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Our CryptoPeops NFT Project Journey: The Origin Story

By Karsten Ivey / KarBel Multimedia (Illustrator and Co-creator of the CryptoPeops NFT project)

How it all began

The journey of our CryptoPeops project began a few years ago. I wanted to illustrate a diverse group of characters we could use in graphics for our own enterprise projects. Diversity in art is very important to me. I strive to create not just fun images, but images where people can see themselves in the art. I believe this can inspire, while also creating sense of self importance – especially for kids.

I wanted the base of the characters to be the same (eyes, face, mouth, feet, ears, etc.), but the hair, clothes, shoes, skin tone, etc., would all change to create a different character. I sat down at my computer and began to illustrate and develop the initial group of characters.

The first time I used one of these characters was for our Mother’s Day Spending enterprise graphic in 2019. I followed up with another character for Father’s Day, and made new characters (based on my family) for a Fourth of July graphic.

Mothers-Day-infographic image
Fourth-of-July-infographic-02

The pandemic holidays

I continued to have fun developing these characters, thinking of new ways to use them. But I didn’t get an opportunity to use them again until more than a year later in November 2020. I wanted to do a graphic on Covid 19 safety for the holidays and needed masked people for the graphic. I decided the characters would be perfect.

Covid-19-Thanksgiving-Holiday-Gathering-Safety-Tips-2

The NFT boom

In March of 2021, everything changed. A story about an artist known as Beeple sold an NFT of his work for $69 million dollars. This was my first time ever hearing about an NFT, so I started researching and learning about other NFT projects, including Cryptopunks. The more I learned, the more I wanted to be involved. I thought about those characters I had been developing over the years and what a great opportunity this would be to further develop them and sell as digital art.

CryptoPeops are introduced

Moving forward, I needed a name for my characters and my collection and decided on CrytpoPeops. It was only fitting since my collection was all about diverse, digital people. I get most of the ideas from my wife and kids, and some inspiration while people watching.

Once I made the initial set of characters (the first CryptoPeops character was inspired by my mom), I needed to choose a platform to use for listing the CryptoPeops and chose the OpenSea marketplace. The OpenSea process for starting an account and minting was pretty straight forward and they had a great Help Center. After going through the set-up process, I began minting NFTs for my new collection.

Cryptopeop-0057-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0057

Cryptopeop-0018-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0018

Cryptopeop-0047-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0047 Surfer dude

Cryptopeop-0039-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0039 Grandmaster

Cryptopeop-0041-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0041

CryptoPeop #0037 Zulu Warrior (Spear & Shield)

Cryptopeop-0003-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0003

Cryptopeop-0014-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0014

Cryptopeop-0035-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0035

Cryptopeop-0044-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0044

Cryptopeop-0034-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0034 Egyptian Queen

Cryptopeop-0032-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0032

Cryptopeop-0042-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0042 Spartan Warrior

Cryptopeop-0033-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0033 Pharaoh

Cryptopeop-0036-Thumb

CryptoPeop #0036 Samurai Warrior

Great opportunity for creatives

My motive isn’t all about the money (although that would be great). It’s about my love for working on creative passion projects outside of client work. Before I found NFTs, some of those passion projects didn’t have a home. Now, I can take full advantage of an NFT process and a platform that will not only give those passion projects a home, but also a chance to benefit financially from them.

#0085-CryptoPeops-NFT-sale

Supportive NFT Community

I have learned so much in the past few months and have been fortunate enough to virtually meet artists, photographers, musicians, etc., from all over the world. This NFT phenomenon is still pretty new for most of us, and this community is willing to exchange knowledge to make the NFT space better overall for everyone.  The NFT community is willing to support in many ways such as buying, retweeting, liking, following and helping promote projects. The community is very easygoing and helpful no matter where your are on your NFT journey.

Learn more

Visit our OpenSea Marketplace or learn more about the CryptoPeops project using the links below.

I’ll be writing more blog posts about NFTs and updating our readers on our continuing journey in this space. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!

CRYPTOPEOPS HOME

VISIT OUR MARKETPLACE ON OPENSEA

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