Dream big! Sounds cliché but the world of NFTs has shown me that it is the only right way.
6 months ago I (CCEMM) bought a GEVOL. It was not my first NFT but it was a NFT that has changed something.
First off I was in awe and I still am with KidEight & the art of the GEVOLS. There is no comparable project of 2021 that delivered this quality, precision and vibe. The anti-hero, the Walter White of NFTs, gave me a sense of digital freedom and identity. This is when I also realized the power of NFT in that scope: Being part of a community and creating a digital identity through art was a very exciting first experience and process. And it made click in my mind.
I knew in February of 2021 that I wanted to be much more engaged in the world of NFTs. As a filmmaker, producer and creative director I had developed the necessary skillsets, network and passion in more than 15 years of hard work. In June an old creative partner and friend @fritzgnad and I finally co-founded a NFT native startup EveryNFT_me in Berlin with a simple idea: Create innovation & tech, be helpful to the NFT community, become an incubator/aggregator for artists & brands and establish Germany’s first curated NFT Launchpad.
The journey (of the Cyclops) had just started.
The start was not easy. Art. Tech. Teams. Community. It was a constant learning, still is! The NFT world can be very exhausting. There are so many layers to master in this space to be successful. I have to admit we probably did not everything 100% right. We have for example created the KVLT Zombies and although the art is really nice, we did not manage to understand the community and did not reach many with what we were buildng. There were less than 50 minted which was quite sad for the artist and the whole team.
But here is something we never did: Give up. I think this comes with the many years of experience in the creative field. Fritz has an incredibly successful track record with many awards and has learned just like me that the name of the rule is: Work hard.
Early on our journey and through a common friend I’ve met Cans from Istanbul. CANS who has been working as an illustrator for many years and who has many publications came with the first drawings of the Cyclops which at first sight were brilliant. And after a few meetings the process has started to become more concrete. And that beginning turned into an almost four months journey now.
I realized quite early with the speed of NFT projects displaying every day and our bad experience with the KVLT Zombies that a simple 2D PFP project would not be enough. Especially with our intention to build something long lasting. Probably an old habit of mine coming from web2 — I like to build stuff that stays around as long as possible and create value for society.
Cyclops were slowly coming to life
Through our entire teams creative experience and our network we’ve quickly created an incredibly talented team around the IP @CyclopsCR that we have been producing for many months now with an exciting roadmap. And we are having so much fun!
While working with Cans on the 2D Artwork with different ideas, layers, traits we were also building better smart contracts (our erc721a contract today is great), better scripts to better randomize, better processes with a merkle proof for WL (early Access), a better UI experience for the front-end and so on.
We also started working on the story of the Cyclops, the narrative, the universe. What are the Cyclops? What is their past, what is the conflict, what do they want?
I had a clear vision in my mind: We needed to have the entire 2022 roadmap ready before launch! Therefore we also extended the team quite early into Sandbox Voxel Artists, Sprite Artists and 3D Artists. With Nick, Blendreams and Melniverse we then started working on the Walking, Transforming & Dancing Cyclops.
Fast-Forward: Cyclops x Gevols
Many months fast forward we were building and building many layers of that project that eventually is going become a web3 media company, before selling any NFTs. During that process I reached out to the Gevol team for a collaboration, with little hope as we had not sold one single NFT of the Cyclops yet and our Twitter reach was not that good, to be honest.
But the team responded, we had a couple of meetings and in the meantime the Walking & Dancing Cyclops were gaining attraction and had reached 7–8 ETH Volume on Opensea (not incredibly much but ok and good for that stage of the project). The entire Gevol team was very straightforward, asked the right questions and was incredibly supportive as they must have seen our passion and commitment. And so a couple of days ago…I got a call with a green light!
Today we have actually announced a partnership and collaboration with the Gevols which is so thrilling and exciting for us all and for me personally with the journey that I’ve shared with you.
Now what?
Well, first I feel proud of our team and the journey! It’s a testimonial that hard work and commitment will be seen and maybe be even rewarded.
But obviously the partnership with the Gevols alone will not be enough for all the things we want to build and achieve with the Cyclops! And we will not rest. The journey of the Cyclops is just beginning…and we have so many ideas, just like this one below.
With love and appreciation.
Cem & the Cyclops Team.
