Brazy - Marketing & Communications WG Nomination 07/2024

[BojangleGuy.Admin]

Personal Information

Discourse ID: @Brazy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrazyNFT

Country of Residence: Canada

Educational Background:

Langara College 2007 - Electronic Media Design Diploma

Professional Background and Relevant Experience:

Ben Wadolowski Design + Brand
Vancouver Canada
Creative Director / Graphic Designer
Feb 2008 - Present

Colony Digital
Vancouver Canada
Creative Director, Partner
Oct 2017 - 2022

Nomination Statement:

GM ApeCoin DAO,

I’m Ben (aka Brazy in Web3 land).

I have been a professional Graphic Designer and Creative Director my entire adult life (college grad '07), and passionate Web3 and ApeCoin DAO member since my rebirth in 2022.

In 2017, I co-founded a full service digital agency here in Vancouver, Canada and helped grow the company to 33 employees. My role as Creative Director was to lead anything and everything brand + design related; be it our own internal brand, global brands (that we’re all familiar with), or startup brands that came to us with little more than an idea. We did it all, branding, web, photography, videography, social media, digital marketing - you name it.

In 2022, I discovered the wild world of Web3 and never turned back to the office life. Taking my Web2 background, I’ve bridged knowledge with passion for the past 2 years and have been working closely with the DAO and the Web3 community at large.

To date, I’ve co-authored three approved AIPs, lead the creative on the Forever Apes projects (with two successful MBA licenses), recently started with the Apes+ team as Brand Director, and have worked with the MarComms Stewards on developing the first iteration of the ApeCoin brand bible.

I would love to bring my lifetime of experience to the DAO, inject some culture, and help push the needle of ApeCoin - a brand that I believe has limitless potential, and a brand that we collectively want to see thrive.

Enough talking - you can check out some of my past work at www.wadolowski.com

Motivation, Vision & Goals:

The DAO gives us all a unique opportunity to combine our talents with our passions. Coming from the dog-eat-dog agency world, Web3 offers a unique feeling of both camaraderie and community. One team one dream. You’ll see that sales pitch a lot in the corporate world, but I truly do believe that is where Web3 is different.

My leadership role in the agency world gave me all the IRL experience to know how to work closely with a team while highlighting the skills and strengths of others to get the most from the team.

The passion within the DAO is obvious, and I’d love nothing more than to contribute to the existing team with whom I’m already very close, continue pushing the needle, and take this to the next level. Rather than outsource and onboard a traditional Web2 agency, I truly believe that our brand and marketing can be built from within by passionate stewards and talented community members.

Values & Commitment:

My values in my professional career have always centered around creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Working in a creative space, you’ll quickly learn that your entire job is to reinvent the wheel - whether working in an industry as innovative as Web3, or something as traditional as legal or construction.

The sense of pride in launching a new client project is great, but going into a project that has a specified beginning and end date it can kill excitement and passion for the long term.

With ApeCoin, I see it as a long-term brand to be nurtured, a brand that has an entire family and community raising it. Rather than a beginning and end date, we will cycle through stages and cycles of its growth, and this is just the beginning.

Concluding Statement:

I have been a member and contributor to the DAO since its inception. I’ve worked behind the scenes on building out the first iteration of the brand bible for ApeCoin alongside the MarComms Stewards, and my Web2 knowledge and skillset in combination with my Web3 passion are the perfect mix to help push the ApeCoin brand forward to the next level.

I have a strong background in branding, design, and creative direction which I’d love to bring to the ApeCoin team and continue building the brand from the inside out. With so many partnerships on the horizon, the time is now to make sure that we stand strongly on our own as a brand, and are much more beyond a token.

Really appreciate the opportunity and what has been done up to this point!

Excuse any odd spellings - I’m Canadian.

[Brazy]

Gm ApeCoin DAO, me again. Below I’d love to show not tell.

I’m going to highlight a few of my favourite projects, both from the web2 world and some projects from my web3 journey. Project overviews and links to case studies below. A highlight reel of my life’s work.

My recipe for success:

• 1 part real world experience. (15+ years in the design and brand game).
• 1 part passion. (Building brands for clients is one thing, building a powerhouse for the community is another).
• 1 part degen. (I speak the language, and understand the power of web3 culture).

I currently lead all of the creative for the Forever Apes projects (x.com), am the Brand Director for Apes+ (x.com), and have put together a long list of other community related designs I’ve created over the past couple years.

