Permaculture Playing Cards Kickstarter

It's all about infecting brains. How do you get somebody that has never heard of permaculture to begin to understand? A deck of cards is small. And each card has an image and just a touch of text. The idea is that if we can get a person to take 30 seconds to look through some of the cards, we might be able to get them to look at more. At the same time, it is during the winter holidays that it is the perfect excuse to give a bunch of people a gift.




The kickstarter is complete, and the cards are now available at amazon:



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00GOIXT3M/rs12-20





the kickstarter page.



In 2011 I made a podcast where I suggested the idea of permaculture playing cards. A thread started and people said they were going to make it a real thing. When that didn't go anywhere, I tried to shake a few trees to see if people would make this cool thing happen. A lot of people liked the idea, but nothing came of it. In May of 2012 Alexander Ojeda and I got to work.

We spent hours arguing over each card. We spent hours arguing over the whole deck and what stuff made the cut and what stuff didn't. Weeks and months passed and we had a dozen cards done. More months and we had a system of "done", "in progress" or "need to figure out how to start." On and on and on. Now it seems really weird. We're finally done. The amount of work that went into this was about twenty times greater than I originally thought it would be. But, wow - they turned out far better than I thought possible.



It is now time to do the kickstarter. My stomach is turning in knots with the idea of "what if people don't like it as much as we do? Will enough people buy them? Is it possible that all this work will be wasted?"







Thanks to Barthelemy Glumineau from studiomelies.com for putting together this snazzy video!

Artwork by Alexander Ojeda of alexanderandblack.com

Early bird! Looking to infect me some brains during the winter holiday season. one deck for me, one for the mantle and the rest to give as gifts. Hope this work out because you just made my holiday shopping complete.

Wow! Those look beautiful! I would like to buy some.

Don't get too sick with worry! I think these are lovely. Just pledged for 2 decks! Can't wait to have a party where we play using these beauties! Nicely done sir!

The poster of all the cards rocks! I've got to have it!

me too, in fact I 'd like 2 maybe three sets, keep me in the loop as to when these are ready to ship

Karl

They are wonderful...can't wait to get some to gift a few folks..

I made a shortcut to this thread:



permies.com/cards

This is so cool. Will buy a few for sure.

I'm in the game. Put money on the table. Deal me in

The content and art work is amazing! We're looking forward to passing out these perfect presents!

These are so beautiful! It makes me want to go out and get a credit card just to buy some! Just onesmall thing...isn't the plural of fungus fungi not funguses? Or is funguses an American spelling? (I'm from NZ)

Sue Rine wrote:These are so beautiful! It makes me want to go out and get a credit card just to buy some! Just onesmall thing...isn't the plural of fungus fungi not funguses? Or is funguses an American spelling? (I'm from NZ)

You are correct - fungi is plural of fungus.
The vernacular plural for fungus is funguses, but I'm not sure of the spelling. The plural of fish is fish, but I know a lot who say fishes.

Do you mean to say that there isn't a Paul Wheaton "Emperor" card in place of the joker? LOL

I'm in! I hope this gets fully funded, because I REALLY want a deck of those cards! Plus, a deck would also be a perfect gift for the person I drew in our 2013 Family Gift Exchange.

Julie

They are stunning...looking forward to gifting a few myself.

Jim LaFrom wrote:Do you mean to say that there isn't a Paul Wheaton "Emperor" card in place of the joker? LOL

You mean 'Duke', right?! lol!

ronie dee wrote:

Sue Rine wrote:These are so beautiful! It makes me want to go out and get a credit card just to buy some! Just onesmall thing...isn't the plural of fungus fungi not funguses? Or is funguses an American spelling? (I'm from NZ)

You are correct - fungi is plural of fungus.
The vernacular plural for fungus is funguses, but I'm not sure of the spelling. The plural of fish is fish, but I know a lot who say fishes.

Yes! 'Fishes' means more than one kind, or species, of fish. (Even in the Oxford Unabridged dictionary.)

The purpose of language is to make clarity in communication possible, at least in theory (I sometimes joke
that otherwise we could all just grunt. lol!).

Like permaculture, it's a lifelong adventure, to learn the fine points of our language and dicover the
tmeanings of words; tools that can help us to communicate clearly, to understand and to be understood.
The consistent use of words brings clarity which can help to avoid misunderstandings.

Folks here on Paul Wheaton's forums use the word 'hugelkultur', for example, to mean something very
specific. However, if we don't continue to use that term consistently, and explain to others what that word
means, it can lose it's meaning (any old jumble of branches? any raised bed? or something else?), creating
confusion instead of clarity.

