Kickstarter for Design Museum Magazine launches February 11

Pledge early, before the campaign begins, to ensure we have a successful Day 1.

If there’s one universal fact about creativity — it’s that it requires inspiration. While it’s true that inspiration can come from anywhere, we live in a world where we’re bombarded by information and noise, we’re always onto the next task and we never get enough sleep — inspiration is having a tough time breaking through.

We launched Design Museum Magazine in Boston and Portland almost four years ago to be design inspiration you can hold in your hand — away from the digital noise — delivered right to your door every season. Through 14 issues (so far) we’ve featured amazing stories of design making change and change impacting design. From a mother starting up a new kind of school to a group of students designing villages for the house-less community. From prosthetics to playground design and more, our goal is simple, to delight and inspire our readers with unique stories of design impact.

I always tell my team: everything we do at the Design Museum is a prototype for what we do next. Design Museum Magazine is a successful prototype, and it’s time for the next step. And for that, we need your help.

On February 11 we are opening a Kickstarter campaign to raise $30,000 in 30 days to help us evolve this publication, launch Design Museum Magazine nationwide, and elevate a new online platform for design impact thought leadership. Our vision is to dramatically improve the print quality to an artifact-level publication: you’re going to like the way it feels in your hand, sits on your coffee table, and you’ll cherish each issue. We envision adding more content, including themed issues with guest editors, more interviews and profiles of designers working across the creative spectrum, design news, more original photography and illustration, design reviews, process advice, exercises to stretch your design mind, a holiday gift guide, and more. Plus we plan to add digital access on all devices.

The vision for Design Museum Magazine online goes beyond the print issues. We envision creating the premier online source for design impact content — think Huffington Post, Slate, or Harvard Business Review, but for design. We have a head start as we plan to digitize the over 50 thought leadership pieces we’ve generated over the last 4 years, and we’re planning to support user generated content so everyone can share their ideas and insights.

The campaign officially launches on February 11, but you can pledge now to ensure we have a big Day 1. If we raise $9,000 on the first day, Kickstarter will feature our project, allowing it to be seen by more potential supporters. We have all kinds of great benefits available for supporters:

• You’ll be supporting our mission to bring the transformative power of design everywhere — if our Kickstarter campaign is successful, our distribution and reach will be expanded.
• You’ll get Design Museum Magazine! And if you already receive Design Museum Magazine, you can always gift your additional subscription to a friend or family member.
• You’ll benefit from all the improvements we have planned for Design Museum Magazine: better print quality, more content, and digital access on all your devices.
• You’ll help us launch a digital platform for design impact thought leadership.
• You’ll receive a bunch of other great backer gifts through the campaign including posters, tote bags, books, t-shirts, and more.

Pledge now to support the campaign on day 1. After you pledge be sure to share the news with everyone you know — we need the whole community engaged to support Design Museum Magazine.

Many thanks,

— Sam Aquillano, Executive Director, Design Museum Foundation