Lil Nouns DAO

tldr: 17e to bridge Lil ⌐◨-◨ culture IRL via a daily roadshow celebrating onchain art and culture.

gm Lil Nouns

I have spent the past 18 months working alongside Lils, building community, exploring memetics, creating design resources and having fun! My goal has been to uplift community, and drive attention to our DAO, via inclusive games, strong aesthetic, and daily momentum - some achievements include:

• Hundreds of GIFs and memes
• Community Brand Guidelines have been used globally IRL/URL; Brussels Event, Denver Pizza Party, Brazil Skate Program, Kenyan Seedling Program (working on right now) etc.
• $20k+ in prizes at LIL NOC (a 24/7 event) onboarding new artists to Lils + Flows + Nouns
• Many Trivia Qs, gathering weekly throughout 2024, now more sporadic, lots of prizes inc Cryptoads, Optimists, Lils, $nouns and Noun 1207 to Lil community member cardno.eth
• Many attempts at retro rewards of Nouns to community (some successful)
• Many retro rewards (20+ Lil Nouns) to both new and existing community members
• Maintaining/improving the only Lil Explorer: https://www.probe.wtf/ja-JP/lils (Originally funded 0.5e by Lils in 2023 prop.house)
• Produced a 200+ page coffee table book
• 250+ day streak of daily art/memes, majorly Lil-focused

Lil Design Research Project

“Lil Design Research Project” can now be regarded as “complete” :'( - the result being all the Lil GIFs and memes, community “brand guidelines” and a 200+ page book, serving as a prototype for anyone to pick up and play with/colour in/make their own graphics/stickers/stories. Whether you are 5 or 95 years old, you can enjoy this book. Leveraging real case studies, I have gone deep into the nuances of Lil Nouns and Nouns as emergent cultural arms of Ethereum, and how they are powered by decentralised design. The book exposes process and ideas around how to establish memes and products that can persist on Ethereum, push forward culture, and establish/grow community via honest collaboration.

I want to produce 4 copies of this book as an initial *Limited Edition* print run and showcase/distribute them via a Lil ⌐◨-◨ roadshow based in Costa Rica (where I have been located since 2021). This will establish a Lil cultural center on wheels, hosting live events, design lessons and movie nights - on the beach. I will naturally introduce people to lil noun o’clock, and how they can get involved anytime they want.

The Roadshow:

Exploded View (Artistic Impression):

Whilst this is an experiential proposal, it will become a revenue generating business, in a great location, amplifying our culture into the physical world. There will be a 50% profit share put back into the Lil Nouns treasury until the USD equivalent of 17e has been returned, after which, the profit share will be 5% ongoing for the lifetime of the business (my time horizon is decades/generations). To be clear: all profit share paid to the DAO directly, not by minting Lil Nouns. I will convert the full ETH amount to USD and base the repayment amount on this USD value swapped onchain.

Lil Ice Cream Truck

The working name of the business is “LIL ICE CREAM TRUCK” (open to community vote on names!) with the idea being to sell homemade ice creams and food/drink and offer art/design experiences. This aims to be a mobile cultural center, teaching people about what we are doing, how to get involved, casually exhibit the “MEME VALUE” book, trade other books, create the pages of the next Lil book, and showcase community-built software to explore, mint and design Lil Nouns - directly from the beach! I will have vinyl printer / 3D printer that people can use, a tmfa-inspired selfie wall, to take photos to share online, that will double as a screen to project movies on quiet nights at the beach.

Costa Rica is seeing massive growth in tourism year-on-year and the footfall is extremely high in these areas. There is not a single ice cream van at this moment in time, so I believe this will be a unique visual to draw people in. We will provide high-speed internet, seating and colouring materials for kids, pixel art station, face painting, live music/karaoke, book swaps and art lessons, in addition to selling the Lil Ice Cream and very Limited Edition products like the Lil coffee table book. This will be a family run business with my wife, and a safe place for my kids and their friends to congregate, make art, learn something and have fun.

Budget Breakdown

• Book Production (x4 units) - $2500
  • Bespoke process with each page being a die-cut sticker sheet (500-1000 stickers) and encourages remix within the pages. Have factored shipping and import taxes into this cost, will have 2 first edition for sale, and produce more units if there is demand, profit reinvested into more production.
• 70s Winnebago - $4000
  • The van is in pretty dire state (hence the price), the roof/chassis/engine are good but the interior will need to be gutted and rebuilt using durable materials (it will be parked on various beachfronts between Cahuita and Manzanillo in Limon Province but primarily located at Cocles Beach near Puerto Viejo de Talamanca).
• Renovation costs -$19000
  • New flooring (Laurel wood) - $1500
  • New electrics and wiring - $2000
  • Finishes within and exterior (including rust prevention on chassis, cleaning, sanding, priming, installation of new AC unit) - $9000
  • Generator- $500
  • Labour - $6000 (including any mechanical work)
• Webpage Livestream and GPS tracker to follow the roadshow real-time - $1000

If we exceed the budget, I will cover any additional costs including furnishing, fridge/freezer and design-related equipment/printers etc.

Timeline

• 12 weeks for the van build
• 4 weeks for production and shipping of books to Costa Rica

What experience do I have in experiential events like this?

• Most recently I worked with Apple TV+ and The Elephant Queen Movie to renovate a truck into a mobile cinema in Kenya, + created the website and live tracking of the initiative.
• Worked with RayBan for the Camden Crawl to renovate a bus into a live music venue.
• Worked with LD Lines Ferries on a multi-year campaign across the South of England and France, again renovating a London Bus (Routemaster) to promote channel crossings. I was also on the bus hosting the events for over a year in addition to the planning stage and renovation/branding.

“MEME VALUE”

I’ve attached some visuals from the book below, I do not want to reveal the entire book here for obvious reasons, but I would be happy to share via a live (unrecorded) video chat in the Lil Nouns Discord. I would also love to send books to anyone interested in helping distribute globally. Note - the pink lines mark the die-cut layer of stickers. These are just 6 spreads from 100+ spreads within the book, currently in proofing stage making final text/artwork edits ready for print production.

This is a relatively small-scale project with clear deliverables that can have big impact for Lil Nouns both financially and spiritually, bridging our URL world IRL, creating long-lasting memories and shared experiences associated with Lil Nouns + everyone loves ice cream. Attached below the van that will undergo the renovation. The interior will be open plan, with high-quality wooden flooring, and will draw design inspiration from the local Caribbean style.

I have kept the budget as lean as possible and will be doing a lot of the renovation work myself with my friend Ronald, a 65yr old legend from Limon (we are buying the van from his cousin). We will post regular updates and photo/video footage of the renovation project, bringing in experts for the electrical aspects, carpenter and painter to finish the van. The majority of the renovation work will be undertaken just outside of Limon city.

Thanks for the time and consideration!

Lil 67 / Lil Pipe