Among the countless PFP (profile-picture) projects to emerge from the NFT space, Doodles has maintained its status as one of the most influential and beloved endeavors.
While the collection of colorful line-drawn characters that has swept across the globe ranks high on the list of top PFPs, in terms of both popularity and sales volume, there’s much more to these seemingly simple Doodles than meets the eye.
From first-of-its-kind token mechanics and high-profile collaborations to extravagant in-person events and much more, Doodles has traversed the ups and downs of the web3 ecosystem and come out on the other side. While it might be impossible to chronicle all the twists and turns that led to the project’s evolution, this guide will lay out everything you need to know to understand Doodles.
The Team
Doodles was founded in 2021 by Evan Keast, Jordan Castro, and Scott Martin.
Evan ‘Tulip’ Keast and Jordan ‘Poopie’ Castro were already well-established in the NFT community, as they had previously helped build the legendary CryptoKitties NFT project with Dapper Labs.
Scott ‘Burnt Toast’ Martin, is a Canadian–based illustrator, designer, animator, and muralist whose reputation led him to work on projects for Google, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and more. Before Doodles, he also had a foot in Web3, minting his pieces and growing his creative brand within the NFT space for about a year.
A few months after the launch, they appointed Julian Holguin, formerly President at Billboard, as CEO of Doodles. In June 2022, Doodles announced music, fashion, and cultural icon Pharrell Williams as Chief Brand Officer.
Following the acquisition of award-winning animation studio Golden Wolf and internal recruitment, the Doodles team counts almost 60 employees worldwide, gathering individuals with backgrounds in tech, media, advertising, entertainment, and media.
The Genesis Collection
Doodles is a collection of 10,000 generative NFTs, featuring original art created by Martin, who produced hundreds of unique visual traits for the collection.
However, the project ultimately followed in the footsteps of predecessors like CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, and Cool Cats by randomly mixing and matching these individual traits to create the full Doodles collection.
62 of the 10,000 Doodles were hand-drawn by Martin, consisting of mascots, aliens, cats, skellys, and apes.
The Doodles ecosystem also consists of other character types such as human-like, pickles, flames, flowers and ice creams. As with nearly all generative avatar collections, Doodles NFTs come in varying degrees of rarity. You can find an overview of the rarest types above.
A particularly iconic Doodles trait is the Rainbow Puke face. It entered popular culture in 2023 when The Simpsons included their own version of a Doodles Rainbow Puke in their annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode.
The Launch
Doodles launched on Oct. 17, 2021, at 0.123 ETH per mint.
During the project’s rollout, Doodles tried something that had seemingly never been executed by a PFP project. About a month before the project went live for minting, the team closed the Discord when membership numbers reached just over 1,000. This made it so no new members could join, creating extra exclusivity within the project’s community.
This decision received mixed reviews, as it effectively gave whitelist access (priority minting) to a select few. Yet, as the Doodles mint date drew closer, the project’s following continued to grow, and the decision to close the Discord started to be seen as an innovative way to reward early NFT project supporters.
The Doodles Ecosystem
In addition to the OG Doodles genesis collection outlined above, the Doodles ecosystem has grown considerably as its creative universe expands.
While the new initiatives have excited the community, the team has made it clear that OG Doodles sit at the very core of the Doodles ecosystem. They are the beating heart of the Doodles community and unlock the most exclusive utilities.
Let’s take a look at some of the other collections that comprise the Doodles universe.
Space Doodles
Space Doodles are non-dilutive companion pieces for Doodles. Each Doodle in the original collection of 10,000 can launch its own personal spaceship with planets, backgrounds, and audio generated from over 200 audio-visual traits and on-chain stats.
At this point in time, they exist purely as art. However, they were also designed with other potential long-term uses in mind that have not yet been disclosed.
The 62 hand-drawn Doodles each have a manually created and assembled Space Doodle, including extra animation of the Doodle itself. You can view the revealed ones here.
It should be noted that buying or selling a Doodle takes ownership of the Space Doodle with it, and vice versa.
Doodles 2 & Stoodio
The Stoodio is the Doodles collector hub built on the Flow blockchain.
The beta version released in April 2023 features a character builder tool for composable digital identity named Doodles 2. Public release is planned in Q1 2024.
The Doodles 2 hub marks the headquarters for the Doodles experience and collector journey, featuring holder profiles, rewards, and more.
It’s also where you can onboard onto Doodles 2 to create and customize your Doodle with wearables obtained with Dooplicators and Genesis Boxes, or purchased on Gaia.
