Ed Balloon is a musician, singer, NFT artist, and host who has made his name in web3 as an authentic creator and community leader.
Whether he's performing for his band "Ed Balloon," hosting the Rug Radio's BIPOC Twitter Spaces," or creating stop motion art, Ed always makes sure that everything he does aligns with his values and who he is as a person.
Before entering the world of NFTs, Ed Balloon was a traditional artist.
2021 was a promising year for Ed— he had to planned go on tour with his band and had a stop motion TV show based on his own likeness already in development.
Then, the pandemic threw a wrench in his plans.
His tour got cancelled and the TV show he was developing lost momentum.
"Then I got COVID and ended up in the NFT space," Ed laughed. "I went on Twitter spaces and met Brittany Pierre and learned about NFTs."
From that moment on, Ed went down the rabbit hole and never looked back.
When Ed first came into the space, he said it took some time to find his footing. Now, he's able to find the sweet spot of creating something that his audience needs, but also something that is a reflection of who he is.
"When I came into the space I was a stop motion artist in the time of static PFPs," Ed said. "There was a bit of a fear putting out my work but I told myself that I've been a musician and artist prior to this space and I want to put out what speaks to me, and hopefully it's what speaks to others."
Now, even after reaching a considerable amount of success, he still lives by the same ethos.
I always ask myself, 'well, what is the truth?' At the end of the day, the space allowed me to build and show people my truth. That's something I always want to do.
When asked where the name "Ed Balloon" came from, he said he always had a fascination with balloons.
"I don't know why but I like how they look," Ed said. "I like the energy they gave, when it came to 'Ed Balloon' I was at a point in my life where I felt a lot of restrictions and a lot of barriers."
He noticed and admired how balloons don't have restrictions and just float.
"Balloons float over bullshit," Ed said. "Then I was like 'well then, I will call myself Ed Balloon,' that was the exact line I said to myself."
The Run Ed Collection is a first of its kind generative sound and motion picture project.
It consists of 1000 animated pieces blending stop motion, 2D & 3D animation, music and sound. Each piece shows Ed running with a different backdrop and song in the background.
"I wanted the landscapes to be different," Ed said. "I'm always thinking about the next step and I wanted to show that through the places I was running through."
While Ed's collection successfully minted out within 24 hours, he says the process wasn't without difficulty.
"It was originally supposed to be a 5k project but we decided to cut back to 1k," Ed said, referring to the lack of liquidity in the market at the time. "Through this process I learned that it's not about the unfortunate circumstance in the beginning, but it's about what you do to pivot to make it sustainable."
50% of primary sales for the collection are directed towards funding the production of Ed Balloon’s web(3)isode pilot, The Ed B “The Puppet” Show.
50% of secondary sales are directed towards The Ed Balloon Generational Wealth Fund to collect work from Black, and other underrepresented, web3 artists.
As a founder and artist of color, Ed thinks about representation in everything he does.
"There are not many founders of color in the space and I want to make sure we are represented and that we are doing things in the space to bring more awareness to us," Ed said.
Ed hopes to continue to use himself as an example to let artists of color know that they don't have to be afraid to take the next step.
"There's activism in just us being," Ed said "Us creating projects, doing things, like me being a project with a black puppet— that itself is a form of activism."
