NFT Branding: 101

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The cat is out of the bag on the technical side of NFTs (or should I say Crypto-Kitty?) Every day, new services pop up that make it easy to drag, drop and mint your own NFTs. The barrier to entry to create your own digital items is low. And this has led to a flood of criticism that NFTs are a bubble. Who wants to buy all of this crap art?

But just because it's easy, doesn't mean it's easy to win in this space.

Take T-shirts. In the 1950s, if you wanted to sell t-shirts, you had to own or have connections to a factory that physically made them. Then there was shipping. Then there was distribution. Etc. Flash forward to 2022, and t-shirts have been "drag-and-droppified." Technology has eliminated the barrier and the middlemen. Does this mean that t-shirts are a bubble? Does this mean that people will no longer buy t-shirts just because now everyone can make them? No, they'll buy the shirts they want.

People buy t-shirts that fit their style, make them feel cool or fashionable or have some personal meaning to them. T-shirts are a form of self-expression. People will always need to express themselves and differentiate themselves from the people around them. Brands and creators that can use t-shirts as a vehicle to transport their own worldview and ethos, will sell. Generic knock offs., or random t's uploaded to Amazon will get ignored. As in all things; T-shirts to NFTs, it's survival of the coolest. Survival of who can create the most meaning and emotional connection.

NFTs aren't cheesy illustrations of animals. They are units of brand identity. They are signal boosters. Just because you can technically make an NFT, does not mean you're going to make it. The digital items that thrive are just like the t-shirts, lunch boxes, branded candy bars, hot sneakers and cool cars that people keep buying. The creators that imbue their NFTs with meaning and manage to mint culture, will make it. All others will fade away.

Maybe in 2017, the superstars who moved the needle in the space were the coders who technically enabled non-fungible tokens to be created. But in 2022 and beyond, the technical abilities have spread out and are no longer the differentiator. The value and importance of digital items will be in the hands of brands that can put their cultural cool into digital amber, preserving authentic meaning on the blockchain.

There will be low hanging fruit as always. A shallow, profit printing way to get involved at some layer. Think: world-beating IPs like the Disneys, the Marvels, and the imagery that you can put on a pair of underwear and socks and manage to sell out on autopilot.

There will be newcomers, like Bored Apes, who seemingly come out of nowhere, capture the cultural zeitgeist and manage to start up a legacy from ground zero.

There will be niches in every category you can imagine. Artists and musicians who connect with the heart and soul of their fans. This will create a symbiotic relationship where both sides will contribute and benefit from the increased exposure of the creators as they push further into culture.

Those who know branding, will win.

It could be personal brands, legacy brands or new cultural phenomenon brands.

But the ones who rest on their digital laurels at merely being able to technically show up at the NFT table, or who copy and paste derivative ideas onto the blockchain will be ignored. In our attention culture, we crave meaning, story and values. We look for things to cheer for. And we want easy ways to express our values. This is what branding is an onramp for. Without branding and meaning, NFTs are hollow vessels. A collection of directionless pixels taking up space on the vast sea of the distributed web.

Brands with sharp POVs and clearly communicated world views will have lasting power. Just because the medium of communication has changed, doesn't alter the basic rules of branding that have proved successful at each iteration of culture.

Brand your project or be forgotten.

Azuki NFT Releases First Fractionalized NFT

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We have hit a wall with NFTs. The word is out. You either love or hate them. But whichever side you fall on, you feel like you know what they are about. And it's either for you or not. Of course those who are writing off NFTs already, are sounding a lot like the people who dismissed the Internet as a fad back in the 1990s.

Yet, even as a convert to NFTs and the potential of web3, I can understand where the hate is coming from. It's like when the Internet only had a few web pages and you had to get access by getting "minutes" on a physical CD. The infrastructure of web3 doesn't exist yet. It forces you to use all of your powers of imagination as to what the space could look like once that infrastructure is built out. Leaving value to the power of imagination alone looks an awful lot like speculation.

But I just ask myself a simple question: Will people's lives become more digital in the future? Or will people start abandoning technology. Will the Internet become the fad that it was predicted to be in the 1990s? If you think people's lives will be more digital than they are today, then that is a vote of confidence for web3.

