# Zalt > NFTs peaked in 2021 and have been declining ever since. Projects ran out of ideas, liquidity dried up, and the technology stagnated. Users and creators were ready for something new. - Year: 2024 - Disciplines: Identity, Product - Role: Sole designer—brand, product, and motion - Designer: Rafael Cespedes (https://rafaelcespedes.com) NFTs peaked in 2021 and have been declining ever since. Projects ran out of ideas, liquidity dried up, and the technology stagnated. Users and creators were ready for something new. In 2024, Pandora Labs released ERC-404: a hybrid implementation combining ERC-20 and ERC-721 that enables NFTs to be fractionalized and traded as tokens directly on the Ethereum blockchain. It addressed real structural problems with the NFT model, but the existing ecosystem wasn't ready for it. Neither NFT marketplaces nor DeFi platforms were built to support the standard in any meaningful way, leaving a clear product gap. Zalt was designed to fill it: a product and brand built to make hybrid tokens accessible, while positioning itself as a partner and enabler for what comes next in the space. ## Bridging Brand & Technology Fractionalization and hybridization are at the core of what Zalt does, so they became the foundation of how it looks. The ■ symbol appears throughout the visual identity as a representation of a non-fungible token. True to the technology, it can split: the ■ breaks into a series of ● representing fungible ERC-20 tokens. From there, literal and abstract variations of these shapes are used across the identity, creating a visual language that mirrors the mechanics of the standard it's built on. ## Brand Symbol The wordmark extends the fractionalization concept into the letterforms themselves. The 'Z' in Zalt doubles as a fraction and percent symbol, without compromising the legibility of the word. It also reads as an abstraction of an exchange or swap, with the two ■ on either side of the slash representing the two parties in a transaction. Exposure by Federico Parra Barrios was chosen as the brand typeface. Its morphing letterforms communicate evolution and transformation, mirroring the process hybrid tokens undergo as they move between NFT and ERC-20 states. It also positions Zalt apart from the geometric sans serifs that dominate Web3 branding. LL Akkurat serves as its counterpart: a more legible, screen-optimized typeface for body copy and UI, grounding the system where Exposure leads it. ## Where existing platforms fell short Existing swap interfaces weren't built for ERC-404. Platforms like Uniswap could execute the trade, but the experience stopped there. The NFT side of the token was invisible, the fractionalization mechanic went unexplained, and the mint and burn events triggered by each swap happened without any acknowledgment in the UI. Zalt was designed to close that gap, building a swap experience that treats the hybrid nature of ERC-404 tokens as a first-class design problem rather than an edge case. The guiding principle was familiarity. Token swaps are a well-understood pattern in DeFi, and the goal was to keep that mental model intact while layering in what ERC-404 introduces. If trading an NFT could feel as simple as trading a token, the barrier to entry drops and exchange volume follows. The two-panel layout (Pay with, Receive) is a format anyone who has used a DEX will recognize. What changes is what lives inside. Rather than a single token amount, the Pay with panel surfaces the user's full ERC-404 holdings as a scrollable item list, each NFT shown with its thumbnail and rarity score alongside any fractional amounts. The user sees exactly what they hold, understands the relative value of each item, and can act on it with full context. ## Zalt Reroll and Switch At the protocol level, ERC-404 maintains a burn pool: a reserve of NFTs that accumulates as tokens are fractionalized and traded. This pool existed as a technical reality but had never been surfaced as something users could interact with directly. We built two features around it. Reroll lets users exchange an NFT for a random one from the burn pool. It's free and built for users who want something different without a specific outcome in mind. Switch is for users who know exactly what they want. A three-panel interface lets them browse their inventory alongside the full burn pool. No UI reference existed for either feature. Both were built from scratch, establishing a new pattern for how users can tap directly into NFT liquidity without going through a traditional marketplace. Switch carries a small platform fee, making it a natural monetization layer built around utility. ## Images and video - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/carousel/01_zalt_cover_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/carousel/02_zalt_mark_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/carousel/03_zalt_switch-w_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/carousel/04_zalt_business-card_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/vid_zalt_fractionalization.mp4 - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/02_zalt_mark_02.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/03_zalt_typography_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/vid_zalt_poster_morph.mp4 - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/vid_zalt-morph.mp4 - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/06_zalt_colors_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/07_app-icon.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/08_zalt_business-card_01.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/09_zalt_swap_02.webp - https://rafaelcespedes.com/projects/zalt/case-study/10_zalt_switch_02.webp --- From the portfolio of Rafael Cespedes. Everything about him in one file: https://rafaelcespedes.com/llms-full.txt · Updated 2026-11-08