001 is an art gallery for rare app icons.
- There are 099 exhibit spaces in the gallery. Artists may rent an exhibit to install an original art piece within it.
- Visitors may purchase a limited-edition copy of any piece of art. Purchasing allows you to display the art piece in its native format, as the 001 app's icon.
- Transactions are public, and artists can earn real proceeds for each sale they make.
Your home screen is the most valuable digital real estate available. You might glance at a painting on the wall for a few passing moments, but you look at your phone for hours a day.
Apple intends icons to be utilitarian product identifiers, optimized for recognition and clarity [1]. Yet consumers increasingly treat their home screens as personalizable aesthetic surfaces, curating them to their own taste. The icon's prominence and unique shape tease at a creative format trying to break out, but limited by the need to remain on-brand.
001 discards this functional premise entirely, reframing the app icon as a purely decorative symbol and exposing it as an open-ended creative canvas. The gallery is an experimental system to explore the potential of this novel format.
FOR COLLECTORS
Browse the gallery for pieces to adorn your home screen.
Artworks are available for purchase in limited, individually serialized copies, at a price and quantity of the artist's discretion.
All transaction and ownership data is public. Each edition is exclusive to its holder — purchase a copy to verifiably own the work and display it as your app icon.
FOR ARTISTS
Rent an exhibit space to install your own art piece into it. You control the content, the price, and the number of copies.
Work within the constraints of the app icon format: pieces are naturally displayed at a small size, with square aspect ratio and large corner radii. This presents an opportunity to create something native — not merely scaled-down illustrations, but work that derives its character from the icon's scale and shape.
There are only 099 exhibits available. If you are able to claim one, you must capitalize on your investment: placement alone is not enough to guarantee success. Create a beautiful piece and you might get rich! But if no one buys your art, you may be wise to exit this business and sell your exhibit to someone else.
Listing art on 001 is a business endeavor as much as it is artistic. Set your price too high and no one will buy; too low, and you sacrifice revenue. Scarcity generates attention, but limits potential earnings.
This is not a toy marketplace. Artists earn Credits for each sale they make, which may be converted to USD at a rate of 100 Credits to $1.﹡
001 has no opinion nor advice on artist strategy — you must optimize your listing to maximize your success.
