To create an immersive narrative that represented the project's vision, supported strong NFT project differentiation, and encouraged community engagement.
Project Summary.
I met Borja Matheu and Gauthier Vanderhaegen, co-founders of Genus Labs, back in the spring of 2022.
They had the mission of making blockchain technologies and web3 easily accessible to artists and creators, as a means to help them grasp new opportunities to connect and engage with their fans.
Henosis Tigers was the first NFT art collection they were planning to launch and they needed someone to craft a unique and immersive story that would help differentiate the project in a rapidly growing market, while also representing the project’s vision and encouraging community engagement.
I quickly became interested in their mission to discover new ways to bring like-minded people together through art and technology. And not just any technology, but one that’s ought to transform the whole concept of co-ownership, as well as the way in which artists operate, connect, and engage with their fans and audiences.
After a few conversations, I joined the team as a creative copywriter and storyteller, and the Henosis Tigers story was born.
The Henosis Tigers story is a story about the transformative power of art, unity and love for each individual's creative power. A tale about the never-ending dance between chaos and creation; light and darkness.
It was built from a completely white canvas, taking three main elements as key pieces of inspiration:
1. The team’s vision and core values for this project.
2. The unique characteristics of the artwork created by renown spanish artist Albert Madaula.
3. Current issues, challenges and events in the web3 space that are shaping today’s world and society.
✔️ Distinctive story narrative
✔️ Community Engagement
✔️ Strong message aligned with the brand’s mission and values
The final result was not just a distinctive story that playfully packaged what the Henosis Tigers project stands for, but the unlocking of a new universe for the project to live on and continue to mature and develop across different channels and initiatives.
When the story was finally brought to the community, the community engaged and positively responded through active participation, by sharing the parts that resonated most with them through twitter or even making their own contribution as to how the story could progress.
That’s the true beauty of projects like this one. That the story is not linear nor finite. It’s something that lives further through co-creation and the community’s participation, who has a say on how the story will evolve.
Symbolism and world-building.
The story is built upon strong symbolism. The symbols throughout the story are meant to hint the reader towards key values and aspects that are central to the project’s mission and reason of being. Some examples of this are:
The Frost (the main evil and conflict of the story, faced by The Godess of Creation) is a representation of the division that occurs in society when individualism, greed and self-interest are prioritised over community, ‘oneness’ and generosity. The Godess of Creation is meant to represent the hopeful promise of web3, which has also been born as a way to fight individuality and bring back the power to communities through co-ownership over centralised power.
Like any other power, tool, or weapon, this new technology can be used to create harm or can be used to create good. Therefore, this story also brings that light and dark dilemma to the table, serving as a reminder that, as participants in this technological breakthrough, we have the choice to decide in which side of the story we want to be in, and that we can use the power of community and the opportunities that NFTs and web3 entail to uplift each other and support great causes, rather than selfishly or out of greed.
When it comes to the theme and world-building, the Henosis story and its extended universe carry Albert Madaula’s art’s ancient greek god’s influence. His paintings, with the herculean features, fierce poses and animals inspired the story’s settings, characters and overall essence.
In fact, the main characters in the story, which are The Goddess of Creation’s offspring (Xenia, Apollo and Homonoia) have been inspired in classical greek-god deities and represent the 3 core pillars of any form of art: generosity, curiosity, and community - which perfectly align with the core values and philosophy that Genus Labs wanted to prioritize on this project.
NFT character traits
Lastly, all the pieces of the story come together through the concept of ‘Henosis’. Henosis comes from the Ancient Greek and stands for ‘oneness’ and ‘unity’, which has been a core value for Genus Labs since the very beginning. There’s a point in the story where the three gods are fighting to over-rule each other, and it’s only when they find union and become one that they are finally able to trump The Frost.
When you look at an Henosis Tiger, you can see an incredible richness of layers, almost resembling a puzzle, bringing together different deconstructed pieces into ‘Henosis’ or oneness, creating something new and more powerful. And what Albert Madaula expresses through his art in this piece is exactly what I wanted to represent in this story, depicting that there’s richness in diversity and strength in unity. That’s what strong and tight-knit communities are all about.
