As a person who spent nearly a decade inside a creative content production mechanism and grew exhausted by it, I can say straightforwardly that building an NFT collection sucks. It's not a technical thing nor a matter of utilization. By this point, you've seen so many collections that it almost feels like there's no room for complicated stuff. And while diving head-on into building "something creative and unique," you constantly think that your taste is terrible and the mass audience doesn't need it. I know the following argument might sound obnoxious but bear with me for a second.

In video production, especially on a level that I was (mid to low-budget, zero celebrities involved), each project felt like a bit of a vehicle to move another more ambitious project off the rails. The sophistication of the art's message always came second. The only thing I was terrified of at that time – was not gaining enough views and not attracting enough publicity. But still, each time there was a need to fight for the cohesiveness of the director's vision, I stood by that same director. Retrospectively analyzing the situation, almost every time, I felt wrong. Views never came, and publications were rare. And honestly, transitioning into web3 has been hard to throw away such a paradigm. It's a constant internal fight: should I try to compromise the artistic vision of the project or not?

Now inside the team, most of the time, we're arguing about the narrative "popular and decentralized vs. visually comprehensive and carefully curated." The ground I'm standing on is based on a firm belief that in the current NFT environment, we need to think about the audience, long-term speculative attributes, and how to provide all the necessary tools for community participation inside the project. But most of the core team members have never felt any pressure regarding the art they made before in their careers. The audience's quantity was never a concern – and it is now a big one. Zero consensuses has been reached so far. There are three projects in development, and each has stuck at exactly the same pre-production question: should we keep the strictly curated art experience, or rather give freedom to explore the team's vision?

Personally, I'm tired of making content that is not supposed to be widely popular and massive on the ground up. But, of course, others on the team are making an argument that "popular = superficial." Slowly, I realize that maybe it's just me being tired of the world of sophisticated artistic statements. I've spent way too much time protecting the different creative visions without interference many times – so far, it has not served me well. I guess feeling artistically unappreciated is not cool anymore.

As a person who spent nearly a decade inside a creative content production mechanism and grew exhausted by it, I can say straightforwardly that building an NFT collection sucks. It's not a technical thing nor a matter of utilization. By this point, you've seen so many collections that it almost feels like there's no room for complicated stuff. And while diving head-on into building "something creative and unique," you constantly think that your taste is terrible and the mass audience doesn't need it. I know the following argument might sound obnoxious but bear with me for a second.

In video production, especially on a level that I was (mid to low-budget, zero celebrities involved), each project felt like a bit of a vehicle to move another more ambitious project off the rails. The sophistication of the art's message always came second. The only thing I was terrified of at that time – was not gaining enough views and not attracting enough publicity. But still, each time there was a need to fight for the cohesiveness of the director's vision, I stood by that same director. Retrospectively analyzing the situation, almost every time, I felt wrong. Views never came, and publications were rare. And honestly, transitioning into web3 has been hard to throw away such a paradigm. It's a constant internal fight: should I try to compromise the artistic vision of the project or not?

Now inside the team, most of the time, we're arguing about the narrative "popular and decentralized vs. visually comprehensive and carefully curated." The ground I'm standing on is based on a firm belief that in the current NFT environment, we need to think about the audience, long-term speculative attributes, and how to provide all the necessary tools for community participation inside the project. But most of the core team members have never felt any pressure regarding the art they made before in their careers. The audience's quantity was never a concern – and it is now a big one. Zero consensuses has been reached so far. There are three projects in development, and each has stuck at exactly the same pre-production question: should we keep the strictly curated art experience, or rather give freedom to explore the team's vision?

Personally, I'm tired of making content that is not supposed to be widely popular and massive on the ground up. But, of course, others on the team are making an argument that "popular = superficial." Slowly, I realize that maybe it's just me being tired of the world of sophisticated artistic statements. I've spent way too much time protecting the different creative visions without interference many times – so far, it has not served me well. I guess feeling artistically unappreciated is not cool anymore.