Fortune’s new cover of Shells will be an NFT
Cover illustration of IX Shells
For a 94-year-old publication, Fortune has done some remarkably innovative things on the crypto front. These include launching the first mainstream media vertical dedicated to the blockchain in 2018, and three years later publishing a whimsical crypto-themed cover and branding it as an NFT. Now Fortune Crypto is breaking new ground again.
The April/May issue of the magazine will feature a blockchain theme to mark the publication of a special crypto issue featuring the Fortune Crypto 40, a first-of-its-kind ranking of the most important companies in the industry. As for the cover, which will be on newsstands later this month, you can tell from the illustration above that it has a very different feel to its predecessor, which was written by artist pplpleaser and celebrated the 2021 bull market.
The new cover, by 32-year-old Panamanian artist Ix Shells (aka Itzel Yard), has a grittier urban aesthetic and conveys feelings of construction and resilience. The illustration is a monument to the crypto industry’s worst year ever – one marked by scandal, price collapse and regulatory backlash – but also a testament to those who have been building through it all. For Ix Shells, who is also a coder and integrates computer themes into his art, the story is personal. Unlike many of the drive-by speculators who all too often define the industry, she has long made crypto the center of her community and career.
To mark the occasion, Fortune and Ix Shells is selling an animated version of the cover as an NFT for 24 hours starting this Sunday at Foundation. The parties made the decision to offer NFT at a democratic price point of 0.1 ETH (around $175) in hopes that the crypto community will come together to own a piece of history and support one of their own. It is also refreshing that for the second time, Fortune’s NFT artist is a woman of color – proving once again that the industry is much more than the crypto brethren of popular stereotype.
If you are interested in learning more, you can find details here Fortune’s Foundation page. Or join us at noon ET today for a Twitter Spaces (@Fortunemagazine) where our NFT reporter Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez will talk to Ix Shells about the cover and much more.
Jeff John Roberts
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@jeffjohnroberts
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