a non profit for the arts
In the summer of 2020, Hayley Brown and Anthony Procopio Ross joined the collective here at Troubador Design Co during the Covid lockdowns and Pandemic times, so there wasn’t a lot of work that we had. We had been playing with the idea of making an art and poetry journal with the free time that we had to put our interns to work a little, so when Hayley and Anthony joined Troubador those ideas became a reality that we have spent months working towards realizing. Hayley, Anthony, and our copywriting intern George Coggins had a hand in the production of NWMSU’s literature and art journal Medium Weight Forks, and there are many artists in the Troubador collective that wanted a space in Kansas City where we could publish our work without predatory fees and licensing rights.
Originally intended as just a journal, Dead Peasant has grown into an incorporated non profit in the state of Missouri. Dead easant envisions a collective of emerging artists and creatives having the ability to showcase and better their community in Kansas City and beyond.
Dead Peasant is creating more space to acknowledge the talent and benefits that artists have to offer. We want to expose artists, organizations, and local businesses to the public through our art and literary journal, social media, and public events. We believe that effective change and social responsibility starts from the bottom and allows growth to create a more holistic and conscious community.
Find out more here.
Dead Peasant Branding, Social Media, Advertising, & Operations
Case Study
The Outcome
Logos, branding, and marketing materials that supported Dead Peasant as a fair and supportive arts Non Profit in Kansas City.
The Challenge
Owning and operating a Non Profit, executing effective branding, messaging, typesetting and book design, and strategy to market and advertise a print literary and arts journal.
Scope of Project:
Strategy & Messaging
Branding & Identity Design
Advertising & Marketing
Operations
Typesetting & Book Cover Design
The Beginning
Originally we sought out to create an art and literature journal as a fun portfolio project for the Troubador team during the Covid lockdowns of 2020. With guidance and help from the community, we decided to spin Dead Peasant off into a Non Profit organization, since our intentions had always been to benefit our community and that would help make the journal more sustainable long term as it’s own entity. Art and literature journals are not money makers, especially if you create them like we do which let’s the artists retain their rights and doesn’t charge them fees to submit their work to the publication.
Brand Definition
Defining the brand creates an objective roadmap; a filter for all the company’s future decisions. By checking against this statement, we can quickly see whether any decisions will help or hurt, focus or muddy, purify or modify the brand.
As an in-house project, we had the unique task of creating branding for ourselves rather than a traditional client. Hayley Brown came up with the name Dead Peasant, which we hope you know by now refers to the controversial legal practice of employers taking out lucrative life insurance policies on their employees without their knowledge and consent. At this point we had to decide, what we wanted people to think of when they think of our brand.
Our creative director, Jake and many of us at Troubador are very into retro and vintage ideas being repurposed in modern ways. We wanted Dead Peasant to feel thrifty and cool, simple but elegant, and above all recognizable.
Logo and Branding
Once the creative tone was set, the team quickly went to work to capture a new identity system that reflects the "Modern Thrifty" aesthetic. You can see the logo to the right. The logo is readable as small sizes, flat and simple. The logo is simple, recognizable, and scalable. The logo does not try to explain what we are or what we do, but if you know you know.
Social Media
Maintaining consistent, interesting, and eye-catching branding throughout your social media drives interest and engagement. As a new Non Profit, advertising and marketing a new literary journal it was very important for us to effectively spread the word of Dead Peasant. We launched our social media in September and have grown the account from 0 followers to almost 200 as this is being written in November. For reference, similar regional journals range from 50 followers to 1000+ followers and those publications have been around for years as opposed to our months.
Book Design and Typesetting
The cover design, a collaboration between Troubador Art Director Dom Roveto and friend of Troubador and dead peasant contributor Chancellor Casey was inked with pen and paper, and digitized for print by Jake Edmisten who also set the type for the journal. Chance and Dom particularly embody the spirit of Dead Peasant in their art, and came up with a fantastic cover for the journal.
Typesetting proved to be a challenge, as this was Jake’s first time first time working on the inside of a book, as he has worked on many book covers at this point. The most relevant experience he had was with The Pitch on different spreads and advertisements, but the process is a bit different when you have to perfectly translate poetry with the exact formatting that the poet intended.
Marketing and Advertising
Everything we’ve done so far has been a part of marketing Dead Peasant. Every time we posted on social, every time we reached out to the community, when we were designing the branding, and when we came up with the purpose of the Non Profit. As a Non Profit the trust that we earn through our marketing is invaluable since we have to prove ourselves as a new entity trying to better our community rather than exploit it. Creating value is always the name of the game, but particularly when your name is Dead Peasant.
To advertise the recent journal release we have used many different avenues, paid and earned. We ran two ad campaigns on Instagram initially when we had a call for artists, which resulted in 300 pages of submissions, and when we launched the book on Amazon. We got our journal listed along other journals on sites that index literature and art journals like The Short List by Dan Shirey and as a Fledgling Listing on Duotrope. We participated in the Kindle Unlimited program for the ebook to provide free ebooks for a week along with a global spotlight on our journal at launch. Each contributor received a digital copy, and many chose to purchase a physical copy for themselves and family, and in this way they are all helping to advertise the work as micro influencers. We also gave very limited copies to more established local influencers to help promote the journal. To make the journal available locally, rather than through Amazon, we were able to get our books in our favorite indie book store Prospero’s on 39th Street who also gave us a shoutout on social media. These advertising campaigns not only led to sales of the journal, but they also helped introduce Dead Peasant as a Non Profit.
Going forward
The journal is the first step in launching the Non Profit. Artists will be chosen for three different cash prizes for the submissions to the journal. We have plans to help showcase artists through our platforms digitally and hopefully in physical shows down the line when things are safer. Our web design team is working on a standalone website for the Non Profit. The second issue of the journal is still around the corner as well. Thank you for reading and supporting us.