Project Title: DeeDee
Applicant: Lex
Grant Requested: 3,000 USD for one month
@Marketing DAO & @MarketingDAOcouncil, I am submitting this proposal to jump start my project during the transition period for HoM. The full budget for the project will be submitted to HoM once V1 starts, but during this time, I will use the funds requested to build the brand and the product wireframing designs on figma. So that when the HoM funds comes, the dev team can start building right away; the lawyer can draft the terms and conditions and the social manager can get the socials up with the brand prepared.
Executive Summary
Let’s be honest, visual design in the NEAR ecosystem isn’t great. They are maybe a handful of well thought out brands and some good looking products, but the majority focus on the technical performance and they neglect the looks and the user experience. I identified this problem as soon as I entered the space, and thought -well I am going to fix that- after almost 2 years in the space, I realise that I can’t do it alone, we need an army of brilliant experienced designers to come in and do (and redo) a lot of work in our products and brands. To make NEAR the best and smartest looking blockchain.
Web3 has somehow accepted that designs are dark and grim and the user experience is bad. But if we want mass adoption we need to tackle this right away.
Problem Statement:
The majority of startups in the ecosystem can’t cover the costs of a design agency, nor do they have the budget to hire an experienced designer in-house. Low costs contests and bounties for specific design items require a lot of time and the results end up being low in quality or at best inconsistently looking.
The solution:
A Decentralised Design working platform running on BOS. DeeDee connects design experts with devs, founders and builders. Thanks to a user friendly and intuitive designed flow we will guide them through the steps to ensure a quick and successful turnaround of design deliveries. The users are guaranteed satisfaction or their payment returned.
How does the platform work? In a nutshell
- Client creates a brief (by filling up a template) and sets the price set number of paid entries(and pays in front).
- Designers submit their designs (when projects are too big they submit a portion of it).
- Client chooses winner final design an awarded entries
- There are a max of 3 rounds of feedbacks
- Client approves and releases payment
- Designers get paid
- An NFT of the final artwork is minted and transferred to the clients wallet
How does the platform look? In a nutshell
The brief gets created into a card, cards change colour and position depending on the stages.
Homepage is an overview of all the open cards.
The client will have an account page where they can check their info and status of the briefs.
The designer will have a profile page where you can see all their reference and past completed work
Terms and conditions
The terms and conditions need to be drafted to ensure that the client doesn’t use designer’s ideas that were not approved and awarded. And to protect the use of privileged business information provided by the client. And any other sets of rules and regulations necessary. A legal team will research similar platform regulations and eventually create the best waterproof legal work frame for our product.
What makes us unique
In web2 there are successful platforms like fiverr, twine, 99designs and others, but none of them specialise or are built around the nuances of web3 requirements. Furthermore, these platforms create a transactional and cold freelancer-client relationship while DeeDee structure is built to create a strong relationship between the two.
DeeDee will be an integrated component in BOS, all transactions and processes will be on chain. Transparency and clear processes will finally be possible in contrast to a murky and complicated old-fashioned industry.
For the first time, brand assets will be stored and transferred ownership on-chain. Adding an extra value that hasn’t been done before in web2.
Who are the designers
Onboarding exceptional web2 designers to web3 will be one of our major keys to success. And at the same time upscaling the skills and polishing the diamonds in the rough-junior eager designers already in the ecosystem.
Benefits to NEAR
DeeDee will be an open web app on BOS (better than the ones in Web2) we will bring mass adoptions and real users into web3 and NEAR ecosystem. We will directly support crucial parts of the ecosystem.
NEAR Community: We will empower the community to work together, by providing a safe, risk-free environment where they can connect and create. Without the need of being introduced by someone or having connections.
NDC: Will be able to use the app to decentralise the graphic creation and let the community take ownership of the brand.
Devs: Developers and builders that do not have knowledge of the creative process will be able to directly contract designers.
NEAR growth: Facilitating the creation of visual content and design assets will have an impact on the ecosystem productivity.
CDAO and MDAO Community: Creative talent that is part of these communities will be able to participate in paid work, that could lead to more work and will enrich their portfolio.
