SUMMARY

20 wooden toys? All hand made? With absolutely no idea how to use a saw… or really how to paint?

How am I going to sell these at $150 a piece, with having never sold anything before?

By bringing people in on the process and struggles of having no idea what I’m doing. By sharing authentically.

THE CONCEPT

“A creative reminder”

Skully can flip his head (literally) to look at problems differently. This stackable toy is a physical reminder on your desk to take a break and think differently.

The wind will blow the toy over at times, forcing you to take a moment away from work to re-stack him on your desk and realign your thoughts.

That’s your friendly reminder to take a quick break and realign.

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Matching Twins

Alongside custom embroidered and screen printed packaging, Skully also comes with a matching long sleeve tee for you to wear so you can match your little desk buddy.

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SOLD OUT IN A WEEK

17 of the 20 sold in the first few hours through a newsletter, and the remaining went through social media a few days later.

This was the first time selling something in this price range, as well as this limited and I was really pleased to find the support.

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THE CHALLENGE

I.. don’t know how to use a saw, and I also never went to art school.. so I also suck with a paint brush.

Nearly every aspect of this project was new to me. I realized quickly I wasn’t going to be able to fake it. So instead, I shared my insecurities and developed this toy in the open, bringing followers in on the process to inspire.

 

[VIDEO PROCESS]

 

At one point when describing the project to a friend he asked, “Sounds great.. but who is doing the 3D print of the toy?”

That’s when I realized I needed to show everyone the painstaking process of creating these myself. I’M THE ONE MAKING THESE!

And that is content, baby.

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MANUFACTURING TROUBLE

There was a slew of technical issues that popped up as we started making them.

Every issue we bumped into became new content to share with followers on how we were solving them. It was exciting moments to highlight the energy and effort going into them.

Magnetic Hats

I wanted the hats to be able to rest toward the back of his head, just like the illustration.. but they kept slipping off.

So I engineered a clever solution to drill out holes, bury a magnet in the hat and the head, and cover them up with wood putty, sand and paint. A little touch of magic.

Stencil Faces

I took one stab at hand painting these and.. it wasn’t pretty. I decided instead to use a Cricut machine to create a vinyl stencil of Skully’s face and bones to brush on instead. I never said I was an artist.

 

COLLABORATION

This project came together through teamwork

Jeff Guerra - Co-captain of wood carving

LuckyHouse MFG - Screen printing the bags

Nick Fairbanks - Stop motion film collaborator

Latham Arnott - Additional animation help

Stop Motion

Nick Fairbanks and I tackled a brand new medium of stop motion. Again, documenting it like crazy. This was our first time working in stop at all. There will be a whole different case study on this mini project.

PACKAGING

I wanted the toy to ship unassembled loosely in a bag. LuckyHouse helped me embroider a golden bone on each alongside screen printing.

PROMO ANIMATION

A cute teaser promo in collaboration with animator Latham Arnott.

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SELLING THESE THINGS

Marketing is 70% of the battle

I knew along the way that documenting this process was going to be my marketing plan. I kept trying to write the perfect descriptions until I realized.. “let me just get in front of the camera and speak about this from the heart”

I made a series of 10 videos talking through the process from start to finish

I followed up with email updates to people who were interested multiple times a week all the way up until launch day.

I built an email list of people interested

and when launch day came, 17 sold in the first couple of hours. People told me they were invested in the project and it made it a no-brainer of a purchase when the time came.

Its my firm belief this would never have sold as quickly (or at all?) if i just made these in a factory and dropped them one day without showing the process.

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THANK YOU