Sketchmarks are (almost) headed your way!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jul 09, 2020 at 01:18:29 PM

Backers, 

We just received confirmation that the Sketchmarks have made it through customs and will be arriving to us on Monday! This means all orders will be going out next week!

A few quick notes:

1. This is your last chance to change your address. If you need to do so, please send us a message as soon as possible so we can be sure to fix your address.

2. All pre-orders and add-ons will be charged at 9am PT tomorrow. If you added to your order, you will see this charge processed through backerkit.

3. If you have not filled out your survey, please do so now so there is no delay in getting your reward.

We will begin printing shipping labels this Saturday, so we will be unable to change any addresses after Saturday. We know we have mentioned several deadlines for addresses in the past, but this will be the final one.

We expect all domestic orders to ship out no later than Wednesday, with international orders shipped out by the end of the week. 

Keep an eye out for a tracking email from Backerkit over the next week!

Thank you all again for supporting this project! We are so excited to finally have the finish line in sight and can't wait to get your Sketchmarks to you!

As always, please reach out with any questions you have.

Production Complete and Shipping Update!
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Jun 18, 2020 at 03:47:41 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Surveys are out and production is moving along smoothly!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 01:58:00 AM

Backers,

By now all survey emails should have been delivered to backers with over 85% of them already completed! Thank you all for quickly responding to the surveys to make it much easier for us to organize them for fulfillment. If you haven't filled yours out yet, please follow the link in your BackerKit email to fill out your survey. If you can't seem to find yours, you can use the link below to recover your survey using the same email you use for Kickstarter.

Survey Recovery Page: https://sketchmark3.backerkit.com/

Production Update

We are happy to announce that the Sketchmark manufacturing phase has finished and we have approved our quality control report! Next, all cards that failed the quality control testing will be replaced before sending the cards to our packaging partner. Here, they will be individually packaged before going through a second quality control test. Once this is approved they will be shipped directly to us to begin fulfilling individual orders!

This puts us on pace for the same trajectory mentioned in our last update with fulfillment happening between late June and July!

Check out a few photos from our recent quality control report below:

THE FOLLOWING IMAGES SHOW DEFECTS WE LOOKED FOR AND FOUND DURING THE QUALITY CONTROL TESTING

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That's all for now! Thank you to everyone for filling out your surveys so quickly. If you can't seem to locate your survey, please send us a direct message and we can help out.

2 week post-campaign update!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, May 09, 2020 at 01:45:02 AM

Hello Backers!

We hope all of you around the world have stayed safe the last 2 weeks! To summarize this update for those who do not want to read it all:

•  1. Your survey email will come from BackerKit by next week 
•  2. Production is still ahead of schedule and on pace for a July fulfillment date
•  3. New simplified packaging design (with photos!) 

Keep reading for the full update!

.....

Backers,

We are happy to announce Kickstarter's 2-week collection period has officially ended. If you are one of the few backers who were unable to fix a credit card problem through Kickstarter you will still have a chance to update your payment through BackerKit.

Surveys

Speaking of BackerKit, as many of you are aware the next step is surveys! We have finalized our surveys, add-ons, pre-order store, and everything else in BackerKit to ensure a smooth fulfillment period. We are currently waiting for approval from BackerKit to send the first surveys. Once that comes, we will begin sending surveys with a "smoke test." The smoke test sends out a few surveys and as they are filled out both us and BackerKit make sure there are no major issues. Once this is finished, we will send out the rest of the surveys. 

All backers can expect to receive their survey by next Tuesday, May 12th at the latest. Please keep an eye out for your survey email from BackerKit.

We have listed the survey closing date as May 31st. This gives us plenty of time to organize and prepare shipping labels in batches well before we receive the products from our manufacturer. Please prepare for a delivery window anytime between July and August when filling out your shipping address. If you plan to move around this time period, send us a message and we will keep you on a separate list of backers to reach out to and confirm your address right before shipping. While May 31st is our survey deadline, we will not lock addresses until a few weeks later.

In summary:

• May 12th - All surveys sent 
• May 31st - Survey deadline
• June 15th (estimate) - Lock addresses (reminder email sent)
• July (estimate) - Shipping

BackerKit Add-Ons

As with our previous campaigns, you will have the option to add more Sketchmarks to your order through BackerKit. If you pledged extra during the campaign, your survey will list "additional funds" that can be used towards add-ons. If you did not pledge extra, you still have the option to purchase add-ons through BackerKit. There are no additional shipping charges for add-ons. Therefore, this is the best time to purchase additional Sketchmarks if you want them, especially for international backers.

Packaging Design Update

To share a quick production update, we received the final packaging samples from our manufacturer! For those of you who have purchased a Sketchmark before, you will notice a different packaging design than before. Here are a few major benefits of the new packaging design:

1. The new design is 50% smaller than our previous design. Not only does this lower our manufacturing costs and waste, it also helps with shipping and fulfillment. This is extremely helpful with rising transportation costs due to the global situation.

2. The new design utilizes the same dieline for all 3 versions. Only having to change the artwork for each version rather than the full packaging design helps us improve quality control, eliminate waste, and improve packaging efficiency.

3. The new packaging is much easier to open. By switching away from a fully sealed and glued design, you no longer need to rip open or cut the packaging to get to your Sketchmark. 

Check out a few sample photos of the new packaging below!

That's all for now! Be on the lookout for your survey email. As always, please send us a message with any questions or comments you may have!

We did it!
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 09:29:45 AM

Backers,

Thank you so much for helping bring Sketchmark 3 to life! We are once again blown away by the support from our backers around the world! With your help, Sketchmark 3 became the biggest Sketchmark Kickstarter campaign yet!

Our final numbers:

• Backers: 876
• Total Raised: $18,585
• Percentage of Goal: 929%
• US Backers: 521
• International Backers: 355

 Production Update

As mentioned in our previous update, we were able to get a jump on our production thanks to the early support we received. This week we received the "pre-production samples" from our manufacturer. These samples are the final samples created by our manufacturer to confirm all specs, details, quality, etc. before they begin mass production. Below are a few photos of these samples:

After confirming the quality we went ahead and approved the samples for final production helping us speed up our estimated delivery timeline!

Under normal circumstances, we would easily be able to confirm backer orders would ship by late June or early July (much earlier than our estimated August delivery date.) However, while our manufacturing is going smoothly so far there is still uncertainty about global shipping logistics and timelines. Because of this, we will not know the final shipping timeline until we are closer to shipping our products from our manufacturer to us.

For now, we can say we are very happy with the early production timeline, hopeful we can fulfill orders much earlier than expected, and will keep you informed of the timeline as we move forward (even more so than we normally would due to the current global situation.) 

What's next?

Unfortunately, the next step is one of the slowest steps of a campaign. For the next 14 days Kickstarter will be collecting funds from backers. You most likely already received a payment confirmation email, however Kickstarter has a 14 day window before notifying us of our final backer list and funding. Because of this, we will not send out surveys until this process is finished and our backer report is shared with us.

We will share a new update in about 2 weeks regarding surveys that will be sent through Backerkit. This is where you will fill out your address and use extra funds towards add-ons or purchase any other add-ons you may want. 

As always, do not hesitate to send us a message with any questions you may have! If we have any new updates on production or timelines we will share them before our upcoming survey update. We also expect to receive our final packaging samples in the next week and will share those as well!

Once again, THANK YOU ALL!