Kickstarter is already having a banner year, and it's only February. In fact, the company says that it's on track to distribute $150 million this year to fund creative projects. The site is full of amazing ideas (see: our previous favorites), many of which will help make the world a better place.
1. Gremolata & Cancellaresca Milanese: Typefaces are important. We see them every single day (some more than others) and in an era where the printed or digital word is more common than the spoken word, typeface design can convey an aesthetic similar to handwriting. This project supports metal type in two new fonts, giving the artist complete creative control over its use.
2. 6-Legged Tees: Camping is awesome. Bug spray is not. Enter 6-Legged Tees, a company creating t-shirts that "keep bugs away in style." Each American Apparel tri-blend shirt is screen printed with a funky design and then treated with a substance called Insect Shield, an odorless way to repel insects woven right into the fibers of the shirt that will last through up to 70 washes.
3. Happy Inside: Photographer Amy Lombard is creating her first book, a compilation of photographs taken inside Ikea stores across the country. Photograph subjects lounge on furniture, crawl under covers, and gernally make themselves at home in the big-box stores. The photos are so realistic, it's hard to believe they were taken inside a furniture showroom and not in the subjects' homes.
4. LifeCycle Bracelets: The average bicycle store produces 25-40 pounds of wasted chain each month that is simply thrown away — melting it down for recycling is costly and time-consuming. The artist constructs bracelets, earrings, and keychains from bicycle chain scraps, and started the Kickstarter project to expand his reach across the country, allowing bike stores to ship unwanted chain parts at no expense. Keeping trash out of landfills and creating fun jewelry? Win all around!
5. Matter: How many times have you heard that the web is the future of journalism? Too many to count, right? The team at Matter wants to up the ante for online news content, re-surfacing traditional, investigative, long-form news pieces that are becoming less popular as speed and news-breaking takes importance. Matter will contain one in-depth story per week focusing on science and technology, accessible on a website, through mobile apps, and even on the Kindle. Stories will be priced similarly to apps — around $1 per story. According to the founders, "It’s an experiment to see if independent journalism, done right, can fill the gap left by mainstream media." Quality online content is imporant (and we obviously love it!), so this project is as exciting as it is smart.