NFT community: By utilising NFT’s technology community into valuable digital assets, the NFT community will be able to grow and pass the art flipping stage on to more value digital ownership safekeeping.
UI/UX - Number one Priority
We want BOS to be a place where everything flows easily even for non-technical people. Our priority will be that the platform feels natural and accessible, new people will be able to come in and use it right away just by signing up even without knowing they are using smart contracts.
Benefits:
- Streamlined Creative Processes: No more back and forward in endless loops, by following the already established processes we will streamline the production of the assets.
- Cost-Efficiency: Prices will be set by the client.
- Customer Service: Human touch is also very important, we plan to set up a dedicated customer success team to help both the customers and designers if they are encountering any difficulties. They will also collect feedback to improve the platform.
- OnBoarding web2 users: Thanks to the great usability of the platform web2 clients will come and use our services. We will onboard designers that are eager to enter the space but have found it difficult to get involved or do paid work.
New users don’t need to have a NEAR wallet. We will take payment from a card and create-found a wallet, the client will not need to even know they have one.
Business Strategy:
Monetization and Pricing:
We will charge a percentage of the value of the final approved winner design project. The price will be set by the client but there will be a minimum established per item. Although, the client will be assured that a minimum of 3 submissions will happen, the higher the price the more designers will submit and the more options they will have.
Go-To-Market (GTM) Plan:
Launching campaign: Our inhouse branding and marketing team will create a big splash for the launching of the product.
Event presence: After launch and having a few study cases we will be present in all relevant events to showcase the app.
Content creation: We will use our study cases to constantly publish blogs, infographics, and videos about our product.
Offer no submissions fee for first clients: We will cover and perform the first briefs by in-house designers to ensure we get study cases and users interest.
Use of Funds Distribution
KPIs Month of October 3,000 USD (from MDAO)
- NFT drop with the brand creation: 1000
We will establish the brand ID through a social marketing campaign. By creating 3 options of the brand style including: Logo, colour palette, establish typography, graphic elements, illustration or imagery style, examples of templates for social media, website look and feel, and photo treatment. Then we will use easypool on BOS for people to vote on the option they like best. Extensive communications throughout NEAR’s community, most popular TG groups, discord channels, and news outlets will be used to bring people to the easy poll and vote.
Once the brand has been selected the votes will receive on their wallets an NFT based on the brand winner, with this NFT later on you will get a 20% discount on the first job order, when using DeeDee app.
- Social Media: 2000
We will create a speculative communication campaign in the ecosystem, by creating graphics, memes and gifs outlining pain points that occurred during failed design work experiences for example:1. “Have you hired a designer with great profolio, but hated the design they did for you?” Don’t worry DeeDee is coming. 2. “Have you created a contest for a design illustration, but received only stick drawings and AI generated images? Don’t worry DeeDee is coming. With this we will create curiosity and conversation in the ecosystem about the new product, once the brand is launched we will use these posts to comment about the new project and promote our social media newly created platformas.
KPIs Month of November 15,500 USD
- Technology: 7500 USD
Wireframing, designing the user interface, and creating UX flows using Figma.
Creating user registration, profile management, project creation, project discovery, messaging, and account management features.
Testing and feedback: Testing and improvements or adjustments made as needed to ensure a user-friendly experience.
- Marketing and communications; 3000 USD
Create accounts on all social media platforms. Create teasers, animated videos of demo of the product. Create curiosity in the community.
- Legal: 5000 USD
Creating the terms and conditions, and other legal documents
KPIs Month of December 15,500 USD
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Technology: 13,500 USD
- Develop backend components, including user management, project management, messaging, and notifications. Near Payment Integration with the blockchain for payments will also begin.
- Development of the escrow smart contract, which will hold funds, manage project submissions, and enforce terms and conditions.
- Integration of the frontend with the backend and smart contracts and testing
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Marketing and communications: 2,000 USD
We will create a launching campaign for the product for distribution in social media.