Dooplicator
The Dooplicator is a device that was originally claimable for free by OG Doodles holders between May and June 2022.
The first use, or “charge,” of the Dooplicator allows its owner to create wearables from OG Doodles. These are some of the rarest wearables within Doodles 2.
Although most Doodles generate wearables essentially identical to some of their traits, there are some Doodles that generate items inspired by the original Doodle instead – such as the hand-drawns, special heads and faces, Rainbow Pukes, and those with holographic hair or beards. Examples of these can be seen below.
There are three types of Dooplicators:
Very Common
- Supply: 6,250.
- Utility: Can create 1x of each wearable
Common
- Supply: 2,085
- Utility: Can create 2x of each wearable
Rare
- Supply: 1,040
- Utility: Can create 3x of each wearable
Dooplicators are billed as having “perpetual utility” in that they will also have unknown future uses beyond just the original Dooplication of OG wearables. This also applies to Dooplicators already used for the existing purpose.
Genesis Box
20,000 Genesis Boxes were released in June 2022.
These boxes contain a randomized mix of Doodles 2 wearables, including headwear, accessories, tops, bottoms, and footwear.
One Wearable will be an Exclusive, while the other will be an Exclusive, a Grail, or a 1-of-1. In total, there are 131 Exclusives, 58 Grails, and 12 1-of-1s.
Just remember… a Genesis Box can only be opened once, and then it’s gone!
Collab Drops
Doodles has opened its Doodles 2 universe to select brands and creators through collaborative drops with similar mechanics to the Genesis Box.
Pharrell Pack
In May 2023, Doodles launched the Pharrell pack. Each box consists of a trio of unique digital wearables, including Humanrace and BBC IceCream branded items, and a digital redeemable NFT for a physical pair of Adidas Sambas x Pharrell.
Crocs Box
The Crocs Box started as a physical product: a Doodles x Crocs Classic Clog bundle consisting of one pair of Clogs and one 8-pack of Doodles Jibbitz charms.
Purchasers of the Bundle had the right to claim a Digital Crocs Box and open it to reveal two Crocs Wearables and one Stoodio Beta Pass.
The Community
Shortly after the supply of Doodles sold out, the Discord server was reopened, bringing a slew of new collectors and enthusiasts into the community. In the following months, various NFT influencers and big-name celebrities joined Doodles as collectors, further solidifying the project as one of the hottest PFP NFT communities.
While numerous avatar projects market themselves as community-centered, Doodles seems to have been all about empowering their community from the start. The Doodles website states that owning a Doodle and voting on community proposals “makes the roadmap collaborative.”
Within the Doodles community, we find the Inkubator and numerous active sub-communities.
Inkubator
The Inkubator is the community launchpad, providing support for Doodles’ OG holders to take their creative and entrepreneurial ideas from dreams to realities.
The Inkubator is the evolution of the Doodlebank, which was originally available for community initiatives through holder votes. 420 ETH from the mint revenue and 50% of the ongoing secondary market royalties constitute the basis of the Dooodlebank treasury. It eventually became the Inkubator, with a revamped structure to enable better output.
The Inkubator’s mission is to enable Doodles’ OG Holders to connect and collaborate on endeavors that enrich the community and expand the Doodles brand. It’s not just about funding; it’s about building, growing, and amplifying the Doodles community and brand together.
So far, the Inkubator has:
- Distributed over $300K in grants
- Received 74 proposals and funded 15 across events and commercial experiments
- Launched the first Artist in Residence Program with ArtDood
- Held events in 5 countries
Community Council
The Doodles Community Council serves as the voice and governing body of the Doodles community within the Inkubator. Council members advocate for community interests, make collective decisions, ensure transparent communication, gather feedback from the community and the Council, and collaborate closely with the Doodles team to align initiatives with organizational goals.
Each Council is elected by the Doodles team based on community opinions. Each term lasts six months, at the end of which new elections are held.
The first term’s Community Council consisted of:
- Chair: 8270.eth
- Treasurer: Schenk.eth
- Events: Kat
- Grants: Eyal Toledano
- Rewards: Harold Hughes
New elections for the second term were held in January 2024, and the current council consists of:
- Chair: 8270.eth
- Events: Youngsun Shin
- Experiments: Atown Brown
Doodles Watch
As the Doodles team selects the Community Council, the Doodles Watch role was created to serve as an independent board observer to the Doodles Community Council, elected directly by the community.