But if web 3.0 is the destination for mainstream adoption, we will start needing more than imagination and speculation to get us there. This means we need innovation. We don't need cryptopunks version 47. We don't need 394 different flavors of monkeys. We need honest innovation that unlocks the next chapters of this story. We need NFT projects that make people go "oh, I never thought of that." We need NFT projects that move the needle and start filling in the wild imagination of early adopters.

This brings me to a new wave of NFT projects that are standing out. Projects like Azuki NFT, an anime inspired PFP project that comes with a blue chip pedigree and an ambitious roadmap to match. Azuki started out as a series of anime inspired characters and a promise for future metaverse integration. Its members have worked for Marvel and Disney before, and what they are looking to accomplish is directly related to that path. Instead of designing characters that raise the stock prices for Disney shareholders, these creators are looking to mint original IP that will fund their own vision that they will be able to control and profit for. No longer putting their hard labor in for the House of Mouse, they are out to make an impact for themselves. This is the promise of web3. Digital ownership that many can participate and profit in.

The Azuki NFTs quickly shot to the top of the NFT rankings and their floor price quickly vaulted out of reach for most. Which makes their recent offering intriguing. They have just "fractionalized" one of their IP's core characters, a bean farmer named Bobu, and offered those fractions at an affordable mint price for new members to join the community. There were 50,000 such fractions minted and they went fast.

Azuki is promising that the Bobu fractional NFTs will be an experiment in project governance. Effectively creating a DAO based around one of the characters in their world. It's like if JK Rowling suddenly decided that Hagrid was going to be owned by the fans and offered shares of ownership in the character. Holders of the fractional Bobu NFT will be able to vote in the community to help decide the direction of the character. The projects roadmap lists ambitions to create animations, games and even films around the Azuki universe, and Bobu's fate will be fan controlled. This is having a stake in the game. And as word of the project moves forward and sales of the fraction continue to rise, they will keep generating more funding that goes towards fulfilling their future ambitions. It's a brilliant marketing move that has brought more attention to the Azuki brand, and has also lived the spirit of web3 by giving those who missed the initial wave an affordable entry point into the project. It's a show of innovation that could be adopted by other out of reach NFT project like Bored Apes, should they look for ways to acquire new members in a future wave of the project.

It's still early innings for these projects, but every time one project decides to try something new, the whole space can learn and benefit from the attempt. And hopefully, we will see more of these properties taking risks and trying to add new innovations to what they are offering. One of these days, someone will add a new use case that will serve as the springboard to mass adoption of web3. We are still playing in tech savvy, early adopter spaces. But with every new attempt, the mainstream gets a little closer. Innovation is the only path toward opening the floodgates. Because everyone who already cares about NFTs is here and content. It's the 99% that need to get excited about this space, and so far, they haven't seen anything that gives them enough FOMO to join. Yet.

Shibuya NFT Creates Web3 Native Film Platform

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Hollywood has long been looking for new ways to fund and market films. With the emergence of NFTs and web3, filmmakers and film producers have actively been searching for ways to harness the exponential fund-raising potential that the space has demonstrated. As out-of-nowhere, original IP like Bored Apes have vaulted into the spotlight, Hollywood has been left on the outside looking for where they can plug in their IP.

Yes, we have seen traditional IP money printing NFT launches around the typical tentpoles. Marvel and Star Wars minting one off collections for a limited number of fans. But these moves are a flash in the pan. Web3 has moved on from the quick flip, cash grab days, into having a large concentration of smart and creative people looking how to build out meaningful ecosystems within the space. With web3 native creative projects, it seems like eventually, the next Star Wars or the next Harry Potter could be spun out of passionate creative team delivering surprising characters and worlds to an adoring and high-spending audience that funds higher production ways to bring those creations into the world.

