Candy Digital NFTs
Executive Creative Director
At Candy I was responsible for leading the creative on their flagship MLB NFTs, developing new Web3 products, pitching potential partners and developing innovative techniques for both creating, and using the products.
Candy’s MLB NFT products ranged from card-like collectibles with hundreds of players in multiple rarities, to generative tickets, to one-off bespoke partnerships with individual players. Candy’s products (and their corresponding utility) needed to appeal to both Web3 behaviors and traditional card collectors while maintaining an industry-setting premium aesthetic. We developed flexible systems that could handle thousands of unique pieces of content while maintaining our quality product design and experience.
Read on to see some examples of how we brought these products to life.
Hall of Fame
For our partnership with the Baseball Hall of Fame, we wanted to give collectors an experience that made them feel like they were exploring the archives of their heroes. We had 40 players, with 5 rarities each, meaning we had to create 200 unique pieces of content.
To create the experience we were striving for while efficiently generating about 3 hours worth of content, we turned to Unity. We created an interactive card that became a portal to a virtual museum. This museum’s architecture, materials, and contents could dynamically change based on the card’s rarity. A programmatic soundtrack and voiceover added a documentary style reverence to the experience. What resulted was not just an NFT, but a user-guided immersive experience.
With each added level of rarity, we increased the amount of content, increased the immersiveness of the experience, which ultimately increased demand even more for the higher tiered cards. Our least scarce product featured a simpler wood set, less embellished architecture, only photos and a shorter flight path while the Legendary 1-of-1 (seen above) had multiple photos, videos, narration and an extended experience. The front of the four primary rarities are seen below.
Core Rarity
Uncommon
Rare
Epic
Using a generative system for content meant that creating new rarities became less of a financial and schedule based decision and more of a creative one. Which meant we could take some risks, have some fun, and really surprise our collectors with our ultra-rare “The Kid” Ken Griffey Jr. Insert:
2022 All Stars Series
Jorge Lopez Uncommon Reveal Video
For the 2022 All Stars series, we started with 62 players across 5 rarities. We took a more standard animation approach, developing a design system that could be easily modified to accommodate the different rarities. Working with an offshore vendor helped us design and execute the 300+ pieces of content on schedule and in budget.
Example of a generatively created “Tricon”
To reward our collectors, we created a piece of content that celebrated what makes NFTs awesome. For each 3-pack of cards a collector opened, we would take those three players and their corresponding rarities and create a 1-of-1 “tri-card” that was unique to each collector.
Every Tricon was created generatively. The same database of content used to create the cards was fed into our realtime system that generated the final video and airdropped the Tricon to the collector.
Home Run Derby commemorative ticket
Finally, to drum up excitement and onboard more baseball fans to Candy, we partnered with T-Mobile to create a free, interactive commemorative ticket for each attendee of the All Stars Home Run Derby game.
Each NFT ticket pulled seat data for the individual owners, and dynamically placed it onto the ticket, making each NFT unique to its owner and truly one of a kind.
Vaulted Series
I’ll stop with all the explaining. Here are some fun things we made for the 2022 Leadoff Vaulted series. We created three types of packs and boxes that collectors could purchase. In the spirit of traditional collector Boxes, we sprinkled unexpected and fun insert cards throughout the packs.
Cal Ripken Jr. Rookie Year
For our inaugural partnership with Cal Ripken Jr, we wanted to create a series of collectibles as special as the Iron Man himself. An exclusive interview and archival footage gave fans an unseen peak into his rookie year.
A handful of lucky winners were airdropped Cal’s Rookie of the Year plaque. The plaque was 3D scanned, then faithfully reconstructed in the video shown. To future proof the collectible, we also included a metaverse-friendly GLB of the 3D object that collectors could bring with them into virtual worlds.