Just a few thoughts from someone raised by a wild pack of educators...
<slightly embarassed grin>

These are BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL!
Masterfully done, bravo!

There is no doubt that these will fullfill the goal for which they were created.
Thank you for creating such a useful tool for helping each of us to spread
the word; 'permaculture' that is!

The cards are beautiful!
The video is also fun. My favorite part was when the "blah, blah, blah" came out of the Paul-Head and swirled all around the phone!

Thank you for that clarification. I guess The Three Dog Night was correct singing, "Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea...."

wow these cards are epic beautiful - what a wonderful concept for a learning and teaching tool

i also collaboratively make permaculture design cards
uniquely different from your project but perhaps an interesting compliment
the card deck available as free open source printable files
or beautifully printed and produced from an on demand printer
http://www.gaiacraft.com/permaculture-principles-deck/

we will have a 22 card booster deck available later this year

thanks for being an inspiration
and creating something wonderfully functional and beautiful
for the World Permaculture Community

delvin
www.villagerepair.org
www.gaiacraft.com

Great remix of the classic playing cards. Love the art and how they provide useful facts that can help people be more self sufficient. I hope to pledge for a deck when I get a chance. ^.^

OMG Paul! These cards are so beautiful.

I am new to kickstarter and looked but could not find it. How do I get multiple bricks?

Tomas More wrote:I am new to kickstarter and looked but could not find it. How do I get multiple bricks?

Kickstarter frowns on quantity stuff in general. I think I'm getting away with a "brick" because it is something of a norm on kickstarter for cards.

You are the third person today to ask about larger quantities. So we are talking about printing more when the time comes.

Tomas More wrote:I am new to kickstarter and looked but could not find it. How do I get multiple bricks?

I'm starting a list of the folks that want multiple bricks. How many do you want?

Now I know of a lot of people that will receive permaculture decks of cards at Christmas!

This is so awesome. Permaculture's singular flaw has always been poor merchandising.

I'm in for a brick

Hi, Paul

Here is Pablo, from Bariloche, Argentina, Patagonia

Congratulations, it´s an excelent idea to spread the principles of the movement every where, and better to generate an approach than many videos or articles that can hardly be read or see.

You can try also another platform I love for the kind of projects you can find there: www.indiegogo.com

I take part in the permacultural movement by editing books; former journalist, now involved in communication fields, I began 8 years ago helping a disciple of John Jeavons to write and publish a book of his experience, "Huerta Orgánica Biointensiva". It followed it the Rowe Morrow "User´s of the Earth Guide" in spanish, and recently two books of Gernot Minke: the mud building handbook (sorry, I dont know the english name) and a little one about mud plaster.

Just thinking about, what if we do it in spanish? It wouldn´t be soon, after so many work did you do in this project, but may be later... I am available to face the job.

Thanks for all,
Bye
Pablo Parvat Costa
BRC Ediciones
www.brcweb.com.ar

Hello Paul

There is an company in Belgium that has been making cards for the whole world for ages, you might check it out. They know about durability and so on.

http://www.cartamundi.com/en

Paul,

Any thoughts on bulk orders?

I'm thinking about printing economics, which I think you mentioned: the more that are printed the lower the unit price that is paid and maybe that could be passed on to end customer?

The Kickstarter tops out at 12 decks (1 brick). What about 2,5,10 bricks?

I have struggled to explain permaculture to people I know; thinking this will help

Thanks

I've started a list of people that want more bricks after the kickstarter is done. Should I add you to that list?

I posted the same thing on my facebook page, not just in terms of language, but in terms of species and cultural nuances. I'd love to see decks for each region of the world, or every nation if that were possible later on.

Pablo Parvat Costa wrote: Here is Pablo, from Bariloche, Argentina, Patagonia. Just thinking about, what if we do it in spanish? It wouldn´t be soon, after so many work did you do in this project, but may be later... I am available to face the job. Pablo Parvat Costa, BRC Ediciones, www.brcweb.com.ar

It looks like the kickstarter will be successful. So then the question shifts to: how can we leverage these to infect even more brains this holiday season. Somebody suggested that I go to the local garden shop and find out who their distributor is. Then contact that distributor.

What else?

Paul

Yes, add me to list of people that want more than 1 brick.

Thanks

Alan Hunter wrote:Paul

Yes, add me to list of people that want more than 1 brick.

Thanks

How many? (so we have an idea of how many more to make)

Paul, I have used kickstarter to get 2 bricks(more than one account), and would like 2 more later. I am handing them out as gifts to my Wwoofers! Thank you for giving me one more way to infect these kids.

Down To Earth is a distributor here in the PNW. They might be interest?