Case Study · NFT Collection & Brand
61Apes
Character Design, Generative Collection & Marketing System
One ape.
A whole community.
61Apes is the NFT collection and community identity powering Leveraged Labs — the trading group where the brand was born. The ape isn't a mascot bolted onto an existing product. It is the product. My job was to build the visual universe it lives in: from the first sketch to the 618-piece generative mint, and every campaign asset in between.
The project launched with a series of auctioned 1/1 "Based Apes" — high-value, bespoke illustrations for the community's top members. After 40+ individual pieces, the work expanded into the full generative collection, a parallel brand system, and an ongoing social media presence that continues today.
This is the longest active engagement in the studio — and the one with the most visible community around it.
Every Based Ape started the same way a comic artist would approach it — pencil to paper, sketch to inks to full color. No shortcuts, no filters. Each piece was a fully bespoke illustration tailored to the community member who earned it, making them genuinely rare objects with personal meaning inside the community.
The gas mask, the samurai fur, the street-hardened expressions — each character carries a distinct attitude that maps to the Leveraged Labs DNA. Forty-plus variations across a unified visual language. Different enough to feel individual, coherent enough to read as a collection.
The 618-piece collection was built on 50+ hand-designed traits — bodies, expressions, headwear, accessories, backgrounds — each one drawn individually so that every algorithmic combination felt intentional rather than random. When you build the parts right, the generator does good work.
A subtle '618' graffiti mark runs behind every single NFT in the collection — a visual thread anchoring the whole series to Leveraged Labs' Fibonacci identity. It's quiet. Most people don't notice it immediately. When they do, it lands. That's exactly the point.
Parallel to the NFT work, 61Apes needed a marketing machine. I built a modular campaign toolkit — social templates, promotional graphics, raffle drops, and event assets — designed for speed and visual consistency across a community that moves fast.
The brand character runs through every asset: aggressive, confident, rooted in street culture and financial obsession. The ape isn't just a logo. It appears across formats — action figure boxes, slot machine drops, car campaigns — always in context, always with attitude.
The engagement didn't end at launch. Before, during, and after the mint I continued delivering social media content, animated GIFs, Discord emojis, and promotional campaigns for both 61Apes and Leveraged Labs. Three years in, the studio still supports the project — making this the studio's longest-running active creative relationship.
Character design, generative NFT collection, and full brand & marketing system — 61Apes for Leveraged Labs, 2023–present
Art that trades.
Community that holds.
A collection built on craft rather than shortcuts. Every piece in the 61Apes universe — from the earliest 1/1 auctions to the full generative mint — carries the same illustration standard. The community recognized that from day one, and they've stayed.
Three years of active engagement across NFT design, brand assets, and social campaigns. A Fibonacci mark embedded in every NFT. A visual identity that's become inseparable from Leveraged Labs itself.