GameStop invited us to launch on their curated NFT marketplace debut for their October 31, 2022 release. My partner and I set out to create Urban Wildlife, a 2,000-piece collection of city-dwelling animals wearing all sorts of eclectic outfits, from a stone age man robe to a ninja outfit, designed to feel like collectible designer toys from childhood.
Sold 13 ETH in two weeks after launch (roughly $20,000 USD in 2022) and published the Urban Wildlife landing page. I illustrated 254 modular vector components in Figma and partnered on a hands-on review process across all 2,000 pieces.
We wanted Urban Wildlife to feel playful, slightly rebellious, and deeply endearing, reminiscent of a beloved collectible toy from childhood. Four core design principles guided every asset I drew:
Before touching vectors, every idea started as a loose sketch on my iPad in Procreate. My partner and I reviewed each concept together, advancing only the strongest silhouettes to Figma to be illustrated as clean vector assets. From there, we exported the modular traits into a custom image generator script my partner built, programmatically assembling all 2,000 unique characters according to our rarity and layering rules.
Illustrating 254 swappable assets without visual chaos required serious canvas discipline. I organized every category on a clean visual grid in Figma, meticulously labeling each layer: 15 atmospheric backgrounds, 47 distinct animal bodies, 32 expressive eye styles, 78 shirts and outerwear, 84 head accessories, and 9 custom spike variations.
To rally collectors ahead of our launch on GameStop’s curated marketplace, I designed animated GIFs, character teasers, and social promo assets, while my partner ran our Twitter and Discord hosting giveaways to turn curious followers into eager day-one minters. When the collection went live on October 31, 2022, we sold 13 ETH in two weeks, which was roughly $20,000 USD at the time.
Sold 13 ETH (roughly $20,000 USD in 2022) in two weeks after launch on the GameStop NFT Marketplace.
Built a robust, modular design system in Figma spanning 47 animal bodies, shirts, headwear, and accessories.
If I ran this launch again, I would keep pricing dead simple. We experimented with randomized mint prices, which caused collectors to overthink numbers instead of simply picking the art they connected with. A single flat floor price would have made checkout effortless and kept the community focused on the characters.