Earn a personalized NFT just by using Storey, and be a Web3.0 fashion pioneer!
Storey is launching a limited edition NFT reward based on your Moments Selfies posts.
Sales of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, reached $25 billion in 2021, demonstrating that the sector is one of the most sought-after markets in crypto.
A new subset of NFTs is emerging based on generative art.
In a recent study, it was reported that “women account for just 16% of NFT art market.” With major brands like Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Rebecca Minkoff, and Gucci (just to name a few) already leading the NFT fashion space, we asked ourselves how to bridge the gap between women’s wardrobes and a booming predominately male-dominated space.
The answer?
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re rewarding our 20 most-engaged creators with exclusive AI artwork inspired by one of their Moments posted on Storey with the help of award-winning design agency dandelion + burdock. Because every Moment posted to Storey is styled by our members and features their own wardrobe items, each artwork is embedded with the Storey members’ own ‘style DNA’. Read more about the process below, and scroll down for the list of winners!
Interested in getting your own NFT?
Download Storey and join our Discord channel here to find out how to win!
More about the process…A Random Seed
A Random Seed is a numerical value that is used to initialize a pseudorandom number generator. It is a digital fingerprint that allows seemingly random functions to be initiated with a deterministic outcome. If you run two identical dynamic simulations with the same random seed, they will calculate the same way every time, but the reverse is also true and if you provide the same system an alternative value the outcome will be unique every time.
We wanted to approach the project with a completely different perspective. One where the uniqueness of the generative artwork that was created would be based on items in your wardrobe. The resulting image would be completely personal to the user.
Seed
This was the starting point for Seed and became the central theme of our collaboration with Storey. Using the procedural toolkit inside Houdini we created a process that would analyse an image and then provide us with a random seed based on each image's unique colour information. This would guarantee that every submission would result in a completely distinctive outcome, but one that wouldn’t be entirely random. If a user was to submit the same image twice, they would receive the same result.
“This felt important to us as it ensured that the generated artworks were truly linked to the incoming data and not simply a random outcome every time. For every image there would be a digital seed, that seed would be planted and grow into a beautiful piece of digital art, bespoke to every user and embedded with the DNA of the data they provided.” - Dickon Knowles, Motion Director at dandelion + burdock
It’s no coincidence that the word seed has been used to describe the inciting moment for a dynamic digital process. Just as in nature, the seed contains the blueprint that all subsequent actions will follow. When a plant grows it follows the same instructions as every other seed from its genus, but the exact outcome can never be exactly predicted and no two plants are the same. This formed the visual inspiration behind our piece. We wanted to develop a system that would use our digital seed to plant a virtual garden for each user. We looked into natural growth formations and manicured flower arrangements as inspiration to formulate a recipe that would create vibrant, rich, and visually varied outcomes based on a few key parameters.
To create the artworks we made extensive use of Houdini’s procedural toolkit, everything from the branch that our flowers bloom on and, the flowers themselves, to the colors of the foliage and backgrounds are all generated procedurally. Each and every component within the composition receives the unique seed and uses this to alter the growth patterns, branch configuration, foliage density, and many more aspects that give each artwork a distinct character.
Finally, every image was sampled and had its data used to create the colors of our foliage and backdrop for each image. This embedded each piece with a clear bit of visual output that relates very directly to each user’s submission. Our creative ambition was for the results to feel exciting and most importantly personal to the user that provided the image that created the seed.
Minting the NFT & Sustainability
Recently NFTs have evolved alongside blockchain technology and are forming a huge part of the renaissance in digital art. A piece of generative art can now be created by a smart contract and be stored on-chain in the form of an NFT directly owned by the wallet address that sends the crypto to run the smart contract.
There are obvious and legitimate concerns with regards to the carbon footprint of certain blockchain solutions. When interacting with NFT projects that rely on these technologies we have the responsibility to select the best platform based on its environmental and social impact.
We believe in the long term future of the Ethereum blockchain, but until it transitions to a more sustainable system we have instead opted to use other Ethereum-compatible scaling solutions first. For this initial experiment we have chosen the Harmony Blockchain, and in future will be considering other L2-Scaling solutions such as Polygon. - Tak Fung, CTO of Storey
With sustainability at the core of the Storey brand ethos, these custom, limited-edition digital artwork pieces will be minted as eco-friendly NFTs for future value and selling.
Congrats to all of our Top 20 winners so far:
Erika PughEllie Baernoelle.kruegerJasmineAmycoxMollie DunnginnyreeeShelbystar___of_dawnhamMegreed42Lia WestTabithaLilia MarieAmanda KatherineKendraVannyEtAlSmilie2712elaynastortsJackie