Here’s the tl;dr

• I'm now focused on designing rather than doing the manufacturing and shipping as well.

• I’ve already got licensing agreements with Velleman and Pimoroni!

• Starting tomorrow Pimoroni will sell and ship our existing projects here.

• In a couple of months Velleman will carry some of our designs.

• For the next few weeks some projects will be available at the Boldport shop at the lowest priced I’ve ever offered them (they’re listed here).

I’ll continue doing the work I love (and that you love as well? ;).

Here’s how you can help me make this work:

• Buy these projects from the Boldport shop.

• Buy ‘Boldport design’ projects at Pimoroni (link) and Velleman when they become available.

• Get in touch for hiring my services. I design unique electronics experiences and license my work. If you think there’s something else I might be interested in, get in touch.

• Buy me coffee ;)

Here’s the long version:

I’ve spent a lot of the past six months reflecting on my work and where I want to take it. I’ve shipped the last subscription Boldport Club project in January ‘19 and announced the changes the previous October. Designing, prototyping, sourcing, manufacturing, and shipping unique electronics experiences to 500 of you every month was gratifying, but intense. It was good to take a breather.

While running the Club for over three years it was clear that I love the design work; it’s where I can best express my creativity. Bit it also became clear that at the price-point people would actually be willing to pay for projects, the manufacturing and fulfilment overheads only makes sense in much larger volumes than those I was working with.

So how could I continue doing my work without that overhead? The answer is to license my designs to companies who are already doing the rest, and doing it very well. I spoke to the fine folk at Velleman and Pimoroni about this, and was greeted with enthusiasm to work together by licensing my designs and working on new ones. Both are a natural place for my designs and have been a pleasure to work with so far. I’m excited to see where we take this together: bringing you more great designs and experiences.

Starting tomorrow Pimoroni will be fulfilling our existing Club projects. This band of friendly pirates design and sell creative electronics with an impeccable customer service record, and they ship world-wide. They will also manufacture and sell our upcoming project: ‘Scarab’. It’s a wonderfully SMD soldering project based on Microchip’s ATtiny1614. More on this later.

Velleman are a Belgian company that’s been designing and selling electronics projects for over 40 years! They distribute world-wide and will bring my designs to new audiences via Velleman for Makers, their DIY and makers portal. We’re currently working on the prototypes and will have the projects available soon.

I also have plans to create more digital content and resources around a variety of topics that I’m interested in. I’ll continue to explore the combination of technology and art.

Behind the scenes I’m moving to a smaller cheaper workspace since I won’t need that much space. Outside of my control, it’s hard to operate in the uncertainty and effects of Brexit and outright business-hostile environment here in the UK, even for a small buiness. (Personally coming to terms with Brexit is even harder.) It is very likely that I’ll be relocating to a proper European country in the not too distant future. This will be costly but essential for continuing my work. This is within my control. I could use your help if you can give it; see the tl;dr above.

As always my gratitude goes to those of you who have supported Boldport and Boldport Club throughout the years, and continue to be part of our wonderful and active community on Discord. The community will remain as it is, with new members joining after purchasing our designs from distributors.

I look forward to this new chapter!

(We’re discussing all of this on our Discord. Join us!)