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Baby Bestiary 2023 Calendar

Created by Baby Bestiary

Another amazing year

Latest Updates from Our Project:

2024 Calendar Launch
about 1 year ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2023 at 10:25:21 PM

Hey Everyone!!
Just wanted to let you all know that the time has come for the 2024 calendar to begin!!

You can view and support the 2024 Calendar here!

Next year's calendar will be illustrated by none other than Nala J. Wu, who has decided to go with an adorable wood-block style art.

Here are a few of the pieces for you to enjoy!



This year, we're not going to do offshore printing (that provided way to many unknowns), as well as the turnaround was over a month, which was a timeline we just didnt have time for.
So for this project, we're going back to basics and what worked with us in the past.
Using a local printer for the calendars (10 day turnaround to get calendars in-warehouse), and another partner to create the stickers and magnets (and other paper goods).

I did send emails to backers who received their calendars late, but it seems like that still missed a few people (based on a few recent comments.) You can use the following links for special backer tiers that will not be available at the above link.
(please use as you feel appropriate)
These are all for the 1x Print and PDF of the calendar

If you received the calendar really really really late let me know and ill send you your link.
If you want to get more than one calendar, we'll have to wait till the campaign is over where i can set up the addon as specific prices.

I hope this can start to make good on the rough last year that we've have, I hope to see you along the journey with us for next year!

Thank you again,
Andreas

(and im sure theres going to be at least one person whos still not going to be fully resolved, and we'll just handle that per your situation, if thats you just send me a email at [email protected] and we'll ),


Making up for a bad year
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 10, 2023 at 01:13:48 AM

Hey backers,
Upon posting the last update a number of you weighed in that you have not received your rewards for one reason or another. With that notice, I began looking into it and locking down orders, confirming addresses, and having those pushed through to the warehouse. In total, there were about 87 of you affected in total (including the black apron backers). Now incomplete or unshipped pledges aren't necessarily something new about a campaign, there are always a handful of backers that are held up for one reason or another. Though what makes this sting a bit more was the time-sensitive nature of calendars and coffee, and it being practically impossible for backers to reach me through the project and having to resort via communications in other platforms.

Retrospectively, with this year's (2023) calendar, I tried a whole bunch of things:
  • a new platform (which pushed back our launch date, and cause a headache of communication problems that wouldn't have happened in another platform, i get no notification on comments or discussions aside from ones i directly create, nor am i able to respond to nested comments)
  • A coffee collaboration (which worked out ok, if everything else didn't get pushed back)
  • Gold foil (which didnt work out due to the plant not understanding gold foil printing vs gold ink and that mistake happening amidst the rush of just trying to get them asap.)
  • Art prints (art prints themselves worked out ok, the gold foil made it a little complicated, in regards to timing and packaging, but the originals I feel like might be better done with a different system.)
Overseas production (on its face a good thing logistically, however only really possible with more time, and sadly enough this project had everything but time)

That said, at this point, everyone remaining should have an order import notice from Metal Weave Games, and if not by the latest tomorrow, with tracking to come with it as well (at least what the warehouse is telling me)

Now, I know getting a calendar almost 6 months later feels pretty shitty, and I frankly agree with that. If we're continuing to leverage Backerkit as a platform (at least as an experimental one), we can look to launching the 2024 calendar in this space as well. The one thing that Backerkit does offer is special/hidden pledge levels. To help make up for this rocky project finish, I'm going to offer all impacted backers special tiers for 2024, reducing the price of the Calendar (and any subsequent calendars), based on when you received your rewards, with the base calendar price moving to $20, the special tier for everyone in this project will be as follows:
  • Jan/Feb -25% ($15)
  • March/April -50% ($10)
  • May+ 80% ($4)

This feels like the best I can offer, without going into a rabbit hole of trying to give away free digital downloads , store discounts or something else, especially as the scale of those affected varies and the things people want vary greatly as well.  I can only do better by continuing to do manage better next time, and this might not be good enough for some of you, I understand that. 

Anyways,  I do try and check comments a few days after posting, but until Backerkit implements a notification feature, if I don’t respond to your comment,  the best way to probably get a hold of me is via email, [email protected].
Andreas

[Black Apron Backers] Well this is unfortunate and awkward
over 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 08:59:12 PM

Well... this is unfortunate and awkward. 
This update is really only for the Black Apron backers, but since i dont really have any other means of reaching out to them in a concerted method without addressing the comments in the project, this is about the best way I can adress it. 

