Early 2022 is looking very promising for CNFTs, with some existing projects launching the next steps on their roadmaps, like Zombie Chains for example and the launch of some exciting new projects like Wood Lords, Borg Club, Soho Kids and Knfty World.
Joining the list of very impressive projects are The Mandrillz.
With some very cool and interesting looking artwork and a focus on community building The Mandrillz look a very interesting project, launching soon (check out the listing for more info on the drop).
We chatted to the team to find out more about the artwork, the plan for the project and the team behind it.
Tell us a little about Mandrillz, what type of artwork is it, what size drop?
The Mandrillz artwork is in comic style with a graffiti background and a strong relation to rap, pop and techno culture.
There are 8888 different Mandrillz (drillz in short form), every drill is a true character. Every drill has a high identification grade. Every drill has different 80ies and 90ies traits. And a few very special drillz come from all over space and time.
Caps, shirts, walkmen, clocks and other freaky stuff. Some are sweet, some are strange, some are angry and some are weird – but all drillz are unique individuals.
Where did the idea for the project come from?
Do you know the movie “The Warriors”? We watched it together – and the idea was born.
What would happen if a horde of Mandrillz are the horde? How would they act? They would try to transform the urban jungle into a real jungle. They would go full ape. And Leondrill is their leader. Broooar!
If you hear this – expect the horde of The Mandrillz.
Expect nice tunes, good drinks and a great community.
What makes this project unique?
Our art is different. Everything is hand drawn with love. There is a very high amount of different traits. Our intention is not a quick drop but something we can be proud of. Something we would hang on walls, wear on shirts and art collectors would love to collect.
We even design our own T-Shirts and Polo collection for the drillz called FOMO Wear.
Our approach is also unique as we try to bring in new NFT lovers from other chains such as ETH, Sol or Tezos.
We are the 1st Cardano Project to be listed on rarity.tools. A website now ranked amongst the top 300 most visited websites in the finance world (Crazy huh?!)
Other USPs:
Owner of our NFT will get:
- Full IP rights – You will be part of the Mandrillz Brand and can do whatever you want with your NFT (e.g. creating your own collectible project of Mandrillz Derivatives included)
- Printable Version – The resolution of your NFT will be good enough to print it on a T-Shirt in HQ or create a printable version in Q3 (297x297mm / 11,7×11,7 inch)
- Companion Drop – Even Mandrillz need a friend
- Community is key and we want to give back. We will create a wallet where some of the royalties will be used to invest in other projects (e.g. Pavia/Sandbox for Metaverse) or into several artists or devs that build on Cardano.
What about the team behind the project? Tell us a bit about the team, what are your background(s) and what has led you to start this project.
The team are:
- Brill0
- Rosk
- Seppow
- Rob (@zeitgeistpool)
Rob has been involved with Cardano since 2017 and NFTs since the beginning. He got his 1st Spacebudz (#BernieBazooka) in April 2021 for 20 ADA (missed Tier 1 haha) – He met several people in the Cardanoverse and from IOHK. His Pool ZEITGEIST (Ticker ZEIT) has been mentioned by Charles Hoskinson in one of his videos and it was selected by the IOHK community delegation. Some of these people have become real friends. Other than that he has been doing Digital Marketing since the beginning of Facebook with a Major from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Rosk has been involved with cryptos through Rob and Brill0. Rob gave Brill0 a few ADA and Brill0 bought a spacebud with it. Brill0 and Rosk are computer kids of the first hour. They started to code in BASIC – and Brill0 was an ATARI contest winner at the age of 12.
Brill0 is a full stack wizard and a master in nearly every programming language. Rosk is involved in the old demoscene – with a high sense for generative art and a Diploma degree in Design with top grade. Both were online before port 80 – on BTX (the German predecessor of the internet).
Seppow is our illustrator with 20+ years design experience. He began his creative career as a graffiti writer aged 14 and has been writing and illustrating ever since. He studied visual communication with a focus on creative direction, editorial design and illustration (MA Degree). He works mostly for cultural clients like theaters, symphonic orchestras, educational institutions and was for 5 years lead editorial designer for the sneakers magazine.
