Introduction 

The Creature World NFT project ranked 8th this week (as of 9/3) on the top 10 fastest-growing projects on Opensea after doing 11,579.35 ETH ($40.5 million) in trading volume. 

The current floor price (lowest price available) for the project is 0.82 ETH ($3,229). You can browse available assets in the collection for sale by clicking here. 

Note: Make sure you buy from the official project on Opensea. Look for the blue checkmark: 

Source: Opensea.io

I do not own any assets in this project and I encourage you never to spend more money than you can afford to lose. This article is not financial advice, it’s a fun look at a promising young artist’s first NFT project.

As the NFT space evolves, I believe the ability to understand and spot creators with potential will pay off in the long run. I’ve written before about established artists like Damien Hirst and how their projects have exploded in popularity. 

Danny Cole created Creature World NFT and is just 21 years old, but he’s already seen success as an artist, so I think this is a great case study on what to look for from a creator behind an NFT project.

What is Creature World NFT?

“The Creature World is this imaginary place that I like to visit and I’d like to give other people the opportunity to visit. There’s a real beauty in entering those alternative states, like dreaming.” — Danny Cole, Creator 

Creature World NFT is a collection of 10,000 creatures inspired by Cole’s physical Creature World paintings that weave in unique traits including varying backgrounds, creature designs, decorations, eyes, foreground, mouth, outfit, and overlay: 

Source: Opensea.io 

It should be noted that Cole announced in The Creature NFT Discord group that he was very intentional about the included traits and allowed combinations of traits in order to maintain each output to “look like a window into a fully composed world”. 

The resulting art is the continuation of his vision to build a utopian world and it’s been said that he’s “building a career around portraying imaginary worlds”. NFTs and the metaverse are the perfect backdrops for his vision to come to fruition. There's even a start to this metaverse on the Creature World website.

According to a Twitter thread, Cole first discovered NFTs in September of 2020 and had released a few 1/1 pieces in order to learn more about the space. 

He then spoke about how he put a lot of effort into bringing art to the people by “flooding” New York City with posters and paintings on sidewalks and putting on immersive shows to make sure that his Creature world was “never far away”. 

As he explains in his Twitter thread, the NFT project serves as the perfect vessel to bring the art to the people: 

Source: Twitter

There are currently 4,700 owners in the project and nearly 15,000 members in its Discord Group. The Twitter account for the project also has 12,100 followers. 

Cole was very transparent with his followers about how the project would be minted (pre-sold) and explained that he did not reserve any assets for his team so his followers would have a fair chance at getting them. The entire way he went about the launch is notable and something many of us don’t spend enough time looking into. We have to remember that there are project creators looking to make quick money and move on. Danny Cole has demonstrated multiple times through words and actions that this isn’t the case and that’s one of the most important qualities of an NFT project. 

Many of us get caught up in roadmaps, rarity tools, gas fees, etc. and we forget to look at the person behind the project who’s ultimately responsible for the long-term sustainability of it. Cole’s artistic vision was established prior to the NFT project launch, and he’s seen success with it already, so it bodes well for the future. 

The widely distributed NFT space is the perfect canvass for Cole to continue to bring people into his dreams and his universe. The Discord group has come alive with viewers sharing their own interpretations and reactions to the digital art which they now own. Some users have even described it as being a “family”. 

As you research projects, read every article you can find about the creator and founders. Join the Discord groups. Ask questions. You’ll learn a lot of information that matters more than a few promises on a roadmap.

About the Artist — Danny Cole 

At just 18 years old, Danny Cole was called a prodigy and his work has been compared to Keith Haring’s (a famous artist who rose to popularity in the 1980s during the New York City graffiti subculture). Cole has also been described as “one of New York’s most active figures in the emerging new world of post-institutional art” by the UUU Art Collective. He tweeted out a few weeks ago that he wrapped up a documentary with Vice. 

What’s especially appealing about Cole is that he was kicked out of art class in high school and is a self-taught artist. He moved to New York City when he was just 18 with the dream of creating a “Utopian World”, one that is reflected through his Creatures artwork. 

He’s joked that his formal credential as an artist is a pottery class he took in high school, but he explains that anyone can learn to create intricate, realistic-looking works of art. According to him, the hard part is “communicating through your work”. 

Over the past few years, he’s been successfully communicating through his work. While he takes a minimalistic approach to his art, he’s quickly been gaining wider recognition and a bigger audience. This became more apparent to Cole when he arrived late to his own show, A Battle For Harmony, only to find hundreds of people lined up around the block to get in. 

Cole paired up with a chef for A Battle For Harmony to serve food that would correspond with the story he wanted to tell through his art. The goal of the show was to introduce guests to his Creature World, which eventually became his first NFT project. 

As he evolves and matures as an artist, he has come to realize that his art is now more about its viewers than it is himself. 

It’s also not enough to be a strong artist who communicates through work, you also have to get noticed. Cole has done that in a variety of ways (describing it as “bringing the art to the people"), and even gained some notoriety when he was part of a group that hung a banner of a cow on the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles: 

Source: TMZ

Cole was later found and arrested after the cow banner appeared, and he explained that there was no meaning behind it. No agenda. That it was “for everyone else to make it whatever they wanted it to be”. 

This is the spirit and conviction Cole is bringing to his work, and frankly, the arrest likely helped him get more recognition. He has vision, experience, and an understanding that I believe will help his NFT project succeed in the long run. 

Key Takeaways 

We’re entering a phase of the NFT space where it’s getting harder and harder to “get lucky”. Just a few months ago, everything was much less expensive, so the risks are now higher when buying into various projects. 

Danny Cole’s story is one that fascinated me and struck me as the perfect example to highlight a rising artist and the detail of his career and vision to this point. It’s those details that will ultimately matter over the next 12, 24, and 36 months as the NFT space grows. 

As you research projects, I hope you look back on this article as a reference for what to look for and how deep you need to go before buying in. It can be easy to see a Tweet about a project and jump in, but it’s safer to be patient, do the research, then take action. 

How to Check Rarity of Creature World NFT

You can check the rarity of a Creature World NFT by using RaritySniffer.com, searching for the Creature World collection, and typing in an asset ID to return its rarity ranking and traits.

While Danny Cole has stressed that rarity isn't a driving factor for his project, it's still fun to look at different asset traits and rarities contained in the project. You can navigate to the Rarity Sniffer Creature World Collection page here.

Note: The collection isn't certified on Rarity Sniffer. Use this as a guide, but it's important to buy what you like. The market may not value 3rd party rankings in the long term.

(1) Search for the Creature World Collection on RaritySniffer.com:

Source: RaritySniffer.com

(2) Enter an OpenSea asset ID in "Token ID Look up"

Source: RaritySniffer.com

(3) View Rarity Rank and Rarity Attributes for a Creature World NFT

Source: RaritySniffer.com

Rarity tools can help you get familiar with the different traits of assets in a project and can help you find the one you like the most. It's good to use these tools as a guide, but better to go with your gut instinct on which NFT you like the best.