NFT Design: Everything You Need To Know To Get Started
Every time a new trend comes in, the skeptics, the believers, and the realists come out in droves. Some love and some hate that there is yet another new thing to keep up with. And the latest concept to have inspired these emotions is NFT.
The new kid on the block(chain) has been creating a lot of buzz. Everyone has heard of NFTs but what are they?
Who needs to know about it? And why is it everywhere? If you are on Twitter or Reddit, chances are that keeping up with the updates on the latest and most extraordinary deals on NFT are part of your daily routine. NFTs are being mentioned everywhere and anywhere – to the extent that Collins dictionary has made it the word of the year. Pretty sweet for an abbreviation boasting an 11000% rise in mentions in 2021.
NFT or non-fungible tokens have taken the world by storm. Some call it a digital art renaissance, while some consider this the doom of the collectible and art world.
But what are NFTs? And more importantly, how can you get in on the action?
Find out about all of that and more in this blog, straight from the design teams at Kimp. Learning about NFT design from a design team will help you understand how to approach this at the creation level. While many blogs tell you how to sell, this blog is for people who want to understand NFT design too.
- What are NFTs: A simple snapshot
- Why is everyone after NFTs?
- Benefits of NFT designs for collectors
- Benefits of Investing in NFT design for designers
- NFT Design: Creating An Internet Sensation
- What does a design brief for an NFT look like?
- NFT design Best Practices – Inspiration from popular NFTs
- Design NFTs that break the Internet with Kimp
What are NFTs: A simple snapshot
Cryptocurrency, NFT, blockchain, bitcoin, tokens, and buying the dip are words/phrases that everyone is casually slipping into conversations. But if you go online to find out what these actually mean, the articles confuse you more than enlighten you.
These are, however, important terms to know, in today’s world. So let’s begin with the simplest of questions – What is an NFT?
To begin with, the abbreviation stands for non-fungible token. If you are familiar with the cryptocurrency world, you know tokens are huge there. But currency tokens are interchangeable or fungible. As in, one bitcoin is always equal to the other bitcoin.
But other digital assets on the blockchain (specifically Ethereum, for now) such as art, music, games, and graphic designs that become NFT are not. No two NFTs are equal. Each item has a predetermined value that may or may not match another item.
Every design asset has a digital address, and you cannot tamper with it. There can be copies, but you will always know who has the original and which is the original.
The hype comes from it being a steal-proof and copy-proof way of acquiring collectibles that may soon become one of a kind memorabilia, increasing their value by 100 or even 1000x
But is that all?
Why is everyone after NFTs?
We cannot and should not speak of the hype about NFTs without speaking of art collectibles. Just as we question and wonder about tweets going for millions of dollars and plain GIFs becoming viral NFTs, people question collectors of art too.
It costs that much of a painting for a bowl of fruit?! You’ve probably heard something along those lines before? The truth is, people like collecting items, and they always see it as a status symbol or a worthy investment over other assets.
Currently, the Bored Ape Yacht club has a market cap of 1,197,901.88 ETH and has reached a sales value of $1 billion as of April 2021. You can see how investing in NFTs looks quite lucrative for collectors and investors now.
Benefits of NFT designs for collectors
NFT gives people the added benefit of being sure of the value of their investment and being part of an ecosystem that allows them a safe investment. Unlike cryptocurrency, NFTs are not for immediate trading, and you can wait for some time until the value appreciates.
This hype theory detailed below tells us how investment in trends occurs, and if we think back, we will all agree that NFTs are following the same pattern.
Benefits of Investing in NFT design for designers
Okay, so what we just discussed was for collectors and buyers. But we mentioned this blog will discuss NFT designs too.
Everyone will agree that visual marketing and merchandising are taking over the world. It is truly impossible to think of a brand, TV show, or any industry without thinking of design. The pandemic has once again reinforced the value of artists and designers in our life.
But the art and design industry can be very challenging financially speaking. Marketing, selling, and negotiating are not something an artist relishes.
