“If we will arm future generations with the mindset that the planet is a precious and singular factor, and that we have to be proactive about stewarding our relationship with it, we will put together ourselves by elevating generations which might be defenders of this earth.”

In regards to the Creators

Casson Trenor (the author) and Caia Koopman (the illustrator) are making a kids’s e book about ocean conservation, and they’re sharing every step of the way in which on Patreon. Positioned in several cities with totally completely different backgrounds, Caia and Casson are becoming a member of forces to perform one mission: to make this world a greater place.

Their story known as Umijoo. It’s the story of a lady who lives on an island and feels disconnected from the ocean. It’s a kids’s e book, however like most Pixar motion pictures, it’s additionally written to be touching and relevant to all ages. Throughout a go to to the Patreon places of work in San Francisco, Casson explains:

“I feel the actual theme of the e book is that it’s very a lot an environmentalist’s story: it’s a narrative concerning the relationship between human beings, the ocean, and the way necessary it’s for us to take accountability for that nowadays once we as a species are so highly effective on a worldwide scale. We’re making adjustments to the planet whether or not or not we need to, so this is a chance to achieve future generations and discuss to them about why it’s necessary to vary it in a considerate means.”

Caia and Casson met after they have been each concerned in a large-scale avenue artwork venture designed to boost consciousness of overfishing, marine dumping, and related ocean conservation points. Though the road artwork venture itself didn’t come to fruition, it created the house for them to fulfill each other, trade concepts, and develop an understanding of each other’s work. Umijoo is the results of the 2 doubling-down on their mutual imaginative and prescient and dedication to environmental outreach.

However earlier than this venture started 4 years in the past, Casson by no means would have pictured himself writing a kids’s e book. His background is in ocean conservation and direct motion environmentalism. Casson hung out in Antarctica on anti-whaling ships, and searching tuna pirates on unlawful fishing campaigns. That lead him on a path creating change within the seafood (particularly sushi) business, the place he centered on opening sustainable and vegan sushi eating places (like Tataki and Shizen in San Francisco) and creating viable choices to damaging standard seafood practices. Casson defined that the concept for Umijoo got here to him in a single grand realization whereas sitting at a restaurant in San Francisco. There are two the explanation why the concept of this e book got here to him:

“Through the years I got here to consider (1) that artwork is one in every of our greatest autos to encourage folks about conservation, and (2) that kids are an extremely necessary viewers if we need to create new, impassioned brokers who’re devoted to defending the planet. Umijoo is my subsequent step within the evolution of this work.”

Caia, alternatively, has been portray for over twenty years. Residing within the coastal city of Santa Cruz, California, her involvement within the skate, surf, and tattoo tradition was a primary driver for her private model. And, being a devoted environmentalist, a conservation motif has turn out to be extra integrated into Caia’s work over time.

“The present disaster going through our planet calls for motion from all of us, and I consider the best factor I can do to assist is to color on behalf of a greater world and a brighter future. Youngsters are completely essential to conservation and I’m very excited to be specializing in a venture like Umijoo.”

Our interview with Caia and Casson resulted in an outpouring of recommendation for different creators and activists — it’s so good, we felt responsible maintaining it to ourselves.

Listed here are 4 necessary classes that Caia and Casson have realized on their journey to carry Umijoo to life.

1. Don’t wait to rally assist, even when it’s a long run venture.

Caia and Casson don’t fall into the class of quick-paced “content material creators,” they usually don’t at all times have new content material to share with their patrons every week. Typically one in every of Caia’s work can take a number of weeks to complete. However the long-term nature of their work didn’t cease them from launching a Patreon web page and spreading the phrase about Umijoo. In consequence, they’ve fostered an impassioned group at very early levels of their venture.

