A guide to a growing and inclusive collection
The NFT community has been divided for months about the usefulness of art. But when a project really centered on quality and community comes around, why force the issue? That’s exactly what the Invisible Friends NFT project is – an art collection that can stand on its own. But what is just that?
As the name suggests, Invisible Friends is an animated PFP collection of invisible people. So does that mean the collection is a neat way to package a collection of backgrounds as a PFP NFT project? Or a nightmare attempt at a realistic rendering of a transparent character model of a human being? Far from.
The invisible characters in this collection don’t wear fancy skin-tight suits that turn invisible like they do. They’re wearing… clothes. Ordinary clothes. Classy, even. To that end, Invisible Friends NFT collaborates with the clothing brand Kith. And that’s what sets each NFT apart in the collection – each attribute corresponds to an item of clothing.
Man, that sounds pretty cool. So how do I buy an Invisible Friends NFT?
If you are completely new to NFTs, the first thing you need to do to buy an Invisible Friends NFT is to set up a crypto wallet. This is where you will end up storing your NFT digitally. Fortunately, they are quite convenient to use, and often come with their own browser extensions. Next, you need to top up with some Ethereum – this is the blockchain that currently hosts these NFTs, so you need to use the cryptocurrency to make the purchase. Once you have all of this set up, you can pick up one of your very own Invisible Friends NFTs in a couple of clicks.
How much are Invisible Friends NFTs?
If you want to know how to make Invisible Friends NFTs, we have some bad news: it’s too late. The first coin has long been sold out. But even though all the pieces from Imaginary Friends’ February 2022 mint are completely sold out, you can still get your hands on one of these unique NFTs. They are also up on secondary markets like OpenSea, but not too cheap, unfortunately. At the time of writing, floor prices are at almost 2.5 ETH – that’s more than $4000. So if you want to become the rightful owner of what could really just be an Invisible Friends Discord PFP or Twitter avatar, you might need to save up a little while.
A brief history of Invisible Friends
So who is behind Invisible Friends? This collection of 5,000 pieces is the work of digital artist and animator Markus Magnusson. For animation fans, you may know him better by his Instagram handle motionmarkus. His smooth, clean animation style has earned him hundreds of thousands of fans on the photo-sharing social platform. With Invisible Friends, the Swedish animator hoped to use his craft with a thoughtful – and well-executed – NFT project that demonstrates his distinctive style.
“Invisible Friends has and always will be about the digital collection of high-quality digital animation art,” said Invisible Friends’ Head of Things coinbilly in an interview with nft now. Fans of Magnusson specifically also have another compelling reason to support the project. “Markus has been creating his whole life and this collection is a culmination of his skills and experiences. It also serves as a passport to all his future work,” said coinbilly.
However, Magnussen’s journey into the NFT landscape did not take place overnight. As such, the true origins of the Invisible Friends NFT project can be traced back to when James Curran founded the Random Character Collective (RCC) in November 2021. To kick-start the launch of this new animator-led collective, Curran tapped his network to find like-minded artists who are interested in “creating generative collections using the team he assembled,” coinbilly said. Among the new collective’s very first members was Magnussen, with work underway to get the artist started on his then undeveloped NFT collection.
Within a month of Invisible Friends’ first teaser release, coinbilly said it “instantly went viral in the NFT community, gaining over 500,000 followers in just a few months.” Mixed in among Invisible Friends’ rapidly growing audience were even “celebrities and people who have never heard of NFTs before.” So what’s in the works for a project with so much attention waiting for its next move?
What’s next for Invisible Friends?
Magnussen and the rest of the Invisible Friends team are not content to rest on their laurels, and have remained committed to the project long after its initial inception. This is proven by the project’s roadmap, headlined by the previously mentioned collaboration with clothing brand Kith, as well as 3D animator Nguyen Nhut. So what makes these collaborations so remarkable?
For example, the upcoming collaboration with Kith will do more than just offer holders brand new NFTs. Winning bidders for this upcoming set of one-of-one NFTs will also receive physical versions of the clothing their newly acquired Invisible Friend is wearing, which will be completely exclusive to owners of the NFTs. This is just one tip of Invisible Friends’ overall strategy to “[explore] the link between physical and digital collection,” coinbilly added.
Following is a series of Invisible Friends toys based on Nhut’s upcoming collaboration with RCC OG. The upcoming NFTs are 3D interpretations of the original series, so it makes sense that they would be paired with physical “3D” Invisible Friends toys. A winning strategy, as demonstrated by other projects in the NFT space, such as Pudgy Penguins.
Forwarding of positive values in the room
By design, Invisible Friends NFTs don’t just look cool. They’re also incredibly inclusive, even acting as a bit of a beacon of diversity in the room. But how is it when every NFT for Invisible Friends gives no visual indication of the race, gender, and general appearance of each invisible character?
It turns out that excluding information is a great way to promote inclusion. Without this information on each of the invisible friends, anyone, regardless of background, should be able to project themselves onto their NFTs. And this was done on purpose.
“[We’re] a brand that welcomes everyone from all backgrounds. We’ve all known what it’s like to feel invisible at one point or another, and we feel that our art, which is our top priority, connects with holders in many different ways,” said coinbilly. “[Moving forward,] Invisible Friends is and will continue to create a brand that spreads inclusion, empathy and creativity.”
