‘rare designer’ on his crypto art and NFT evolution of pepe the frog

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Rare Designer on crypto, nft, and pepe the frog

 

Frogs fas­ci­nate Venezue­lan artist ‘Rare Design­er’, but one, in par­tic­u­lar, stands out: Pepe the Frog. An orig­i­nal char­ac­ter by car­toon­ist Matt Furie, the lizard-look­ing frog pouts its fish lips and holds the view­ers’ gaze with its bulging eyes. The meme afi­ciona­dos appre­ci­ate the com­i­cal fea­tures of Pepe and hurl the frog to its meme­dom where sev­er­al fans cap­tion Pepe the Frog with their own wit­ty texts, try­ing to out-meme each other.

 

Rare Design­er steers from past­ing cap­tions over the images. Instead, he gives his own dig­i­tal art and NFT twist to the Pepe nar­ra­tive and turns the frog into the new Mona Lisa, lit­er­al­ly replac­ing Mona Lisa’s face with Pepe the Frog. Named PEPALISA, it is only one of the many dig­i­tal art­works that Rare Design­er has drawn.

 

He has designed pix­e­lat­ed skulls with psy­che­del­ic and sat­u­rat­ed back­grounds. His retro gangs and death-relat­ed fig­ures bring back the synth era with their elec­tric neon sparks siz­zling in behind the sub­jects. He has cre­at­ed his own deck of play­ing cards with corns as char­ac­ters fol­lowed by a string of either artic­u­late or inco­her­ent descrip­tions. More so, many of Rare Designer’s illus­tra­tions gained trac­tion when he stepped into the NFT world.

rare designer nft
PEPALISA | images cour­tesy of Rare Designer

 

 

The artist first dipped his toes into the decen­tral­ized world when a French client told him about cryp­tocur­ren­cy. The client offered to buy three of Rare Designer’s art­works, but he would only pay him through Bit­coin. Though he wasn’t famil­iar with it, Rare Design­er accept­ed the com­mis­sion and hopped on the Cryp­to world wag­on. The French client guid­ed the artist on the then ins and outs of Bit­coin and the Cryp­to world. He also cued him in about ‘Rare Pepe Wal­let,’ a project based on dig­i­tal cryp­to assets born in 2016 and now known as NFT.

 

With no tuto­ri­als at hand, Rare Design­er dived into NFT head­first, learn­ing the ropes of it through tri­al and error. He began a pro­lif­ic Pepe career, cre­at­ing Pepe dig­i­tal trad­ing cards, which turned into his gate­way to more oppor­tu­ni­ties in the new decen­tral­ized world of cryp­to art. When Bit­coin took the lime­light a few years ago, its sud­den pop­u­lar­i­ty proved to be a piv­otal turn­ing point in Rare Designer’s career. It cul­mi­nat­ed in the cre­ation of his now most cel­e­brat­ed work PEPALISA whose val­ue also great­ly appre­ci­at­ed over time.

 

In an inter­view with design­boom, Rare Design­er recalls his ear­li­er days as an upcom­ing artist in Venezuela, his jour­ney through the Cryp­to world, his trea­sure of inno­v­a­tive rares he has illus­trat­ed so far, his pas­sion for the meme econ­o­my, and his mis­sion to pos­i­tive­ly pro­mote Pepe the Frog. As he tells design­boom, ‘Ded­i­cate your­self to what you are strong at, and the rest of your life will become stronger.’

rare designer nft pepe
CORNRUN and CROWNGANGSTER

 

 

interview with rare designer

 

design­boom (DB) Can you tell us a bit about your sto­ry: where did you grow up, and who were some of the first artists that sparked your inter­est in art?

 

Rare Design­er (RD): I am a Venezue­lan artist, I began to train in high school as an artist. One of my first inspi­ra­tions was car­toons, espe­cial­ly ani­me comics like Drag­on Ball Z. Draw­ing made me feel very good, and I did it main­ly as a hob­by. The first time I thought of mak­ing art was at school when we were asked to cre­ate a series of con­cept maps.

 

I was about 12 years old, and from there, I start­ed mak­ing com­mis­sions. My mom gave me some advice at one point: “You have a gift. Try to take advan­tage of your tal­ent.” So, when my class­mates asked me for that con­cep­tu­al map, it was the first time I could take advan­tage of this gift. That helped me pay for my col­lege tuition and many oth­er things. 

 

DB: What tech­niques or mate­ri­als inter­est­ed you the most when you start­ed work­ing as an artist?

 

RD: I would first go out onto our house patio and start draw­ing on the ground. That was the first place I used to start prac­tic­ing. It was one of the first resources I used for draw­ing. Lat­er, when they bought us school sup­plies, I would draw every­where. I remem­ber my class­mates always asked me to see my note­books. They were curi­ous to see what I had done the day before. That helped me feel moti­vat­ed and keep cre­at­ing and draw­ing because, some­how, there were peo­ple who appre­ci­at­ed my work and art.

rare designer nft pepe
STEAMCORN and POPCORNWAVE

 

 

DB: What did you want to com­mu­ni­cate through your art in the beginning?

