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Andrew Choi Of SuperNormal - Leading Korea In NFTs And Web3, Plus: Pepe Soho’s Coming Home NFTs, And More…
The NFT space is evolving at a rate unlike any other. Each area continually grows and evolves to keep up with innovations. In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Choi, CEO at SuperNormal, a premium art-focused society that challenges what it means to be extraordinary. He chats with hosts Jeff Kelley, Eathan Janney, and Josh Kriger to discuss the ever-evolving progression of NFT art. There’s an art revolution happening right now, taking everything we know to the next level. Andrew also imparts some wisdom on the success of SuperNormal and why being challenged by your team can sometimes bring about the greatest possible results. Also, catch our Hot Topics section with special guests Jeff Daubney, Austin Yavorsky, and Dallas Santana, representing Pepe Soho, an award-winning nature and landscape photographer from Mexico. All of today’s guests are amplifying human connection and expression through art and NFTs. Learn more by tuning in.
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Andrew Choi Of SuperNormal - Leading Korea In NFTs And Web3, Plus: Pepe Soho’s Coming Home NFTs, And More…
This is Andrew Choi of SuperNormal, the premium art collectible society. I’m here on the Edge of NFT, the super podcast that’s always bringing you to the edge of what the new normal will be in the future of tech. Stay tuned.
NFT curious readers. Stay tuned for this episode to learn how all of our guests are amplifying human connection and expression through art and NFTs and why being challenged by your team can sometimes bring about the greatest possible results.
Plus, hear all about Pepe Soho and the badassery happening in Art Basel in Miami. Don’t forget that we put together a gathering called NF TLA that brought out thousands of the world’s most innovative doers in the Web3 space. Head to NFTLA.live to get tickets to our newer, bolder, and better but as intimate and impactful event happening in Los Angeles from March 20th to the 23rd, 2023. See you there.
Our guest is Andrew Choi, CEO of SuperNormal, a gateway into premium luxury, art, fashion, and more in Web3. Andrew was previously Tech Lead and SWE at Coinbase, Microsoft, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and IBM. SuperNormal is a premium art-focused society that challenges what it means to be extraordinary. SuperNormal values art in all forms and cherishes diversity across all areas. Andrew, welcome to the show. It’s great to have you here to talk about SuperNormal.
Thank you, everybody, for the welcome.
Andrew, it’s so good to see you again. Speaking of extraordinary, I am still dreaming about that Korean barbecue. That was the best Korean barbecue I’ve ever had in my life.
I can’t exactly recall the restaurant’s name but it was one good restaurant.
It was great to meet you and start to build these bridges. We talked about the importance of everyone understanding what’s going on in Asia and folks in Asia understanding what’s going on in LA given your roots in LA and what you’re up to expand the understanding of this amazing technology in Asia. We couldn’t be more delighted to have you here.
Likewise. Thanks so much for the welcome and hospitality.
It’s so great to have you. We always like to start with a little bit of background on projects. You have a pretty bold vision for SuperNormal. You’re willing to execute against it but give us a little bit of the origin story. How did this thing evolve?
That’s one of the most commonly asked. I met Zipcy who is also the co-founder and the chief illustrator of our Web3 brand. It’s so fascinating. I met Zipcy who is the artist through an audio social media platform called Clubhouse. Clubhouse was very big in 2020.
I like how we get to talk about Clubhouse like it’s retro.
Time flies. It was early 2021. I was in a lot of rooms in the application but one of the rooms or sessions that I was talking in was Zipcy telling her story of how she was suffering through her artwork, her illustrations, and her illustrative products being used in some parts of Asia for commercial reasons in an illegal way without giving her any permissions and without giving her any credit.
Back then, the NFT boom and Web3 boom were also kicking in. Me having this technical background from Coinbase, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, and seeing that Zipcy has a very extensive creative and illustrative background working with companies like DC, Marvel, and Netflix, I thought there couldn’t be a better way to form synergy between this technical aspect of myself and the illustration background of Zipcy. That’s how we got started. When we launched it in February 2022, I honestly didn’t think it would it would be this explosive.
