Antoine Mingo left his role of concept artist for popular Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins in early 2023, due to creative differences with leadership. Now, he’s leading the art for a new NFT project called Burrrs on buzzy layer-1 network Berachain, giving him the creative freedom he’s craved since entering the industry.

The Washington-based artist picked up the Pudgy Penguins job in 2021 via gig-work platform Upwork, back when founder Cole Thereum was at the helm of the collection. After a brief consulting gig, Mingo went on to create 8,888 NFT profile pictures for the Ethereum project, right as the NFT market saw explosive demand. To his surprise, his artwork was a smash hit.

Work started to flood in for Mingo, who had previously only worked in the Web2 world but was now being approached by tons of Web3 projects. He kept on as an artist for Pudgy Penguins, even after Cole Thereum controversially emptied the project’s treasury and was booted from the project in 2022; the IP was later purchased by entrepreneur Luca Netz.

But creative differences soon bubbled to the surface. 

“[My style] just wasn’t clicking with them. Even the simple things, like the flippers,” Mingo told Decrypt. “Just little creative differences like that.”

The artist pitched his own vision for Pudgy Penguins, wanting to take inspiration from Cartoon Network show “The Amazing World of Gumball” in the way the animators mix 2D and 3D. But the new leadership wasn’t interested, so Mingo left Pudgy Penguins in early 2023.

“I think you could see it in the art, honestly. If I was to come out with a shirt, and you look at a comparison of what's on the Pudgy website, or on the Pudgy Twitter, there will be a difference,” Mingo claimed. “It’s not a very hardcore difference.”

Since then, the artist has taken on more gigs in crypto while Pudgy Penguins continued to grow into a wide-ranging consumer brand, even amid the NFT market’s broader decline.

The NFT collection’s parent company, Igloo Inc., has sold millions of dollars worth of toys in Walmart and Target stores across the United States, released a Solana meme coin called PENGU, and even launched an Ethereum layer-2 network called Abstract.

Mingo said that he’s maintained a positive relationship with the leadership at Pudgy Penguins, but is not receiving any ongoing special benefits due to his previous role in the project.

The Washington-based artist said that he’s enjoyed his venture into crypto thus far, but has grown frustrated with the lack of creative freedom he’s been handed, even at projects following the initial Pudgy Penguins success.

“It creates for better storytelling,” Mingo told Decrypt. “When you're flexible from the jump, and you allow just all those creative juices to come out, you don't have any regrets—regardless of how it is. You feel like you let everything out.”

That’s why he’s excited to be a founding member and creative lead for the upcoming Burrrs NFT collection, releasing on Friday via Magic Eden for 4.2 BERA each ($34). With a much more direct role in the creative vision, and a team around him willing to be flexible to his ideas, Mingo finally feels comfortable to put his name to the artwork—previously wishing to remain in the shadows.

“Honestly, I’m excited to see the reaction we get,” he said with a smile. “We're gonna change and roll with however the people like it. I'm not gonna put anything on it right now. I want to see how people react.”

In many ways, this is how Pudgy Penguins was such a success. To his own admission, Mingo didn’t think the original NFT collection was any good, specifically naming flaws that he hates to this day.

Despite its imperfections, the initial reaction was massive—and following some bumps along the way, Pudgy Penguins have become bigger than ever while many other projects from the NFT boom have faded. Being part of this was a learning experience for the artist.

“Things don't have to be picture-perfect. You can create a story and just kind of roll with the punches,” Mingo explained. “Pudgy is almost like a chameleon that just keeps changing, it just keeps rolling. It's crazy, and I’m just learning from it.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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