The Doodles Watch is here to help align incentives between the Doodles Community Council and Doodles’ OG Holders. While the Doodles Watch does not vote on proposals, their role is to engage in meetings on behalf of the community and report activities to the community.
The Doodles Watch elections take place every three months.
Past Doodles Watch members include Captain Roops, Chef Ton, and Tree.
Community Grants
At the heart of the Inkubator are community grants designed and streamlined to inspire and empower the Doodles community.
These one-time grants provide funds to Doodles’ OG holders, empowering them to create unique events and pioneering business experiments. Whether it’s for exclusive gatherings of OG holders and their guests or even open to the public, these initiatives aim to enrich local communities and broaden the reach of the Doodles brand.
- RFPs
The Iinkubator council and the Doodles team can submit Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to source talents within the community for specific missions.
One of the latest was an RFP for community members to organize a side event for NFT Paris in February 2024, with a budget of $25,000.
- Successful Inkubator initiatives
The Inkubator has funded successful community-led events, such as Rolling Doods in Hong Kong, and business initiatives including Candle Company Toastie Co.
Sub-Communities
The Doodles community has bred numerous sub-communities on Discord and X, bringing together members from specific geographic regions, connecting owners of specific traits, or generally bringing together Doodles holders.
Here is a list of the most prominent Doodles sub-communities
Rainbow Alpha is the leading entity providing early access opportunities for the hottest projects to Doodles holders.
Founders: Monoworm, vvvveth (no longer active)
Access: Rainbow Alpha is integrated directly into the Doodles Discord server. It is accessible to all verified Doodles holders.
Doodbro Alpha is the leading Chinese-speaking Doodles community with 500+ members on WeChat. They also run an Alpha Group, which provides early access opportunities to Doodles holders similar to Rainbow Alpha, with an expert eye for projects arising in Asia.
Founders: Unipioneer, KevinFKeveryone
Admins: Unipioneer, KevinFKeveryone, SheckyLin, Wmoon, CupCat
Access: Join the Doodbro Alpha Discord. Since WeChat doesn’t have a public invite link, holders can contact one of the owners on X to be invited.
Koodles is the leading subcommunity for Korean-speaking holders.
Founders: YoungSun
Admins : YoungSun, JunKim, WiseKim
SiameseDoods is the leading subcommunity for Doodles in Thailand.
Access: Contact the founder to join.
- Notable Doods
Notable Doods started as a trait-based group chat on X gathering owners of ‘note’ trait doodles. It quickly evolved into a group chat gathering some of the most ‘notable’ Doodles holders, recognized for their active contributions to the community.
Founder: Happy
Access: Invite-only. Contact the founder or members to join.
- Original Dojo
The Doodles Original Dojo is a leading group chat on X.
Founder: Tree
Access: Invite-only. Contact the founder or members to join.
- And a multitude of trait-based sub-communities
There are many other active trait-based group chats and sub-communities, including holders of Rainbow Pukes, wizards, and mullet Doodles.
The Doodles Way
Doodles bills itself as a next-generation entertainment company focused on immersive storytelling through the creation and distribution of live and digital experiences, original content & lifestyle products. Doodles’ stated mission is to define the standard for immersive storytelling and “color the world with joy.”
To help fulfill this mission, Doodles raised $54 million in 2022 from Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian’s VC firm Seven Seven Six (776).
Business Ecosystem
In 2023, Jordan Castro, one of Doodles’ co-founders, controversially announced: “We are no longer an ‘NFT project.’”
Some misinterpreted this as suggesting Doodles was moving away from NFTs, and shortly after the original comment, Jordan clarified more accurate wording would have been “not just an NFT project.”
As the team clarified, this statement refers to the fact that Doodles has evolved from an “NFT project” to a proper brand whose business revolves around three pillars.
Character IP
Doodles is an ever-expanding universe of characters and stories aimed at being next-gen entertainment at the forefront of technology and culture that is fun for everyone, multigenerational and global.
The Doodles story has already introduced the main characters Hap and Mello, his cat. The Doodles team has hinted towards their universe, but the details remain to be unveiled.
Creative Agency
Golden Wolf, Doodles’ award-winning creative studio, provides in-house multi-channel creative services for partners across a wide range of industries.
This acquisition in 2023 has been a strategic move for Doodles, creating immediate value as a standalone cash-flowing business that contributes to the company’s bottom line and the expansion of the Doodles IP.
Top clients include Epic Games, Disney, Nickelodeon, Samsung and more.