It’s always interesting to hear people who have things be explosive talk about how they weren’t expecting it. It reminds you that a lot we have a lot of hustle themes on this show within the people involved. It’s a matter of hustling until things roll. You have five subdivisions, NFT, Couture, Atelier, Metaverse, and Editions. That’s an interesting way to subdivide things. Could you walk us through each of these and tell us what they entail?
NFT is our Genesis NFT collection, which fundamentally started the roadmap of SuperNormal back in February 2022. The NFT sector, subdivision, or vertical is what people typically know SuperNormal as, which is the 8,888 NFTs, which is our IP. Couture is our studio business where we very closely work with Web2 brands, Web2 celebrities, as well as Web2 conglomerates and companies that are not very familiar with Web3, especially with respect to understanding the meta and the flow of the ever-changing Web3 marketing tactics.
I have seen so many companies in Web2 coming into Web3 not knowing the marketing strategy and how that Web2 tactic has a huge disconnect with the NFT collectors’ and NFT followers’ views. I found that there’s a big gap between the two. That’s is exactly where we understand especially in the Asian Korea zone the marketing aspect as well as developmental services like smart contracting, minting optimized gas contracts, and more importantly, the customized way of your launching your NFT collections if you’re going to do a Dutch auction, a white list, or a multi-faced minting process in a most optimized way.
The premier option in the Atelier is that you can use our art IP. What a lot of brands like to do with SuperNormal is they want to take SuperNormal’s art IP and then co-brand it together. Instead of us providing the developmental service, they use our IP and art to co-brand it so that it becomes SuperNormalX or that company name, and then we launch.
The Metaverse is our gamification and metaverse platform. We are currently half-partnered with quite a few big-sized metaverse platforms to build our universe. One of them is the Worldwide Webb and then the other one I cannot name yet. The addition is our IP contents business where we’re going to monetize the IP of our brand into the Web2 aspects like webtoons, webcomics, web dramas, and ultimately even animation series in a video drama format.
There’s a lot going on there. It is interesting for you to also deliver that. I’m noticing there’s a combination of having a specialty in Asian markets and the Web3 market. Trying to access Asian marketing is different than in the West or other countries. It sounds like you’ve got a one-two punch there, which is interesting where you can both address the problem that people have but also address the Web3 problem. I’m sure there’s an intersection of how to market to that audience within Web3. It’s interesting to learn about that from you.
I forgot to mention our Couture business vertical, which is our third business vertical. You are all very much Web3 experts and connoisseurs but many if not most NFT “projects” claim to say they’re bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3. That has become the cliche and quote that everybody says to make themselves look differentiated from the other projects. The way we’re structuring our Couture business is that SuperNormal is known for having luxury premium art that is loved by virtually everybody because they can find an avatar or PFP that they can resonate with.
SuperNormal: Many, if not most, NFT projects claim to say they’re bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3.That’s sort of become the very cliche that everybody says to make them selves look differentiated than the other projects.
Among this these NFTs, we have thousands of traits that are unique, high-quality, and premier and have that luxurious feeling. In these NFTs or SuperNormal avatars, there are certain ones that are very much in high demand, and there are certain ones that are more popular than the others. For the most popular ones, we are translating these digital traits into physical products that become fashion and clothes. We have our internal designer and manufacturing and producing pipeline so that this physical bridging becomes a reality.
Thanks for elucidating that. That’s fascinating. I’m on the website. I see what you’re saying about the themes of it. It’s very pleasing and inviting. It’s got a certain pedigree to the feeling of it, which is fun.
I’m trying to put myself in your head, Andrew, as a guy that comes from so many traditional businesses and how they have reached the masses and scaled. You’re doing it in such a unique way where art is part of your life every single day in such a meaningful way. It’s a grandiose vision that you have. You have the chops from a technical background given all these companies that you’ve worked for to make this happen. I would love to understand how this vision came about, how you and Zipcy collaborate, and how big is your team now. Give us a sense of what came together here.
