Making It is an art collective of artists pushing the evolution of artistry. We spoke with members of Making It on forming a creative collective, creating drops together, and changing lives with just a group chat.
Can you introduce yourselves?
Andrés: I am an oil painter and meta-surrealist. We're an artist collective of creators that formed pretty organically, and we love each other very much.
Finn: I'm kind of all over the place in terms of art. I mainly tattoo but I also paint, and do a bunch of other stuff.
Blues: I'm a 21-year-old artist from New Mexico. I'm mostly working with printmaking techniques and inks.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: I am a 23-year-old artist, first generation Brazilian American, and I like to illustrate, animate, and paint. I've been mainly focusing on illustrations and drawing but have a 3D background, too.
Teji: I'm an Australian artist and designer. I make anything I can think of like video games, clothing, cartoons, animations, and toys. I love making stuff, and if I have an idea I just figure out how to do it, I don't limit myself to one medium, I'm multidisciplinary. I feel like a lot of us are very similar in this way.,e all work across multiple mediums.
Anubis3100: I've been an artist in this space since 2020. I'm an Egyptian artist focused on post-colonial and neo-orientalist themes dealing with the Egyptian identity when I'm not making works for fun or working on separate themes like Children of the Internet for Making It.
Could you tell us a little bit about 'Making It' and how it came together?
Finn: 'Making It' was really formed by Alex. I remember it being about 20 people when I got put in the chat, now it's around 50. Originally it was just like, "Oh, these are all cool artists, and I vibe with these people." Things got really fun as new people got added because you get a variety of tastes from all the different perspectives.
Blues: I remember when I first joined the space, I was really trying to look for my crew. And my good friend Bubble added me to this amazing group chat. The friendships were organic, it was beautiful. Here we are now, still making art, almost a year and a half later. It's just great to be surrounded by all of these amazing artists. It adds a level of friendly competition, it's beautiful.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: I was in 'Making It' at its conception, when Alex started the group chat. It was a little bit after the summer of '21. We were just understanding the space at the time and trying to learn how to navigate it. The group was about 12 people, we would trade ideas, and share art, and it just organically grew from us trying to get other people in there that had different skill sets and different pools of knowledge. It's been cool to see it grow. It's been cool to see us be able to do our first show in New York in '22, as well as us doing these virtual drops together.
Anubis3100: I joined 'Making It' by luck. I had been friends with Dre for some time, and I had just heard about this group chat mentioned in a few spaces. So I was like, "Yo, do you mind adding me to it?" I got added, and then I think three months after that, 'Making It' started to have its drops.
How do you form a group like 'Making It'?
Teji: I’ll lay out the whole playbook to anyone who wants to start their own collective, because I feel like this information should be open to people. If you're inspired, go do it! Go find some friends, meet some people, DM random people, be like, "You want to start a group chat?" Do it. It’ll change your life forever.
We set up a Gnosis Safe, which is a group wallet, so there's about five of us who have to sign off every transaction. That's where we keep pretty much all our main funds. A gnosis safe is pretty much like a shared bank account, but secured by the blockchain.
We also have a hot wallet for setting up contracts and for our mints. I have access to that hot wallet, as well as another member. In order to launch the Worlds, we just use that hot wallet to set that up. That way, 10% gets sent to the group wallet and everyone takes the money that they've earned.
What did you think of the experience of creating the world for ‘Children of the Internet’?
Teji: We have two group chats, one is for members, which has around 50 people. We also have a core chat, which is the core 10 to 12 people who make decisions. We'll come up with drop dates, and due dates, submission dates, and we use Google Drive to get the artists to submit their works by a certain date. Once that's all done, we tell everyone, "Hey look, we're all listing our pieces at 5:00 PM EST," etc. Once everyone's listed their pieces in the Worlds, we go live and then the auctions begin, and then we jump in a Twitter Space together which can be really exciting. It's like, "Oh, you got a bid, Andreas got a bid. Damn, let's go, let's go!" and then it just becomes this wild thing.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: The first thing would be to establish the royalties. Worlds helps with dividing each drop automatically. Then, we make more assets, like banners and profile pictures, to decorate the drop page to give more of a full experience.
