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UTC Alumnus Builds New Career
UTC alumnus, Jean-Batiste Clary Niemi-Junkola, is building a new career at the forefront of a new industry trend having launched a non-fungible token digital art collection.
Jean-Batiste is studying game art at Sheffield Hallam University after completing a creative and digital media technical qualification, and art and photography A Levels, at UTC Sheffield City Centre in 2019. He is currently on an enterprise sandwich year placement.
Jean-Batiste, 21, said: “NFTs are still brand new, so it’s exciting that artists have this opportunity to make a living from their own art. I am currently working, as part of an enterprise year at Sheffield Hallam, on an NFT digital art collection.
“I made another art collection of five pieces before this one that I am proud of and it turned out to be quite successful, so I’m looking to continue that trend.”
An NFT is a digital rather than physical asset which is sold online. The digital content that can be traded includes artwork, text, music, video and photography.
The benefits of working in this way include the creator being able to find a marketplace online without using an intermediatory such as an art gallery. As part of the process, their work is ‘minted’ to protect copyright and ‘tokenised’ by a cryptocurrency service.
Long term, Jean-Batiste’s career ambition is to be able to make a living from the creation of art, animations and video games.
Reflecting on his time at UTC Sheffield City Centre, Jean-Batiste said: “One of my favourite memories of the UTC was having great friends to hang out and work with. Being around creative or like-minded people is such a great feeling and that gave me a lot of motivation regarding life goals and ambitions.
“We were also given time to develop our ideas and projects and a lot of creative freedom. I made an animation, which allowed me to develop my skills without rushing. It’s a piece of work that I am still proud of today.
“Sometimes what you need is time and resources, and the UTC provided that. I would recommend the UTC to people wanting to develop their creative skills independently.
“My advice to other young people is do what you love, and the money will come later. You don’t want to live a life doing something you don’t enjoy,” added Jean-Batiste, whose work can be viewed here.