The aspect of art and respecting and appreciating illustrations and artwork has become exponentially higher than when I was working in traditional firms and tech companies in Silicon Valley. I come from an engineering background in Silicon Valley where everything is techy and non-creative. We have a team of between 12 to 15. Our vision is that high-class art always prevails. The NFT scene over the course of the past few years has become a more speculative investment type of medium but over the next 5, 6, or 7 years, the element of art, especially high-class premium art, is going to settle in. That’s going to take more share and more percentage of the NFTs.
That’s the reason and the motivation why I want SuperNormal to be an art narrative brand rather than just an NFT project that has mediocre art but has all these promises behind because even if we have this art, which is drawn by Zipcy and our generator of art that can replicate it to 8,000 pieces, people are going to still appreciate the art, especially the collectors who come here for the sake of art and the buyers who come here to appreciate the artwork of Zipcy.
We talked about this at an event we hosted in LA. You have to separate the market conditions from the fact that we have had an art revolution in the last few years. It changed everything about digital art, the value of digital art, and the application of digital art in society.
It’s a whole other level. One of the things that’s interesting is you’re not just exclusively focused internally. You’re working with other brands to help them establish their presence in Web3 on the foundation of this ethos we’re talking about here. How does that work?
That question can be best answered with actual concrete examples. We launched in February 2022. In the past, one of the types of brands that we worked with is a big is a huge celebrity in Korea. The level of his presence in Korea is the Tom Cruise of Korea. He was the main actor behind Narco-Saints on Netflix, which was a huge hit. His name is Ha Jung-Woo.
His agency reached out to SuperNormal wanting to use SuperNormal’s IP. We licensed our IP to his company. He would reidentify, redraw, and reillustrate on top of SuperNormal’s art. That would become the derivative collection of his NFT. That was a huge hit in Korea because he is one of the most respected actors in Korea but he is also an artist.
The second example I would say is Waterbomb. Waterbomb is the Coachella of Korea. It’s the biggest offline festival in Korea where you have these singers, K-pop idols, and celebrities performing on the front stage. Tens of thousands of people would come. What we did is it’s a hugely high-demand festival. You cannot get in with simple ticketing. What we did is we created a collaborative NFT collection with Waterbomb, SuperNormal x Waterbomb. The entrance ticket would be the utility behind it as well as food and beverage, merch, and other offline benefits.
We also collaborated offline where we held a large booth in the Waterbomb festival scene called SuperNormal. We would attract tens and thousands of people for SuperNormal. The next brand partnership that we’re going to have in the next quarter, which is in December, January, February, and March, is going to be very differentiating and large. It hasn’t been seen in the NFT scene before.
It’s going to be massive. Andrew is being modest. It’s going to be mega.
I’m very careful not to reveal everything because we haven’t formally announced it yet. It is with a unicorn company and also an IP brand that holds more than ten million fandoms around the world. To my knowledge, the NFT scene hasn’t seen this before. We’re framing this very similarly to how RTFKT and Nike did it and how Gucci and 10KTF did it. I’m happy about the progress. I cannot wait to share it with you all.
That’s exciting stuff. We have such a valuable moment here with you on the show. Being so integrated into the development of Web2 within the Asian economy, I would love to get your comments on the distinct developments as well as the integration and your vision globally moving forward in tech, entertainment, art, and all these things. How is the globe evolving from your perspective of all this stuff?
NFT and Web3 in general are ever-changing. It’s evolving at a rate that I have not seen before. I come from a tech background. Even tech in Silicon Valley is considered moving very fast but when I entered the blockchain space after joining Coinbase, I learned that the NFT space and the Web3 space are changing and evolving at a rate that I haven’t seen in any other sectors and industries, including in the areas of marketing, development, social engineering, and all these aspects, not just in minting meta.
I say that because companies like Azuki launched these revolutionary new smart contracts and all these new technologies for the benefit of the entire Web3. Companies like RTFKT are showing the world how actual digital can be done in a very global sense. Companies like 10KTF are showing how a proper Web2 partnership can be done with a luxury brand. My vision with SuperNormal is that we can send an example of how Korean and Asian NFT brands can partner with such brands to show an example of how this can be the future roadmap for projects that want to take this path.
Andrew is coming to NFT LA. Let’s bring this brand with you. We will tell the story there.
