How HUG Is Empowering Artists Through Discovery, Opportunity, and Education

In an period the place expertise is driving the evolution of all the things, together with artwork, at an unprecedented tempo, artists are in quest of platforms the place they can’t solely exist however thrive regardless of ever-changing algorithms.

One such platform, born amidst the tumultuous backdrop of a world pandemic is HUG, which has proven itself to be a beacon for equal illustration and alternative for all – a platform that gives a platform.

To totally perceive the gravity of what HUG is doing for artists in and outdoors of the Web3 house, we caught up with its co-founders, Randi Zuckerberg and Debbie Quickly, and like every story price listening to we thought it greatest to start out initially.

One Message and One Mission

Whereas HUG might have been shaped in 2022, it actually began a number of years earlier because the world confronted a world pandemic that will convey forth adjustments within the lives of practically everybody on Earth, together with Zuckerberg and Quickly.

“Many might not know this… however after Fb and earlier than NFTs, I used to be a Broadway actress, after which producer,” shared Zuckerberg, including “Covid shut down lots of the exhibits that I used to be engaged on, and that resulted in me immersing myself in NFTs as a technique to marry my passions for each arts and expertise.”

She additional defined “Earlier than I knew it, I ended up changing into a mentor to many digital creators. All of them had been combating the identical factor – feeling challenged by the algorithm, and usually feeling unseen and at occasions misplaced on how one can scale their inventive enterprise.”

Desirous to scale the prevailing help she was providing to creators, Zuckerberg set out on a seek for a co-founder with a imaginative and prescient for making a “thriving and sustainable ecosystem that will permit artists and artwork lovers to help one another.”

As destiny would have it, Quickly was additionally on that exact same search. Having fallen in love with Web3 when navigating a mid-pandemic transfer from Singapore to LA, she determined to place her background within the finance and start-up sector to the facet for a second and sought out kickstarting a profession within the NFT house.

“I put a want out within the Meta Angels Discord,” she defined, including “To my shock, Randi discovered and responded to my message there one complete week later! We each are keen about leveling the enjoying subject for anybody to achieve arts and expertise, so this actually was a match made in heaven.”

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— HUG 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 25, 2023

Sharing her facet of the story, Zuckerberg defined how Quickly was nonetheless going by an anon identification after they first met but when you realize something about early Web3, that was usually seen as a plus! “We received onto a Zoom name just a few days later, and instantly hit it off,” Zuckerberg shared, including “As I used to be attending to know Debbie, I used to be blown away by all of her thought management items that she was placing out on Twitter, and knew that there couldn’t be a greater individual to embark on this journey with.”

Embark on a journey they did. Zuckerberg expressed, “In a nutshell, HUG’s mission is to assist all artists develop into inventive entrepreneurs, and we’re doing that by discovery, alternative, and training.”

What began as two like-minded people with a shared imaginative and prescient finally grew into 200 individuals with a shared trigger, and from these 200 passionate people, has emerged a various group of over 3,000 artists from over 85 totally different international locations.

Quickly defined that “We’ve deliberately flown underneath the radar and averted being surrounded by moments of hype. As an alternative, we’ve been according to our mission from day one, and have adopted a extremely intentional and inclusive strategy to constructing our group.”

Neighborhood Sources

In an area the place practically all the things of worth is hidden in secret alpha teams or housed behind a token gated membership, HUG has dared to do one thing radically totally different, offering free assets for each artists and collectors alike.

These assets aren’t fast threads on X that you must bookmark for later or a halfway-finished hook to get you to purchase into one thing on the finish. As an alternative, HUG has devoted a major period of time and assets to supply full-length guides and paperwork put collectively by its analysis workforce.

Explaining why this was and is vital, Zuckerberg shared that “I’ve at all times been a agency believer that belief must be earned, not given. We by no means wish to extract worth earlier than we offer it, and providing these free assets is one in all our methods of constructing belief inside our artist and collector group.”

Additional driving the importance of this determination residence, Quickly shared that “Accessible training has at all times been a core perception of ours. Significantly in Web3, the place the expertise is evolving sooner than the common individual can sustain with, we imagine it’s our duty to demystify these traits and make them straightforward for everybody to grasp.”

On the time of writing, HUG has seven full-length guides and workbooks up on its website underneath the Sources tab. These vary from “The Ultimate Artist Marketing Handbook Vol 1.” to  “The Art Collector’s Companion: An Interactive Workbook” – once more, out there freed from cost, as HUG believes anybody constructing within the house ought to be stewards and never gatekeepers.

To this finish, the platform has lately had the chance to accomplice with TransientLabs, one in all its many like-minded companions, and ran a six-week-long Innovation Lab program that launched over 200 artists to dynamic NFTs through Transient’s no-code tooling.

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— HUG 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 22, 2023

Following the discharge, Quickly shared “We noticed a number of artists touchdown their first-ever commissions by HUG. The end result of that was many completely happy artists, and even happier collectors, who had been delighted to amass a customized, one-of-a-kind paintings” – which incorporates Quickly herself, as she commissioned a hand-painted soccer from artist and Ladies and Weapons founder, Sara Baumann.

Energy in Profiles

Whereas discoverability can usually be used as a buzzword within the Web3 artwork realm, HUG has seemingly embraced each side of the phrase and made it a part of its core mission. This has been completed not in a broad method however moderately by a really particular and thought-out strategy.

