The Forest Home of the Noctuas

But this world is not without hope.

There is a place, far and away from this grim, harsh landscape. A place where life is still green and young and hopeful. It is lush with life, close your eyes and imagine it in your mind. Smell the fragrant flowers and the richness of the air sifting through the breeze. Hear the babbling brook sending water along its path to nourish all life as it passes.

This is the center of tranquility, of hope, and of light.

This place is the Forest

Home of the Noctuas.

Who are the Noctuas?

They are guardians. They are protectors. They are the hope of a future beyond the dystopia that holds so many of us in thrall. They are an ancient breed of owls who call the Forest home. They are not its only residents, but they are the most important ones in this fragile ecosystem. But they do more than that. They keep the forest safe from the dystopia by sharing their knowledge. They create with merely the power of their minds, and in learning from one another, they realize ways to make the forest grow larger and stronger. They plant more trees to push back the dystopian darkness and return the world to light and beauty. Every one of the Noctuas is completely unique. No two of them are the same, yet they are great in number and beautiful each of their own true self. They are both living interpretations of the power of the Forest and works of art in their own right - sought after, magnificent to behold.

Every story has a hero, and in this story, that hero is you.

You are the creator, the designer, the innovator who knows you have the power to make this world better, if you could just find that one oasis where to learn, to grow, to become part of a community. This is the dream of all creators like you. To join forces and break free from the noxious fumes of the dystopia that are slowly choking all creativity out of the world. You are aware of the darkness clouding over you, keeping you from reaching your true potential. You know the answers are out there, but how do you find them? How do you permeate the haze and smog that is keeping you from seeing the truth and breaking free of the chains that you don’t even realize are holding you back?

Then one day it happens, you meet someone else just like you. Someone who has been searching for answers. Someone who has been searching for that safe haven to connect to other creators, to discover answers you’re both too afraid to ask; someone who tells you that they’ve been on a journey into the Forest, and found the place you’ve been dreaming about. This creator has made it to the Forest, found the Noctuas, and returned to spread the word to as many souls as she can.

Now it becomes a question of faith. Do you dare venture on the road less-traveled? Do you take the plunge to see what awaits you on the other side?

She tells you the way, hands you the map, and tells you that the belonging that you seek is not behind you, but in front of you. To find the forest and what secrets lie inside, you have to find a symbol, an icon, an emblem of one of the guardians of the forest. The journey is a long one, with so many twists and turns, until you finally cross the threshold and behold your first Noctua in all of its glory. When you see this vision of wisdom, you know that the journey was worth it, and that you have definitely come to the right place. That this is to be your home for the next part of your journey.

Why? Because you are on your way to becoming a Noctua. You will join their numbers and become part of their strength. They are the guardians of the forest, the oldest and wisest creatures to call it their home.

At the very center of the Forest lies the owls’ most sacred possession, a book full of ancient wisdom, written long ago by a legendary Greek philosopher who cultivated his teaching on one fundamental truth that lay behind the assumptions the world had brought to bear.

What lies in the pages of this ancient tome? It is likely different for every person who reads it, but believe that the wisdom kept within will be not only a token of freedom for you to begin creating the visions that until now have only resided in your imagination, but also allow you to move away from the dystopian landscape you’ve struggled with, but also gain access to the creative utopia, a place full of light, life, and joy where creators are even now building the dreamscapes that will change our world. In the Forest and beyond you will meet other Noctuas and build a community of harmony, peace, and the exchange of ideas that cannot be drowned out.

Quod noctu canit et vigilat

The Vision

The world is changing.

Everything is going into the metaverse. Artists and designers and other creatives are suddenly caught in a no-man’s land. They are still breathing into life what people want, but they don’t have the knowledge, the connections, or the technical know-how to bridge the gap between the world they know and the world that is being created all around them. But what these creators lack in individual know-how, they more than make up for in numbers. Creators are artistic, but even more than that, they are generous. They are giving. They want to help those around them reach higher and higher and strive for something better and better. One creator alone in the wilderness struggles to find the confidence to transition their craft online to the digital realm. One creator alone can feel intimidated, scared even, by the world of blockchain and NFTs and the concept of the forthcoming metaverse.

But one creator does not have to try and go it alone any longer. Together, creators are stronger, together they are smarter, and together, they will train themselves to enter the digital age and take the world by storm, ushering in a new Renaissance where creators are given prestige and fame for their remarkable works.