At that point, you will understand why it is such a tough thing. The point is that from a technical standpoint, a marketing standpoint, and also a trend standpoint, it’s changing so fast. In SuperNormal, we identify this and understand that our company and our team have to move at this pace, especially with a Web3 development service for Web2 brands. We try to customize everything the way that they want to and give advice, “This is the right meta to follow. This is the technical component that needs to be coupled with.”
That’s very exciting. You aren’t stopping there. Given your comprehensive approach to this space, you’re also messing around with the metaverse. You’ve acquired some land on different platforms. What’s your strategy when it comes to the metaverse and your thoughts on where that fits in? There are always these conversations in the ether about whether or not we’re ready for the metaverse. How do you activate the metaverse in a meaningful way? What are your thoughts there?
The question around the metaverse has been one of the hottest topics in the space. I met the founder of Spatial, which is a 3D metaverse exhibition space. They’re tackling the metaverse space with the narrative of showing and displaying your NFT art in the most convenient and extensive 3D space. We don’t want to stop displaying our beautiful artworks although that itself is a huge value. We purchased a Penthouse, which is the most expensive land plot within the Worldwide Webb.
We also purchased Sandbox, Decentraland, and NFT Worlds metaverse plots, knowing that there are going to be multiple winners in the metaverse space in the next several years. Specifically, we want to position ourselves as the premier luxury Web3 brand. We want to build a universe in Sandbox, for example, but also because we have such huge Web2 partners in the form of fashion brands or entertainment companies, we’re going to work with them and then build a co-hosted universe together.
Both our fans, SuperNormal fans, and then their partner fandoms or communities can work together and then build economic activities, a virtual playground, and then also a fashion game within the metaverse where the holders of SuperNormal NFTs can dress up with the traits from SuperNormal but also with the traits from our partners’ IP. That’s the ultimate vision where we have integrated the fashion aspect of the metaverse, NFTs, collectibles, and wearables as well as the partner companies.
SuperNormal: The ultimate vision is where we have integrated the fashion aspect of Metaverse, NFTs, collectibles, wearables as well as the partner companies.
It makes a ton of sense for that to be the hub of so much activity. You mentioned earlier this partnership with Worldwide Webb. What was that about? What was that story there? What else should we expect from that collaboration?
One of the most popular traits at SuperNormal is something called Candy Hoodie ZIPS. Candy Hoodie is a very colorful ZIP avatar. It’s a ZIP with the Candy Hoodie design embroidered. We took that design and made it interoperable within the Worldwide Webb. Whoever holds the SuperNormal is now playing with that character. We also bought a Penthouse in the Worldwide Webb.
Only our holders can go to the Penthouse, decorate, build, construct, place items and accessories, and do all the things that they can imagine within Worldwide Webb. There’s the aspect of decorating our Penthouse on a community scale. We also have this 3D avatar or character that holders can wear in the Worldwide Webb in which the Worldwide Webb team also hosts mini-games and contests.
You announced the beginning of a new chapter here with your Mystery Box. What’s in the Mystery Box? Tell us about the Mystery Box.
This is also something currently in the unrevealed stage but it is very tightly connected and tangled to our vision of season two. We also hinted at the element of Han Yak. Han Yak is a Korean way of saying herbal medicine in traditional medicine. The way it works is if you consume the Han Yak, you get this new superpower and new ability to do extraordinary things or SuperNormal things. Mystery Box is very much connected to season two Han Yak. We will be rolling out the specific roadmap.
Were you going to say something, Andrew?
That’s one of my favorite answers ever.
I’m not media-trained.
I’m not so sure about that answer, to be honest.
I’m going to let you answer that.
I’m going to sleep.
Pepe Soho, an award-winning nature and landscape photographer from Mexico who following a series of life-changing events developed a love for photography in his early 40s. During this therapeutic process of framing and capturing nature’s purest moments, he discovered a path to healing and self-discovery. Welcome to the show.
It’s great to be here.
Thanks so much for having us.
Catch you on the flip side.
Take care.
Thank you.
See you soon.
No one is an island.
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