1000 days of pixel posts. Not back-to-back, mind you (we made it 760 days nonstop before dealing with insane flooding, give me a break), but still a huge, huge milestone for the project, nonetheless. It’s emotional, for sure, but we’ll get to that. First comes what’s new with the project! 😊🌎
PROJECT VS. BUSINESS
Up until now, Pixel Planet Today has been the most intense of creative passion projects, but soon, it’ll get a much more official title. While I don’t have much to announce just yet in terms of specifics, I’m excited to announce that we’re hard at work in forming an actual, real life, not-just-a-pipedream, environmentally focused business! Pixel Planet Today will just be one branch of this fully-fledged venture, but each project will be focusing on using technology and art to make the planet a cleaner, greener place.
With this excitement in mind, it does bring with it a sad reality. Starting with Post 1000, we’ll no longer be posting on Pixel Planet Today every day. It has been so rewarding posting daily (minus the break for the flooding and small breaks for newsletters) for a thousand freaking days, but as we look to do even more for the planet, we aren’t able to post everyday AND do these other things at the same time with the resources we have. It’s hard for us to accept too, but overall, it’ll put us in a better position to make an even bigger impact.
A GAME, YOU SAY?!
Yes! I’m super excited to say that in this transition to business things, we aren’t getting super serious from the get-go, we’re keeping things casual (and pixel-y). I can’t really share any more details about it just yet, but I can share the loading animation as a teaser. 😊
NFTs: YES OR NO?
To say I’m stumped is an understatement. After deciding against making NFTs during the craze early last year due to the environmental impact – we’re trying to decide if that was the right call. The environmental damage NFTs can have on our climate is as big as ever, but would offsetting the emissions (not a perfect solution) make it more okay? Should we make Pixel posts into NFTs in order to raise the funds we need to grow our projects? Are NFTs even real? We set up a survey to gather your thoughts on the topic, and see if we should stick with our previous position or if we should go for it.
FREE STUFF
We’ve done it before, but we’re at it again. To celebrate Post 1000, we’re joining forces with Toto the Designer and Eco Earth Market to create an Instagram giveaway. In order to participate, you’ll have to be following @pixelplanettoday on Instagram, but can earn more entries through other means. Make sure to check out the page when the giveaway goes live tomorrow (May 13th).
MORE MINOR THINGS
They’re not as glamorous as some of the other notes, but we’d still like to mention them anyways. We implemented a bunch of pixel icons in the webstore (to make it feel more pixel-y) and added several animations to the Giphy channel. We also just sent out a newsletter to cover some of these updates as well – so if you’re signed up for that, make sure to check your inbox.
So how do I feel about making it through 1000 days of posts, you ask? I guess I don’t know. I’ve never been as proud of one of my projects as I am with this one, and while this is far from a ‘goodbye’ (next post comes on Monday, after all), I’m still kind of sad to see it change. This project has changed my life in more ways than one – so to see such a central part of myself become less-central is hard to wrap my mind around and will definitely take some getting used to.
It is bittersweet to say that every-day posts are over, but I’m so, so excited for what is yet to come. I’m a dreamer (if you couldn’t tell), so to sit here atop this mountain of pixel graphics and be that much closer to these other projects in the pipeline – it’s crazy. As long as I’m able to keep going down this road of creative projects that help the planet – I’ll be more than happy.
Blog posts and newsletters always show more of my personal side (it’s a less formal setting), but I couldn’t get to where I am today entirely by myself. I want to give a special thanks to Ashley Florer (Chief Editor) and Pablo Morales-Garcia (Post Contributor) for helping brainstorm, organize, and research so many of the post topics. Especially during the past few months as I organized business admin stuff to take things to the next level – the help in covering daily posts was a life saver (figuratively, of course). I would also like to thank Mani Nila and Ryan Ochoa for always believing in the project and pushing me to make my goals for it a reality. I also have to thank my family, friends, and Internet-acquaintances that only know me as ‘Pixel Planet’ (😂❤️). Without the continued love for the project, it would be nothing. Having an audience that is genuinely interested in what this project is all about is half of the reason why it’s still here. I also want to thank anyone and everyone who has supported the project by buying stickers from our shop. It’s not a money maker by any means, but the idea of having people buy our merch to spread the pixel-y planet-y love gives me so much joy.
If you’ve read this far – thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s true fans like you that give me the motivation to carry on and feel like I can actually turn these dreams into reality. Thank you so much for believing in me, the project, and where we’re going next. I hope to see you back here on Monday for Post 1,001 and all the other projects later down the line. ❤️🌎