You can view my web3 highlights in their entirety (warning: there’s a lot).
View here: Boards - InVision
Below are a few examples.

Forever Apes Apparel (MBA #00944)

Some highlights from other Forever Apes projects (including AIP-112 (MBA #00008), the first community project to feature all 4 BAYC founders, alongside a handful of other legends from our communities).

A few ApeCoin specific brand projects.

And a few fun what-ifs that I dreamt up. (*Note that these are just hypothetical design mocks, and aren’t real collaborations or products).

I’ve also been a proud community member since day 1, have met a ton of you IRL, travelled to Hong Hong for ApeFest, and am looking forward to meeting those who I haven’t had the pleasure to meet yet. I’m also an active member of the Bored Club Canada and have been to multiple meetups (with many more planned).

Below are some of the projects I’m most proud of from my web2 career. Please have a read for the project overview, and each project has a deep dive case study along with it.

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BRÜUSH
Who said brushing your teeth can’t be fun? This was a project that aimed to break convention of what a typical electric toothbrush is, was, and could be. Comparable to a Phillips Sonicare in quality and features (which retails at $230), the concept of Bruush was simple - create an affordable luxury brand that changed the way you brush your teeth, at a price point that’s fair for everyone. Built purely on a subscription model, the direct to consumer model cuts out the middle man, and passes those savings on to the consumer at a price point of $79. You may have seen these ads all over your online adventures, as they brought on Kevin Hart as both an investor and spokesperson for the brand!

This project entailed and end to end solution consisting of brand naming, logo design, packaging design, product design, website design, social media concept and design, photography, videography, and digital marketing.

Case study: Boards - InVision

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WAVEROOM
In the world of social media and entertainment, it’s important to create brand loyalty and a visual direction that makes a splash. The mandate for the project was to zero in on a younger audience, appeal to a new demographic, and doing that without alienating the existing audience. The brand has 7 years of history, so the main goal of this rebrand was to refresh, refine, and ultimately modernize the brand and visual identity so that it stood up against the big players in the space. With so many of the larger media channels struggling to scale, there is an amazing opportunity for mid size media brands to take a bit of market share. We wanted to elevate the brand presence, and create something that not only nods to its Gen Z audience but also caters to larger corporate partnerships and collaborations.

The project entailed a full circle brand refresh from the top down, focusing on elevating and modernizing the existing brand into the current market and beyond.

Case study: Boards - InVision

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R3P
In a market as saturated as supplements, R3P flips the script of what a traditional fitness brand is. Community first and foremost, this brand was built around the aspirational instead of the traditional. A concept that lives beyond the gym walls, and targets a millennial demographic that centres around community. This one was a completely full circle brand development from my end. The parent company owns an extremely successful existing brand called Mutant Supplements which zeroes in on the bodybuilding demographic, so wanted to go polar opposite with this project and focus on those who wanted to live the fitness lifestyle, without dedicating every waking hour to it - think of it as a gateway or starter brand. The concept of R3P is that you earn your rep, through your reps, both inside the gym and out as part of a healthy lifestyle, by empowering likeminded individuals in all aspects of life.

The project entailed an end to end solution consisting of brand naming, logo design, packaging design, website design, social media concept and design, influencer and ambassador program, photography, videography, and digital marketing. The works!

Case study: Boards - InVision

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ANDIAGO
For all of the bars and restaurants out there, we all struggle with finding new diamonds in the rough and trying new things. If only we had that friend always in the know, ready to give us that recommendation that always is worth listening to. Enter Andiago - the app that helps answer the question of ‘where to go next’. Using a very vast database of user information from their parent analytics company, they utilized data of existing customers to build out authentic user content to recommend popular places to eat, drink, and dine within your local area via real traffic and geotargeted locations. The concept of authenticity is a new introduction to the space, as oftentimes review sites such as Yelp can have paid or fake reviews, which create a polarizing view of things that often lack both authenticity and credibility.

This was a larger budget project, so part of the scope was to include two unique initial brand concepts, which I’ve attached below.

The project entailed brand naming, logo design, and concept directions for the app UI.

Case study: Boards - InVision

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FITNESS WORLD
Since parting ways with Steve Nash, Fitness World wanted to reinvent themselves with a brand new identity and bold colour palette to relaunch into the space. Keyword being space — I saw an opportunity to run with the ‘world’ concept of building connection, and give the brand a colour palette explosion of galaxy themed colours (green and purple). Since most competitors in the space use red palettes, the goal was to create an palette that could be owned, while also being very bold in the way that the gym was portrayed. Similar to R3P, the goal was to create a brand that was all inclusive, non intimidating, and focus on the fun and community aspect of fitness (without feeling unobtainable).

