Born from a world of bright pastel rainbows, the Doodles NFT collection boasts 10,000 profile-picture-ready creations of illustrator Burnt Toast, otherwise known as Scott Martin. Martin has created art and illustrations for companies such as Google, Snapchat, WhatsApp and more, but Doodles is the first NFT project which he has produced the artwork for.
Joining him to round out the Doodles founding team are two ex-Dapper Labs employees who were a part of the CryptoKitties project: Evan Keast (specializing in branding) and Jordan Castro (known as poopie).
After an exclusive pre-sale, the Doodles minted out rapidly on October 17, each at a price of 0.123 Ethereum. When the public mint went live, gas on the Ethereum network quickly jumped to over 1 ETH per mint due to a high level of interest within the NFT community, primarily because of the art’s aesthetics and resume of the founders.
Building the Doodles Community: Before the Drop
Doodles built their community slowly and organically by bringing in NFT collectors to their Discord through personal invites weeks prior to the public mint. The team allowed anyone who was in the Discord server the opportunity to mint five Doodles during a private sale, but the server was closed to the public over a week before the mint date.
The closed community pre-mint idea was a unique start to a project. This was meant to create an initial community of people that were interested and committed to the project early on, rather than allowing for a flood of profit-seeking traders to commandeer the presale as the excitement grew.
The Doodles Pre-Sale
There was some backlash amongst those who learned about the project late, as some public minters took issue with the five mint maximum that presale members were able to purchase. Arguments were made that number should have been lower, or just done in a different way entirely. However, the double-edged sword of exciting new NFT projects always seems to find a way to displease some NFT collectors.
Despite the minority of upset NFT collectors, Doodles attempted a new way to initiate its own community and added a new potential method for future projects to build on or simply mimic. Now, their community appears to be vibrant and energetic, just like the artwork itself.
The Doodles Roadmap: What’s Next?
This team has called Doodles a “community-driven collectible NFT project,” and since its launch, it’s proven to be that in short order. The team has created a forum for the Doodles community to post their proposals for the roadmap, and give feedback on each idea for consideration.
Only one proposal — for a temporary contract for a Doodles animator — is officially being voted on thus far. However, 420 ETH from the initial sale, as well as a portion of all secondary sales, will seed the community wallet. These funds will be used to fund community-driven project initiatives to build the Doodles brand, including paying moderators, artists, and marketers.
But exactly what’s next for this collection and the greater Doodles brand is highly unknown beyond hiring an animator, and that’s probably a good thing. There have been many profile picture projects that attempt to do too much at the request of their patrons demanding a roadmap.
Doodles are clearly about the likeable art and the childlike wonder it is able to inspire. It’s also showing us a new way to build community through NFT projects, with a team that knows how to do things right, thanks to their experience in the NFT space.
With an animator soon to be onboarded, it can be anticipated that there might one day be air-drops, companions, or future additions to the rainbow-filled world. But for now, it’s about being a Doodle and sharing the love of this unique brand with your fellow collectors.