My voyage with the Symbol Syndicate began in September of 2021, with little to no experience with blockchain protocols. It’s been quite a learning curve for me over the last 15 months, relative to the technology and language of web3 and cryptocurrency. My career experience had been within the apparel and entertainment industries for the previous 20+ years. Transitioning from the design of physical products to creating art for digital products and virtual NFTs, has been new and at times, challenging. Additionally, there have been many shifting priorities over the last year, as product plans divert and the changing landscape of crypto continues.
When I was asked to join up with the Symbol Syndicate, I was inspired by the vision of creating a metaverse that revolved around futuristic space pirate worlds. As an experienced brand designer and illustrator, my focus has always been visual storytelling, and the child in me loves exciting creative projects that allow my imagination to run.
Shortly after I came onboard in the Fall of 2021, there was a lot of website concepting for Symbol and NEM as we were looking to move away from the previous identity and create fresh direction. I had experience designing with Sketch and Adobe XD previously, but Figma was the digital design tool of choice at The Symbol Syndicate, so I needed to jump in and become acquainted with a new design app.
Priorities soon began to shift, and as we entered 2022, it was necessary to establish new entities with unique purpose. I was tasked with creating the logo identities for The Symbol Syndicate, Fushichou Foundation and Lingua Franca, and then work with our visual designer, Unnatural №27, to create brand guidelines for each.
At the end of 2021, I began creating 2D coin art for both XYM and XEM tokens, complete with “activated states” and value denominations. The designs were well received by the community and it was exciting to see in the following months, one of our community members take the artwork to the next level by making the coins a physical reality using his skills and resources.
In August I stepped into a new frontier once again, when I set up my first crypto wallet. After receiving a donation of XYM currency, I was able to create custom mosaic art to ‘throw’ at the community’s La Tomatina virtual event that same month. Additionally, I contributed artwork for public use in commemorating the event.
In September I was given the assignment of creating another brand logo for our latest entity, The Crow’s Nest. This project also included a 1 page website design which Unnatural №27 has brought to life with a unique art style and animation.
In November, Hatchet kicked off an art project to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of the Harlock/Cyprus fork, as well as Holiday art for NEM and Symbol. I was inspired to create an anniversary piece that features a fantasy ship escaping storm clouds into the unknown. The scene also includes a young figure watching the ship from a secure perch. In light of how crypto has been adversely affected this year, Hatchet has titled the piece ‘Hope’ and will be releasing it along with an article soon.
Throughout the last 15 months, one of the larger ongoing projects I’ve been involved with is the creation of custom character art for the Syndicate team as well as invested community members, such as Tresto, Essan and NEMBear. Each avatar has been fun to work on and they’ve allowed me to expand my illustration skills. In the beginning, these pieces were isolated to just the character art. Before long, I was asked to begin creating a full scene for each, which adds quite a bit more of a challenge. It requires that you construct proper directional lighting and perspective within the piece. This was something that I had not done much of before. As a result, I began to study techniques that helped with visual depth and shading. There has been a lot of dedication to details and reworking of art in order for each to turn out right, but this challenge has allowed for improvement in my creation of environments and stories. As each piece comes together, so does the story of our brand and the scenes begin to weave together each individual’s unique persona with the exciting virtual world we’re collectively building.
One of the more interesting challenges for me over the last year as an artist and traditional brand designer, is the concept of releasing artwork and creative elements to the public without strict brand governance. The design team and I had been accustomed to working for companies that rigorously controlled their visual brand assets and how they were used. Most corporations are frightened of the side effects their brand might suffer if they give allowance for free reign with their IP. It’s been a big adjustment to see artwork and designs being used externally without those restraints. I realize however, that this ‘no copyright reserved’ (or CC0) approach to our visual material is in step with the decentralization that is integral to the realm of cryptocurrency. I’m beginning to see that in this case, the community has stake in this IP and are more invested when they have that freedom to help guide where we go.
Looking ahead to 2023, I’m excited to see what comes our way as we continue to build necessary products and work with an inspired community to create exciting new virtual worlds.