We've had an Art Deco style cover in mind for quite a long time but it never fit the topic, until now. The main article is about CP billboards in Miami so we decided to base the cover on this event, but with no actual Punk, images included this time.

I came up with the idea of a highway with cars running into the billboard. Redlion later expanded the concept with the red and blue pills, a well-known Matrix reference. It actually happened by chance, I'd added the blue and red dot on the billboard image just by feel, and left it in place for when we discussed how we'd be proceeding.

The pills symbolize the choice of the road to the world of NFTs. Will you eat all the bullshit you'll be served daily, or will you open your mind and look before you leap?  Let's further explore the details of this artwork.

The road sign on the left says: "taking the red pill is a no-brainer", giving the viewer a nice little hint. By including the passing sailboat we are celebrating our first distributed 'Set Reward' to our loyal collectors. See details on the about page.

A tiny reference goes towards Paris Hilton, who has been frenetically following NFT artists this week. We haven't been followed = no fully featured cover for now. But honestly, all we know about Paris Hilston is her porn tape and South Park episode.  The included Coinbase Listing reference is even smaller.

Remember the stuck cargo ship in the Suez canal? She is finally approaching port after two weeks! All of the artwork is fully drawn as vector graphics in Adobe Illustrator.

The animation came to life in After Effects where I had to figure out how to handle the perspective of the passing cars. There was no time to combine the 2D image with 3D geometry, so I sort of faked the cars as pseudo-3D planes, rotated and combined together, just like a paper toy is constructed.

For the record, there is one "First" perk for this cover: an audio track is used to further enhance this Art Deco atmosphere. Listen to the full track "Keep It Chilled" by Jake Bradford-Sharp.