Matt Fox is the creator of a brilliant and intricately designed series of advent calendars. Through KickStarter he is looking to raise enough money to bring this project to the masses. We sat down with him to learn a little more about his inspirations and the future of the project.
Please check out his KickStarter and contribute.
1. What was the inspiration of this project?
Honestly, the concept came about as a freak accident when talking about Majora’s Mask with a buddy. At some point I said aloud that there were 24 masks, and for some reason my next thought was: “hey, there are 24 days in the advent season…” and the rest was history! I am a huge fan of both the Zelda franchise and advent calendars, so the prototype you see photographed was a calendar I made as a one-off personal calendar for my own use and entertainment. After showing the calendar to various friends and Zelda fan pages, people started asking me how much I was selling them for and where could they go to purchase them. After seeing the demand, I decided to broaden the scope to various pop culture franchises and try and raise the capital necessary to make it a legitimate product.
2. Can you go into some more detail about the advent calendars?
Certainly! The calendars consist of a wooden board and mask tokens. The board is red oak and roughly 8×12 in size, and features an original Tolkien-esque fantasy map recreation of Termina engraved via laser engraver. The tokens are roughly an inch in diameter, feature original graphic recreations of the 24 masks and have been lacquered for hardiness/aesthetics. Further description can be found on the Kickstarter page, and if you have any specific details questions feel free to let me know!
3. Why are you starting with Majora’s Mask? Any plans to do other Zelda themed ones?
I started with Majora’s Mask because it is my favorite game in the Zelda franchise (and quite possibly my favorite game of all time). It is a dark, complex game rich with beautiful imagery, dynamic plots and truly timeless gameplay. Since I’m not artistically inclined and can’t actually create fan art, this calendar is my way of paying homage to Majora’s Mask. It takes two artists’ original works and combines them into one cohesive, synergistic product that features both fan art and functionality. I haven’t started thinking about other Zelda-themed calendars yet, but I will definitely develop others if this project is successful. Maybe a backdrop of Kakariko Village with 24 chicken tokens… haha.
4. Do you plan on continuing with this project if the KickStarter fails?
If this Kickstarter fails, I unfortunately will not have the funds necessary to continue the effort. Without having a laser engraver of my own I’m unable to develop the backdrops in-house, and the costs for third-party engravers are too high to keep the calendars reasonably priced. In this scenario, I plan to take a step back, broaden my scope by developing a few more prototype designs surrounding various pop culture franchises (Batman, Elder Scrolls, etc.) and re-approach with actual graphics of each franchise to show that Culture Cal is a concept not limited to just Zelda. It has potential to grow into an incredible artistic outlet both for fans and designers, and I would love nothing more than to be the facilitator for this. In short, I won’t be able to start producing/selling the calendars if the campaign fails, but I will keep working to try and make it a reality.
5. Are you doing the laser etchings? How long does each etching take?
If successfully funded, the laser etchings will move in-house and will be done with a Full Spectrum Laser engraver (a company that was also funded by Kickstarter!). Etching takes about 20 minutes per calendar due to the amount of detail involved.