“Patreon has been our major revenue vector as we aren’t actually ready to monetize our product but. The e book nonetheless has a methods to go earlier than it’s one thing that you could truly maintain in your hand or buy in a bookstore. This is among the major causes that Patreon has been so precious — as a result of we have been in a position to interact with it comparatively early in our course of. It permits for 3 necessary processes concurrently: elevating funds, exchanging concepts, and creating group. Patreon is exactly what we would have liked to take Umijoo to the subsequent degree of improvement.”

2. When the going will get robust, don’t overlook that you could make a distinction

Inspiring consciousness for ocean conservation is the purpose for Caia and Casson, however there’s an extended street forward of them earlier than their story arrives on bookshelves. Casson admits that avoiding burnout is the most important problem they face as creators. Their venture calls for an amazing funding from each of them. For any creator engaged on a long-term venture like Umijoo, the secret’s to remain the course and keep in mind that many different folks share your imaginative and prescient.

“As conservationists, these are troublesome occasions. It looks like our whole planet is below risk greater than ever earlier than. Listening to the selections which might be being made by political management concerning our planet’s future might be distressing, and that makes it arduous to buckle down typically. In these moments, we attempt to deal with the concept that all of those crises going through humanity proper now are alternatives for progress. There are folks on the market which might be captivated with fixing each one in every of these issues. If we belief each other to be robust, and to observe our hearts, we are going to every rise as much as meet the precise problem that we are supposed to overcome.”

After I requested Casson why he wrote this story for kids, the impression of this e book grew to become much more obvious.

“All of the work that I’ve accomplished has lead me to consider that there are specific teams which might be essential for us to achieve if we actually need to create change on this planet, and if we need to shift our collective mentality to a extra accountable means of this earth. We are able to attain anybody if we attempt arduous sufficient, however there’s a method to make it simpler. A kind of methods is to achieve folks at an age after they’re inclined to study. We develop to a sure age when studying takes increasingly more work, however for kids, it’s rather more pure. If we will arm future generations with the mindset that the planet is a precious and singular factor, and that we have to be proactive about stewarding our relationship with it, we will put together ourselves by elevating generations which might be defenders of this earth.”

3. Your patrons will maintain you accountable in your finest work

Caia and Casson determined to launch their Patreon web page in early November of 2016. Since then, their followers proceed to provide new concepts and views that assist them make Umijoo higher. The enter they obtain on Patreon usually occasions helps them establish methods to extra successfully specific their message.

“There was a group focus that Patreon delivered to the desk, that we actually needed. Umijoo is greater than a e book for us – it’s a starting. We wish the Umijoo story to be an expertise and a guiding gentle for any variety of folks that need to carry this message ahead. We thought, if we might use Patreon to construct a group early, and to have a spot to bounce concepts off of folks that share our imaginative and prescient, then we might be in a a lot better place. Patreon supplied that as a result of we now have this group of people who find themselves concerned in an ongoing means. Each month after they see a fee affirmation from Patreon, they need to ask themselves ‘does this nonetheless matter to me.’ That has positioned a way of urgency on us, to make it matter…to make the venture stronger and the message higher. For Caia, it helped her really feel the urgency to carry this character to life in her portray. Patreon has been completely invaluable on this regard. I don’t know if we might have made it this far with out our patrons.”

4. Collaborate

After our interview, I believed to myself how the collaboration between Caia and Casson is a good looking story inside itself. These two creators have joined forces to complete a venture that neither one in every of them might full on their very own. And collectively, their inventive work will educate future generations to take care of the planet they each cherish so dearly.

“Discover somebody who you admire: somebody has completely different abilities and skills from yours, however who shares the identical imaginative and prescient of a greater world. Inform them so. Workforce as much as make that imaginative and prescient a actuality. Create house for each other. Educate one another. Assist one another. Be ready to be improper so much. Be ready to be annoyed so much. And be ready to be a part of one thing particular. Two folks can create one thing that’s larger than simply the 2 of them collectively… as Umijoo would possibly say, typically one and one makes three.”

Learn extra about Umijoo, Caia and Casson on their Patreon web page, right here: 

Umijoo on Patreon