Off to a great start!
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 04:53:09 AM
Hello everyone! thank you so so much for joining me in another Kickstarter for my pride related pins! So far we have been off to an amazing start with three pins already funded and £90 away from unlocking our fourth pin in less than 24 hours!! Honestly i have been so blown away with support it means the world to me! I have had a few questions though so i want to write some answers here to help out anyone who asked!
1) Why the subtle pins?
I designed the original subtle pin kickstarter ( the sakura flowers) after talking to many friends and family members who spoke about wanting a pin, sticker, badge ETC that was pride related without it being 'the pride flag' they wanted something subtle that they could add to their work lanyard or school blazer without having to deal with the public being ' mean' or 'horrible' to them. Something where THEY knew what it was and they could still feel part of their community without it being ' obvious' and so the sakura subtle pride pins was born.
Over the last two years i have received so many heart warming and kind emails from people who bought my pins saying they were able to feel ' included' in their community without fear of being 'bullied' by public. And some from people who felt they were able to display their colours without worry of backlash. I wanted to do more to help more people feel this way and so i created the second round of subtle pins, this collection.
2) what was the design process, how did you come up with the colour schemes and what order?
In all honesty i tried my best to work close with the official recognised flags for certain communities / identities, sexual orientation but for some of the flags i had to limit colours due to the flag having too many colours, or even add colours due to the flag not having enough colours, When i worked on these i actually approached small groups of people who identified in that community for help in creating the colour ways as i wanted to make sure the pins were well represented and recognised to that group and also not invalidate anyone. The only pin i had huge difficulty with was the Aromantic and the Agender flags as they are simular in colour and so i did a small research group with people from both communities to try and get something that would represent them and in the end we came up with a pin that worked well for both.
3) why is the Aromantic and the Agender pin labels the same?
Continuing on from the question above i wanted to talk about how we came to the same pin design to represent two communities, Please note i did NOT do this because i ' thought they were the same' or ' because i wanted to invalidate them' 'or make them feel less' When i struggled with the colour way for this pin due to how many colours was in the flag and how the pin itself is designed I reached out to several people who identified as either agender or aromantic and asked for help, i originally started with two pins that were very simular in design and people felt this was overwhelming and 'too samey' considering the message was ' subtle pride pins' I then drew up one design, the design that is shown on the campaign and shared it to all the people i did not specify which group the pin was for, i just wanted honest and raw feed back. Here are some of the response i got.
' Seeing as it is a subtle pride pin the fact you used three greens, makes it flow nicely into a 'scenic' style pin, as someone in the agender community, whose flag only has one green, i really love this pin, i feel like not only does it have my flags colours but it also gives me a sense of freedom as the pin reminds me of cute mountains, i love it! this pin would be perfect for both Aromantic and Agender people!'
'Aro person here! that extra green ties the pin together beautifully, it really helps the pin look like just a 'normal pin' i feel like i could easily wear this pin without fear! its beautiful! thank you for representing both myself as a aro person and the agender community, we are often overlooked'
'That colour is perfect!! thank you so so so much for asking me to help with chosing the colours for this pin set! i hope everyone loves it as much as I do! thank you for including us Agender people! we are often forgot about'
I understand that some people would like separate pins for these communities and it did originally start that way and i honestly mean no offence by combining them together, i only did so after the positive influence from people in the community who helped create the colour way. I hope you can still support it.
4) Will you add more designs?
100% yes! if we unlock 5 i will release some new deisgns! if we unlock all 10 the new designs will be added! I will keep adding more and more and more until the campaign is over!! So if there are any you want me to add feel free to reply here or drop me a message and i am sure we can work on something !!!
Billa x