Sit down with Pendulum
Written by: {@Moodyx_M}{@blockburnouts}
Introduction from MoodyM:
With NFTs being live on Cardano for over a year now, the community has grown and continues to adapt what they enjoy from creators. Art focused projects recently have sprouted new life and have stepped up quality to a drastic number, with the likes of Pendulum releasing their first collection, “Order” on Cardano. Blockchain Burnouts is happy to bring Cozmo, the artist behind Pendulum, to talk about how the project started, what is the story behind the artwork, and what is planned moving forward. Hope you all enjoy!
Interview With Pendulum
MoodyM: “Introduce yourselves, who was the team behind Pendulum before NFTs?”
Cozmo: “My name is Cozmo, I’m a multi-disciplinary creative. I spent the first decade of my career designing and building websites, brands, applications, etc. After that I spent five years as a staff level product designer for a major software company based out of California. Last year I quit my job to pursue doing free-lance illustration full-time. I was then introduced to NFTs through King Dave (who I worked with as a product designer) from Derp Birds and completely fell in love with the entire NFT concept. Since then I’ve been solely focused on bringing the Pendulum universe to life!”
MoodyM: “What was your first experience with art/NFTs like?”
Cozmo: “I had stumbled across them while doing research on creating an icon system. I was working on a project for a startup that needed icons and this prolific icon designer had her work on Super Rare. So I checked out the site and immediately it felt exclusive, which was attractive in some respects but overall I was turned off by it. It felt like NFTs were being reserved for the wealthy (my ignorant perception at that point) — which I didn’t want to be part of. At that point I didn’t really understand what they were or what they were for. However, when King Dave got in touch with me I was finally educated and now here we are — LFG!”
MoodyM: “What was your first NFT that you purchased/what attracted you to the project?”
Cozmo: “The first NFT I purchased was Earth Natives! I really loved the art style and mission the team had in terms of contributing back to their community and impacting our environment in a positive way. They’re all beautiful people and it felt so good to be able to support their mission AND get an incredible piece of art in return. Projects like these are incredibly inspirational and I’m hoping to pass on that same inspiration through my art.”
MoodyM: “Give us a brief backstory on your project..”
Cozmo: “ The Pendulum universe takes place in an unknown future. Humanity has reached a divergence point. Our environment is no longer conducive to life, so Humanity must adapt. Many methods were explored but ultimately two factions remained — ORDER and CHAOS.
ORDER has adopted technology as their savior. They’ve merged their bodies with technology to the point they no longer identify as Human. They are ORDER and they are singular in their mission — force others to SUBMIT or suffer the consequences.
CHAOS has rejected technology and instead journeyed back to nature. They’ve discovered the secrets that govern the Natural Laws of our reality. However, some have bent the laws too far causing dimensional tares in the fabric of space and time. Others are now watching, waiting to see which way the Pendulum swings — will it be ORDER or will it be CHAOS?”
“What was the inspiration behind the “Chaos” Mint?”
Cozmo: “So for ORDER the inspiration was deeply rooted in my love for technology and Science Fiction — movies, books, art, video games, etc. With CHAOS I find my inspiration coming more for the fantasy world. Movies like The Dark Crystal, The Neverending Story, The Hobbit and LOTR trilogies. Especially the 80s movies, mostly because they were all hand-crafted. Visual effects hadn’t taken over the film industry yet and so the characters felt so different. They had such an authentic quality — so expressive of the designer/artist that had created them. Plus, I grew up with these movies and nostalgia is always a huge well of inspiration for me.”
“How did you build the community?”
Cozmo: “Completely organically! We didn’t do any waitlists, giveaways, roadmaps, OG roles, nothing — we were completely focused on the art from the beginning and have remained singular in communicating that in the present. Being so singular in this vision, we’ve allowed ourselves to attract an incredibly authentic and like-minded community to the project. This was the greatest surprise and most beautiful thing for our team to watch unfold. We had a decent amount of engagement before dropping ORDER but since the mint our community has exploded and we couldn’t be more grateful.
BUT what’s incredible is that the art continues to attract similar like-minded individuals — all this to say, the community feels so strong because we’re all aligned behind the art. Also, we really try to discourage anything that feels divisive. The only role we have is for ORDER holders right now so they can show off their support for the holding of a Pendulum NFT. We felt if we had additional roles the hierarchy would create division and again, this is something we wanted to avoid.
TLDR — we will remain art focused and continue to grow our community as organically as possible. We’re not interested in dominating the space or going to the moon (though we’re not opposed to it either) — we’re interested in being authentic and putting our absolute best work out into the world.”
“What was the driving factor for the project in your opinion?”
Cozmo: “For me, it was to put something authentic out into the world. I had spent my entire career up to this point creating for others, which was fulfilling for many years but it had left me creatively empty. It took a lot of time and deep inner work (including Ketamine therapy) to get back to a place where I even felt like creating again. I also wanted to push myself to become a better artist and knew that creating an NFT collection would force me to get better. Before I started the project, I had barely touched Procreate and now I feel like it’s an extension of my imagination — it’s a beautiful gift I’ve been given and I’m so grateful to everyone who helped Pendulum come to fruition.”
