Right now, there are two ways for people to get involved with NFTs: buy NFTs you\u2019re interested in and hold them in your digital wallet, or create an NFT of your own. If you\u2019re planning on the latter route, you\u2019re going to need to find the right NFT artist to help you.<\/p>\n
In this post, we’ll take a look at the process of finding and working with NFT artists to build your NFT project successfully. I\u2019ll also be introducing some of my favorite tools for sourcing and working with creators.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dive in!<\/p>\n
Book My Free NFT Marketing Consultation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Creating an NFT<\/a> is an excellent way for content creators to monetize their work in a digital landscape. Like any innovative new project, however, you\u2019re going to need the right tools and resources to bring your NFT campaign to life.<\/p>\n The process for most companies and entrepreneurs will begin with finding an NFT artist. All the major NFT communities, from the Bored Ape Yacht Club to the VeeFriends<\/a> landscape, started with a search for the right talent.<\/p>\n There are a number of helpful tools you can use to track down your ideal artist, such as:<\/p>\n Once you find a potential artist you want to work with on any of these marketplaces, make sure you check out their portfolio of previous work. Creative marketplaces are great for seeking artists because you can see the projects these people have worked on before.<\/p>\n Dive Deeper:<\/strong> If you\u2019re happy with the artwork you find on your chosen artist\u2019s profile, you can learn how to reach out to them using the contact details on your marketplace. I personally like to reach out to a handful of different artists \u2013 maybe 10 or 15 \u2013 across a range of marketplaces.<\/p>\n A lot of these artists are actively looking for work, so they can usually offer you a pretty reasonable price. Remember, we\u2019re still in the very early stages of the NFT revolution, so most people haven\u2019t ramped up their prices too much (yet).<\/p>\n When you\u2019re connecting with artists for your NFT project, I\u2019d recommend looking at artists from different communities who already have experience with NFTs. For instance, to find the name of an artist listed alongside his or her NFT, check out some of the top NFT marketplaces, like:<\/p>\n NiftyGateway<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n OpenSea<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SuperRare<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n If you already have NFTs you\u2019re interested in, you can also check out their project pages and community sites where they list information about their \u201cteam.\u201d<\/p>\n These pages usually include a little information about the artist, so you can track them down and reach out over Twitter, Instagram, or other social media platforms. Just keep in mind that if these artists have worked on a very popular project before, they\u2019re probably not going to be available.<\/p>\n Another thing I like to do is just visit Twitter and see what people are talking about in the NFT community. You can literally just search for a tag like #NFTArtist<\/a>:<\/p>\n Some people are listing this term in their profiles, or mentioning it in their Twitter feed, so you can find relevant NFT artists<\/a> pretty easily:<\/p>\n If people are actively talking on Twitter, they\u2019re probably also interested in working on additional projects, so you may have a better shot of getting support this way.<\/p>\n Dive Deeper:<\/strong> Book My Free NFT Marketing Consultation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Simply figuring out where to contact your potential NFT artist isn\u2019t enough. You\u2019ll also need to determine how<\/em> you\u2019re going to start your project and communicate your idea.<\/p>\n When working on my own NFT project, I found out some pretty important things. For instance, if you tell your artist you\u2019re looking for \u201cvolume\u201d and want to create 50 different characters fast, they may be able to give you a discount on the bulk work. This was something that worked really well for me during the early days of my \u201cLeveling Up Heroes<\/a>\u201d project:<\/p>\n Notably, it\u2019s also worth asking your artist how they\u2019re going to deal with things like edits and re-dos. I had to go through about eight different initial sketches for some of my character designs. If you really want to get it right, you might need more than one sketch.<\/p>\n From day one, I\u2019d recommend setting up a clear workflow for how you\u2019re going to communicate about versions of your project. Your artist is going to send you some sketches, you\u2019re going to provide feedback, they\u2019re going to send more sketches, and so on. Some artists are very happy to keep working with you edit after edit, but others will require you to pay extra after you make so many changes.<\/p>\n One thing I had to highlight to our artists pretty early is that we were planning on making two genders for each of our characters, and 40 different characters in total. This means a total of 80 designs, all distributed through different rarity levels.<\/p>\n Talking about character development during the initial stages of the design process is very important. They need to know where you\u2019re going with the project, so they can get excited about and engaged. The more you communicate with your artists and get them involved, the better. It\u2019s the same when hiring community people or anyone else to help you with your NFT project.<\/p>\n Learn More:<\/strong>\u00a0NFT Marketing Agencies: Best Way to Promote Your NFT Project<\/a><\/p>\n As I mentioned above, although you\u2019re paying your artists to get this work done for you, you also want them to be passionate about and engaged with the project. During the early stages of your NFT strategy, you\u2019re not going to have a ton of people helping you out.<\/p>\n The space is still new, so you don\u2019t have a lot of people looking for full-time work either. You\u2019re going to have to make do with a lot of freelancers and contractors instead.<\/p>\n While these professionals can obviously be very useful, they can also easily lose interest in your project when something else comes along. I tend to think of contractors as a kind of mercenary: They\u2019re not really incentivized to work that hard for you, but if you can get them excited and compensate them with more than just cash, you\u2019re going to see the benefits.<\/p>\n I think getting your artists really passionate about your NFT project<\/strong> will help you do better than 99% of the other projects out there when they\u2019re just focused on grabbing cash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We\u2019re very focused on the long-term with how we\u2019re working on “Leveling Up Heroes,\u201d and finding the artist is just one piece of this puzzle \u2013 but it\u2019s an important one.<\/p>\n You need to negotiate, communicate about the project, and work with your contractors closely \u2013 and slowly<\/em>. In some cases, you might even consider having brainstorming sessions with your artists where you can take their ideas and concepts into account. This creates a better level of ownership.<\/p>\n Treat your artists well, and they can really help you make the most of your NFT strategy when you\u2019re first getting started. They\u2019ll also be a lot more likely to go above and beyond to deliver the kind of results you want.<\/p>\n3 Tools to Help You Look for Artists to Create Your NFT<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\n* 5 Examples of Brands Using NFTs to Monetize Their Work<\/a>
\n* NFT Marketing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started<\/a>
\n<\/p>\nConnecting with Your NFT Artist<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"NiftyGateway\"](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/NiftyGateway.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"OpenSea](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OpenSea-drops-1280x710.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"SuperRare](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SuperRare-market-1280x707.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"NFT](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/NFT-community-on-Twitter-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"NFT](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/NFT-artists-on-Twitter.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n* Top 5 OpenSea Alternatives<\/a>
\n* How to Promote Your NFTs the Right Way<\/a>
\n* How Social Tokens Will Change Marketing Forever<\/a>
\n<\/p>\nNegotiating with Your NFT Artist<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Leveling](\"https:\/\/www.singlegrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Leveling-Up-Heroes-1-1280x691.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCreating Engagement with Your Artist<\/strong><\/h2>\n