This project entailed logo design, website design, social media concept and design, in-gym signage, apparel & merch, photography, videography, and digital marketing.

Case study: Boards - InVision

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[DIM]

Good luck Brazy! Happy to see you running!

[Brazy]

Thank you Dim - appreciate the support!

[Moonlyght]

Good luck Brazy!! Love your committment and great to see you running for Marketing! Forever Apes products are top notch!

[Brazy]

Appreciate it @Moonlyght! Have always aimed for quality over quantity, means a lot to see it recognized. Excited to see where the ApeCoin brand goes, sky is the limit

[bigbull]

Nice to see you apply, your projects were intriguing when I decided to come back and deep dive in the DAO.

Can you list some specific things you would like to achieve in this role?

How would your role fit relative to the current Marcomms Stewards?

[Brazy]

Gm @bigbull,

Thank you for the kind words and the Qs!

What I’d like to achieve:

My main goal would be to fully flush out the brand direction of ApeCoin. Not just how to represent ourselves visually, but a full end to end brand strategy moving forward. This would include pillars like our tone of voice, our brand attributes, our visual direction, and how we market ourselves both as a standalone brand as well as within brand partnerships and collaborations. Once we have a structure built out, we can take that brand direction and turn that into marketing campaigns, partnerships + collabs, and beyond, all unified as one central brand. This will be extremely important moving forward as ApeChain gets built out, more AIPs passed, or more brand collaborations come together. You can see some examples and case studies of brands I’ve built in the past above, and the level of detail I’d like to get to.

I’ve been a contributor to the DAO since day one, and one of the challenges I’ve heard is that there is no defined visual direction for the ApeCoin brand. We have a logo, but not much else. Every person who touches the brand has a different take on it, and I would love to bring structure to that so that we all speak the same brand language and have visual alignment on everything related to ApeCoin. It’s a process that takes time, there’s no shortcut, but I’m ready to show up every day and put the time in.

Let’s personify the brand. Who are we? Are we wearing suits for Christie’s? Are we sitting on the lawn chair with Curtis in a Hawaiian shirt and cigar? Somewhere in between? I had tried doing brand spectrums are part of WG0 way back when the DAO had just started, but opinion by committee can be a challenge, and we never settled on defined answers (which is okay). Would love to revisit with with the rest of MarComms as well as the other WGs.

How I’d fit with the current Stewards:

I have a lifetime of design experience across hundreds of clients, products, and industries. The feeling of seeing a project through start to finish is amazing, but for the past 15+ years I’ve had my focus on building clients projects with defined start and finish dates. Pays the bills, but eventually hurts passion and creativity. What I’m looking for is to help build and nurture one brand through it’s life cycle, something I can bring expertise to, something that we all grow together, but most importantly something I bring a true passion to. ApeCoin is that brand.

To date, I’ve been working very closely with Popil and Linstro behind the scenes to build out the first iteration of the ApeCoin brand bible alongside multiple other projects with other WGs (dating back to the WG0 days).

Our skillsets are very complimentary, Linstro with his production and content background, Popil with her social media and communication background, and myself with a branding and creative direction background. We speak the same language, understand each others strengths, and are all big on collaborating on ideas. A passionate team creates passionate work.

One of the main things I’d like to bring to the table is the push for collaboration. The existing Working Groups have an amazing amount of individual talent, and I’ve love to bring that all together and build closely as one team.

My agency background taught me a lot about the power of collaboration, structures and processes, and most importantly how to approach everything from a highly strategic and efficient angle. We have some amazing artists in our community who I’ve worked closely with in the past, who I’d love to collab with once we have a more defined brand strategy. Content is king.

I’d love nothing more than to be part of a brand that wins together, in a space where we’re all part of the same team.

Brick by brick.

[S-17]

Love that you talked about collaborations because that’s what grows communities.

[Brazy]

Posted a thread with a bit more info on myself, my background, my qualifications, and some of my work here!

Brazy🍌

[Brazy]

Some Q&A with Kyle from the Gazette here:

MEET THE CANDIDATE: Brazy Is Running For Marketing& Communications...

[Brazy]

Brazy🍌

[TheFatherOfAllStorms]

What skill do you feel that you acquire the most after finishing school and did you aim to get any specific certification in tech or others?

[Brazy]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to DM, ask questions, and vote

Brazy🍌