more of a glimpse into the really supportive and enthusiastic dynamic among all of us. Plus we'll be able to answer as many of your questions live as possible. 

We have just a few days left of the campaign to go! This month has gone by crazy fast for us. I seriously can't thank you enough for all your questions, excitement and support.

I'm REALLY pumped to be able to share our Altar Cloth design, made by @Gawki (Instagram; @Gawkiart on Twitter), an incredibly generous and creative artist who tackled our Devil card in the Major Arcana. The colors are subject to change so this isn't 100% what you'll be receiving, but the design is SOLID. It really captured the bold and expressive but entirely organic aesthetic that we've been able to play off of in our deck.

Our Altar Cloth will be screenprinted by a local (to gawki) print shop, which is a hugely valuable resource to have because we're already confident in their quality control. 

I want to thank everyone that's shown interest in our stretch goals and asked in-depth questions, it's really rewarding to us to be able to work on these things in real time and know that so many people are fascinated in the process and the design side of things. Our finalized enamel pin should be out soon to see too! I CAN tell you that we're going to use soft enamel and "rainbow metal", a really pretty oil-slick type of patina that will give us a colorful, dreamy gradient and make each pin a little unique. Some of the design iterations are updated on the Kickstarter's story already! 

We've been getting some feedback that Kickstarter is a bit glitchy when it comes to adding the add-ons to some pledges. We're still looking into this, and I'm so sorry that this is so frustrating. I just want to assure anyone that's experiencing this problem that you'll definitely have an opportunity to get the add-ons that you want. We're using BackerKit for reward surveys so the same add-on options will be available to you there as well when the campaign ends, if we can't get it resolved within Kickstarter this week.

A quick note about shipping estimates! I have posted a handful of them to the Campaign's main page and will update that again soon. July 1st marks a change in a lot of countries' VAT tax amounts. If this affects you and you have a preference for paying for VAT ahead of time vs on your own when your package arrives in your country, drop us a comment and let us know! Base shipping for most non-USA countries looks to be between 23 and 28 USD (what it'll cost for me to ship out), with New Zealand and Australia being on the higher end of that spectrum. Sticker shock sucks, so just be aware. 

Okay! The best for last! I just wanted to share an example that one of our artists made for our somewhat silly but increasingly ride-or-die 100k stretch goal: the Color Tarot Project's Pet And/Or Plant Parody Series. 

Jon photographed his lovely and introspective companion, Grover, in the style of his 8 of Cups card. Grover is a good sport.

(Here's the original card by Jon Neimeister for context)

Thank you all, and I hope you have a great rest-of-this-week! 

-Stephanie