In April, Doodles announced a groundbreaking animation experience coming this summer, directed by Burnt Toast and produced by Golden Wolf. Titled “Dullsville and The Doodleverse,” the animation experience bridges Doodles’ iconic style with a revolutionary and cinematic format.
It will be anchored by the release of three Doodles Records music videos featuring tracks by Pharrell Williams and other artists, including Lil Wayne and Coi Leray, who will also be voicing characters in the film. Other prominent collaborators and featured artists will be revealed soon.
Beyond music and animation, the overarching campaign referred to as “Project Gray” will take the shape of a transmedia activation, incorporating live events, partnerships, exclusive merchandise, and digital collecting experiences.
It will begin to roll out in early summer and culminate with a tentpole moment at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film will premiere, followed by a global release.
Software & Technology
Doodles develops proprietary technology which enables them to create connected, immersive experiences. The goal: build the first participatory transmedia storytelling ecosystem.
The Stoodio is Doodles’ flagship product: a proprietary, mobile-first link between our world and the Doodles universe.
Most media and entertainment companies don’t have a direct relationship with their final consumers. With this approach, Doodles aims to nurture relationships with their collectors and reward loyalty.
Products & Experiences
Doodles Products
Besides “phygital” drops in the context of the Stoodio, Doodles also launches new physical products regularly, from vinyl figurines co-created with SK Lam to clothes and rugs.
Moving into 2024, Doodles aims to increase its overall range while focusing on vinyl toys and plushes as its hero products. We can expect to see these products commercialized via Doodles’ online store, Camp stores, and other direct-to-consumer channels.
You can find their currently available products in their online shop.
Brand Collaborations
Doodles have a strong brand collaboration pipeline, including:
- Adidas, Humanrace & BBC Ice Cream
The collaboration with Adidas, Humanrace and BBC Ice Cream was introduced through the Pharrell Pack and Pharell Williams’ appearance in the Doodles world through a transmedia activation spanning animation, physical products, live experiences, and digital identity.
- Crocs
Doodles reimagined the classic Crocs Clog with a 360° campaign featuring physical products, digital apparel, original content, and experimental activations.
The general sale of the Crocs Box sold out in less than a day, generating 1.5 million engagements in the first 24 hours.
- G Shock
Doodles has teased a forthcoming watch collaboration with G Shock slated for release on Feb. 15. Featuring a limited-edition timepiece designed by Burnt Toast, a digital collectible powered by IYK, and an accompanying capsule collection, the collaboration will debut at 2G Tokyo from Feb. 9-11.
Events
- SXSW
SXSW was Doodles’ first event, and it was eye-opening for many in the community. Featuring personalized experiences, impressive production, and a Shopify activation, it set a high bar for Doodles’ ability to execute immersive events merging digital and physical.
- NFT NYC, NFT Paris and other global conferences
Doodles have been active sponsors and participants in global conferences. Their community gathering at NFT NYC and CEO Julian Holguin’s keynote presentation set the tone for Doodles’ evolution towards a multifaceted entertainment company.
- SITW
Doodles’ participation at Pharrell William’s festival Something In The Water (SITW) in April 2023 marked their first activation in the world of music with a mainstream audience.
- Community-led events
The Doodles Inkubator funds community events around the globe. Notable past events include ‘NFC Fright Night’ in New York, Koodles’ Seoul Community Meetup, Rolling Doods in Hong Kong, and the ‘Colorful Meetup’ in Amsterdam.
Experiential Retail: Camp
In the summer of 2023, Doodles revealed an experiential retail space in Chicago in partnership with Camp, which led to the biggest opening event in Camp’s history.
Camp stores are known for their unique shop-and-play hybrid experiences in physical locations across the USA in collaboration with Nike, Disney, and now Doodles.
Doodles’ Camp store invites kids and families to enter the Doodles world and help Hap and Mello in their adventure. Throughout the experience, visitors get to slide down rainbows, play in puffy clouds, a crashed spaceship, a ball pit, and more. Equipped with a “Doodad device,” participants can collect wearables as they progress through the adventure and create their own Doodles character on a similar interface to the Stoodio.
This allows Doodles to collect precious data and insights on how people interact with their products and collect digital items.
Doodles sells 1,200 weekly tickets to the Chicago Camp Store Experience on average.
Useful Links:
X: https://twitter.com/doodles
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedoodles/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtPrgLDvHqOCAG8K4E1Cw6g
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doodles
Website: https://web3.doodles.app/
Editor’s note: Since its initial publication, this guide has been updated to reflect new projects and developments. It features contributions from Doodles community members Incog and Happy, as well as Langston Thomas.
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