Digital artist Dave Plowden created Max’s Garage NFT to do well in the real world
Max’s Garage is an NFT project created by Dave Plowden in an attempt to bridge the NFT space with charitable causes. The rapid rise of NFTs (or non-fungible tokens) over the past few years has shown that the digital world is not going anywhere anytime soon. With Max’s Garage, Plowden’s vision is to remove negative stereotypes of NFT projects that are just get-rich-quick scams. He aims to leverage the rapid fundraising capabilities of NFTs to impact the IRL (in real life) community with his art.
The collection and its history
Max’s Garage started with an origin compilation called “1st Road Trip”. The first collection has 20 tokens, each representing a GIF that has a hand playing with a toy vehicle. From red pickups to taxis, green tractors or colorful ice cream trucks, each NFT in the collection is unique, creative and inviting, as they feature playful and fun images of the vehicles that make up our communities.
Behind the art is a unique story that gave way to this playful and relatable collection. The images were inspired by a boy named Max, the son of Plowden’s close friend. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Plowden saw how important autism programs and organizations were for children like Max, so he sought to use his creative abilities to contribute to organizations that help children. Max’s favorite toys are cars and fire trucks, as he loves the feeling of rolling the object and making it move in real time. As a result, Plowden decided to create Max’s Garage and show his hand to Max or one of his friends playing with a toy vehicle.
Changing the tone of the NFT world
Max’s Garage has goals and values that deviate from the typical beat in the NFT space. Dave Plowden made this collection with no intention of getting rich. Instead, 100% of the money earned through each NFT purchase goes to organizations that support children.
In April 2022, Plowden pledged to donate 100% of the proceeds from Max’s Garage 1st Road Trip collection to the Pittsburgh chapter of Best Buddies International. The 1st Road Trip collection went on sale on 22 April 2022 and sold out within 15 hours. After that, a vehicle auction for Max’s Fire Truck took place and sold $2,969 USD (1 ETH at the time) to Cindy who goes by @Cindyth1_nft on Twitter. Plowden also collaborated with another NFT project, Ugly Sweaters by Ira Magnusson, launching an additional honorary NFT on April 24 featuring two bears from Magnusson’s collection riding in a VW-style van on a road trip. In total, sales of the Max’s Garage 1st Road Trip collection raised over $7,600 for Best Buddies Pennsylvania.
“Making Max’s Garage showed me that there are some great people in this world who wanted to support what I started.” Plowden said. Mike Cannings and Ashley Bestos of Lyke Island, a thriving NFT collective, reached out to Plowden to offer support for the launch of Max’s Garage and also to donate $1,000 to Best Buddies Pennsylvania. Lyke Island borrowed the intellectual property from one of their NFTs, “Pippin’s Farm”, where Plowden used the green tractor as a utility vehicle in the first Road Trip collection.
On May 23, 2023, Dave Plowden and Max delivered the donation check to Best Buddies at the Pittsburgh office. They were welcomed by Samantha Civitate, Director of Development. $7,638.49 raised for Best Friends of Pittsburgh will go toward a cooking competition that connects top Pittsburgh chefs with people living with intellectual disabilities for an event to learn new cooking skills and have fun.
The artist behind the collection
David Plowden, an artist living in New York, who works as VP of Marketing for a protein bar company called Chef Robert Irvine’s FITCRUNCH. With over 15 years of experience in the marketing industry and a lifelong commitment to and passion for painting and art, his outreach, commitment and creative skills have intersected in this project to create a truly impactful collection. As an artist, he has always been dedicated to helping others through his work and having experienced a tumultuous childhood himself. His focus is to provide support and services to children in need.
What will be next? Continuing the charitable impact
Plowden plans to launch a collection of food trucks for the second road trip in September 2022, donating 100% of the proceeds to No Kid Hungry. After that, there will be a holiday toy drive at the end of the year. With an infinite capacity for generosity and a productive artistic spirit, the project promises to continue to develop and impact as many lives as possible.
See the entire collection at OpenSea, learn more about the project, or contact Dave Plowden at Twitter to keep you updated on future Max’s Garage initiatives.
Media contact
Company name: Max’s Garage NFT
Contact person: Dave Plowden
Email: Send email
Country: United States
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