Let’s kick it off; this post marks the first official long-form Esther’s Escape communications. As post number one, I wanted to go over a few high-level Esther thoughts before going into greater detail in future posts.
Useful links
🔗 Esther’s Escape: 1/1 NFT Auctions (FormFunction)
🔗 Esther’s Escape: WIP NFT Chronicles (Exchange Art)
🔗 Stay up to date on Twitter
Prelude
Darkness, that’s where this story begins; Esther woke, puzzled. As her eyes adjust, she notices a colourful hue emitting from the top of what looks to be a staircase.
Esther ascends towards the hue, and the light gets vivid yet eerie with every step. As she approaches the illuminated arch, Esther remembers, she’s done this before; this is no ordinary staircase.
She steps into the wondrous shade…
Esther’s vision
When I dream of the future, I see Esther staring in a game or animated series that explores her world — highlighting the importance of finding balance when managing mental health, creativity and life.
Esther’s inception
Esther’s Escape is a series derived from a place of duality, Esther has two modes; she can be incredibly positive whilst at any moment being crippled with anxiety.
Esther’s Escape plays on that duality; when building the aesthetic styling, I paid very close attention to my feelings and formed a key question to answer.
How might I create a space that visually depicts the balance between outward positivity and inner anxiety?
The answer resides in visual wonder wrapt in an eerie undertone. When you look at Esther’s mob, dungeon map and minimalist aesthetic, you can’t tell who is a friend or a foe.
Esther represents me, and over the years, I’ve figured out how to use that duality to my advantage converted it into a drive that propels me forward.
To me, that’s where the magic lies in Esther’s Escape; we all manage anxiety in different ways, all having a different experience with it. I’ve learnt to value my anxiety, and Esther’s Escape offers me an outlet to share the complexity of my mind in a minimal yet intricate way.
Bringing Esther to life
My best work has always spawned from working on projects that I have enjoyed. For me, fulfilment comes from appreciating what I do (my process) and creating an impact for my audience. Each project is a puzzle, and I find excitement in laying out all of the pieces, forming an approach and then setting out to solve it.
When I think about my creative process, people are the heartbeat; live engagement and ideation drive me to strive for better and make my pieces the best they can be.
Breaking my high-level process down into four parts:
- Brain sparks 🧠⚡️ and ideas hit — Creative juices begin to flow, sparking through visual stimulation, conversation, and/or engaging in play.
- The idea is written or drawn and explored — To make it more robust, I’ll sketch it out, write notes or draw a flow to gauge the complexity versus creativity.
- Jump into the tool of choice when ready — Once I feel mentally prepared, I’ll jump into my tool of choice and start to play, find a groove and ride the creative wave.
- Refine, polish and rollout — At this point, a direction will be set, styles generally locked, and then I’ll start to dial in deep, paying attention to the details.
The community has been engaging with me from day one, voting on polls, providing feedback and adding comments. I cannot express how thankful I am for this support; Esther would not have the charm she does without you all.
Next article preview
Did I mention that Esther’s Escape is a 1/1 NFT series that resides on the Solana Blockchain? This means that out of a 16 piece set (Dungeon Map), only one of each piece exists on the blockchain, and therefore, each piece has only one owner.
The 16 pieces make up a larger Dungeon Map when brought together. I’ll break down the thinking in the following article and explain the overall map.
