A Guide to the Collaborative Storytelling PFP Collection
Renga is an NFT project as enigmatic as the “black box” NFTs that started it all. Since its launch in June 2022, the project has done more than 40,000 ETH in volume and has a current floor price of 1.1799 ETH.
Despite the lack of a roadmap, little in the way of traditional NFT tools, and a mostly private artist and founder, the project has maintained a healthy sense of community, fueled primarily by what some call the best PFP art on the entire Web3 .
But what is Renga, and how has it found its success?
What is Renga?
Renga is a 10,000-part NFT collection named after an ancient form of Japanese poetry. With Renga, a group of poets take turns writing stanzas, one at a time, to create a longer poem.
This style of poetry serves as a metaphor for the vision of the Renga NFT collection: the NFTs – which are beautifully rendered in a fluid, colorful, retro-futuristic art style – are like the first line of a longer story that the community is encouraged to follow. to proceed to completion.
As the collection’s website says: “Renga gives us the freedom to create anything we can think of.”
The Renga NFT story started in March 2022, when the comic artist Daniel Isles, better known by his alias DirtyRobot, released his The Art of Seasons NFTs, a collection of dynamic illustrations depicting the four seasons. Isle’s previous success as a 1/1 artist, including sales of more than $70,000, led to his debut collection selling out.
But Isles didn’t stop there. In the summer of 2022, Isles sent “The Art of Seasons” holders mysterious Black Box NFTs to burn for a PFP from an art collection called Renga. The Black Box NFTs alone have done over 10,000 ETH in volume, and more than 1,000 have yet to be burned.
With a vision to be a platform for timeless storytelling through multiple media, Isles created an NFT collection so detailed and alluring that it took Twitter and the NFT space by storm. Indeed, some argue that it is one of the best art PFP projects in Web3.
Since then, Isles and his team have released several digital comics on Renga’s social platforms, including a Manga series about a boy who finds a mysterious black box. They have also recently created a collaborative merch drop with Aesthetics.
Who is the artist behind Renga?
The driving force behind the project is Isles, who was born in Birmingham, UK and currently resides in Hokkaido, Japan. He had early interests in making comics and streetwear as a child. Matched with his obsession with old Kung fu movies and Transformers comics, it’s no wonder you see the mix of east and west, future and past, mechanical and organic in his Renga art.
Isles himself, however, refuses to define his style. In an interview with Hypebeasthe said his style is a “constant evolution … work in progress on a daily basis.”
Despite his reluctance to be limited by a label, Isle’s art style is a unifying force that has made the Renga NFT collection so inspiring to its holders. This is particularly evident in the collection’s 11 archetypes, which have distinctive visual styles that are both unique and cohesive.
The 11 archetypes in the Renga NFT collection have encouraged the community to create their own unique narratives around the collection. Some Renga holders create backstories for their NFTs, while others produce illustrations using their Rengas as inspiration.
While Isles and his team continue to provide new stories and inspiration for the community, Isles has also shared his talents with other NFT collections since the Renga launch. For example, he contributed a piece called City core to the Curious Cabins collection by Stefan Große Halbuer, and he created Bear Survival Tactics for the 6529 collection. Isles’ versatility and distinctive art style make him a sought-after collaborator in the NFT space.
Why is Renga successful?
On the surface, what Renga has given the community since launch – some goods, some few web series, and access to a handful of events – can get other projects accused of having tough holders. But there is no such feeling here; holders are proud of his Rengas.
To explain the collection’s success, some might say that the usefulness is the art itself. But that assessment may miss the point. If people want art as a tool, they can buy a 1/1 NFT from one of hundreds of artists. Renga seems to represent something deeper than that.
It is a means for collectors to come together – like children around a campfire – to make stories out of an NFT collection. By owning a Renga, you can add a new line to the history of NFTs and maybe even art writ large.
The usefulness of Renga can therefore be something closer to inspiration.
More importantly, there is no roadmap for the project. Isles told 137.00 that a roadmap would “hinder artists as opposed to helping” them. Instead, the Rengas are a gift to the community to tell the story the way they want. The collection’s website shows it best here with reference to the original Black Box NFTs and the mysterious nature of the art:
“Together we will uncover the mystery.”
