I brainstormed ideas among friends trying to understand what would compel them to learn more and potentially contribute to a non-profit organization. Hosting events and craft nights sounded exciting but unsustainable on top of my full-time job, and prints or digital artwork in exchange for a donation didn’t seem compelling enough.

I wanted to give people something in exchange that they would want to keep, and might even itself act as a badge representing their support. Conversely, I wanted to make sure that my ask to my creative peers was low lift, high impact, and afforded them as much creative agency as possible. What seemed to best satisfy both interests was designing and producing enamel pins that would help fundraise for different non-profits.

After researching more about the process of manufacturing enamel pins and having the confidence that I could manage the process of operating such a side project, I started tackling the content and design of the website. Above all else, I wanted The Good Pin Club to be as transparent as possible, providing users with full visibility into where their money was going and why. An example of where this manifests itself in the website is next to the payment total, where a user can toggle an info icon that reveals the production costs, credit card fees, and total that the nonprofit receives of their purchase.

I created my first prototype using sketch, HTML + CSS and gathered peer feedback to make design improvements. The benefit of this being my own side project is that there were few design constraints, and I could make bold design decisions in places that I normally couldn’t—for example, the animating polka dots in the background, the rotating logo as you scroll.