Why battle the forces of the new economy alone when you can do it together? Graphic designers and other creatives know the worlds of art and design like few others. They have the unbelievable talent to create something out of thin air and make it resonate with people now and in the future. What they have in artistic talent, however, they are often lacking knowledge in the likes of cryptocurrency, blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Web 3.0. They watch in awe as digital artists sell online copies of their own art for tens and hundreds of thousand dollars. There is a gap between the knowledge they have and the knowledge they need, and most creatives fear it is widening rather than getting smaller.

The ideal of the Forest is a community of graphic designers and other creators who can come together, engage each other, learn from each other, and cultivate skills as a collective that will guide them into the new era of the web3 economy.

Concepts like being paid in cryptocurrency, having your artwork stored on a blockchain, and transforming it into an NFT are all foreign concepts for most people. They are not easily translatable to many people because they are things that only exist in nodes.

Therefore, the artists must become both teachers and learners, guiding themselves and each other forward into the new realm of possibilities, which are opening up endlessly as digital currency and the metaverse begin taking strides towards the new

The Process

The Forest is an online community where visionary creatives, particularly graphic designers, can engage with each other, access content, learn protocol of the new digital economy, and display their wares. The mission of the Forest is to build a welcoming community and onboard creators and designers into web3.

This community will be an exclusive one, with access gained by purchasing a Noctua - one of a beautiful collection of 10,000 algorithmically and randomly generated NFTs. No two are the same. Not only are they works of art, but they are the exclusive token to gain access to the Forest and begin the next part of your journey as a creative artist or designer. But purchasing a Noctua isn’t just an entry ticket into this marvelously generous and giving community, it also symbolizes your belief that as impressive as our digital world is, the actual environment on the planet we call home is infinitely more important. That’s why each time a Noctua NFT is purchased, 10 trees will be planted in a real-life forest. Researchers believe that every time a blockchain transaction is performed, the energy of about 2-3 trees is used up. Therefore, the community of the Forest will go above and beyond to assure that we are giving more than we take from this fragile, beautiful blue-and-green paradise we all call home. While so many in the digital space are intent on taking as much as they can get their hands on, we understand that should we act solely out of greed, we will eventually run out of places to stand and create.

The three pillars of the community are: Learn, Connect, and Sell. These are the three most important parts of the Forest. The things we believe will propel graphic artists and other designers into a successful and profitable collaborative future.

Learn:

We will open up our vaults of content to make the entire community stronger. We will provide our members with the power of knowledge, free to share and collaborate on everything from the building blocks of cryptocurrency and NFTs to more complex subject matters that require a patient teacher, trial-and-error research, and the ability to discuss in group situations or 1-on-1 scenarios.

Connect:

Perhaps the most powerful of the three pillars is the ability to seek out and initiate conversations, relationships, and friendships with other creators who are seeking the same knowledge as we are, have been flummoxed by the same question, and can impart wisdom unto us as we do the same unto them.

Sell:

We are not just artists and designers, we are husband and wives, mothers and fathers, students and teachers, providers - some self-sufficient, others leading families. We have tremendous passion for our work, we are inspired by it and believe in its beauty to the core, but we are also entrepreneurs who work for a living and expect to be paid in response to those powerful works we create every day. Through the self-guidance of the community, we will open up gateways to new marketplaces, new opportunities, new buyers, and new products. We will experience the digital revolution in ways previously thought to be impossible for us. We will take back what has been taken from us when our works were previously copied, stolen, used without permission, and hacked.

We will once more take ownership of our own art and our own creations and re-establish the artist as the master of his or her own destiny.

Ours will not be a static environment. We will debut with a comprehensive library for education on crypto, blockchain, NFTs, and more, and continuously update it with articles, blogs, webinars, workshops, and community meetups - both virtual and real.

Those holding our tokens will also have access to the presale of the next series of collectibles, which will be scarce as to add value and be available for buying, selling, and trading on a secondary market. The Noctuas will act as your spirit animal to guide you to the Forest, give you the power to vote on issues on the community, serve as collectibles that will only appreciate in value, and can be used as your calling card as a trust member of the Forest, who has the power to offer it to other like-minded individuals seeking the same experience for themselves.

With this newfound power of community, the Forest will expand beyond graphic designers to incorporate all manner of creatives - from photographers to copywriters to digital artists. When they add their own shared knowledge, the Forest will grow beyond the strength of the dystopia and create a new oasis for creatives to gather around, set up shop in, and use as a place of strength to take on the digital economy with confidence, strength, and support.

The Design of the Noctua

We wanted to design something that communicates the element of the Guardian but with the room to be playful and cute. Noctuas are Owls in latin and owls have many species. We used the barn owl as compass since it is the one of the most common owls out there and people recognize it when they see it.

Evolution