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Meet the Dour Darcels squad, a collection of 10,000 unique characters from the world of Darcel Disappoints. For those who don’t know already, Darcel Disappoints is the creation of New York-based artist Craig Redman — founder of the renowned design collective Rinzen.
Louis Vuitton. Coca Cola. IKEA. adidas. Those are the kind of blue-chip names that any creative director would be gassed to work with. Darcel has been there and done it. As the website states, the idea is to build a brand that endures over time, with the community at its core. Token holders will be the first to know and will always be given first access.
Ahead of the release, we caught up with Redman to find out more about the project and how it came to being.
Like a lot of people, I started getting into NFTs during the dark days of the pandemic, there wasn’t much else to do so I dug deep into them and web3. web3 really appeals to me: the idea of the internet being community-driven rather than governed by centralized entities is pretty compelling.
Before NFTs v after NFTs pic.twitter.com/iSfgPm42WV
— Darcel.eth (@dourdarcel) January 24, 2022
As an artist who operates mostly in the digital realm, I also like the mental shift that NFTs create, that just because the work is made with pixels and lives on the internet doesn’t mean it should be valued any differently from other forms of art.
I also like the directness of assigning an ETH value to an NFT, unlike the smoke and mirrors approach in the art world, for example. Everything in web3 is right there, out in the open for the community to see.
I’ve inadvertently been creating PFPs for years — people already use Darcel as their avatars — so it was a natural shift. There is a simplicity to the character but also a lot of personality, so it seemed like a logical progression for Darcel.
These previous PFPs were made individually; with Dour Darcels, I love the idea of building a whole new world that uses coding to create a DD family.
There are 220+ traits and the combinations that have come out of the coding have been incredible to see, so many different personalities and looks have emerged that I would never have thought of myself.
At least in the metaverse I can mute the live music in restaurants
— Dour Darcels (@DourDarcelsNFT) January 31, 2022
I have been working on Darcel projects for 14 years, so he’s endured for a while already! It’s given me the experience to push Dour Darcels even further. I think coming into the space with an established character gives me a unique point of view.
Waste not@DourDarcelsNFT @dourdarcel pic.twitter.com/plZfcc9SiW
— kowdow (@kowdow6141) January 28, 2022
Darcel’s background, with all the projects and collaborations he’s worked on over the years, has prepared me for what comes after minting. I think a healthy mix of metaverse and IRL utilities is important and there are literally endless possibilities for what we can do — from clothing collections to brand collaborations all the way up to an animated series, let’s see what happens as it unfolds.
It starts with the community we’re building through Discord and Twitter and expands from there. I want the community to build Dour Darcels into whatever everyone wants it to be.
I’m here to put out high-quality art and guide the direction and utilities as a starting point, then we can build and decide as a community from there.
Time lapse! pic.twitter.com/gd1QbBWtBc
— DWW107 (@DWW1071) January 27, 2022
To be honest, after working on Darcel by myself for so many years it feels great being part of an enthusiastic group of people. Together we can build much bigger and better than I ever could alone.