The latest web3 film attempt to step onto the stage is the Shibuya project by crypto-creators @pplpleasr1 and @maciej_kuciara. What they have brought to the table is a stylish website and the opening moments of an original animation that hearkens to the style of Japanese anime powerhouse Studio Ghibli. The website features a stunning and modern version of Tokyo's central hub, Shibuya, rendered in a metaverse friendly style that has all sorts of future leaning implications. The film, is an Alice and Wonderland style animation, which ends with a cliffhanger of Alice standing in front of two doors, left and right.

As you get into the project details, you see that you can mint a "Producer Pass" which acts as a governance token to the project's DAO. With the NFT, you can vote for which door Alice should open. It's like the interactive films that Netflix has been playing around with, only in this case, you vote with buying into the ecosystem. Once the votes have been cast, it will unlock Chapter 2 in the story, upon which a new round of Producer Passes will be minted and the process of deciding the main character's fate will be in the hands of the community again.

The project also has "White Rabbit Tokens" that will be generated based on how early users join the project. The earlier you get in, the more tokens you will accumulate. At the end of the film, the film itself will be fractionalized into an NFT, and all participants will be able to stake an ownership in the final film.

Hopping into the Discord and AMAs you find that there are plans of this being the first film in a web3 film platform, where original stories will be created, and then delivered "direct-to-community." It's like Netflix meets Patreon or other crowdfunding analogies from the web2 era.

Again, reverse engineer your favorite franchise, and you can start to see how a launchpad for characters and stories could escalate. Luke Skywalker could have been introduced this way. George Lucas could have presented the opening atmosphere of Star Wars and allowed fans to buy into it from the get go. Imagine owning an NFT minted in 1977 that represented a share of ownership in the character Darth Vader. The future is impossible to predict, but creative minds are actively looking how to scale their original stories and turbocharge their development and funding via the power of web3.

It's also possible that eventually Hollywood will see the profit potential in fans wanting to have some skin in the game of the franchises they love. What if instead of having an Ironman lunchbox, you could own a part of Ironman, and participate in the success and profits of the character moving forward. Suddenly we aren't talking about fleeting animal illustrations. We are talking about cultural forces opening up and rewarding fans' for their passion and promotion. Think of the money big studios could cut from their marketing budgets, if they just allowed an energized and invested audience to preach the good word and hype up the latest release. We are several steps from this point, but all signs and ingenuity are pointing this way.

Until then, check out the Shibuya project and see if the community will send Alice through the door on the left or right.

Michael Jordan Enters the Metaverse

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Quickly and quietly, things are picking up with basketball legend Michael Jordan's involvement in the web3 space. There have been reports of the hoops icon meeting with multiple web3 and NFT companies over the past months, and now we are starting to see some of the fruits.

Jordan's company that he founded with his sons, HEIR Company, have minted their first NFTs on the Solana Network. The genesis collection is called 6 Rings and consists of 3D bulls with six rings displayed on their horns. The bulls come in various colors and finishes, set against a range of Chicago Bulls colored backgrounds. Each NFT comes with a unique code that the project's Discord community is frantically trying to decode like the DaVinci Code. The codes appear to be linked with the different years that Jordan played in the NBA, but no utility has been revealed.

The details are sparse, but HEIR is promising to create a new era of digital culture, that gives a platform to premium athletes, from high school to the pros, to interact with their fans on a more personal level. Buy in to get this exclusive access will come in the form of athlete NFTs. The 6 Rings collection is considered the "founder token" and will grant early access to subsequent offerings within the app. The app has not been released yet, nor have the roster of athletes been revealed.

Many athletes have jumped into the web3 and NFT space in various capacities. But no one has so far set up an entire company dedicated to the space. MJ and his team, led by his son, seem to looking to create a long turn, new value offer in the emerging web3 and metaverse. With the most iconic and successfully branded athlete of all time setting up the beginnings of a media empire, it's worth taking a look at.

Again, no utility or specifics have been offered at this time. The collection has just dropped and sold out, and there is already frenzied activity on the marketplace as pure speculation fuels the early interest. People are speculating which athletes will be involved, and if at some point there could be a crossover collaboration with Jordan Brand and an exclusive line of sneaker drops. Again, all speculation, but not entirely out of leftfield considering Michael Jordan himself is a part of the company and listed as a strategic advisor. With MJ's connections and clout, any premium collaboration or partnership could be expected in the future.