Creating an exclusive piece of work and adding it to the NFT chain can help you increase the value of your work by making it an NFT design.
For example, if you have a comic or illustration that everyone loves on social media, you can convert it into an NFT. Now, you can sell this NFT design via blockchain to any brand and still keep the copyright and ownership. This value will only go up as years go by, making money for you. This will be all but impossible in traditional designer-client relationships.
And we are not describing a utopian scenario Designers in the USA are already implementing this framework, and your brand can too.
NFT Design: Creating An Internet Sensation
We now know what NFTs are, why everyone is talking about them so much, and what you get by creating an NFT design. But the million-dollar question (here, literally) is how do you create digital assets that can go on to become successful NFTs for you?
What if we told you that the exorbitant sales numbers are anomalies and not the norm? The average sale price of NFT is quite low in comparison, and some don’t sell as much as their counterparts?
These references may confuse you and make you feel it is a very uncertain market. And it is that, without a doubt. It is a combination of timing, creator profile, NFT design, and the current market scenario.
In this section, let’s focus on how to make an NFT design that beats all odds.
Like most good designs, an NFT design starts with a design brief. Irrespective of whether you make the NFT design on your own or outsource it, the brief is important. It helps give you direction for your design.
What does a design brief for an NFT look like?
Creating an NFT design can be challenging. When there are so many options in design styles, design formats, and platforms – what do you choose? How do you even evaluate if it is a good NFT design? Defining your intent, favorite styles, and budgets can make things easier.
So let’s start by taking a look at what a design brief for an NFT should include:
Client Profile
Define your standing in the market before you design an NFT. What do customers expect from your profile? These factors must define the tone, style, and scale of your NFT design. As per current trends, the works of already famous artists are the breakout ones. But a comic creator or a design brand can create an expensive NFT too if you deliver what your audience expects from you, and creates a demand for.
Creation Intent
If we go back and analyze the most popular NFTs (as we will do in this blog), you will see they seem to touch a nerve with the audience base. Either they are viral pieces that everyone wants to own as an investment, or it has an emotional connection, such as designs from their favorite sports, TV show, book, and so on.
Target audience
Now that you know what the world expects from you and what you wish to achieve from your NFT designs, it is time to do a thorough analysis of your audience base. Are they millennials, GenZ, or someone from an older generation? What pop culture design excites them the most? Additional details such as demographics, purchasing power, and location also help in designing NFTs that go viral.
Design style
A design brief must carry the details on the design style and format you want to design your NFT art in. You must base this decision on your creative intent and target audience for best results.
But the trouble – and the opportunity – is that anything can be an NFT. You can create NFTs from memes, graphic design posters, GIFs, and videos. So pick the format that lends itself best to connecting with your target audience.
Moodboard
Besides all these details, you also need to update a list of your favorite, top-performing NFTs for reference. Based on what fits in your design brief’s criteria, you can narrow down the ones you want to take inspiration from.
NFT design Best Practices – Inspiration from popular NFTs
There is absolutely no one size fits all solution here. NFTs are as mysterious and new to most of the world as they are to you. However, we are fortunate to live in a period where people are buying, selling, and trading in NFTs without much restraint.
In this next section, we list some of the prominent design characteristics of some of the most popular NFTs to date and how design can help you achieve something similar.
1) Try video storytelling
Video is one of the most popular forms of content on the Internet. Right from social media content to product videos, people prefer this over any static design and/or text combo. So it is only an expected extension that videos become popular in the NFT design world as well.
Storytelling is the strongest tool in forming human connections and helps you connect with anyone in seconds. Combining these two tools, you hit the jackpot. Digital assets that leverage video storytelling can make for quite successful NFTs.
Consider this video by a Canadian artist Mad Dog Jones, popularly known as “Replicator” that went for a whopping $4,144,000,00. This 50 second time loop tells us a subtle but powerful story of a workplace.
Kimp Tip: If you watch the video closely, you see that it is so effective because of the audio it uses. Using licensed stock audio or original audio in your video NFT design is important to make it attractive for the audience.