“From day one, we got down to construct the inclusiverse, which was actually our manner of describing a universe… or metaverse if you’ll? The place everybody feels included,” shared Zuckerberg, including “I’m proud that on the high of the HUG homepage, you will notice a banner calling for us to have fun various creators from all walks of life. These communities ought to be celebrated and really feel supported 24/7, one year a yr, and never simply in particular months.”

This mission additionally strikes a chord near residence for Quickly, who shared that “As a current transplant to America and a girl of shade, that is deeply private as properly.”

She additional expressed “I do know many individuals prefer to say that Web3 doesn’t care about race, gender, and so forth., however the actuality is that many unconscious biases nonetheless stick with it from the normal arts and expertise worlds. By acknowledging that from day one, we will be intentional about the best way we design HUG, each from a product and group standpoint.”

This has been exemplified for the reason that inception of HUG, because it continues to function as a community-curated platform. Quickly defined that this has been achieved by a thesis of community-driven and decentralized curation by which the members vote for which artists ought to be onboarded to the platform and which artists ought to be chosen for varied sourced alternatives.

Early on, HUG acknowledged the necessity for a platform that gives a platform. Because of this, it has developed complete profile instruments that assist artists to get eyes on and in addition profit collectors trying to sustain with their favourite creators.

“We’re biased, however we positively imagine that [artist profiles] are an artist’s greatest software to getting seen, shared, and celebrated,” mentioned Zuckerberg, including “Not solely are you able to acquire probably the most superb, considerate opinions from appreciators of your work, you may also showcase your whole portfolio of labor, each inside and outdoors Web3. We will’t wait to maintain upgrading these Artist Profiles, and convey further performance and interactivity there.”

Along with this, HUG boasts an “Artist Updates” tab, which Quickly “Permits artists to share vital updates on to the e-mail inboxes of their followers.”

She joked “Whereas we love the gm vibes and group discourse on X, typically artists and collectors simply desire a devoted place to share and uncover artwork on the market. Immediately, a whole bunch of artists are posting their updates to HUG day-after-day.”

Highlighting some of the important points of the Updates software, Quickly known as out {that a} majority of NFT marketplaces are inclined to showcase creators which might be trending primarily based on buying and selling quantity, which in flip unfairly disadvantages rising artists.

Past the Digital

With the royalties side of NFTs being but once more in danger resulting from shifts in stance from quite a lot of main marketplaces and loopholes created by aggregators, we requested HUG what they’re doing to arrange their artists for this alteration and to our shock, it’s one thing they’ve virtually anticipated in a way, from inception.

“Artists didn’t get up one morning due to NFTs and determined that they had been artists,” mentioned Zuckerberg, including “As an alternative, they’ve been artists for years, even many years, earlier than NFTs existed! As such, our view has at all times been that NFTs ought to be one in all many ways in which artists ought to look to monetize their paintings and that it’s fully okay to shift priorities from one technique to one other relying available on the market and even what evokes and excites them.”

She additional defined, that in help of this, not solely has HUG printed quite a lot of assets on the subject however it has additionally launched mechanisms like its fee characteristic, the place artists can opt-in to obtain fee requests by their HUG profile.

Different initiatives embody merchandising alternatives in addition to Open Name alternatives for each bodily and digital exhibitions, like its most up-to-date and ongoing name in partnership with the Seattle NFT Museum.

📣 ARTISTS WANTED

We wish to share your artwork that shares your heritage! 🗺️✨

HUG is partnering with the monumental @seanftmuseum, the world’s first NFT museum, for our debut collaborative exhibition “Cultural Kaleidoscope” ✨

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— HUG 🤗 | Apply for an Artist Profile (@thehugxyz) August 15, 2023

A Vibrant Future

As thrilling as all the expansion detailed above is, Zuckerberg and Quickly have shared that HUG is simply getting began. In truth, due to a $5 million USD seed spherical led by Ohhsiny’s VC fund with participation from OKX and L’Oréal, HUG is now positioned to speed up its progress.

“These funds assist us construct out our product additional, and to essentially flip HUG from a spot of discovery to one in all social commerce,” defined Zuckerberg, including, “We already really feel like we’re serving to artists and collectors join on an emotional stage like by no means earlier than, and these funds will assist us prolong that relationship from one in all appreciation to one in all patronage, and assist artists construct sustainable companies out of their work!”

Trying ahead, Quickly described HUG as “the Fb meets Etsy for a brand new era of creators who’re interested in blockchain and rising expertise,” joking that, how might they not be with Randi of their nook?

Quickly additional defined that as creators shift into an period the place they’re now not promoting their work in a single single medium however moderately in a variety of mediums, on-chain or in any other case, HUG needs to assist them discover these choices and supply a one-stop store.

“Equally, we imagine the shoppers of the brand new era may also buy artwork throughout a number of mediums,” shared Zuckerberg, including that “Purchasers of NFTs nonetheless purchase prints for his or her wall, and equally, we hope that by permitting artists to specific themselves by a number of mediums, we will persuade each single artwork lover to additionally develop into artwork collectors and curators on the blockchain.”

Encouraging phrases from the “Mom Hugger”

“First off, I’ll say that bear markets come and go. Once I was on the frontlines of Web2, there was the identical quantity of uncertainty and extremes of euphoria and despair. Being on the planet of rising tech is at all times scary and overwhelming, however it’s also an unimaginable alternative to study. My recommendation is to maintain exploring, continue to learn, maintain creating, and extra importantly, keep in mind to have enjoyable.” Zuckerberg continued.