What gets me excited is the long term thinking. This isn't a one off PFP project, or a dashed off in a weekend project to rug a bunch of fans like we've seen other athletes hastily put together. And it makes sense that Jordan would not go that route. He is famously selective when it comes to where he will allow his image to be used. Not to mention his world-class business and branding acumen that have re-invented the rules in multiple industries on how to market products and services.

As a lifelong MJ junkie, this project is a no brainer. He has never been "just another athlete." He has been the standard bearer and trailblazer that has expertly created and grown every platform he has been involved with. He fueled the globalization and interest around basketball and turned the NBA into the world's second most popular sport after decades of the sport receiving almost second class pro citizenship. He turned Nike into something we'd never seen before with his mix of charisma and marketing savvy alongside the brand and its partners. That he would turn his attention to web3 is not surprising. The money and business opportunities are there. And knowing what a legendary competitor MJ is, you can imagine him sitting back, seeing what other athletes and celebs are doing in the space, and then setting out to blow them away with quality and innovation like we haven't seen before.

I expect MJ to play a role in raising the bar on what an NFT or web3 project can be. If he truly puts his focus on the space, I'm riding with him all the way. Time will tell. But if history is any indication, you don't bet against Michael Jordan once he sets his sights on something.

Boba Fett Chapter 7 Review

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Well, The Book of Boba Fett has come to an end.

While the lasting reactions and memories of the show will take some time to settle in, I can give a glimpse of what I was feeling in real time. The bar for the series was quite high, coming off of the smashing success of The Mandalorian, so it had a tough task looking to meet those expectations.

In the end, the latter series did not top what they were able to achieve with the former. Boba Fett feels like a sidestep in the more sweeping thematic story of The Mandalorian. It was an amusing aside that created some all time visuals, but that left fans scratching their heads about the sudden U-turn in attitude from the titular star.


In the head canon of fans, Boba Fett was the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy. A man who once stood up to Darth Vader. A loner who Darth Vader had to plead to use more humane tactics. With this build up of a character that was long fan beloved, and extremely limited in actual screen and story time, we had no idea what we were in for. But given the triumphant and brutal return of Boba in The Mandalorian, we did expect that the character would flex his muscle at all that stood in his way.

What we got in the series however was a suddenly pacifist Boba Fett, who spent long stretches without his signature helmet on. He was a character long on monologues and short on action. And while the sudden turn of Boba Fett into a ruler who wanted to lead by respect and not fear was intriguing, the thought was never paid off. We never concretely understood why he had the sudden change in temperament. We were just asked to accept it.

The series suffered from a lack of dramatic conflict. An interesting opposing force was introduced near the end of the series in rival bounty hunter Cade Bane. It seems like the story would have gained in tension and menace had a character like Bane challenged and threatened Boba in the opening episode. There was never a face to the danger that Fett was up against. There was a masked crime gang, but we were never taught to fear them, only to believe that they had a stranglehold on Tatooine. It seems there is a strong story to be told here, and I wonder what employing some Breaking Bad level tactics could have revealed. Breaking Bad put on a masterclass of revealing one menacing underworld character at a time that the main character had to go through. Each character was introduced as unhinged and brutal in their own way. From Tuco Salamaca to Gus Fring, we always knew exactly who was threatening the well-being of the characters in Breaking Bad. In The Book of Boba Fett, evil had no face. We never got to see Boba really agonize about who he was up against. It would have led to much more dramatic storytelling and still could have worked with the slow burn tempo of the opening episodes.

In the end, all of our heroes come back to Tatooine to assist Fett in his defense of the town from the Pike Syndicate. Big shootouts and set pieces abound, and we are given some cool and noteworthy action. The setup gives an excuse for Boba Fett to satisfy fan desires by showing him riding on top of a fearsome Rancor beast through the dusty streets of Tatooine. The beloved Grogu shows up and saves the day in Boba Fett's show with his new mastery of the Force. In the end, Fett is seen as the hero of the town and the other characters go off on their next adventures.