 

RD: Beyond mak­ing the most out of my tal­ent, some­thing I liked to com­mu­ni­cate was my social real­i­ty. For exam­ple, when I met my friends dur­ing those ages, I would draw each one with the clothes they longed to have. We were a very poor and hum­ble group, we could not afford many things we want­ed, but through a draw­ing rep­re­sent­ing that dream. Curi­ous­ly, that was how I began to cre­ate my own orig­i­nal artworks.

 

DB: How was work­ing as a design­er in Venezuela?

 

RD: My idea was not to study design. In fact, I want­ed to study engi­neer­ing because, in my town was said that engi­neers are the ones who do best, eco­nom­i­cal­ly speak­ing. I want­ed to have my own house for my fam­i­ly. So I had to be real­is­tic and put my feet on the ground. That meant either study­ing engi­neer­ing and receiv­ing a rea­son­able salary or tak­ing the risk and study­ing art.

 

When I start­ed study­ing design, I real­ized it was not just draw­ing but some­thing much more exten­sive and made up of many things. I liked it, and it sparked my desire to grow with­in the area. I start­ed study­ing design in col­lege, which last­ed four years. Then the cri­sis explod­ed in Venezuela (2016–17), I remem­ber that I had to make the most of my design skills and test my knowl­edge at that moment. I earned very lit­tle. We were suf­fer­ing, and I began to look for alter­na­tives. Some peo­ple had remote jobs, and I decid­ed to look for that kind of work.

rare designer nft pepe
CORNNAKAMOTO and CORNPC

 

 

DB: When and how did you tran­si­tion into cre­at­ing NFTs?

 

RD: I start­ed an exhaus­tive job search. I spent almost six months search­ing and I couldn’t find any oppor­tu­ni­ties. One day, I received a mes­sage in Eng­lish, I didn’t under­stand it, but I imme­di­ate­ly down­loaded the trans­la­tor when I saw the dol­lar signs. It turned out that the client was a French per­son offer­ing to pay me $100 for three works of art. I had nev­er had so much mon­ey, but he told me he would pay me in a cur­ren­cy called Bitcoin.

 

I had nev­er heard about cryp­tocur­ren­cies, but the client explained it to me. I had noth­ing to lose at that point, so I dared and accept­ed the com­mis­sion. It was a deci­sion that changed my life. When he paid me, and I man­aged to change the Bit­coin to FIAT cur­ren­cy, I couldn’t believe it. So, I got very curi­ous about this new cryp­toworld. I asked the client, and he told me about “Rare Pepe Wal­let,” a project based on dig­i­tal cryp­to assets born in 2016 and now known as NFT.

 

DB: Did you face any obsta­cles while enter­ing this NFT world?

 

RD: At first, there were no expla­na­tions or tuto­ri­als, it was all tri­al and error. I remem­ber that I had to make a Bit­coin trans­ac­tion, and I sent it to anoth­er wal­let by mis­take, I didn’t know who to call to get it back. And in fact, there was no way back. It was all very dif­fi­cult at first because there were no expla­na­tions. You had to make mis­takes many times, and it was all luck at first.

 

We are talk­ing about the begin­nings of the NFT world. We were exper­i­ment­ing with a tech­nol­o­gy we did not under­stand com­plete­ly, but you could feel the excite­ment of cre­at­ing a work of art that could also be mar­ket­ed and sold. That is, in the end, what the vast major­i­ty seeks: to live off what they love and are pas­sion­ate about.

rare designer nft pepe
MINDFUL DEATH-PROCESS

 

 

DB: How did you find out about NFTs and what attract­ed you to them?

 

RD: Two con­cepts caught my atten­tion: free­dom and decen­tral­iza­tion. Dur­ing the cri­sis in Venezuela, we had very few oppor­tu­ni­ties on cen­tral­ized plat­forms, we had many block­ades that did not allow us to access those ser­vices. The decen­tral­iza­tion allowed me to work from my coun­try and earn well with­out hav­ing to be lim­it­ed by all these regulations.

 

I under­stood every­thing that rep­re­sents the blockchain and its poten­tial. I real­ized this was the future and not some­thing tem­po­rary. Today we talk about the NFT con­cept, which cov­ers many spaces and has reached large insti­tu­tions. It’s a mat­ter of vision: when you see the poten­tial of some­thing, believe in it, and believe that you will get there. 

 

DB: How was expe­ri­enc­ing the cryp­to boom as an NFT artist?

 

RD: There was a Cryp­to asset that was great­ly appre­ci­at­ed: the Pepa Lisa, that is, the Mona Lisa Pepe, that I cre­at­ed in 2018. I only man­aged to sell five, giv­ing me about $100 dol­lars. But lat­er, when the mar­ket crashed and the world entered a reces­sion, I start­ed to dab­ble more in art plat­forms and explore new con­cepts. In 2021 when the NFT explod­ed world­wide, so many peo­ple came to Rare Pepe Wal­let and began to see that much of what is known today as an NFT or cryp­to art was born with that project.

