Why did we set up a ko-fi page?

We stumble upon more and more creators and small businesses who own a donation page. It is all understandable: these small amounts can make a huge difference for these one or two person setups. Building your own business from the ground up and maintaining its success takes lots of resources.

It's been more than two years now since Robert had time for proper, creative mapmaking. Though he has tons of ideas, his time and attention are needed elsewhere: answering emails and fulfilling custom orders are just two of the endless list of to-dos. With expanding our online presence and moving our webshop we hoped that we can create a basis for a less chaotic future. We also hope, that in a few months taking longer breaks from everyday business will be possible, so we can put more focus on creative work. We both know that a brand-new map style would bring us fresh attention and land us new opportunities, so having a few weeks of "creative break" is basically all we dream of right now.

This new website was a very much needed, but costly change in order to do that. That's why we decided to set up a Ko-fi page, to create a platform where people who appreciate our work can show their support in the form of a virtual cup of coffee. It's basically like a tip jar, without the pressure of buying anything :) With every cup we'll get closer to our goals, which will result in new map styles and a wider variety of art to choose from.

So how is this new website different from the old one?

The most significant changes (well, apart from the colours) are:

• Paper prints: in the first few months we are only selling paper prints, but we are planning to introduce more products in the future. You can find all our previous wall art options (and more!) on our old website and with our new US partner - you can find them at the bottom of every page.
• Easier to navigate: the maps are sorted in different collections, so you can browse not only by map style, but by continents and different regions, or newly updated maps. You can even check out our favourites.
• Printed closer to you: our professional printing partner takes care of the production in four locations (the Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Australia).
• Reduced shipping costs: thanks to the four different locations, shipping became more affordable for everyone outside the US.
• Sustainable materials: the museum quality fine art paper we use for the prints are sourced from sustainably managed forests.
• Blog: we created this blog, where we will share stories from the past, different collaborations, and all news we find interesting.

We are really looking forward to the next months, to see how this great change affects our business life. Hopefully more and more people will find us, read about us, check our blog, or just say hi from time to time :)