Last chance to kickstart the "Beautifully Banal" comic zine, from the Fairy Tales competition

Following their success in Blank Space's 2015 Fairy Tales Architecture Competition, second-prize winners Alexander Culler and Danny Travis are in the process of publishing a full-length comic zine for their competition entry, "Beautifully Banal". The duo, who are graduate students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that attracted speedy support in a matter of days, reaching their initial $1,000 goal in only two days. With 51 hours left, the campaign currently has $3,578.

More details below.

Culler and Travis set up the Kickstarter in an effort to bring a light-hearted story that readers both within and outside of the architectural community can appreciate. Derived from the relatable notion of finding one's place in the world, the three-part narrative follows Phineas the fly's journey through three major architectural programs: Residential, Commercial, and Industrial.

Readers encounter various architectural drawing conventions at different scales like plans, axonometrics, and elevations, as well as more interesting perspectives like surface drawings, infographics, and multi-view projections.

'The project celebrates the beauty of the ordinary (when mixed with a little whimsy) and follows the journey of Phineas the fly. The end product aims to produce an alternate reading of the “everyday”, in order to showcase how through the correct lens of thinking even the most banal of environments can become a fairy tale. The end product aims to produce an alternate reading of the 'everyday'...Knowing more about a place, and all of the nuance that comes with that place, is useful in telling a story that might otherwise be focused on character development only.' Culler and Travis write on Kickstarter.

Culler and Travis plan to use their funds to publish The Complete Beautifully Banal as a standard edition 8.5" x 11" book and also as a limited-edition oversized newsprint that promises to 'capture all of the details'. Fun extras include collectible posters and 3D-printed objects. The surplus cash will go toward a bonus mini-comic, an extra chapter to the story, and a bonus drawing as a shoutout to all their Kickstarter backers.

The Kickstarter ends on July 15.

Also, you can still register and submit to Blank Space's current "Dear Architecture" competition. The final deadline is July 24.