However, there is another category of people that belong to the NFT narrative…

NFT’s blasted into existence through the Etherium blockchain in 2021 causing a frenzy of opinions, backlash and ultimately, investment. A lot of people got really rich, really quickly. Like with any new investment opportunity there were those that we’re quick off the mark and those that were late to the party. However, there is another category of people that belong to the NFT narrative and that is where I and a close friend sit. Its the category of… Let’s just create something purely from a place of exploration, experimentation. No business plan, no nothing. Just unadulterated creative output.

… you know, a standard side project that involves creating an entire range of NFT trading cards.

Sean Brady is a senior Visual Designer, Art Director, 3D Artist and close friend of mine. He came to me splitting at the seams with excitement, which is always the case with Sean but in doing so brought forward a highly conceptual venture that caught my attention. It was another one of his many side projects, you know, a standard side project that involves creating an entire range of NFT trading cards, brand identity design, website build and marketing infrastructure with the odd motion graphics and 3D rendered promotional video thrown in. I mean, not like we both work highly demanding full time jobs or anything. Some people you just have to admire for their relentless drive.

Arise Animated Logo

The logo was to represent the coming together of three main elements of the Arise Collection. When combined they could potentially ‘unlock’ areas of the website, unique merchandise and rewards.

Thought Process + Development

Possibly the quickest logo creation in all of my 15yrs design career. We knew we wanted it to be appear techy and to appeal to a younger crowd but other than that we entered the process with naivety and a kind of gratuitous playfulness.

…often few words are spoken and words themselves, struggle to describe it.

I would like to think we all have people that are an extenuation of ourselves. In a creative context if you are fortunate enough, these can come in the form of work colleagues. However unfortunate, these are often hard to come by. I have the pleasure of working with Sean on projects for Aidy and Co, particularly 3D design and when we do it is always the same. Some may call it a ‘flow’, or even ‘wave length’ but all I know is when you work with these kinds of people often few words are spoken and words themselves, struggle to describe it. You just do. I would best describe it as a rhythmic flurry of creative output which quickly form the pieces to the puzzle, its an extremely unique place to be in. It’s where we thrive as creatives and as humans.

With any identity or logo design you are constantly looking for ways to build in the concept and signal to people its function. Here, I found meaning retrospectively in the repeating of the word, Arise. Almost by accident. It splays vertically which in effect gives a nod to the NFT card collection as if it were a physical deck of cards or equivalent.

The over aching concept of Arise was to build something more than just an NFT collection. To build a community or interactive pathway for people to engage and play against each other with the assets they had acquired. With any community its defining factor is that it is living. To represent this I felt that the website should have moving imagery, animations to make it feel more alive.

The characters created by sean were loosley based around the popular trading cards of the 90’s, Top Trumps. Hopefully some of you are old enough to remember them. Each would have their own gaming values which could be played against each other in an online format.

We had so much fun creating this promotional launch video. It was the result of one single studio session, smashing out the structure, composition, key frames, plugins, sound design etc. When it came to the track for the video it had us in tears of laughter. It was so bold, almost lary but worked just how Sean had envisaged. Be prepared…

Arise NFT Collectable Art - Motion Design by Aidy Brooks and Sean Brady.

Inevitably, I created my own collection.

So, the project had ended, Sean was happy. I was happy but unfortunately he’d got me a little too excited about the scope of this project. I found myself delving deeper and at a brief stroke of the pen I had created my own collection for the Arise series. Purely hypothetical and without his endorsement but it was all just for fun anyway so he couldn’t exactly deny me the opportunity. I pulled some Manga/ Anime style work i’d done many moons before and compiled them into a series of NFT trading cards. I named it the Freedom Clan to honour the nature of the project itself.