While the ratings proved to be a success, you have to wonder where the story of Boba could go from here. Will a season two see him defending the town from a new crime gang?

I was expecting to see some tie in to the Han Solo Star Wars film, which heavily featured crime syndicates. The Emilia Clarke character from that film, Qui-ra, was set up as a capable crime lord working alongside Darth Maul. That would have been a blockbuster worthy pairing to be the tormentor of Boba Fett in this series. But they were no where to be seen. Instead we got a masked gang who we had to accept as being brutal and ruthless.

In the end, The Book of Boba Fett feels like a series searching for an identity. There are cool sequences that lean into the space western trope. There were soulful moments where Fett learned the culture of the Sand People, where it felt like Star Wars culture was moving forward. But then there were also the bland gangster scenes that felt like they could be further developed. And lastly, there were full episodes devoted to The Mandalorian, which served as great asides in that parallel story, but felt shoe horned into a series supposedly building up Boba Fett. It makes you wonder if this wasn't a part of the original series vision, but came down in feedback from Disney looking to get the most popular characters of the new Star Wars era back on screen as soon as possible. Understandable from the Disney brand perspective, but it came at the cost of muddling the narrative around Boba Fett.

The positive side is we are still getting more Star Wars live action. While the series didn't take big risks or develop Boba in the most coherent way, it did create some magical visuals and nostalgic Star Wars vibes that kept me entertained. I'll always want the best for Star Wars, but I'll keep coming back for their live action offerings whenever they drop.

Next up, Ewan McGregor returns in the title role for the upcoming Disney Plus series, Obi Wan Kenobi.

A presence we have not felt since...

A DAO is Trying to Buy the Denver Broncos

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As we rocket through 2022, the web3 and NFT space continues to evolve at warp speed.

Grabbing headlines today, is the latest DAO with an ambitious moon shot set out before it. The aptly titled, BuyTheBroncosDAO is attempting to do exactly what its name pitches, become the first DAO to buy a major sports franchise, in this case the NFL's Denver Broncos. The latest estimate on the value of the franchise is sitting at around 4 billion dollars.


BuyTheBroncosDAO is the latest in pithily titled and boundlessly ambitious DAOs set out to do something extraordinary and culture changing. Sports teams have famously been publicly owned before, like the Green Bay Packers, but this would mark the first time that a professional sports team went fully web3 native, should the DAO succeed in their mission.

Part of the DAO's team include former blue chip tech lawyers and entrepreneurs with solid looking track records. The team is doxxed and their reputations seem legit and built for a project along these lines. The team has also smartly wrangled some political players into the early PR for the project, with Colorado governor Jared Polis being quoted heavily by business blogs and coverage. Polis comes out entirely in favor of the DAO succeeding, which looks to serve his state's political agenda of becoming a crypto first state. This is PR where everyone can win.

While web3 famously generates insane amounts of capital, a funding aim of 4 billion dollars is still a highly ambitious target. This is acknowledged by the founders of the DAO, unlike previous DAOs which have set an all or nothing approach to their financial goals. The founders of BuyTheBroncosDAO have lower tiered contingency plans that include raising only a portion of the 4 billion dollar franchise valuation, and then partnering with traditional investors to round out the purchase. It appears they are willing to stick with the project while having a firm grounding in reality.

The founders have also undertook a bit of financial engineering, which has caused previous DAO attempts to stumble when it comes to regulation. Instead of creating a separate LLC business entity for the DAO, which would be subject to high taxation and regulation, the founders are looking to establish a co-operative, much like how the outdoor brand REI is structured. This would give governance to the members of the DAO, while avoiding the scrutiny of higher taxation and regulation. Again, it seems the project has their financial and legal ducks in a row as they head into their opening sales.

The project has a launch target set for early March, and are currently hitting the PR trail hard and trying to drum up support for the ambitious cause.

We are still so early in the history of web3 and DAOs specifically. We haven't even really stepped onto the ambitious roadmaps they have set out. Only time will tell if this is a feasible and revolutionary way to organize group efforts and funding. On paper, it is all very sexy and exciting. Of course, once the first DAO succeeds, and changes history, it will only accelerate the momentum of the movement to push the boundaries further.

