OSF, the artist behind rektguy, sat down with NFTStudio24 to talk about his professional journey from TradFi to NFT space, art inspirations, future aspirations, and crypto predictions.
OSF reimagines the real world in an alternate universe where every day has a different side and nightlife is a dystopian scenery. Incorporating real-world routines into an alternate reality where everything exists in glitch art, neon colors, dark sceneries, and skull-like figures, OSF introduces a unique and futuristic look to city life.
OSF is a well-known digital artist who has been involved with NFT/Web3 world as an investor for a long time. He began his career by launching his first-ever NFT project with his partner Mike Anderson called Degenz, featuring unique characters inspired by crypto meme culture.
OSF’s latest NFT collection, rektguy rose to popularity for its unique yet immersive skeleton-like digital artwork. It is one of the most successful projects that brought recognition to OSF as a popular artist in the NFT space.
NFTStudio24 interviewed OSF to discuss various aspects of NFTs, Web3, crypto, and digital art. Here’s a complete interview with OSF:
From TradiFi to becoming an NFT creator
OSF started off his career as a trader in a traditional investment bank. He worked there for almost 10 years and experienced the rise and fall of financial markets which gave him an insight into trading.
In January 2021, OSF came across the world of crypto and decentralized finance.
As a trader, OSF found himself deeply interested in crypto, NFTs, and Web3 in general. “It just hit many different passions for me and it was a much more interesting market than traditional finance.”
Since he already had a background experience with trading, the rektguy artist decided to wreck his well-established 10-year-old career and daytime job in traditional finance to enter the crypto space in December 2021.
At the beginning of this year, OSF found himself involved as an NFT collector and investor. He decided it was time for him to create his own work and establish himself in the Web3 space. Thus, OSF followed his passion for digital art and finance to become a full-time NFT creator.
Hybrid of Digital art and Finance
OSF’s career background and passion became one when he became an NFT creator. NFTs gave OSF the opportunity to unleash his inner talent and also utilize his technical side together for one project.
“It is an interesting intersection between the left side [creative] and right side [finance] of your brain, which I think is quite interesting and definitely one of the few industries where you can draw on both sets of skills to try and make it a success,” OSF said.
For OSF, the NFTs were the perfect opportunity to become something he always wanted to become even if it meant taking big risks or sabotaging his whole career, and he was successful in achieving his goals as a Web3 investor, entrepreneur, and NFT artist.
Canary Labs: Degenz and rektguy
Canary Labs was founded by OSF and his business partner, Mike Anderson a few months ago. The company started with the first original collection called Degenz in July 2021 which initially turned out to be a failure by the end of 2021.
However, instead of giving up, OSF and Anderson took it as an experiment to try out in the NFT space and understand the market better. Later, the duo decided to transform Degenz into an NFT resources platform where they both would share expert opinions and insights related to the crypto market that could help people.
“We were like ‘let’s just do something we’re good at,’ which was we had a history in investing, and thinking about how to deploy capital. So, we converted Degenz into an NFT resources platform where we provide reviews and reports about different NFT projects like the daily market commentary and other tools for them to learn to make decisions by themselves.”
Degenz became a well-recognized project due to this initiative and OSF became a well-known personality as an investor and trader in the NFT community.
Then, OSF launched his very own NFT collection called rektguy which gave him fame as an NFT creator. It was launched in May 2022 and turned out to be a complete success within two months.
Canary Labs is mainly a representative company that combines Degenz, rektguy, and other projects into one place. According to OSF, Canary Labs is built with the vision to become the top company that represents OSF’s and Anderson’s existing and future works in the Web3 world.
OSF as an NFT artist
When asked about his motivation behind becoming an NFT artist, OSF shared that he initially wasn’t interested in the creative side of NFTs but as a teenager, he was deeply passionate about digital art.
Growing up in an environment where art had no place and it was necessary for people to get into degrees that could land them a stable job like work at a bank or a company, OSF abandoned his passion for art to follow a proper career path.
NFTs brought back his love for digital art within a few months of his career in crypto. He found himself doodling and thinking creatively about how he could present his work in front of the world and become an NFT artist himself.
The doodle in his notebook eventually turned into an NFT which got sold in the marketplace. OSF got motivated and started creating more pieces and selling them online. “I never expected it to become as big as it has,” he said.
Rektguy inspirations: XCOPY, Stranger Things, and Nightlife
On the discussion about OSF’s hit NFT collection, rektguy, OSF explained that he had been deeply interested in the concepts of alternate universe and upside-down world paired with daily city life.
According to him, rektguy felt more intimate and real to people because it had genuineness in it. OSF called the character “semi-biographical” to himself which resonated well with people around the world.
