Laika League

NFT Project

I worked on this project with a friend in order to develop my design practice outside the parameters of the classroom. I designed and illustrated a set of 10,000 programmatically generated digital artworks that were sold as online art collectibles. I acted as creative lead, designing and illustrating the overall look and feel of the collection and accompanying designs. During this process, I gained experience with close collaboration, website building, creating a brand identity and artwork from scratch, and applying my designs strategically in a real-world business context.

Roles: Website Design, Illustration, Brand Identity Design, Logo Design

Timeline: 2.5 months

Tools Used: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, Squarespace

Deliverables: Website Design, Illustration Set, Branding Components, Accompanying Illustrations, Emote Designs

Project Overview

Goal: To develop branding and illustrations for a 10k generative NFT art project.

The Laika League is a set of illustrations of Laikas; they’re playful aliens that named themselves after Earth’s first animal ever sent into space - Laika the dog. The Laikas revered the exploratory spirit of the Earthlings, and created a fan club in commemoration. Much of the design motifs and illustrations are related to space, aliens, and dogs to represent the brand.

Supplemental Illustrations and Designs

Discord Icons

Website

For the website layout, I reviewed competitors’ websites in the NFT space (such as Cool Cats and Fang Gang) and then created a wireframe for the general layout of the site. I worked with @d0vetail to hone the layout for our business goals, then moved forward with designing each page. This was my first time working with Squarespace. I learned a lot about website building, injecting code, and designing for a business venture.

Conclusion

This project gave me room to organize, explore, and execute ideas to realize an original, personal vision. In addition to my design work, I acted as project manager, planning our timeline and establishing milestones. Overall, it was a great chance to make something playful and build a brand environment from the ground up.