I can't help but think this whole group financial thinking was triggered by the success of reddit's Wall Street Bets and their single minding mooning of the Game Stop stock. This episode proved that even the most money loaded institutions are actually vulnerable to collective passion and pooled resources. This is the promise of web3, NFTs and DAOs. Right now we are seeing a million archers pulling back their bows with hopes of revolution. With hopes of re-writing the tired stories of a world that has forever been dominated by the 1 percenters. If these bands of rebel archers can band together and focus their passion and resources, they have a chance to chip away at the control of the old world and old money.

This is an exciting promise.

This is what deciding to invest in something like BuyTheBroncosDAO represents. Before this time, there was never a chance for someone off the street, with no connections and no qualifications to be a part of bidding on a major sports franchise. If they succeed in achieving the impossible, what else previously considered untouchable will fall next?

Street Fashion in the Metaverse

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Street fashion might not sound like a perfect analog for the NFT space, yet early on it's seeming like a match made in metaverse heaven.

Lately, Bobby Hundreds, owner of the street brand, The Hundreds, has become an NFT uber-evangelist on full blast across his social channels and podcasts. He's turned into this inspirational, almost Steve Jobs type figure, who has made it his mission to open up the NFT space and personally onboard as many people as possible.

Last year The Hunrdeds had their own NFT drop called the Adam Bomb Squad, consisting of illustrated bomb characters that have graced the brand's streetwear for decades. The founder of Hundreds ah-ha moment was when he realized they were sitting on this deep legacy of IP and a super passionate community: the two main drivers of a successful NFT project. After a few tests, The Adam Bomb Squad was a success. Selling out its first mint and now experiencing a healthy life cycle on the secondary market. This has only fueled Hundreds enthusiasm and conviction in the space. And like I said, he's bringing as many people with him as possible. Including all of his OG streetwear friends, which means street fashion could really be the next big thing to follow art into the metaverse.

Another early streetwear foray into the metaverse famously came from RTFKT and their fusing of meta-video game, hyper aesthetics to create a line of virtual sneakers and become the first famous metaverse fashion brand. Nike took note and acquired RTFKT just when their heat couldn't get any hotter.

Streetwear circles tend to be tight and insular, so it was no surprise, yet also a pleasant surprise, when RTFKT tapped streetwear legend Jeff Staple to bring his game-changing and iconic Pigeon Dunks into the metaverse. The alchemy of the old and new came together to create an instant classic. What must have first felt like an experimental lark for Staple, turned into his own ah-ha moment in the NFT space as he witnessed the awesome community embrace and power that comes when an authentic creator offers something meaningful and heartfelt in the space.

And so after the hype of the drop settled down, Staple is approaching the metaverse again, this time with his own solo NFT project.

Enter the Stapleverse.

A connected community universe built around Staple's iconic Pigeon brand. Here, hypebeasts will be able to mint "Feed" and later have the option to risk throwing their feed to turn it into either a "Pigeon" or "Poop." It's the kind of risk it all layer that we've seen implemented in a few NFT projects. Like the Bored Apes Serum, which takes away your original Ape forever and gives you a brand new Mutated Ape in return.

The website is slick. The passion and creativity leaps off the screen. The art for the first drop is perfectly executed by illustrator B. Thom Stevenson. This week, Chapter 1 dropped. It presents a series of graphics that represents the highs and lows of living in New York. As the project builds out, Staple envisions adding references to new cities around the world to the Stapleverse.

There is a roadmap for the Stapleverse, and it's already clear that Staple has the passion and energy to keep creating in the space. With a known, authentic creator behind the project, confidence rises that this will not be a rug pull. Staple has already been a part of NFT history and now is looking to build off his legacy in the space.

There is a strong psychological connection between hypebeast street culture and NFT culture. Both worlds center around literal "drops" of their products. In both space, catching wind of early hype is credibility and currency, as well as often the difference between those who ape in early and those who live with FOMO in perpetuity.

