Ashley Crossland is a man who made his bones working as a graphic designer, but while it’s been a solid career, the money he’s made in this field is nothing compared to the big bucks he’s rung in developing non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
NFTs Are Bigger Than Ever
NFTs are a new breed of digital currency. While they cannot be used as methods of payment, they are getting big in that the space is growing like crazy, and you now have people putting their NFTs up as collateral should they ever wish to take out crypto or stable asset loans. The lender observes their tokens to see if their value is substantial. If they feel the worth is there, the money is issued.
Not long ago, some of the NFTs developed by Crossland sold for more than 500,000 pounds in his native Wales. He has thus far produced over 7,000 unique art-based tokens. He stated in an interview:
I never thought it would be this successful. As I’ve always liked art and technology, I was drawn to the NFT space because it creates the possibility of digital collectability, something that wasn’t as easy before. I started posting sketches of humanoid deer in communities online, and before I knew it, the project had gathered a lot of interest and quickly became a massive success.
Crossland is just one of many artists that have found their niche in the digital currency market developing NFTs. Carol Breen – an artist and lecturer in graphic communication design at Cardiff Metropolitan University – has also stepped into NFT territory, though she says many of her constituents don’t believe in the arena the way she does. She commented:
Really, all it is, is a way of managing ownership in a digital space. I think it gained popularity because a lot of people thought there was a lot of potential to sell art in [a] way that was more democratic, so that it would become available to people who don’t have the platform of a gallery. You can assign a piece of digital certification to a piece of art that’s online. That, in some ways, is good for an artist because you can copyright it as well. I’m sure a lot of artists have found new audiences through NFTs, and a lot of artists that I admire have played around with NFTs, but then a lot of artists that I admire are quite skeptical of them.
Giving the Tokens Their Stories
She continued with:
Some have said this is just another way that big conglomerates can entice people onto these new types of art markets. [Actually], they are quite closed off to everyday people or everyday artists.
Jameel Sandham is not a designer, but he’s now working as a writer for a new NFT series and creating the backstories of the featured characters.