With the metaverse, NFTs and blockchain being all the rage these days, it’s easy for non-believers to dismiss them as the stuff of ‘crypto bros’ chasing after the next Rolex or Lamborghini. Well then, this collaboration is about to change your mind.
Fashion brand HUGO has teamed up with renowned Singapore-based Web 3.0 company, Imaginary Ones, for the launch of its first-ever NFT collection. All special edition, of course. The collection of 1,001 3D animations, entitled ‘Embrace Your Emotions (EYE)‘, will also be accompanied by a series of t-shirts that feature the artwork front and centre. What’s most impressive here, at least to us, is the message.
“Imaginary Ones has always been a strong advocate of bringing about positive vibes and encouraging people to be whoever they are,” says Clement Chia, co-founder of Imaginary Ones. “In this current society, we are always taught to hide our emotions. For example, we are often judged for feeling sad. And if HUGO and Imaginary Ones were to launch a collection, we wanted it to be meaningful. We wanted to inspire people to express their emotions freely and be their true authentic selves.”
This also marks the first Asia-born NFT project to land a long-term collaboration with an international fashion brand. For context, Imaginary Ones (IO) are quite a formidable force themselves; earlier this year, the company made headlines when its exclusive NFT drop 8,888 was sold out within minutes, making it the top SG NFT project in the world on the OpenSea digital marketplace.
Of the launch, there are six unique characters introduced in the ‘Legendary Ones’ series, each representing one of our everyday emotions: joy, sadness, fear, anger and love. Best seen in their animated forms, the feeling of sadness, for instance, is depicted via a crying raincloud, while Joy is almost the complete opposite, in radiant tones with bubbles and a literal sunny disposition as its face.
These are drawn in Imaginary Ones’ signature style, a spherical animation that Chia says he had been experimenting with since 8 years ago, which he describes as “something fun and colourful to look at”. The eye-catching aesthetics are both cute and effortlessly dynamic, while Chia likens them to building blocks that offer a world of colour and endless possibilities.
For the rest of the collection, there are ‘Imaginary HUGOs’, of characters dressed in HUGO hoodies, jackets, bucket hats, sneakers and more, as a way of combining the aesthetics of the two brands. “As fashion is a strong way of expressing ourselves, this combination of our art with HUGO’s apparel pushed our shared purpose of raising awareness for mental wellness to greater heights.”
Ahead, we hear more from Chia about the groundbreaking NFT collaboration, and why he feel the metaverse has democratised the art scene.
Clement Chia (CC): “The collaboration came about in February. Both HUGO and Imaginary Ones had a strong synergy from the start. They love Imaginary Ones’ art and what it stands for — positivity through creativity. We continued the conversation over the next few months and felt that both brands shared the same values of bringing Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 worlds together to do good.
Imaginary Ones has always been a strong advocate of bringing about positive vibes and encouraging people to be whoever they are — to embrace themselves. So the ‘Embrace Your Emotions’ collection with HUGO was a natural first collaboration that embodied the shared values of both brands and carries an important message that is highly relevant, especially in this post-COVID world.”
CC: “The message of Imaginary Ones (IO) has always been about positivity, which explains the beautiful colours that are portrayed in the collection. Also, the various characters that are in the collection are meant to represent different personalities and even different facets of each person.
The sphere animation is what I’ve been experimenting with for 8 years in my Instagram back then. This is where I created a lot of satisfying videos that revolved around spheres. When I created these different art pieces back then, it was to help me de-stress from day-to-day clients’ work. I also wanted to share that sense of serenity that I was portraying in my works.
So naturally, when I was looking to launch the Imaginary Ones collection, I wanted to bring this same aesthetic and make that a fundamental part of the Imaginary Ones’ design DNA. Therefore, the body was all made of spheres which I thought could represent the people of imaginary Ones.”
CC: “In this current society, we are always taught to hide our emotions. For example, we are often judged for feeling sad. And if HUGO and Imaginary Ones were to launch a collection, we wanted it to be meaningful. We wanted to inspire people to express their emotions freely and be their true authentic selves — that’s why the HUGO x IO collection had a mix of characters’ emotions, which depicts how we should express our different emotions freely.”
CC: “I have been investing in crypto since 2018 and have been amazed by how the technology has evolved. I strongly believe in blockchain / NFT technology as it has a vast potential to change the world. Since my co-founder David and I have been in the creative space running OFFSET (Motion Design Agency) and OFFEO (Online Video Maker) for close to a decade, we wanted to extend our expertise into the Web3 space.
You will see that IO has a style that is distinctly different from many other Web3 projects that are often very male-dominated. IO’s aesthetic aims to be much more inclusive and to reach different genders and demographics — males / females, parents / kids, and people of all ages.
Also back then, when I was buying NFTs, the culture was always about grinding in discord/twitter to get on the allowlist, which didn’t feel correct. I feel that everybody has life/work commitments, and I wanted to change the space. Therefore, most of our activities do not revolve around grinding on discord. We have healthy activities like going out for a walk, taking a selfie etc, to get an allowlist. I think IO has a very important role to play in Web3. We are more than just beautiful art or art with a message.
IO is about spreading positivity through our art and how we build our communities and engage with the world. Now is the right time for IO to start this movement because the Web3 space is still being shaped. We want to ensure that we create a positive space for everyone.”
CC: “I feel the metaverse / Web3 has democratised the entire art scene. I’ve seen many artists make a better living in this space as people start noticing the art scene more. And people purchasing art through a more decentralised format that validates the art pieces were a huge plus.
The artists that made it during this massive shift in the space were those who had stuck to building a community even before NFT became a big thing. Artists must continue building the community around their art — with or without NFTs. NFTs are just a tool. The art and the community come first. “
More on the HUGO x Imaginary Ones collaboration here.
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