For those who need the right Nikes that no one else has, or the t-shirt that only came from one single shop, NFTs area a kindred spirit. For streetwear and NFTs are both markers of status. And as our lives turn increasingly digital, it figures that we will need more than just a follower count to signal our status and what we are into. Found out about Bored Apes before anyone else? Your Twitter profile will be the judge of that. Get in on the first Stapleverse drop? Just flash your wallet. From now on, your cool points will be stored on the blockchain, available for all to see and judge. It's Supreme drops, but for the web3 savvy.

You won't see the long mysterious lines of people with insane kicks in questionable New York or Tokyo alleys. Instead, these early streetwear adopters will be going on whitelist quests inside of Discord servers. All hell bent on finding out first, where the the latest cool is at.

Hipster Velociraptor NFTs

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I’ve been studying and playing around with NFTs and web3 for a little while now, and now I’m ready to jump into the space as a creator. I just minted my first batch of Hipster Velociraptor NFTs over on OpenSea. You can check out the collection here.

Hipster Velociraptors are a PFP or “profile picture” project along the lines of Bored Apes and Cryptopunks. The latter have helped accelerate NFTs and crypto-art into the mainstream, as their art has sold for astronomical prices. Hipster Velociraptors are each crafted by hand on the computer. I put together the traits and accessories, and then mint each one into a unique and verifiable NFT.

While I am jumping into a newly established trend, Hipster Velociraptors are an original illustration project that I have been working on for years. I’ve struggled to find the right avenue to put them out into the world. And then I saw the emergence of NFTs and PFP art, and realized right away, that Hipster Velociraptors would work perfectly in that context.

Like all NFT and crypto-art projects recently, I do have a general “roadmap” in mind. While it hasn’t been finalized, some things I am thinking about include web comics, original content series, commissions and limited edition drops to holders. We are all so very early to this space, and the rules and best practices are literally being written every day.

Hipster Velociraptors will be my personal NFT studio to create and experiment with the form. As of this writing I have created and minted 7 unique Hipster Velociraptors. I plan to keep adding to this series. The hope is that over time, more collectors will come to discover the collection, and will be curious to look back and see what the original Hipster Velociraptors look like.

Watch this space for more updates on the project moving forward. If you are reading this, then you too, are very early.

Go pick up a Hipster Velociraptor of your own here!

Nike commercial about gender inequality in Japan receives backlash online

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Article re-posted from Japan Today. By Oona McGee, SoraNews24

TOKYO—In recent years, Nike has shown that it likes to move people, both physically with their range of sporting goods and apparel, and emotionally, with their tug-at-the heartstrings advertising.

In Japan, the sporting giant is moving people once again, this time with a new commercial called “New Girl/Play New“, which shines a light on the plight of women across the country. The ad comes with the following thought-provoking statement:

“Growing up a girl in Japan used to mean one thing. Now it can mean everything. So, what do you want to do?”

This is the main theme of the ad, which reminds viewers of some of the traditional expectations and restrictions placed on women in Japan from a young age, while also showcasing some of the nation’s sportswomen and activists who are smashing traditional stereotypes, paving the way for the new girls of the future.

The commercial has English subtitles available, so click the white gear button next to the CC in the bottom right corner to turn them on, and take a look at the ad below.

The clip shows a pregnant mother and her family learning that they’ll soon be welcoming a new girl into their lives. While their instant reaction is joy, they’re suddenly reminded of the downsides of being a girl in Japan, with cut scenes to their future grown-up daughter looking over her shoulder in fear while walking alone at night, and attending a business meeting, where she’s allowed in the room but not allowed to talk. That last scenario is one that recently played out in real-life, when Japan’s ruling party decided to allow five female lawmakers to attend their all-male board meetings…on the proviso that they didn’t talk.

Japan ranked 121 out of of 153 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Index, and the Nike ad reminds us that a report by the World Economic Forum in 2021 showed the average Japanese woman’s income was 43.7 percent lower than the average Japanese man’s income.

However, there is hope that girls really will be able to achieve anything in future, and there are some young sportswomen doing just that right now. Professional football player and female empowerment activist Ami Otaki appears in the ad, showing that women can carve a successful career for themselves by playing a traditionally male sport at a national level.

