The LightBulbMan

World famous artist Bjarne Melgaard wished to reimagine his most prestigious work ‘The LightbulbMan’, but in the NFT space and more precisely in the world of WEB3. 

Melgaard is an extremely prominent physical artist (paintings and sculptures) in Scandinavia; and is as significant to Scandanvia as Damien Hirst is to the UK.

Bjarne is no stranger to controversy and we wanted to present the project as such by helping it take off in the digital space, without shying away from who Bjarne is. 

Bjarne’s work tackles many issues head-on, such as drug addiction, mental displacement and the AIDS pandemic. All things that pay homage to his experience and are reflected back into his work.

ITMV Strategy

We took over community management creating the world of Skygge, a vision of the Norse mythology of modernity that Bjarne had created through his stand alone figure.

The Community was built and consisted of NFT collectors who had an interest in fine art and traditional Melgaard collectors who made the crossover and were successfully onboarded into WEB3. It was important that the drop and the pricing stayed true to the price and value of Bjarnes original work; but also gave opportunity for those priced out of his real life works, to gain an entry point for Melgaard collectable. In the server, we also created a unique currency called ‘WATTS’ that functioned as a play on the themes of addiction chronicled throughout Bjarne’s work.

In a unique spin, the community and token holders were uniquely allowed to name their LightbulbMan purchases on the blockchain, the first time that Melgaard has allowed a mass swathe of buyers to name his individual works. Holders were also able to claim a high quality, personally-signed print of their individual Lightbulb Man. 

The project was one of the most successful transitions of fine art into a PFP project and allowed collectors the chance to own a 1 of 1 Melgaard and to engage with Bjarne during intimate community fireside-chats.

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Generated almost $2 million dollars for the studio

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Sold out 1000 pieces of art

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Live rave in Decentraland with live DJs & LBM POAPS

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Physical pieces available to token holders

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Token holders able to name their NFTS on the blockchain

Launch

The project saw the hosting of a viral rave in Decentraland that achieved over 21k retweets on Twitter. The LightbulbMan was crafted in full 3D and the land of Skygge was visually created in the Metaverse. It wouldn’t be Melgaard without controversy; live DJ’s from East London were live-streamed through a custom-built URL. The performers took notes from Bjarnes past controversial work, showing pig masks from when Bjarne painted in a gallery surrounded by pigs.

The project sold just over 1000 mints at 0.5ETH, generating almost $2 million dollars.

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