It was just brought to my attention that our highest tier backers, Black Apron, errored on their order import, and as a result none of you have your rewards (aside from the originals which were shipped recently). Furthermore, as a result of Backerkit Crowdfunding being in its infancy, there is no mechanism for creators to get notified of comments in their projects (feedback that I've escalated). I only come aware of this recently when a backer reached out via email to inquire about the rest of their rewards. 

Nevertheless, its shameful and your rewards are far past due and for that I sincerely apologize. Though, I can imagine that does little to soothe your frustrations with how much you spent, to which I totally understand.

Since there are only 11 of you, I will be reaching out to you individually to determine the next course of action to right this wrong. 

For those who do have your calendars and you read this whole update, I do hope you're enjoying them. 

I hope you are all having a good year so far,
Andreas

edit: There appears to be a few others who have not recieved their rewards (from address locks to survey), working through those as well.  

Gold Foil Prints Shipping
over 1 year ago – Sat, Mar 04, 2023 at 10:42:27 PM

Just a quick update, 
The gold foil art prints have finally arrived at the warehouse (and they are all beautifully shiny gold printed) and they will be promptly shipped next week (or have already been shipped Friday).  Sorry they took longer to get produced than expected, CatPrint kept coming back with resolution images, and then I had to wait for the proofs to arrive. 

For the Black Apron fans, look for an email from me about getting everyhting finally sent out. 

And for those who are curious, I do have extra bags of coffee, as well as art prints for those who are curious (I should be able to get those up on our website with a good discount for you all next week (once I have the final remaining print counts). 
Andreas

Shipping update + Problems with Gold
almost 2 years ago – Sun, Jan 01, 2023 at 01:47:34 PM


Hey backers!
I hope you all had a happy new years day celebration. Theres been crazy rain and flooding here in California, and I hope everyone is staying warm and dry for the end of the holiday season.

Shipping update,
I'm going to get an update on Monday/Tuesday when they'll actually arrive, but the calendars have shipped and are en-route to our warehouse. Im hoping that they arrive this week for the warehouse to start fulfillment. The warehouse already has everything else (owlbears, magnets, coffee, and mailers) so once in, they should be getting things out pretty quickly.

Problems with Gold
So this is gonna likely be a bit long. Simply put, I was aiming to get shiny gold-ink placed on all art main pages of the calendar as we had initially hoped to get with our stretch goal. I went through the process with proofs and so forth, and even opted to go with a printer that could deliver it to us. But when I got my advanced copy Thursday night, yes there was a separate gold ink layer on the art pages, but they were not reflective...
Now don't get me wrong, the calendars look great, and they're gonna work great, but it wasn't the gold foil that I was really pushing for. So on Friday, I talked with the printer (and they pushed us towards using that gold ink, and missed the fact that we were looking for reflective gold ink.) Problem is, the calendars are already on a plane over to our warehouse. So there is no way they easily rectify the problem without having to ship the calendars back or make new ones.
Unfortunately, there was no way I was able to catch the issue beforehand. Because we are running so tight in our timelines (could even say overdue), I asked them to ship both the advanced copy and the full inventory of calendars asap (at the same time).
Nevertheless, its been quite frustrating to get everything together. That said, 

TLDR: There is a layer of gold ink on the calendars, but its not reflective as I was aiming to have done. the Calendars still look great tho. So the only things that are getting reflective gold is the Art Prints since they're being produced by CatPrint, which is where we got our initial gold prints from. (CatBat originals wont have gold ink since they are the coffee-stain originals).

Charging Cards:
Your orders are currently locked down, but I still need to charge them, I was planning on doing so this wednesday/thursday. If that will be a problem or if you need your address updated please reach out to me asap.
Also if the above news is distressing and you want to get a refund, I will happily oblige, just reach out to me, [email protected].

GoldFoil Originals
Working my way down the list in order, we're only about a quarter through the list, if you're one of these backers feel free to look for an email called "CatBat Original" from [email protected], and we'll be having those originals shipped out shortly.
 
Thank you
Thank you so much for your support, its been an honor to create another amazing year of calendars, and albeight we wanted to try something new, we learned a lot about this experience of sourcing and timing for getting something like this (a entierly gold-foil/inked calendar printed and the time it would take to produce one) for future projects (even if we dont do that on our next calendar.)
In retrospect, it seems like we'll need to be crowdfunding our calendars earlier in the year (with using backerkit we were pushed back a little bit which may have given us more time that we needed),  but even launching as early as August/September would give us a much better lead time to ensuring everyhting is produced and out before the holiday season.

Thanks again, and I cant wait for everyone to get their calendars and coffee. 
Andreas

(below are some pictures of the advanced copy I received).