KPIs Month of January 16,500 USD
- Technology: 14,500 USD
- Implementation of payment processing and escrow management. This includes the handling of client payments and the release of funds to designers upon project completion.
- NFT Minting: Implementation of the NFT minting process, where the final artwork is minted as an NFT and transferred to the client’s wallet.
- Extensive testing of the entire platform, including payment flows, escrow management, NFT minting, and terms and conditions enforcement.
- Marketing and communications: 2,000 USD
Explanatory animated videos of how product work, infographics of process and flow, ad campaigns to attract clients and onboard designers.
KPIs Q4 2023
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Research:
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Brand Competitor Analysis: To make sure we created a unique brand and have a distinct identity,
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Product Competitor Analysis: To know their strength and weaknesses, and create a better product
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Community outreach: Create buzz and interest in the community, create plan to onboard clients.
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Brand creating
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Product design, developed and launch
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Launching campaign
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Ad campaigns, videos and infographics
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DeeDee Beta Launch: End of January 2023
New Metrics for NDC
The metric of success that the new elected body has stablish will be easy arichable with the platform on the following way:
- Account retention: We believe that we will have both returning customers and designers. Metrics should be calculated once the product is launched, but we are aiming to have 10 design projects on the platform in the 1st month, then a rotation of 5 designers submitting designs.
- Account acquisition: Same here, all the customers and designers will be onboarded to BOS to use the service so we are aiming to have 5-7 new accounts created, in the first month after launching.
- Number of dApps used: We will used sharddog to mind the final designs.
- Social engagement score: We will use the study cases to create a community of customers and designers on our social media platforms. Producing a good number of impressions and engagements.
Who is in the team?
- Design and Marketing
- Role: UX-UI design, and marketing lead
- Expert Lead: Lex
- Technology:
- Role: Development, maintenance, and upgrades
- Expert Lead: Punter
- Community and Customer Service:
- Role: Engagement, social media, and customer success.
- Expert Lead: Dabbie
Product inspiration
In the NEAR ecosystem; founders, builders and creatives have tried to add value through visuals and design through various approaches, but for different reasons they have encounter difficulties and ultimately in most cases failed, let’s dive into the some of the scenarios we have seen:
- Hiring a freelance designer (that is not a good fit):
Unfortunately, there are bad designers out there, they promise things they can’t achieve. Being a web3 native might give you good insight but in most cases they are missing years of grinding work to perfect the skills to be an extraordinary designer. In some other cases, simply the designer doesn’t have the style that you needed.
- Hire a good freelance designer, but not setting them up for success:
When you hire a freelance designer you need to have very clear instructions and goals for the designer to achieve, the designer is hired only for the deliveries and not for the planning and strategies behind the design. Many of the clients do not take this part into consideration and since they don’t have a marketing, content strategist, art director or creative in the team, the freelancers are not giving good instructions and the designs don’t result as desired.
- Hiring an agency:
This is a great idea, and I am totally supportive of this decision, in fact if the project can afford it, I highly recommend NEAR studio, a full service creative agency exclusive for the NEAR ecosystem with a track record of innovative eye-catching brand work and successful campaigns deliveries in the space. Agency work will never be replaced by freelance design work, having an agency for big projects like branding is necessary, as well as in a retainer basis for consistent content. DeeDee is a solution for those that do not have that kind of funding or for when ad hoc projects are required.
- Hiring a designer in house:
Also a great idea, also very expensive, again if you can afford it, having a multidisciplinary talent in-house is priceless, that can be also combined with an agency or even a whole creative team in-house.
About the founder:
Lex has 13 years of experience as a graphic designer. For many of those years she worked in advertising agencies, tech startups, finch tech and then eventually crypto by working as a senior designer on the NEAR Foundation and then spinning out by founding NEAR studio, a decided creative agency for the ecosystem. Throughout her career she worked as a freelancer while living as a nomad in different parts of the world.
1. November 9-15th time for proposals from the Community;
3. November 15th-20st reviewing by HOM members and voting on chain;
4. November 20th, in case of successful approval by HOM, HOM will pass the request to CoA to vote on-chain;
! To unlock funding for Community.