Andrés: There's absolutely so much going on, and to see it all come together also is part of that journey. We have all these different works coming up together, different mediums, different translations of the theme. As a collector, and as a viewer, you get to see this through-line between all the artists. There was no curator, but everybody's pieces function beautifully together.
Will you change anything about your approach for the next MakingIt world?
Andrés: Worlds is doing exactly what we wanted to begin with. Before, it required a brain like Teji's, and Subtle's, and Anubis' even, and all the other people involved in the tech to make it work. Now, pretty much anyone can create something like this. It's so easy to use now, which is what's great about using it as the collective that we are. It's really wonderful.
How do you handle marketing? Do you have any advice for other artist collectives?
Anubis3100: It's actually funny that you ask that, because our marketing usually consists of somebody sending a message to the chat asking to make flyers. We'll make flyers on our own time, and just post them. When you create a collective with good art, and you're able to execute drops successfully, the art just draws the collectors in, because it's like there's a whole allure to the whole fact that there's 40 artists just working together. Our art, and where we function, we don't need to sell it, you just gotta see it. If you like it, you're going to get it. So, we just make cool graphics and share them, honestly.
Finn: We've definitely had this discussion in chat sometimes where people are like, "Oh, I feel like I'm not getting a lot of interaction, or something. What do you guys think is best for posting format." And literally everyone's always like, "Less words, don't say anything. Don't make people read." Nobody wants to read anything. So, just make the art really good, I guess, because nobody wants to read anything.
I'd say as far as marketing for an actual drop, definitely market yourself a few weeks out, so that people are aware, and you have time to get the word out. With a group of 50 people, that kind of presence is pretty helpful. You're probably not going to miss this on your feed because there's plenty of people who are participating. It's way more beneficial to work as a group, not even just for your own gain, but for everybody involved.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: Marketing to me is about creating context, and our marketing is that we're working together. The fact that artists from the internet gathered together to work together, in web3, it gives the narrative of 'Making It'. All these different storylines coming together creates these threads of connections for collectors or audience members to follow along. I think that you need more than one person to make a movement. It's just the people we're moving with.
Like Teji said, if you're inspired by what we do, build it yourself as well, because that's going to help you as well as us, as well as everyone around you, to see more focused artists working together, and pushing together. You'll go further.
Teji: If you're new to the space, make sure you put the link in a reply to the image, because it tends to get a lot more engagement that way. That's just something you can do, as a little practical tip.
What's your definition of Making It? How does that show up in your practice and craft?
Andrés: It's about being with your friends, being able to be up late, talk shit, hang out, compare pieces, show works in progress, shitpost for hours on end on what the next theme is going to be for the next drop. There's a lot of different things that go on within a group like this, that allow it to be organic and fun. We're friends that came up initially, that were just like, "Yeah, we just want to put on a show, and hang out together.". If you've made it, you're still going to go through ups and downs regardless. It's your group, it's you coming together, and creating opportunities for one another, and supporting one another. That's 'Making It', really.
Finn: 'Making It' to me definitely also just means, just being able to dive deeper into your own craft and be able to elaborate on it. When you're able to fully flesh out that idea, and understand it, as well as allow people to understand you through this further. I don't know what you'd call it, further dissection of yourself. It's also like, we're here for each other, not only to talk about art, or champion each other for a sale, or whatever it is, it is definitely built upon actual relationships, and friendships, and I'm just so grateful to have these experiences with these people.
Anubis3100: 'Making It' is an art engine that is always running. The money happens to be nice, and we have artists who are essentially popping off, and selling for insane amounts, but that doesn't change the nature of what we do. Its absence will also not change the nature of what we do because simply, at least to me, we're not here just chasing the money, we're here creating art. Everybody likes to say two heads are better than one. Well how about we combine 30 to 40 heads? It seems to be working for us so far. It’s just unrelenting art creation and unwavering determination.
Teji: To be honest, ‘making it’ is a lifestyle, it's a verb, it's like ‘doing’. I used to think I have to get to a certain point and then I've made it. When in reality, you need to tell yourself you are already that thing. And to be that thing, you just gotta do it. You gotta be 'Making It', and that's the whole ethos behind it. We've already made it. To me at least, it feels like I'm already living my dream. I wake up, I make whatever the fuck I want. I'm creating cool shit with my friends. If you want to be something, just know you're already that thing, and act like you're already there, because that's it. It's a lifestyle.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: An artist is just someone that continues to make art. It's not that deep. Just keep making the art. A title isn't going to change how it feels to do it. For me, ‘Making It’ is just the ability and freedom to do things I'm proud of, surrounded by people I'm excited to share it with, and the ability to take breaks, and enjoy time with them, as well as visit them, and work alongside them when possible.