When asked about his artistic inspirations, OSF shared that initially he was highly inspired by the work of XCOPY, a world-renowned crypto digital artist.
“I think he was the originator of the glitch style. The colors he uses are dark backgrounds and the rest in bright colors. He was definitely a big influence for me,” he said. “I like the way he incorporated the meme culture into his art.”
Later, OSF developed his own art style that was heavily influenced by the nightlife in different cities. OSF said he loves the idea of night city life that gives off an underworld or alternate universe vibes. “Dark colors, bright lights, kind of like stepping into the unknown of big cities.”
He further explained: “It’s kind of like the upside-down in Stranger Things. I just like the idea of alternate realities but drawing on things that we see in everyday lives, but there’s a different side to it.”
After rektguy: future aspirations
NFTStudio24 talked to OSF about his future aspirations with Canary Labs and rektguy to which, the artist shared that he plans to expand his existing NFT project more. Seeing the heightened interest in rektguy, the short-term goal for OSF is to create real-life merch and establish rektguy as a proper Web3 brand by releasing more artworks based on it.
For long-term goals, OSF shared that he aims to make Canary Labs a proper Web3 conglomerate that will invest, create, venture, and empower Web3 startups and creators in the near future. He will start off by expanding his team and collaborating with different artists for new projects within the NFT space.
“We are working with two more artists right now on bringing in two more [NFT] drops this year, which will be zero mints or 0.001 ETH mints for Degenz holders,” OSF said.
With Canary Labs, he plans on dividing it into arms, and this one is going to be a creation studio arm which will give artists a platform to showcase their art.
OSF also shared that they recently hired someone to lead Canary Labs’ advisory arm that aims to lead people from Web2 to Web3. “We’re also looking for ways to raise funds to invest in NFTs because we have a lot of interests coming from people we used to work with.”
All in all, OSF has a complete plan to become a well-established NFT artist and lead his company to the top in the Web3 world.
OSF’s message to aspiring artists and traders
OSF has already become a successful personality in the Web3 space. He also shared an inspiring message for NFTStudio24 viewers.
He said, “We are at a point in time where macroeconomically things are very bad, but the technology side like business to consumer or creator to collector relationships, new business concepts, and ideas, that side is still growing.”
OSF gave the example of the 80s and 90s The dot-com bubble where markets crashed to almost zero and there was a sudden burst of the bubble where 1% of the surviving companies are now Google, Amazon, etc.
He believes similar things will happen in the Web3 space and a lot of projects might not survive, but the key is to invest in the 1% that survives the bear market.
“I would say, stick it out, and have some faith in the industry. Find your niche you really believe in, the use cases you believe in, or the creators you believe in.” He said.
Crypto and NFT predictions by OSF
NFTStudio24 had a rapid-fire question session with OSF to share his predictions on the crypto and NFT industry. Here’s what he says:
Q. What are your predictions on Bitcoin prices next year?
A. In the next 12 months, I would expect Bitcoin to be higher. I expect the prices to go up by 30,000 to 40,000. I believe the economic boom would be in a recession but Bitcoin will definitely peak.
Q. How much do you think Ethereum would cost in 2024?
A. Ethereum in 2024 has a chance of becoming an all-time high. In 2024, I expect us to be through the recession into a low-interest environment, having done with the Ethereum merge and have more use-cases and more scalability. I would say 5,000 to 7,000 but it could be higher than that.
Q. What altcoins do you think are giving the best points in this bear market?
I think you have to focus on things that have been consistent for a long time and have a real use case. My favorite altcoin is RARE, a token of the SuperRare art platform which has been consistent since 2017.
Q. When will people finally understand the purpose of NFTs?
A. I think within 24 months 75% or at least 3 quarters of a layman will understand NFTs. It’s gonna happen a lot faster than people think.
Q. Will the utility of NFTs change in the coming years?
A. Yes. Right now, people think of NFTs as art or collectibles, but in the coming years, NFTs will become part of their everyday lives like buying a house or buying a car.
Q. How far do you think the NFT market will reach by the year 2030?
A. It will be huge. Already OpenSea’s volume is far more than eBay’s. To put in a number is really difficult. It’s like you could be in a situation by 2030 where the consumption of digital goods will outweigh the consumption of physical goods because it makes up a large part of the economy. It will be a huge number.
Socials:
For more information on OSF and his projects visit:
OSF Website: superrare.com/OSF
Twitter: @osf_nft, @rektguyNFT, and @CanaryLabsXYZ
Rektguy: rekt.market
Degenz: degenz.co
Discord: discord.com/invite/DegenzNFT