Mandrillz is one of the few recent projects I’ve seen that launched Twitter early and has slowly started building a following/community without rushing to a drop date. How important do you feel it is to get the initial marketing and community building in place before launching?
The community is the most important part, together with the art. Have good frens first – be a happy drill later.
A good project must grow like a plant to be a strong construct. There is no shortcut. A solid architecture is as important as support from the community to create values for collectors. The Cardano community is very special – and this is good. There are people from all over the world. The goal is to reach the hearts of thousands of individuals – from young to old. From large to small. Every drill is important. Broooar!
What is the long term vision for the project? Is there a roadmap at this stage or will you be building as you go?
We don’t have a blown up roadmap with many promises. But we have a community based streetmap.
The most important part is to bring The Mandrillz art on walls, shirts, and into hearts, wallets and in the metaverse. The destination is the goal. We want to create a loyal community who love their drillz. We are not about price but artwork. Everything else is a bonus!
There are a lot of open ends at the moment. We are gamers and comic collectors. We are silkscreen printers and artists. We want to surprise people with our unique ideas and art in a positive way for a long time. But we don’t want to make false promises. Under-promise & Over Deliver together with the community!
Our main Vision is to become a Brand 3.0 within the Cardanoverse – How do we get thousands of Drillz into the Metaverse?! Ever heard of the BlockTrain?
What got the team interested in Blockchain and NFT’s?
Rob is the initiator. He is an NFT guy of the first hour – and one of the faha100 members. He talked to Brillo as a fullstack dev with 30 years of experience and to Seb (Graphics) and Rosk (UI/UX), two Designers.
We all have a passion for computer technologies since our childhood. Rob started with The Doods NFT to learn the concept – and then he motivated us to jump on the fast rolling train.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far with this project?
A big challenge is the convention to handle a lot of traits to keep every NFT unique. Another big challenge is to handle all the people on Discord.
Every single person is important – and you have to find the best words to talk to them. Respect and friendship is the key to a good conversation. We are far away from being perfect – but we learn every day with the help from our community.
As project creators yourselves how do you feel about the recent “rug pulls” or project abandonments?
I think there are different types of rug pulls. Deleting Discord and Twitter and running off with the profits is the worst that can happen. We do not approve of this criminal behaviour at all. On the other hand – Some teams have not received the funding to keep moving forward, some are exhausted by moon boys. There are a few reasons to pull the plug/rug. They all leave a bad taste but if the community is strong as every owner has responsibility of sorts then they can turn around the boat and take over the project.
We think that fictitious roadmaps without substance are also a big problem. As is the wish to land on the moon in the next two weeks or to ride a Lambo tomorrow. It is a lot of work to run such a project and you have to invest a lot of brain power, time and effort into it. It looks easy from the outside but it isn’t at all.
In General – rug pulls are a bad thing! So please do your own research. Invest in the art so that you aren’t too frustrated if things like that happen.
Why did you choose to launch on Cardano?
Rob owns the ZEITGEIST Pool – there was no way we would build on a different blockchain.
2022 will be the year of Cardano and many people will notice the benefits of it.
How do you see the NFT space evolving over the next few months?
The NFT market is just in the beginning. It is similar to the art market – but the blockchain is the gallery.
Many pieces are unique 1/1 – like a Mona Lisa. Other pieces are 1/100 like an Andy Warhol silkscreen print and other pieces are part of a series, but every NFT has a value.
If you hold it the value can increase – or it can drop. Nobody knows. This is good for collectors, this is good for investors, this is good for people who just love art.
What project would you ideally love to do a collaboration with?
There are many great communities in the NFT world.
The Happy Hoppers (great art, oodon!) is one of the teams – or the Derps – the coolest community on planet earth. A collaboration is only possible with good people. You have to trust them. We are in talks with the GoatTRIBE, Kimosabe and some others already. Some have been completed as well.
Do you guys collect NFTs too? What’s your favourite?
We like Rob’s Equine horse a lot. He has supported several projects and owns hundreds of NFTs.
We all love our happy hoppers – even the swimmers and the collectibles. We even love the failed drops in our pockets – because we like the people behind the project and the art.
Thank you to the team for taking the time to answer our questions, we are very much looking forward to the drop. For more information check out the website, Twitter or Discord.
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