“Nemus was designed to protect and preserve the planet’s natural resources and habitats, beginning with the Amazon rainforest. It’s our mission to create a sustainable model for preservation by bridging our physical world with blockchain and decentralized technology.”Flavio de Penna, founder of Nemus
The Story
At dawn we left our hotel and piled our bags into trucks and went down the big hill of Pauini to the waterfront where the boats were ready. The locals were unloading the supply ferries, the town’s only contact with the outside world. We packed our boats and went up the big river under the burning sun. Pink dolphins rose near the banks. We entered the mouth of a smaller river and were soon swallowed up by the rainforest. All day we motored deeper into the Amazon Rainforest, the dense trees and swirling waters beneath us. Finally, at dusk, we rounded a bend and there atop a high sandy cliff was a village where the indigenous people lived.
We spent three days in the village. I had snuck a fishing rod into my bag and woke in the mornings to cast a line into the muddy waters. Three boys always joined me. Barefoot and holding thin wooden cane poles, they watched intensely. Eventually, they grew brave and took me out on their little wooden canoes. Not knowing English, they only said, “Hey, Joe. Hey, Joe,” and pointed at where the big peacock bass swam.
When I returned to my air-conditioned office back home, while building the Nemus brand and experience, I often thought of those kids in the jungle, paddling the forgotten shadowy edges of the world.
(Thank you, Volum8, for contracting me to help on this project, and a special thanks to Charlie Graham for bearing my snoring for a night or two in a Pauini hotel.)
What was done
Integrated within the brilliant team at Volum8, I spent six months designing the brand, site and minting experience for the Nemus project.
The brand, entirely new and undefined, required deep discovery, including stakeholder interviews, comparative analysis, and actual time in the Amazon. I defined voice and messaging, set base style guidelines, created a slogan and, finally, designed the Nemus logo.
I designed the website and NFT minting app as a dual system, allowing users to enter into the Nemus ecosystem at different points, dependent on their unique needs. The minting app was a fully-fledged interactive platform where users could select a unique parcel on a grid overlaying a real-world map. User flows were fully considered from onboarding, through NFT minting on the ETH chain, to wallet.
I also designed dual-sided NFT cards and directed the artists at Concept Art House and illustrator Ben Kwok, revising and finalizing almost 100 unique works of art. Meanwhile, I managed and created daily content for the Twitter account for three months, reaching 10,000+ organic followers.