The K/CAL: Designer Edition

I used to wonder what the point of running a K/CALs was. Having been part of one now I have seen how for many makers, especially those newer to their craft, it can be tremendously helpful. But I think the benefits of running a K/CAL may be even greater for a designer.

While I am not a designer and haven’t run my own K/CAL, there are a number of benefits I’ve perceived through observation of designers running a K/CAL for one of their own patterns:

1. Sell a bunch of patterns – Since it’s necessary to have the pattern to participate in a K/CAL they’ll be paying your shop a visit. And there can be huge numbers of people in K/CALs. Even if there’s a free pattern for the K/CAL, presumably you are offering this pattern for free to increase traffic. This could be to increase point #2, or if you’ve monetized your site, revenue from ads.
2. Exposure – Ugh that dirty word of social media, but seriously. People will talk about the K/CAL they’re participating in.
3. Gaining new customers – Running a K/CAL gives people an opportunity to test out your patterns. Since the ‘Social’ part in social media is pretty important, getting people together to do a pattern could increase the likelihood that someone new will get on board too. You’ll get them as a customer for the K/CAL and hopefully you can keep them!
4. Sell more patterns – Very closely related to point #3. If they liked your pattern from the K/CAL they will probably want to try out another one. And since there’s been a community formed in the K/CAL the new customers may want to keep up with this community, therefore buying another pattern. You’ve probably seen many times makers talking about how important your brand is, and how YOU are your brand in this maker world. A K/CAL helps customers get to know your brand and make it part of their life.
5. Having others help with answering people’s questions – From a pedagogical standpoint this is actually quite beneficial. In a classroom, research has shown that students can potentially learn better when getting information from their peers rather than the teacher. Essentially this just means that when your customers are getting information on picking up sleeves from someone else in the K/CAL rather than the designer, they may feel more empowered to be able to do it themselves since this information just came from another fellow maker, rather than the expert! This also helps to alleviate some of the stress that can come with running a K/CAL.

So yes, there are a lot of benefits but there are also some things to keep in mind. The point of the K/CAL is to help people complete the project all together. But with potentially hundreds of people with varying skill levels, there is a lot of time you will be committing to this. Be careful that you are accurate about what skills are necessary to successfully complete this project. Yes you can give help so your customer can “level up” their skill set, and so can other participants, but there is a certain skill level people will need to be at. It’ll make your life a little easier to be honest about what that skill level is.