GM UNE family!
We are extremely excited to welcome one of our featured artists of the month, Yuhi, and his highly anticipated IP collection, ZOMBIESCAT! Since day one, UneMeta has aimed to build a quality market and social space dedicated to established IPs and icons like ZOMBIESCAT and Yuhi. With community ownership and technological innovation, Web 3.0 is a turning point, empowering brands to transform into brand 3.0. Yuhi is a dear friend as well as advisor to the UneMeta project on IP development. ZOMBIESCAT NFT will be his biggest and most intricate NFT project so far, bridging the IP's large presence offline and the metaverse.
About Yuhi, founder of ZOMBIESCAT
Yuhi was born and raised in Jilin, China. After graduating from Jilin University of Arts with a degree in visual communication, he went on to pursue a degree in art management from Parsons School of Design in New York. With a passion for art, animation, and business, Yuhi started crafting the idea of building an IP empire that is world-class, but also rooted in and proud of its Chinese heritage. ZOMBIESCAT was then born in the early 2010s. With 10+ years experience in the contemporary art and creative industries, Yuhi and the ZOMBIESCAT IP he created has gained great traction both in China and internationally. In 2021, Yuhi was ranked 61st in the 2021 International Trend Artist Influence Ranking by Daily Mail, celebrated alongside world renowned artists such as KAWS and Takashi Murakami.
ZOMBIESCAT, Devour Negative Energy
The prototype of ZOMBIESCAT originated from one of Yuhi's childhood memories from a fossil exhibition. As a young entrepreneur, Yuhi suffered from depression in his first years working in the creative industry. The faint image of ZOMBIESCAT came back to him in those dark times, and has since quickly became the symbol of a yearning for positivity in his life.
The story of ZOMBIESCAT starts in the year 2666. By then, the Galactic Zombie Army has invaded multiple planets, spreading a zombie virus that causes the infected to consume blood for survival. Planet ZC66 is under attack, forcing ZC66 residents to travel back in time through a black hole, landing on planet Earth. Though now free from the reign of the invaders, the infected ZC66 residents faced one major problem: they cannot consume blood for survival, because the ZC66 race carries a gene that makes blood extremely repulsive. Luckily, they found some strange greyish matter floating in the air of Earth, and this matter can be converted to provide the energy necessary for survival. This matter is in fact the negative energy and emotions of human beings. The appearance of mutated ZC66 residents resembles cats covered in red fur, therefore giving them the name of ZOMBIESCAT.
Yuhi on IP Development
The development of IPs has only recently become a popular topic of discussion in China. Yuhi, however, has long recognized its value. Since starting ZOMBIESCAT, Yuhi has come to establish his own views and strategies around developing, growing and sustaining an established IP.
Yuhi shared with the UneMeta team some insights from his IP development journey. A successful IP is founded on three core prerequisites: a simple yet notable icon with unique culture; cross-industry collaboration; and continuous merchandizing. Yuhi especially stressed the importance of finding a balance between the art and the business aspects of the IP. Like many other pursuits in life, building an IP requires long-term investments of time and capital. ZOMBIESCAT, with its 10+ years of history and large commercial success, is a prime testament of Yuhi's philosophy.
Since its founding, the ZOMBIESCAT IP has been commercially licensed in over 100 merchandise collaborations, with renowned brand partners including HUAWEI, Dell, Zippo and many others. Products created include everything from consumer electronics, food and beverage, home goods, toys and more. Licensed ZOMBIESCAT products are available for sale in 70+ online and offline stores worldwide, generating annual revenues of over 10 million RMB. Last year, Yuhi and his team curated a two-month IP art exhibition for ZOMBIESCAT in the renowned Guofeng Art Musuem located in Shenzhen, China, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and fans. However, the journey for ZOMBIESCAT doesn't stop there. There will be more and more cross-industry collaborations and immersive experiences for fans, both online and IRL. As his most important piece of work, ZOMBIESCAT is now a life-long project and the magnum opus for Yuhi.
ZOMBIESCAT GENESIS NFT Collection
This collection consists of 2666 unique NFTs, launching in June 2022.
Whitelist and Redlist
This collection will adopt a Whitelist and Redlist mechanism for minting. A total of 1744 Whitelist and 350 Redlist spots will be distributed. Each Whitelisted address can mint 1 NFT, and each Redlisted address can mint up to 2 NFTs.
the first batch of Whitelist will be given to 30 winners with the most invites to UneMeta's Discord for the next 48 hours. Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST, March 30th.（Invite people to this server using YOUR OWN INVITE LINK.）
Join UneMeta's Discord and follow our Twitter! More information and community discussions will be posted in those channels.