Tag Archives: Kickstarter

Because Yinz Asked – “Wear You Live” Adds Pittsburgh Maps

Last week I saw the the Kickstarter project for Wear You Live – prints made with figureground maps of different US cities.  We have been blogging about lots of map related things over on BlogLocal and I have been on the hunt for anything map related.

The maps that we use are called figuregrounds. This type of map is commonly used in the fields of city planning, design and architecture to study density and development patterns by depicting all of the buildings in a city as opposed to the streets, parcels or transit lines. Figureground mapping is almost 250 years old and was the first time a city was technically surveyed and portrayed in the 2D, google map view that we commonly use today.

As soon as I saw these t-shirts, totes, pillows and prints – I thought why not Pittsburgh.  I wanted to see how the rivers and the parks of Pittsburgh would show up on a figureground map.  So I emailed Matt, the brains behind the Wear You Live project.  Matt kindly replied to say he would see what he could do.  They were happy that the project had been so successful.  Well, it turns out I wasn’t the only one asking about Pittsburgh.  Matt emailed me on Friday to say that Pittsburgh was on the way.  From his email:

ps, its amazing how many people from PGH have contacted us about adding their city.

Because you asked!

So a few hours ago – CityFabric added Pittsburgh to the Wear You Live series!  Check out the shout out for Pittsburgh from their map.

It all started with a t-shirt…

While these shirts aren’t printed in Pittsburgh,  I am happy to support this project. Before IheartPGH was a blog, it was a t-shirt – I <3 PGH was the first t-shirt that I learned to screenprint.  After a trip to the Warhol museum on a rainy sunday afternoon, I decided I wanted to screenprint.  The rest is history and tshirts have been an ongoing theme of this blog.  I first met Dan from Commonwealth Press because he had posted a flyer about t-shirt printing and congrats to Dan who has expanded to an even bigger facility since we last wrote about their shop in 2010 . I went on to work for Spreadshirt.com writing their blog about t-shirt printing for 3 years.  And it was an article about t-shirt and rust belt cities that landed IheartPGH a mention in the New York Times.  The article also profiled STLstyle – a St. Louis t-shirt shop and community cheerleader that has become a good friend of IheartPGH.  So local t-shirts have history of bringing people together.

Where to Get Wear You Live Pittsburgh Gear

You can now get the Pittsburgh figureground map on a t-shirt, tote, pillow, print or canvass for your wall from the Kickstarter project here.  Here are some the items you can get, more are listed on the Kickstarter pager.

  • $25 = T-shirt or Tote
  • $40 = Unframed Print
  • $45 = 2 Totes or Tees
  • $61 = Print + Tote or Tee
  • $80 = 18″X18″ pillow
  • $100 = 5 Totes or Tees
  • $100 = 3 prints
  • $101 = Pillow + Tote or Tee
  • $115 = Pillow + Print
  • $4900 = Matt will get a Tattoo of Raleigh, NC on his arm

Each item comes with a “pin your place” button so you can mark exactly where you live in Pittsburgh.

Kickstart Something in Pgh & Vote For Your Favorite Project

Kickstarter.com is a website where people can croudsource funding for all sorts of projects – from books, movies, festivals and cool new products.  Project managers post a project – usually with a video and a bunch of pledge gifts – based on how much you give you also receive something in return – usually related to the project.  We have blogged about Kickstarter projects before – Fleeting Pages – the pop-up bookshop that took over the old Borders space just sent us a beautiful tote bag as a thank you gift for supporting their project.

There are a bunch of great Pittsburgh Kickstarter projects open right now – here are 3 we think are pretty great.  We hope you will take a second to look over some of these and consider making a contribution.  We also want you to vote for which project we should contribute $50. Take a look at the Kickstarter pages for each project and then cast your vote at the bottom.

Dream Big Pittsburgh – This is a project that will support kids who are participating in the Pittsburgh Summer Dreamers Academy at Faison Elementary participate in the InsideOut project.

The Steel City Games Fest: 24 new games over 24 hours – this is the 2nd Annual Steel City Games Fest, a project that is organized by Obscure Games Pittsburgh.

Pyrotopia: Festival of Fire Arts in Pittsburgh, PA – Oct 7-8 – festival of Fire to held in Braddock, PA.

Vote for your favorite project!
Voting will be open until 5pm, Wednesday, August 3, 2011
[polldaddy poll=5334831]

Save the Seeds! Last Call to Support the Heritage Seed Co. Kickstarter Project

Blackberry Meadows Farm, an an organic farm in Natrona Heights, is working on a project to preserve endangered foods.  Endangered foods? Yes, according to Slow Food USA there are nearly 200 foods in danger of extinction – check out the whole list here.

In response Jen Montgomery and Greg Boulos from Blackberry Meadows Farm and organic farmer Paul Fireman have created the Heritage Seed Co.  The Heritage Seed Company project on Kickstarter is just $600 away from their $10,000 goal.

Check out the video here:

And support the Kickstarter project here:

Thanks to OnlyInPgh for the heads up on this project.

Bringing Life Back to the East Liberty Borders

I have been excited about this ideas since we first got an email about it last month.  Fleeting Pages is a project to turn the East Liberty Borders – which closed for business a few weeks ago into a pop-up independent book store.  With the help of a lot of different groups – Fleeting Pages will be open for a month.

Fleeting Pages is also putting Pittsburgh on the map – the idea has been covered on national blogs too – GalleyCat and The Consumerist.

You can help get the ball rolling on this project by supporting the Fleeting Pages Kickstarter Project here. They are also still accepting submissions of books and workshop ideas too. You can get all of the details at FleetingPages.com.

Support a Pittsburgh Filmmaker, Madagascar and check out Kickstarter

I am really excited to learn about this project that Pittsburgh filmmaker Ben Hernstrom is working on about Madagascar.  Ben has worked on some great films about Pittsburgh.  You can learn more at Ambulantic.com and check out some of his other work on youtube.  Check out the interview with Bike PGH’s Scott Bricker and his feature on Modey Lemon.

Ben has just set up a page for a film about Madagascar on this great site Kickstarter – I had hoped that someone would create a site like Kickstarter and I think it is agreat way to build community support for projects.  I did a search for Pittsburgh on Kickstarter and couldn’t find any projects yet – so please let me know if you add a Pittsburgh project to thier site.  I had fun browsing the site and found some interesting projects to support.  I think that Kickstarter works like the website ThePoint – if the project doesn’t meet the fundraising goal then the supporters cards aren’t charged for the donation.  It is a nice way to give money to projects that have a broad base of support.

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