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▼ High-school sumo wrestler Rizumu Kasai is a member of the men’s competitive high school sumo team.

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▼ And 16-year-old baseball player Ayuri Shimano has played on all-male teams.

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The ad also includes appearances by wrestler Miyu Nakamura and figure skater Marin Honda, along with a scene showing Momoko Nojo, an activist working to eliminate gender discrimination, playing the role of a future Prime Minister.

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While the ad ends with a positive sense of hope for the future of women in Japan, it doesn’t shy away from presenting the problems that exist in the country. In fact, a quick look at the comments section under the video shows why ads like this are sorely needed in Japan, as many of the commenters appear to care less about the message of empowering women and more about the fact that Nike has aired Japan’s dirty laundry on a public stage.

“Currently Nike is hot on making hate speech against Japan.”

“This is a commercial that appeals for the elimination of discrimination against women, but it is a commercial that severely discriminates against Japanese people.”

“You should be aware that the real enemies are not men or women, but capitalists who incite discrimination.”

“Is this really made by Japanese people?”

“Sumo is a culture, and putting a woman in it is just a denial of culture, isn’t it?”

Like Nike’s last commercial, which looked at the problem of bullying and racism in Japan, this new commercial has also received more dislikes than likes, with 2,800 dislikes and 1,300 likes as of this writing.

Nike doesn’t seem bothered by the backlash, though, leaving the comments section open for the world to see, as if to further solidify their point that it’s tough to be a woman in Japan. And with female players continuing to be banned on the baseball field during the major high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium, and female sumo players banned from stepping into the sacred sumo ring at the majority of sumo stadiums, it’s fair to say Japan still has a long way to go in terms of gender equality. However, the more it’s brought to light, the more will be done about it, and ads like these are a step in the right direction towards improving the future for the new girls of tomorrow.

Podcast Reco: M. Night Shyamalan on How I Built This

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Check out the inspiring interview with M. Night Shyamalan on How I Built This. It’s a great podcast if you’re not familiar. Usually they focus on entrepreneurs and tech founders, but they’re doing a little series from the Sundance Film Festival focusing on storytellers.

I feel like M. Night Shyamalan gets written off too easily. Because of his mega-success with The Sixth Sense, he’s been branded as some kind of one-trick pony. He’s The Plot Twist Guy. Yes, that was a cool and signature moment that left a cultural dent, but as this interview reminds us, creative people are more than just a signature moment.

In this wide-ranging interview, Shyamalan breaks down his creative process. He talks about how he carves two hours out every morning to focus on writing. But he goes easy on himself. He allows himself to stare at the wall. He creates a safe space for himself and doesn’t apply un-needed pressure. His only rule is he can’t be productive in non-writing ways. Either his pencil moves, or he works out thoughts in his head. For two hours. Every morning. It’s a solid practice.

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He also talks about his early beginning in film making. He grew up with a Super 8 camera and would essentially make his own versions of his favorite movies. Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Star Wars, etc. He says that looking back on those experiments, he realizes he missed the most satisfying part of filmmaking, the creativity. He realized that his imitations kept him busy, but they weren’t fulfilling. It wasn’t until he started trying to tell his own stories that something sparked inside of him. Since then, he’s never looked back.

When asked about Hollywood’s lack of diverse voices in storytelling, Shyamalan said he didn’t wait for a seat at the table, but he brought his own seat and tried to make the table longer. I thought that was a pretty unique and inspiring take. He says that staying true to your unique background is your power. That you have to commit to telling the story that only you could tell. Rather than trying to tell a story that Quentin Tarantino or David Fincher could tell. What can only come from you?

And finally he touched on how he has stayed creative during the pandemic. And how 2020 was actually his busiest and most productive year yet. He didn’t have to worry about traveling to promote his work, and instead he could just work. He could get his two writing hours in every day. It allowed him to write, produce and direct his next film as well as his next television project. It’s a good reminder of how to take the limitations we’re all facing, and using them to carve out a space to connect deeply with what it is that you do. May we all have more of that in 2021 and beyond.