YOTW will Onboard new Female Artists and help them make their own NFTs, which will go Exclusively to YOTW holders — Founder's Interview

How's it going, NFT lovers? Check out a new Interview with Yasmin Shima – Artist and Founder of Year of the Woman.

Chris: The Year of the Woman NFT is a digital artwork NFT that represents the Chinese zodiac and women. How did the entire idea come together for the NFT? What is your story behind the development of Year of the Woman?

Yasmin: The YOTW is a playful amalgamation of animal and human, of east meets west represented by the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs and the females they centre around. The original illustrations were conceived months before the inception of the project. I paint women and animals and wanted to create a cohesive body of work for an exhibition or some kind of physical use. I believed Zodiac signs were an inclusive way to paint the subject matter whilst connecting with the audience.

I completed some of the 12 images then moved onto what became the Ride or Die collection on OpenSea. So when I decided to create a generative project, I knew I wanted to resume my original concept of illustrating women and their Zodiac signs.

Chris: Interesting, what are the distinct features of the NFT? How does the zodiac come into play with the artwork of women?

Yasmin: There are 10,000 unique NFTs with each YOTW piece being generated from over 400 hand drawn traits. The women have a variety of skin colours, expressions, hair styles and other traits that make up her Zodiac sign. Rather than having a literal animal represent each Zodiac, I added a creative, playful spin on each sign to enable the woman and animal to merge together aesthetically.

There will be 12 one of one rare pieces included within the 10k collection, one for each Zodiac sign. Unlike other collections where the feature is the same but the one of ones have different traits, mine will feature 12 entirely different women with various body types, and in various body positions with their literal animal representation.

Chris: Furthermore, what are your plans on using the sale proceeds from NFT sales?

Yasmin: The profits from the sales of NFTs will be used to fund the project and company moving forward.

It will be kept in the project wallet which has a multi-signature feature on it so that the team must together approve any transaction. Part of the funds will be used to administer the early parts of the Roadmap, including:

• Sending the first series of physical versions of NFTs to holders;
• Expanding the team to include further business development and management;
• Providing Yasmin with a higher quality art studio so that she can complete her work in the best environment;
• Completing any remaining construction of the Metaverse Art Gallery;
• Bringing on the new female artists who Yasmin will collaborate with so that they have an income while completing the work

5% of all profits in perpetuity will also be donated to Women’s Refuges and Centres for Victims of Domestic Violence.

All transactions from the project will be announced to the community. There will be full transparency about moving or spending of funds.

Chris: So, what is the price of one Year of the Woman NFT? Are the rare tokens priced at a premium?

Yasmin: All Year of the Woman NFTs are priced the same – 0.08 ethereum.

There will be a range of all rarities, including the ‘super-rare’ one of ones.

Chris: Additionally, what does the investor receive on the purchase of one NFT? How can one use their NFTs?

Yasmin: There is a range of different features of utility that the holder of a YOTW will have, including:

• Membership to the YOTW brand which gives exclusive access to all NFTs from collaborations with new female artists. YOTW will onboard the new artists and help them to make their own NFTs, these will be provided free or cheap mints to our members;
• Access to their NFT as a physical print, or in some cases, hand painted canvas;
• Entry to the events on the Yasmin World Tour, including a free fractionalised NFT which is drawn/painted live at the event;
• Exclusive access to NFT Wearables (Metaverse Merchandise and Clothing)
• Exclusive access to real world merchandise

Chris: Do you also plan to share royalties? Is there a community to which the NFT holders can sign up? 

Yasmin: Holders will receive value in several ways that don’t include selling their YOTW

• They will receive further NFTs from collections and genesis pieces of brand new female artists as we work with them to produce their first collections;
• This will mean holders get exclusive access to many collections without having to grind on social media to locate the project, get presale and then purchase. They can balance their lives again and still receive the benefits of NFTs.
• They will also receive income if their art is put up in the Metaverse Art Gallery

Chris: When does the Year of the Woman NFT go on sale? Do you plan to have a whitelist or a presale?

Yasmin: Yes there will be a presale and a public sale.

The presale started on 8 March 2022, International Women’s Day. The public sale will be approximately two days later.

After watching several other projects recently, we will be allocated a large amount of the NFTs to presale. This avoids bots and other negative players from buying a large number of the NFTs and our valued members missing out.

We allocate presale based on how positive and kind the members are, not on how often you type or if you invite anyone. This has encouraged the most positive growth and also kept the community at a size that everyone can still get to know everyone.

Chris: In the end, please explain the process of buying the NFT in simple terms.

Yasmin: The first steps you must take is to register an account that allows you to buy Ethereum, and you must register and install a wallet on your device – we recommend Metamask.

You then load enough Ethereum onto your Metamask to allow for one NFT and the gas involved in the transaction (0.1 eth is usually enough for one).

Then all you need to do is come hang out with us on Twitter or Discord, and we will remind you when the mint arrives, and what website you will need to do when it’s time to mint.

There are detailed instructions on all of this in our Discord and we are always around to answer your questions or to help you get ready. We’d love to see you there.