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by Melissa Chipman
It’s every Kickstarter’s dream.
You post a modest project on the crowd-source funding site, it goes viral, and suddenly you’re looking at more than 1000 percent of your initial goal with 20 days left in the campaign.
Tyler Deeb is 29 years old and sitting on one of those Kickstarter success stories.
Ten days ago Deeb posted a Kickstarter ask for just $6250 so that he could design and produce a deck of playing cards to be printed by the US Playing Card Company, the printers behind the iconic Bicycle Playing Cards.
Deeb designed both the front and back of the cards with his own original, slightly dark, take on card art.
Just six months ago, Deeb quit his day job at the Southern Seminary to found Pedale Design, a Louisville-based art direction and graphic design company who works with clients that range from start ups to big businesses, advertising agencies to non-profit charities.
Tyler Deeb
This summer, Deeb’s letterpress design for Sojourn Church’s CD “A Child is Born” was featured on the popular design blog Design Envy.
Deeb couldn’t be more humbled or surprised by his Kickstarter success. Up until this point, most of his design work has been very Christian-centric. “There’s not much street cred in church work,” Deeb says. ”And that was something that I had to learn to be okay with. When I started off in the industry, I was hungry for the glory … but I have learned to be thankful that I have had so many opportunities to work on the projects that I have. I believe they have kept me humble and thankful … breaking my hunger for affirmation.”
An Atherton HS grad, Deeb has only lived outside of Louisville for a couple of years. He devoted his mission work to working in Oakland, California.
He met his wife, Noel, in California, and convinced her to move with him back to Louisville. They’ve since had two kids.
After stints at Quills Coffee and the Seminary, Deeb decided to make Pedale Design happen and moved into an office space on St. Catherine St.
Deeb estimates that $22,000 of the more than $70,000 he’s raised came from a mention on the Uncrate men’s design website.But he hasn’t gotten much local press yet. That should change soon with write-ups in the LEO and the CJ coming later this week.
He’s confident he is on track to raise more than $100,000 by the end of the campaign. Of course, that number is deceptive.
Between the Kickstarter kickback, the printing costs, taxes, and what have you, Deeb will only realize a fraction of that.
But Deeb describes this project as something long in the works: “I was trying to find something I could be passionate about, but that still used my skill sets.”
Once Deeb hit 800 percent of his original ask, he added further incentives to the Kickstarter campaign. Now a donation can be rewarded with tshirts, posters, or an uncut sheet of the card deck.
Deeb is adamant about producing and shipping these cards and incentives on the original promised date of December 18, in plenty of time for holiday gift-giving.
After exceeding his ask by 1,000 percent, you’d think he’d be asking his donors for a little leeway, but he’s not. He’s hired a fulfillment company to tackle the shipping, and he’s confident the cards and the other donation incentives will be delivered in time.
It doesn’t get much better than this when it comes to making Louisville proud. Artist, startup, tech-centered.
I’m putting my money where my mouth is and adding my name to his backers.
Looking forward to getting my cards in December.
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