Blockchain Burnouts Introduction to the Project
MoodyM: “Personally, I have been patiently waiting to get my hands on this artwork for months since they originally announced the project back in 2021. I love the art style Cozmo uses and I believe there can be utility in artwork past a game/staking mechanic. I truly fell in love with the art and when I heard collectors owned full commercial rights to the pieces they buy, I got super excited. I ended up minting 3 on launch and got lucky with one of mine minting a Ghost Rider (idk how my luck is non existent). I plan in the future to adapt Pendulum into my personal brand somehow (still brainstorming) and I am personally excited for what everyone will do using their own Pendulum’s.”
MoodyM: “What made your team interested in minting on Cardano?”
Cozmo: “Derp Birds was on Cardano and their team were going to be our minting partners. Plus they knew the space very well and were continuing to innovate the minting experience on the chain with their multi-sig technology. As well, I looked at the art in the space and felt like I had a voice to contribute. Other chains like Etherium felt so over-saturated and it felt like there was a huge barrier to even get on the chain as an artist, let alone make any money given the competition. Honestly though, the community was one of the biggest factors for me. Seeing the reception and obsession from the Derp Birds community was intoxicating and I wanted to see what I could contribute to the space!”
MoodyM: “What do you enjoy most about becoming a project lead?”
Cozmo: “I felt empowered as a creator. I also felt a massive amount of responsibility. Being the only artist creating the art, I felt overwhelmed for the majority of the project. We knew that variety was of utmost importance and so I knew I needed to draw a lot of attributes that were very different but still worked well together. This might sound odd but I really enjoyed this feeling. I knew I had to push myself to bring the vision to life and because we had created such a wonderful community, I felt committed to delivering the best art I could at the cost of letting everyone down if I couldn’t deliver. Beyond this, I felt I had final say in how the vision came to life and that wasn’t something I had experienced much in my design/development career. Now I’m hooked, I feel empowered and I want to put as much art out into the world as I possibly can now!”
MoodyM: “What do you believe is your biggest strength as a creator?”
Cozmo: “I think what people see is my attention to detail. I’ve spent so many years obsessing over pixel perfect design or code that this has bled very deeply into my art. However, I think I approach art from a different perspective than most. The whole time I was illustrating the ORDER collection I was using my design and development brain as well as my illustrative brain. I had created a grid over each character so I knew where I’d have overlap issues with the attributes (designer brain). In terms of outputting the art I had created a system of using Smart Objects and Layer Comps to automate the output of PNGs for compiling the final art (developer brain). So, I believe my greatest strength as a creator is in my ability to blend and utilize all my creative strengths to create one final cohesive vision.”
MoodyM: “What was the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome as an NFT Creator?”
Cozmo: “Time. Time is always the enemy. The space moves very quickly and projects live and die measured in hours and days. As well, it took me a long time to find the style for Pendulum. This was discouraging in the beginning as I didn’t feel inspired to create when I was looking to create something similar to what I had seen being successful in the space. When it finally clicked for me was when I asked myself — “what do I really want to create?” The answer for me was “digital paintings”. This was another major obstacle because I had only done a couple “digital paintings” before starting this project. However, we didn’t take any shortcuts with either of these obstacles. We took our time, we put in the hours to do our best work and put it out into the world in the most authentic way we possibly could.”
MoodyM: “What do you believe as a community we can do differently to create an easier barrier to entry for CNFTs to new people joining the space?”
Cozmo: “I think as a community we can be more open to new/different forms of creative expression. I think overall we do a great job of this but it can sometimes feel like projects are judged before they are allowed to mature and reach their full potential. As a creator, it can be scary to put your work out there and to be completely vulnerable. The more accepting and encouraging our community can be, the more talented creatives and NEW creatives will be attracted/born from this openness.”
What is a piece of advice you would give to new creators in the space?”
Cozmo: “Two things:
- Love what you create. Make something that you think is so fucking amazing that you could care less as to what anyone else thinks about it.
- Focus on how you feel when you create. We all create differently but I’ve found that when I feel the “joy” of each line, shape, value, etc. — I completely lose myself in the art and to me there’s nothing better than being immersed in one’s own imagination in a place beyond time.
If you can do these two things, you’ll be a success no matter what because you’ve created something you love and if you’ve allowed yourself to be in a state of joy while creating it — you’ve found something very special.”
MoodyM: “We have Order.. Now we’re ready for Chaos.. Any info you can give the community on what’s next for Pendulum?”
Cozmo: “We’re open to all possibilities! We want the community to help us steer the vision. Depending on how the community responds, Pendulum will continue to evolve and resonate with the ideas from the community that are in alignment with our ultimate vision — we hope to push the envelope for NFT art on Cardano and will continue to push the boundaries of what NFTs can be. We’re very very excited for the future and have no plans of going anywhere else — Cardano is home.”
Final Thoughts from Moody
As a space, both NFTs and Cardano, are evolving. We as a community are really starting to learn what we enjoy to see from creators. I personally enjoy seeing those who truly appreciate art, still buying for their own personal taste, without the promise of a lifetime. To truly love what you are buying, and to hear an artist so passionate about what they are creating, is why I love being a part of the NFT space. I hope you all enjoyed reading between the lines with me on what Pendulum, Order and Chaos means to the artist behind the pen, Cozmo. See you soon!
