Shanty Town Design crowdfunding Brick & Motor road trip, taking Scranton goods across the country
A small graphic and web design company from Scranton is planning a big trip with even bigger ambitions – but they can’t do it without your help.
Artist and entrepreneur Samantha Nardelli of Shanty Town Design, along with music enthusiast Timothy Roxby and their beagle Daisy, are taking a trailer towed by 2001 Dodge Durango across the United States in the fall to sell handmade goods from Scranton and beyond at festivals, fairs, flea markets, and pop-up shops “to connect ourselves and our vendors with all kinds of creative minds and show off work that we believe in,” according to their website.
They’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the cross-country trip they’re calling Brick & Motor, which has already generated over $1,000 of its $10,000 goal, with 31 days left to go.
A video by Parents’ Basement Films includes further details:
Their plans are also extensively detailed on the campaign page, including a breakdown of costs:
What if we could help connect talented creators to an area they’ve never been? It would essentially open up doors, inviting those, who we would not have otherwise known, into our lives. After all, supporting local doesn’t have to stay in just your backyard. Everyone has one!
This fall, Shanty Town Design is upping the ante. We are taking our show on the road with a mobile marketplace: Shanty Town’s Brick & Motor. The marketplace will feature various talented artists and crafters, as well as, our own quirky creations. Making stops at fairs, pop up events, and festivals, we are sure to meet some great minds and invite them for the ride.
Our goal is to support as many small businesses while making this journey. There are thousands of creators making an effort to support themselves and their families. We want to see them all succeed. We want everyone to see how special his or her work is. Most of all, we want to help build a world where friends, family, and neighbors can follow their hearts. That is the ultimate dream, right? Let’s make the small business world go ‘round.
We are asking for your help because we need to get our big idea off the ground. We’ve got the support from amazing creators, that are starting this journey with us by selling in our moving market. We’ve got the planning and ideas behind the entire venture. The money that we raise for this project will go towards purchasing and renovating a trailer that will stick out, supplies, and vending fees for some of the bigger market places and events. We want to make the largest impact possible.
Perks for contributors include their name or business name hand-lettered on a wall inside the trailer that will be seen by all of the customers and clients throughout the United States, a t-shirt, a custom abstract painting by Anissa Krajewski, and a personal stop on the trip – which includes a hug.
If the trio doesn’t reach their goal, they still plan to go through with the trip, just on a shorter route. Artists looking to sell or promote their work through this trip are encouraged to get in touch with Shanty Town Design through the Brick & Motor website, and flyers and web banners are available for download for those who want to help spread the word.
“Scranton, PA has an amazing community of creators, all kinds. And I just want to show the world (or at least the country) what our area (and other areas like it!) has to offer. To see your work being sold and appreciated thousands of miles from where you created it is a success in my mind. I also used to make punky-looking patch coasters for a hot minute. I sold the entire batch to a coffee shop in California. I cried. See what I mean? It’s all about people supporting your work for what it is and it’s an amazing feeling when that happens to you,” Nardelli said on the Brick & Motor website.
“Of course, there’s places like Etsy, Big Cartel, and even just selling your work yourself online. My thoughts behind it are (thinking like a consumer) I am much more likely to go to an event and spend money on something because I can touch it. I can see the quality. I can move it around in my hands and examine it to determine if it’s something I want to buy. I can talk to the artist who made it and listen to their stories about where the idea came from and why they use that particular material or design. Maybe they collaborate with other artists that you never would have known if not for that conversation.
“Sure, you can get a lot of that information online, if they have a website. But, I’m a web designer as well. I know that a website, for an average visitor, has 3-7 seconds to catch your attention. We live in a world of ‘browsers.’ More often than not, people are going to a website, browsing the products, maybe buying something, maybe not. You miss that interaction of learning a person’s history. That’s why people sell at physical market places as well, because of course you want your customers to know how much time and effort you put into what you create. Plus you make connections.”
