A beautiful photo book filled with smiling quokkas to inspire happiness in your life.
Let’s send happiness across the world by us sharing the happiest animal in the world, the Quokka.
Hey there! I’m Allan Dixon, I’ve spent the last two years sharing adorable imagery of quokkas online. Every Monday I post a brand new unseen quokka photo to help add a cheer to those difficult Mondays.
So far, my quokka photos have been featured by 9GAG, Buzzfeed, Naked Planet, Huffington Post, Tourism Australia, Lonely Planet, Distractify, Bored Panda and countless Instagram accounts bringing joy to millions of people.
Now, it’s time to share even more adorable quokka photos, but this time we’re printing them in an exclusive, limited-edition book.
If you have enjoyed my photography on Instagram (@daxon), or other places over the years, I think you’ll love this book.
The core theme of this book will be about sharing positivity. We want to remind people to smile, laugh and, most importantly, to think about doing what makes them happiest.
The Goal: Create the ultimate quokka book surrounded by the message of promoting happiness in your life. The aim is incite you to do more of what makes you happy.
Quokkas are small little cute marsupials found on Rottnest Island in Western Australia. They’re some of the smallest members of the macropod family.
The Internet has been labelled them “the happiest animal in the world” because of their eternal smile plastered across their face. As you can see, they are adorable!
They’re about the size of a cat, with the body structure much like a kangaroo, with the face of what looks like a smiling bear.
They are nocturnal meaning they love the dark. It’s the best time to come out in a low temperature and look for food. Although you will see them during the day chilling out under the shade of bushes, trees and shelters.
To get to Rottnest Island you have to catch a ferry from Perth. It only takes 25 minutes. You can stay a few nights on the island to explore and hangout with them.
“The Quokka Book” will be a 225x162mm 96-page full-color hardcover book when it’s completed, but this will only happen with your support!
The book will be a Limited Edition release of 500 copies, with only early birds signed by Allan Dixon. Or upon repeated request for signed.
The purpose of this book is to excite people to really think what makes them happy.
It will feature mostly full page quokka photos captured by me with a core message of happiness throughout. These photos were taken over the last two years and will feature favorites from the community and never before seen photos. I want this to feel like the “ultimate” quokka book. If you’ve enjoyed my photography on Instagram (@daxon) or other places over the years, I know you’ll love this book.
The core message weaved into the book is that you should do more of what makes you truly happy. Do what makes you smile. The quokka being the mascot for smiling.
WAYS TO USE THIS BOOK
All the books will be printed, signed and shipped, twelve miles from the quokkas home. Twelve miles!
Making it a genuine high quality Western Australia product.
The beautiful quokka photo book.
First access before public release of the ‘360º Surrounded by Quokkas’ 4K video.
For those who want to help us even more.
HELP US DECIDE WHAT’S PRINTED IN THE BOOK
We really want you to be involved in the creation process. Backers have a chance to help choose some of the photos that will be printed in the final book.
Backers can then vote by liking the photos, the top liked photos will then be printed in the final book. Simple, one vote per person per photo.
EVEN HELP IN PERSON, COME SAY HI
We will be packing sorting, packing and shipping in Perth. We already have a few people onboard and will be doing a shoutout to ask for more help when we’re closer to the packaging time.
Naked Planet are going to help us highlight the beauty quokkas to their community of 2.6 million like minded individuals.
We will be sending new quokka photos to @NakedPlanet which they will be posting during the course of this campaign.
Be sure to follow along on their Instagram if you’re a quokka fanatic like us. www.instagram.com/nakedplanet
Naked Planet is a community of like-minded individuals who seek to explore, capture and raise awareness of the inherent beauty of our world in an environmentally-responsible way.
Earth Deluxe will also be sharing the joy of quokkas to their audience of half a million.
We will be sending new quokka photos to @Earth_Deluxe which they will be posting during the course of this campaign.
Be sure to follow along on their Instagram if you want even more earthly enlightenment in your life. http://www.instagram.com/earth_deluxe
The Quokka photo book started by accident after sharing photos of quokkas and the explosive interest in more content.
Rewind to 2013:
I won ‘The Best Job in the World’ by Tourism Australia. The aim, to capture the beauty of Australia and tell the world.
Early 2014 I travelled to Rottnest Island and discovered quokkas for the first time. Mind blown.
The images were featured by Tourism Australia and then reposted over countless Instagram accounts. distractify and BoredPanda then featured my selfies online. People were over joyed to find out such an animal even existed.
People messaged me saying how much joy the quokkas bring them. How it makes there day and puts a smile on their face seeing an adorable new quokka photo.
I took so many quokkas photos over those few days that I was able to release one new quokka image that I was proud of every week. This started the #HappyQuokkaMonday campaign.
After one year of being home in Europe the number of high quality quokka photos to post and were running out. By mid 2015 I knew I had to do something, so I booked a flight to Australia specifically to hangout with more quokkas and capture more photos.
Now having captured a plethora of content, as well as melting hearts for over two years its time to print a book that animal lovers can hold.
My goal is to keep this Kickstarter simple: creating the ultimate quokka book surrounded by the message of promoting happiness in your life. The aim is incite you to do more of what makes you happy.
For an over view of my mindset be sure to watch my TEDxQueenstown talk. It will explain how I have managed to pursue my current career path and lifestyle. It also has a more detailed story about the animal selfies.
We’ve already been to the island to hangout with quokkas for over two weeks and captured thousands of adorable quokka images so your funding will go to support and cover the entire production of the book.
The design, printing and packaging.
My plan is to also go back to Perth and Rottnest Island, to personally sign, package and ship the printed books from there. This means we’ll be releasing even more digital content and quokka 360 videos after this campaign.
Every pledge will support the continuation of Happy Quokka Monday for many years to come.
General financial break down:
I wanted to put this book on Kickstarter to see if people are interested in a book that’s overloaded with adorable quokkas. It’s the fastest and most economical way for me to get the book into your hands. I think this book is great, but I need your help in creating it.
So, if a world full of heart melting quokka smiles is a world you want to live in, please back this project and help us print this book.
– Allan Dixon
Thanks to David Oakley for helping out with the majority of video graphics.
Speech bubble graphic credit: Freepik
Ukulele graphic credit: Natalka_Dmitrova / Freepik
Production is simple: The biggest challenge for us is to actually find quokka enthusiasts who adore this book and will pledge to buy it. If you back this project, we want to be sure you can embrace quokkas into your life as soon as possible with the finished book in your hands. We’re not offering t-shirts or other merchandised reward tiers that would make the distribution process take a lot longer. We’re keeping it as simple as possible: support our project and in return we’ll send you an awesome book.