 

In Rare Pepe Wal­let were the peo­ple who cre­at­ed and sold the works of art. This is the impor­tance of Rare Pepe. Many big whales start­ed com­ing, in a mat­ter of two months Pepa Lisa raised its val­ue to $60,000 dol­lars. I real­ized that all the ini­tial effort had been worth­while. I know Matt Furie cre­at­ed Rare Pepe, but at the same time, this char­ac­ter has detached from its cre­ator and tak­en on a life of its own; now he’s part of my life as a con­cept and as a pro­fes­sion­al work. 

rare designer nft pepe
CYBORG BADGE DAO

 

 

DB: What have been your most reward­ing projects in this field?

 

RD: Undoubt­ed­ly Rare, it has been the project that has made me feel most proud, espe­cial­ly for the com­mu­ni­ty in which the sup­port team has devel­oped it. They start­ed doing works and memes with Rare Pepe. A com­mu­ni­ty began to take shape that was iden­ti­fied with my art, which filled me up.

 

Nobody dared to invest in it because of the copy­right issue. For exam­ple, Matt Furie was invit­ed in 2016 to par­tic­i­pate in the Rare Pepe Wal­let project, and he didn’t until 2021, which gave col­lec­tors the green light to buy con­fi­dent­ly, because he sup­port­ed the project of Rare Pepe Wal­let. In the case of, that’s one of the visions: to pro­mote Pepe positively. 

 

DB: In 2016, the Pepe the Frog meme was brand­ed as a sym­bol of hate and racism. Do you think it’s over? How do you feel about it?

 

RD: Some still try to use the past to harm the present and affect the future. This fact does not affect or alter the con­cept of Pepe as such, even though many peo­ple want to use it with bad inten­tions. Gen­er­al­ly, Pepe turned from a meme into some­thing inno­v­a­tive rather than a sym­bol of hate. 

 

DB: You grew rel­a­tive­ly quick­ly. How did it feel to become so pop­u­lar so quickly?

 

RD: Although many peo­ple think I’m famous, I don’t believe it. I feel I am the same as all the artists mak­ing art in this indus­try: from those who have been around the longest to the newcomers.

 

DB: What advice would you give to artists who want to get into the world of NFTs?

 

RD: To believe in them­selves. All work requires per­se­ver­ance and dis­ci­pline. Noth­ing comes easy. Many peo­ple approach this space think­ing they will get rich quick­ly, which is dif­fer­ent. Even­tu­al­ly, col­lec­tors will like their work and start col­lect­ing it. It’s about begin­ning with that pas­sion and main­tain­ing per­se­ver­ance and dis­ci­pline to achieve results in this space.

rare designer nft pepe
FEELING

 

 

DB: How do you see the future of NFTs in the field of art?

 

RD: This will be an impor­tant space in the art world, espe­cial­ly because of what the blockchain gives the artist. The world of NFTs helped solve the issue of roy­al­ties, as they allow you to cre­ate a JPG image and have a record on the blockchain. With every sale, a prof­it comes to you. You are not look­ing only to sell prod­ucts, sec­ondary sales are allow­ing you to self-finance and con­tin­ue grow­ing the brand. This allowed peo­ple like me to devel­op a brand and achieve it through the same com­mu­ni­ty that loves it and helps us take it to a much big­ger place.

 

DB: What is cur­rent­ly obsess­ing you and how does it feed your art?

 

RD: Recent­ly, I had reflect­ed a lot because there was a time when I lost inspi­ra­tion. It’s some­thing that usu­al­ly hap­pens to artists. I was dis­cussing with my team that, in our case, we must keep the fun, which is what I have tried to do to keep myself moti­vat­ed and pas­sion­ate about the project and the works of art. I have pro­posed to the team: let’s demon­strate it is a fun project. As long as we have pas­sion, that will allow us to con­tin­ue going the extra mile and keep work­ing ahead for it.

rare designer nft pepe
ANNOTATION 2020-04-28 130900

 

 

DB: What are your plans for 2023?

 

RD: To devel­op the Rare Pepe brand fur­ther. Not 100%, let’s say 90%, because I want to ded­i­cate 10% to my per­son­al space as an artist. We want to get to a point where the brand is asso­ci­at­ed or reach­es an offi­cial col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bored Ape. You have to pro­duce good con­tent, and that’s what we have this year for – to work hard and become more professional. 

 

DB: Do you have a per­son­al motto?

 

RD: There is a phrase from a book I read years ago, and I always car­ry with me: “ded­i­cate your­self to what you are strong at, and the rest of your life will be strength­ened.” When you like what you do, you do it with all your moti­va­tion and effort. And that allows you to walk the extra mile to accom­plish results. It’s where you get oppor­tu­ni­ties, where you grow up, and where the doors open for you.

rare designer nft pepe
ANNOTATION 2020-04-28 115724

 

 

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interview: ‘rare designer’ on his crypto art and NFT evolution of pepe the frog

 

Annotation 2020-04-28 141047

Anno­ta­tion 2020-04-28 141047

project info:

 

artist: Rare Design­er

type: NFT and Cryp­to art



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