What’s next for ‘Making It’?
Subtle.Bubble/SB: It's more important to us that we're passionate about the work, and excited to put it out there than we're just trying to fill a quota. So, our next drop may be monthly, it may be bimonthly. It's going to be when the art really hits though. Whenever 'Making It' shows up, you know that we're showing up with our A game.
The fact that this group has been going for almost two years now, and we've only kind of just started our drops, like we just did our third one. It's exciting to see where we'll go, and how much more we still have to achieve., I would just say that the MOCA coverage for this Children of the Internet drop is something that we're all really excited about, and it's something that the drop actually was crafted towards.
Anubis3100: Yeah, and also just the fact that we get to work with MOCA, given how they've essentially been just fully artist focused, and nothing else. They love crypto art, they love to support artists. Being able to work this out is also a sign that lets us know ‘Making It’ is heading in the right direction. We just need to make sure that everything is up to par when it gets dropped as art, and that we move correctly within the space.
Any closing notes?
Teji: I'll just start off with saying, anyone can go do this stuff themselves. The tools are there. Go make some friends, go have fun. This shit is possible. Tools are there, platforms are there. There's artists who want to be in a collective, who want to participate in something.
Subtle.Bubble/SB: I'm thankful for all the connections that it's brought and just this feeling of liberty, and the feeling of ‘Making It’, because I feel like I'm doing stuff I'm proud of alongside people I'm excited to share it with.You can reach out to artists you admire in this space, and doesn't necessarily need to be a big account. You can develop these friendships.
It's going to continue to change. So, there's no point in trying to wait until you're ready to do it. Just get started, and start with what's immediately around you. Find those people that are excited to see you succeed, and you're excited to see them succeed. Because that's honestly the best part of it, is when you get that secondhand pride because like a friend made a sale, or because the group drop went well, or because you're showing your art in a real world setting. The best moments in this space for me have been from the friendships. So, just would definitely emphasize that.
Andrés: You are going to meet a lot of people in this space, regardless of what level of success you're at. Always. And you are going to continue meeting tons of people and learning new things.
If you like these pieces, you're resonating with these pieces. You're resonating with something and it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to be a part of. It's a beautiful thing to see, and I hope that everybody comes in, and really checks out the pieces and checks out the World. Come and look through, see how we all thought. See what commonalities each of the works have. They deserve the respect of multiple visits, even after the work is sold. And I think that's one of the major, major things that has come out of Worlds in general, is being able to curate these experiences.
Blues: Working within this group has been the most freeing experience along my journey as a young artist. It's like, whenever you get into this group mindset, you're also allowed to come to people, whether you have issues, or you have experiences that you want to share, or celebrations, or anything that you feel happy about. It's just so freeing to actually be a part of a group, and especially part of a group of all amazing artists, that all have this sort of common mindset, and yeah, it's the most freeing thing that I've been a part of, so I'm always grateful for Making It.
Anubis3100: What I will say to send people off is, the internet is seemingly changing the world very quickly. If you are not sociable in person, you can be extremely sociable online, and get together with people. What we are doing here, it started from friends. It didn't start with somebody just going after, and being like, "I want to make one of the best selling art collectives in web3." No, it just started with friends.
So, get your friends together, and then just slowly work on the art. If you stay true to the art I guarantee you the more people you have around you, the better, and the more chances you'll succeed.
What we're doing here is not something that's only related to web3. Anybody can do it. You just have to put your mind to it, and actually just go make art with friends.
Andrés: You don't need to be in the Lower East Side. You don't need to be in Los Angeles. You don't need to be anywhere. You're living in an incredible moment, where you can connect with different artists, curators, collectors, on such an intimate level that there's nothing else worth doing. If you feel called to make art, if you were ever called to make art, you had an interest, being here right now, you are in the exact place you are meant to be. Period.
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