The Gold Rush of the Creator Economy
Meet Amrit. A designer who earned more than 1 million USD in 9 months selling NFTs. We talked about how he got started and his advice for designers who want to dip their toes into the NFT world.
Hi Amrit. Thank you for taking the time to chat. You have been popping up in my Twitter feed and many other places lately. You seem to be working on some fun projects with NFTs that we can dive more into. Let’s begin with the 3D Toy Faces.
How did you get started on the 3D Toy Faces?
I left my full-time product design job in 2019, and since then, I have been developing design assets. The idea of Toy Faces came from a personal need of having a library of diverse and fun avatars for my design mockups.
Diversity was a priority, I wanted the library to represent as much as it can.
It was supposed to be just 12 avatars, but as I finished the first 12, I was quite happy with the result and ended up making 120 avatars instead.
What software and hardware are you using for the creations?
I use Cinema4d, Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop. I have been using the same Windows PC for the last four years. It’s an Intel i9, 64 GB Ram, and NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti.
How did you approach the marketing of them?
Marketing is as important as the work itself. It took a while to accept that and go all out.
With Toy Faces, I launched the product on ProductHunt and personally messaged and emailed all product designers in my online network. I asked for their feedback with all sincerity and even ended up implementing a lot of it. Apart from that, I constantly posted about it and shared my progress and new faces.
What do you plan to do with the project now?
It’s been more than a year of me making Toy Faces, I am currently working on new libraries and assets. Apart from that, I am soon launching a Toy Faces plugin starting with XD and soon to be followed by Figma and Sketch. I am even adding some new faces to the library.
You seem to have dived into the world of NFT. Can you tell us more about that?
NFTs are a great extension of what I do. It’s art, technology, and collectibles all coming together, so it just feels like it’s made for me. I have gotten a lot of love from the community, and I have been in absolute awe because of the possibilities. It’s very empowering for digital artists, and I think it is here to stay.
What was the process like for selling the first NFTs?
The community has really connected with Toy Faces and I have been able to find quite a few collectors for my work.
It’s very community driven so you have to be quite involved and be unique with your art.
As the NFT market matures it needs a lot of thought and effort to sell. Like products, it needs community building and marketing. Collectors want to see that you are here to stay and you will be at it for the long run.
Which NFT marketplace do you prefer (and why)?
For me, Foundation has been working great. SuperRare is another brilliant platform that I am planning to sell more on. I really like how well designed Foundation is, and, most importantly, I have quite a solid community on Foundation. Some other platforms I am excited to try are Async and Rarible.
You also collect NFT art — can you show us a few of your favorites?
One of the most interesting and personal NFTs I own is the first Greyscalegorilla tutorial video. It’s iconic to most motion designers since Nick is a pioneer in teaching Cinema4d online and getting it to the mainstream.
The other purely Art NFT I own and love is by the very talented Gabriella Barouch called Leaf. This is extremely special to me since this was an NFT exchange I did with Gabriella. I gave her my Tintin Toy Face and she gave this to me. (Never selling this one)
What do you plan to use the art pieces for — sell them again? Make prints?
Some are investments where I want to eventually sell them, and others are because I love the art and I wanted to support the artists. I did make prints for some of them, but that is not at all a priority.
What advice would you have for a digital artist who wants to try selling NFTs?
It’s a constantly changing landscape. It can be very powerful if you are in it for the long run.
It will take a lot of time, so be ready for that. Like any other project, this needs learning by trial and error. You have to be active in the community, you can not sell without that.
Get on Twitter, share your work, talk to artists and collectors, be part of the conversation. Don’t spam, be genuinely interested.
This is extremely community-driven, and your regular fanbase won’t translate into much. Focus on your work and style. Share it and keep on improving. It will happen if you play the long game. (And this is mostly true for all design and artistic endeavors.)
Where do you go to get inspired?
Fellow artists are the biggest inspiration. I see good work, and I am just excited about what I will be doing next. Apart from that, cinema and books are huge sources of inspiration. There is so much content out there that it can be a bit paralyzing. I hardly seek inspiration, I just try to explore something new whenever I can, and that inspires me in some way.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us. You are definitely an inspiration!
Amrit passed $1 million in earnings selling 57 NFTs
By November 2021, Amrit passed $1 million in earnings in 9 months of actively selling NFTs. Going forward, he plans to mostly focus on NFTs full-time, since “NFTs enable me to have something which is more self-expressive.”
