Pudgy Penguins to Burrrs: Antoine Mingo’s Bold Move in NFTs

Antoine Mingo’s Journey in the NFT World

Antoine Mingo left his role as a concept artist for the Ethereum NFT collection Pudgy Penguins in early 2023. Creative differences with leadership pushed him to move on. Now, he leads the art for a new NFT project called Burrrs on Berachain, a layer-1 network. This new project gives him the creative freedom he has wanted since entering the industry.

Mingo, based in Washington, got the Pudgy Penguins job in 2021 through Upwork. At the time, Cole Thereum was leading the project. After a short consulting role, Mingo created 8,888 NFT profile pictures for the Ethereum project. The NFT market was booming, and his work gained massive attention.

Source: X

Offers started pouring in. Before this, Mingo had only worked in the Web2 world. Now, Web3 projects kept approaching him. He stayed on as an artist for Pudgy Penguins, even after Cole Thereum was removed in 2022. The project’s IP was later acquired by entrepreneur Luca Netz.

Over time, creative differences became clear.

They simply weren't into my style. Even the flippers, which are very basic," Mingo said. "Just minor variations in creativity like that."

Mingo wants to draw inspiration from the Cartoon Network program "The Amazing World of Gumball." He found the animators' use of 2D and 3D to be appealing. But the vision of the new leadership was different. He left Pudgy Penguins in early 2023 as a result of this.

To be honest, I believe that was evident in the artwork. If I were to release a shirt and you compare it to what's on the Pudgy website or Twitter, you'd notice a difference," Mingo stated. "There isn't a significant difference."

Since leaving, Mingo has taken on more projects in crypto. Meanwhile, Pudgy Penguins continued to grow. The collection’s parent company, Igloo Inc., has sold millions of dollars worth of toys in Walmart and Target. They launched a Solana meme coin called PENGU and an Ethereum layer-2 network called Abstract.

Mingo still maintains a good relationship with Pudgy Penguins’ leadership. However, he does not receive any ongoing benefits from his past work on the project.

Seeking Creative Freedom

Mingo enjoys working in crypto but has often felt restricted creatively. Even after the success of Pudgy Penguins, he struggled with the limitations placed on his artistic vision.

“It creates for better storytelling,” Mingo said. “No matter how it turns out, you won't regret being adaptable right away and letting all of your creative energy flow. It seems as though you let everything out.”

This is why he is excited to be a founding member and creative lead for Burrrs. The collection is launching on Magic Eden for 4.2 BERA each ($34). This time, he has a direct role in shaping the creative vision. His team is willing to be flexible with his ideas, which gives him confidence in putting his name on the artwork. In the past, he preferred to stay in the background.

Source: X

“Honestly, I’m excited to see the reaction we get,” he said with a smile. “We're gonna change and roll with however the people like it. I'm not gonna put anything on it right now. I want to see how people react.”

In many ways, Burrrs follows a similar path to Pudgy Penguins. Mingo admits that he never thought the original collection was great. He still sees flaws in the artwork.

Despite this, the response was huge. Pudgy Penguins overcame early challenges and became a massive brand, while many other NFT projects disappeared. Being part of this journey taught Mingo valuable lessons.

“It's not necessary for everything to be picture-perfect. You can simply roll with the punches and make up a story," Mingo remarked. "Pudgy is similar to a chameleon in that it never stops rolling and changing. I'm just learning from it, and it's crazy.