Squarely in fashion
Voxel art portraits by Square Dudes
Today I bring you the good news of another NFT project utilizing the Hedera hashgraph: Voxel-art project Square Dudes puts forward unique, hand-made voxel portraits. And in this blog post we will look squarely into it.
Square Dudes describes itself as a “community-based project”, which is on a mission to change a market that has, from their point of view, been flooded by meaningless art. It is an original Hedera holder project and as such focuses on the Hedera community.
“The main mission of our team is to be the number one NFT token publisher not only in the Hedera ecosystem but also in other top NFT marketplaces. Comparatively to other publishers, we position ourselves as a standard of highly professional network and service to our community.”
In their Whitepaper they align themselves to truthfulness, being community based, teamwork and creativeness. Although this blog is not about the economic side of this project, I will briefly mention that they have created a DAO treasury, granting DAO members proportional income from NFT sales from the treasury.
Square Dudes Generation 1, Drop 1 sports 100 unique voxel characters, which are sometimes influenced by other, famous characters such as, but not limited to, Minecraft Steve, Adventure Time's Princess Bubblegum, Frankenstein's monster and our beloved Pepe the Frog.
However, most of the characters are original works, and these original creations are especially attractive- wherein the artists of Square Dudes present a myriad of voxelated iterations, much like claymen, that portray different ideas and demands of their own worlds.
As Square Dudes G1D1 primarily explores pastel colors and squared shapes in their figurine context, the costume and accessories play a figurative role. Occasionally, there is a shiny or specular element to spot in the picture. All the figures are right-facing without exception.
Eyes and the mouth of each individual model are kept intact in almost every composition. And since in the supermajority of the portraits mouth and eyes are still included, the Square Dudes stay relatable- even throughout the most whimsical variation (except #66, he’s special).
You can’t help but wonder what these characters have to say and what they have seen.
Some figurines carry or stand next to a fitting appendance. Astroboy (#70) can be seen in front of a launching rocket, the "Mysterious Man Roy" (#35) comes with a heap of neon crystals and pet trainer "Alipher" (#45) brings along his square frogs.
Other figurines, like the skeletons (#53, #65) and ghost “Ghosty” (#74), will bring the common Square Dude motif to its closing.
Blob “Seizen” (#66), is unrecognizably distorted through a pixelated camo-texture, swallowing the original shape in whole, exacerbated through its alike accessories.
Square Dudes claims its own universe. Every Square Dude- or Dudette - has a lighthearted backstory that gives a glimpse into what this character has been through and what they might be like. As every figurine stands frozen in render, you might ask yourself what they're up to next.
With Bond (#31) you might not have such difficulty to guess.
While some biographies are playful, witty, and sometimes subtly alluding to meme phrases some will poke fun at the presentation (a bland model supposedly making the best coffee). Others like virologist "Docty" (#54) and "TikTok E-Girl Ava" (#83) permeate inspiration and give subtle commentary about our, non-VR world.
Striking is the common theme of face masks appearing on powerful characters like classic fighter archetypes Samury (#78), Icy (#75), Blacky (#68) and Richard (#24) the tattoo artist, featuring a gun print on his clothing. And interestingly enough aforementioned “Docty” (#54) might allude to the same theme: appearing as a protector, literally facing the virus in oversized form:
[Docty] took an oath to protect people from coronavirus during a severe pandemic and (sic.) save hundreds of lives.
Is there a genesis dude? Sure, there has to be a default model from where all the other iterations are based off of. Makes you wonder if there ever will be a square “Adam and Eve”, which would hint at a cambrian explosion, or if the "Squniverse" came to be in a big bang by will of their creators.
So far, time does not seem to play a determinant role in this metaverse, where what we call history plays out in parallel in each individual portrait.
If you prefer a more traditional experience in viewing Square Dudes, you can also visit the Square Dudes meta gallery on Spatial.
Square Dudes is minting their Generation 1, second drop of 100 unique, hand-drawn Dudes on June 1st 2022.
Website: squaredudes.com
Twitter: @squaredudesNFT
None of this is financial advice. There is no guarantee that links to other sites are correct. Please check for yourself to avoid scams.