Looking for a way to produce videos worth turning into NFTs? Try a Kimp Video unlimited video design subscription.
2) Use Pop Culture inspiration
Pop culture has “popular” right in the name, right? But did you know it is also one of the most common themes in NFTs? This could be because the generation investing in cryptocurrency and NFTs is the one that grew up very heavily influenced by pop culture. Comics, TV show fandoms and ensemble movies have been part of their childhood and adult life too.
Check out this fan art that is again a very popular NFT. This perfectly taps into pop culture and creates something unique that is not otherwise easily available on the internet. So this art becomes special and worthy of being converted into an NFT.
Kimp Tip: Even if you do not want to create something related to a major franchise, you can still leverage Pop Art design principles for your NFT design. A GIF, a video, or even a poster will work well for this style.
3) Create high-quality NFT design
You may feel this is an obvious point, but it’s so important we’re emphasizing it. An NFT is a long-term design for your customers. It’s something they will own and refer back to over time. And that means they expect only the best. A sure way of attracting customers and buyers for your NFT design is by delivering high-quality designs.
The more detailed your art, the better your chances are at increasing demand for it. People prefer NFTs because they can obtain art that is easy to preserve for a long period. And, high-quality detailing will make it even more worthwhile to preserve.
Check out this NFT design below. The detailing alone will make a customer stop and give it a second look. And the color combinations and the idea behind the art make it even more attractive. So quality here is not just the file resolution but the quality of the idea, design, and implementation.
4) Be topical
What is the difference between topical content and pop culture content? Today’s topical becomes tomorrow’s pop culture element. But the time to cash in on that via NFT is today without a doubt. So if you find a particular topic amongst your target audience, don’t wait.
Dive headfirst in and create something that you know will resonate with your target audience immediately. This makes your art unique and also the first of its kind. And now your NFT design just became a worthy investment for the collectors’ world.
Jackpot, right? Yes, topical content can make you go viral and mint expensive NFTs too.
Consider this fanart for the popular Netflix series Squid game. Not only did the Squid game inspire marketing campaigns, but it also inspired NFTs.
5) Try 3D art
We have spoken a lot about the NFT design themes, but there is one NFT design format that seems to dominate this world. And that is 3D art. Yes, customers seem to favor 3D art over other 2D art forms in NFTs too.
Since this is all about digital art, customers may look for designs that are not available in traditional art collectibles. So if you want to ensure that your NFT design is more likely to generate interest, demand and a pretty sweet price tag, pick the 3D Art style. And be sure to animate your designs and bring them to life for instant audience approval.
6) Mimic offline experiences online
This may sound counterproductive, because the NFT fandom always claims that all things online are better than all things offline. This is the reasoning for many to invest in virtual assets rather than buying them physically.
But if you look at the top-selling NFTs, people are investing in NFT designs and assets that allow them to mimic the experience they would have otherwise had offline.
You may have heard that people are buying land online, which is a very offline world activity. This trend is now moving to the NFT space as well.
In another example, there is a soon to be launched NFT collection (Casino Royale NFT) that contains 10036 virtual playing cards. Sport playing cards have also been a huge success on the Solana blockchain network.
The SolSea NFT marketplace has a huge collection of NFT designs that mimic the physical playing cards many of us grew up with.
So if you are looking for a design style to create a popular NFT design for your brand, try to take inspiration from your physical assets or merchandise.
Design NFTs that break the Internet with Kimp
There are scores of blogs, podcasts, and articles on how to take your art and make it into an NFT. All of this mention a sizable investment too. But people forget that it is design at the core of it that makes it all worthwhile.
So while the game may be new, the old rules still apply. You need a talented design team that can deliver your dream designs without a hiccup. And if you want to make it a consistent part of your life, you need a versatile team too.
Thankfully, your search ends here for these requirements. With Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video subscriptions you can experiment with NFT design and craft the perfect NFTs for your brand. We offer unlimited design requests, revisions, and hundreds of design categories to serve you in the best possible way.
Sign up for the free trial to test Kimp out for yourself!