Awkward Astronauts - Celebrating Two Years in Orbit

Mission Control:
Awkward Astronauts (AA) have officially completed two successful years in orbit, originating from the world of Decentralized Finance (DeFI) and navigating the depths of the metaverse. Our first 730 days on this interplanetary journey have been adventurous, ambitious, and a little awkward, but the mission continues.
Origins: Gemini x Nifty Gateway
Awkward Astronauts is an NFT collection launched in February, 2022 by Gemini & Nifty Gateway with artwork by Lambo. Mission control at Gemini worked very hard to recruit this crew of Awkward Astronauts to join us on our mission. Initially, all 10,214 astronauts were airdropped to Gemini & NIfty Gateway users that entered our sweepstakes in late January 2022. Looking at the faces of these astronauts, there was much to be proud of.
These cadets represented the best the Earth had to offer—the bravest souls ready to take on the daunting task of laying a new foundation for the future of humanity. Putting this diverse group of cadets together to embark on a mission of this caliber, was truly an awkward enterprise, but it needed to be done. An awkward mission for an awkward group.
We caught up with Lambo, the artist behind Awkward Astronauts, to talk about the early days dreaming up the collection, inspirations, and a behind the scenes look at the earliest art iterations.
🧑‍🚀 SPACESUITS
Everything at Gemini and Nifty Gateway is space themed. Employees are referred to as Astronauts, projects and initiatives are given names related to space, and we remain convinced that crypto will reach the moon (and beyond).
On the spacesuit inspiration: “I was always blown away by how many spacesuit designs exist in our history and pop culture, so I wanted them to be the core of each AA.” 👀 AWKWARD FACES
On the facial expressions featured across the collection: “The AA faces had one goal–to look awkward… and there was no better place to look other than memes and TV shows that I love.” ✏️ SHAPES AND FORMS
On initial design concepts: “Since the AA would be many people's first NFT, I knew they needed to look simple and appeal to the broader audience." 🎨 AESTHETICS
On AA aesthetics: “This was when it got super fun as I began experimenting with different colors and relative proportions between the head and the body.”
Here are some early iterations: 🌌 BACKGROUNDS
On AA background variants: “I wanted the background of each AA to tell you about the universe, so I made them as colorful and mysterious as possible.”