Digital artist and marketing wizard Jack Butcher has been called a “crossover” success story, having created a unique identity that blends personal branding, cultural commentary, and a lot of memes, but these aren’t just memes, they simplify complex ideas about creativity, currency, and value using minimalist artwork that delivers a highbrow message.
Butcher calls his success on web3 a perfect combination of freedom and fun, which was a relief for him because he worked in the advertising industry for a long time - first working for a Fortune 100 company and later starting his own advertising agency - but never quite gave him the lifestyle and platform he wanted.
But in 2019, the tide turned, and Butcher founded the media platform Visualize Value (VV) and cultivated a loyal community that appreciated his unique take on entrepreneurship, simplicity, and creativity in a world that craves clarity.
“Now I spend all my time making things that make it easier to learn, teach, make, and sell,” he once wrote on the company’s website.
In 2023 alone, that mission has resulted in a coveted NFT collectible and a partnership with a prominent generative artist in the web3 space, whose viral Checks series — inspired by Elon Musk’s Twitter verification decision, which sparked more than a year of debate over who is eligible for the free blue checks that confirm a user’s identity and who is not — subverts notions of authenticity and comments on the arbitrary nature of internet street cred.
Then came Opepen, a 16,000-piece NFT collectible that combined meme culture (specifically Pepe the Frog) with community-driven artwork, where collectors could choose from different drops and decide how to display their NFTs.
If you’re curious about the man who’s taken over NFT culture with his sleek visuals, then you need to know about Jack Butcher and his meteoric rise.
Jack Butcher is an artist and designer
Butcher used his background as a creative director and everything he learned in the advertising industry to create products with his own signature style, and after founding Visualize Value and building a social media community, he narrowed down his creative style by sticking to black and white tones and specific fonts.
His signature style is known for simplicity, creativity, and directness — three elements that were later incorporated into his dynamic NFT collection.
Jack Butcher rises to fame in 2023
Checks VV Original is Butcher’s first full collection in the world of NFTs, and he was inspired by the cultural moment ignited by Elon Musk when he created Twitter Verified in November 2022, sparking a debate about the value of verification.
Mints were sold for $8, which was the price of a monthly Twitter subscription at the time, and users were eligible for the blue checkmark.
Checks VV Original is an open series that was initially issued on January 3, 2023. The check is similar to the X (formerly known as the Twitter) verification check. Since the open series allows an unlimited number of NFTs to be minted, and typically within a given time period (24 hours for VV Checks), the entire series was minted 16,031 times.
The success of the series prompted Butcher to unveil the second layer of the project - the destruction dynamic, which allows users to create new NFTs by burning (destroying) their original NFTs to obtain new NFTs or in other cases obtain physical objects.
Jack Butcher and Christie's to auction 152 prints
Butcher is an example of an artist who has risen to fame in the web3 world while also being embraced by the traditional art world.
In 2023, Christie’s auctioned 152 lots from Butcher’s Checks Elements series, offering collectors both digital and physical versions of the artwork, which is divided into three themes – “Earth,” “Air,” and “Water,” with each subset having its own unique color scheme.
The print run is also noteworthy because Butcher worked with renowned printmaker Jean Robert Milant (of Los Angeles gallery and print studio Cirrus Gallery) to bring these prints to life.
“When it comes to translating Checks into the physical world, a one-click process doesn’t make sense to me,” Butcher told Artnet News. “Conceptually, it doesn’t make sense. Checks is about authentication. There are similarities between the way we create generative algorithms and the printing process, where you have constraints and you can add variables to create a unique output – it’s a very manual process.”
Jack Butcher 2023 ends better than it began
Butcher ended 2023 on a strong note, which is significant given that his VV Originals series has been the talk of the NFT world since it first launched in January 2023.
However, Checks was followed by Opepen, which was released just days later, and these two projects put Butcher on a significant path to becoming one of the most prolific NFT creators in 2023.
The Opepen series is divided into multiple sets that will only be released if enough users opt in to the minting, and Butcher always prioritizes community collaboration over rarity in his NFTs, letting collectors help determine which sets are the most popular.
By opting in, the NFT community can essentially “vote” on which sets get minted and go live, making the entire process more engaging and engaging for all involved.
In October 2023, Butcher teamed up with generative artist Erick Calderon, aka “Snowfro,” to launch the Opepen x Chromie Squiggles collaboration.
We covered this news in our November 2023 issue (This Week in Web3), but in short, Calderon is one of the most influential generative artists in the NFT space, and he’s the original creator of the colorful Chromie Squiggle NFT series.
Calderon is based on Butcher’s generative art series Opepen, which was also released in 2023 and features the Pepe the Frog meme in a series of 16,000 public editions.
Finally, in November 2023, Butcher launched Trademarks, a collection of 10,000 NFTs that explores concepts of branding and intellectual property through Butcher’s signature minimalist designs that comment on ownership, identity, and the value of symbols in the digital age, with each piece conveying a powerful message about the cultural weight of trademarks in both traditional and web3 spaces.
Some would say 2023 is the year of Jack Butcher, and this seems to be just the tip of the iceberg of how dynamic and generative art NFTs will continue to make waves in the web3 space.
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