Dear College Pikasso Friends, Fans & Family,
This is our first newsletter ever, so please excuse the length.  From now on they will be more regular and much more brief.
But for now we need to take it back to the beginning.  It seems like yesterday I dreamed up the idea of creating a store that was covered wall to wall with colorful, exciting artwork made by young artists.  It was while I was walking in a nice shopping area called Eaton Mall here in north east Ohio with my parents when I noticed how many galleries there were.  I also noticed something about all of them.  They all seemed kind of boring, pretentious, and archaic. I was disgusted with this and realized that the whole art world in general and galleries in particular could use to be turned on their head.  Rebranding was needed.  I yearned for a different sort of gallery. A gallery that was younger, more exciting, colorful, full of culture and modern.  I fell in love with this idea right then and there.

I proposed the idea to a friend who I met in grade school, Ian Derby, & together we decided to turn the idea into a business and we become business partners.  Its been a fast and interesting four years since then and the idea has undergone drastic twists and turns but today still retains it’s original vision.  Ian recently decided to leave the company and focus on his career as he was being spread too thin and we wish him the best of luck and thank him for all that he has contributed to what College Pikasso is today.  Ian stepping out of the company has put me in full control of College Pikasso’s direction and day to day happenings.  It is a big responsibility and I want to share it with all of you as I continually seek to create a more fun and amazing experience for everybody shopping at College Pikasso.

After almost four years, we had little to show for all of our brainstorming, meetings, and research.  However, about 6 months ago, we decided to kick it into high gear and since then we have made incredible progress.

We developed an online version of our vision where we have a collection of the coolest, most exciting, colorful, and fun art we can find at www.collegepikasso.com.  We have dozens of pieces and almost a dozen artists being showcased in our online galleries.  With our website, we have the opportunity to bring great art and artists to art lovers world wide.  And in doing so, we are bridging the gap between people who want to buy exciting & fresh art with the next generation of creators all over the world.

Over the past six months we have worked to:

• build a good looking & easy to use internet gallery & store (www.collegepikasso.com)
• find the best young, local artists and fill our galleries with their diverse art
• & share this art with family and friends

And we thank you all for helping us achieve this.  We owe our success to you.  It is a very exciting time for College Pikasso and myself personally and everyday I have more and more fun working on College Pikasso.  I can’t wait to see how we continue to grow and develop.
In the next year we are specifically working towards:

• sharing our collection with more and more people through our ever expanding marketing campaigns (first in ohio, then regionally, and then nationally)
• a much larger, more diverse, and more curated collection of art and apparel
• attracting more and more highly talented young artists from an expanding area starting here in north east Ohio and spreading across the state, region, and country, slowly but steadily spreading our support of young, local artists and their exciting art.
• opening a physical location. we want a place where people can come in person and be surrounded by our colorful, exciting, and vibrant art and also learn about where it came from and who made it. therefore my original vision will fully be a reality.  we hope to have a a brick-n-mortar headquarters and retail operation within 1 year.

So thats it.  Thats where we came from and thats where we’re going.  And we need your help in accomplishing all of this.  We need your continued support of these artists and their art.  We have a lot of work to be done and I will personally enjoy every bit of it.  I look forward to the adventure that's ahead and sharing it with all of you.

You can contact me directly for any reason at any time.  I look forward to hearing from you.  And once again, we appreciate all of your support from the bottom of our hearts and want to continue making the process of finding and buying cool, exciting art & apparel made by young artists easier and more fun.

Until next time, take care and have fun!

Yours in art,
Mike Vecchio, Co-founder & Lead Team Member, College Pikasso
mike@collegepikasso.com
330.441.2432
www.collegepikasso.com

The vision for College Pikasso was born out of late-night basement conversations between Ian Derby and myself, Mike Vecchio, that took place in our hometown of Hudson, Ohio during the summer of 2007.  We saw a brick and mortar space filled wall to wall with the coolest, most fun, and exciting artwork made by young, up and coming artists.  The reality of funding this was where we hit a stopping point.  Instead of pushing our vision aside, we decided to move it online, where more importantly we charged ourselves with turning the traditional gallery experience on its head.

Our vision has come a long way, and in the past 6 months undergone a transformation towards a full reality.  These past months have been a learning experience, and we have been able to reassess exactly what we are doing and why we are doing it – our mission.  Simply put, we are redefining the art experience for everyone – artists, art lovers, and art buyers.  Ultimately we are infusing the world with youthfulness, fun, and color.  Instilling the world with excitement, passion, and originality.  Exploding creativity and playfulness onto the masses.  

More specifically, we provide a platform that helps young, talented, and ambitious artists grow and earn money from what they love and do best – creating artwork.  We also cater to art lovers, finding the best and most exciting new art and making it available at fair prices.  Along the way, we take care of the legwork, and notably take the traditional, stuffy, and quiet gallery experience out of the picture.  With College Pikasso, it is fun, simple, and rewarding to buy and sell art.

So far along, we have and continue to recruit the highest caliber young artists making moves in Northeast Ohio.  We have the pleasure of dealing with some of the coolest and most down to earth artists in an effort to make their art available on College Pikasso, promote them, and grow with them.  I have interviewed them on video for site, and it was truly interesting and fun experience.  We have our website, built by ourselves using a unique platform (Weebly).  After spending years debating the right software vs. web developers (and almost crashing and burning on the way!), it is very satisfying to finally have a complete and easy to use site.  And while it satisfies our needs now, we have agreed to never become complacent, and will always be working to improve College Pikasso.

There it is.  Now you know our secrets.  You know why we are here and what exactly we are doing.  You know what we love, and we know that others will love it too.  If art is a passion for you, browse the site.  If you like what you see, buy it!  The prices are right, and you are supporting young local artists.  If creating art is your forte, get in touch and submit your art for consideration to be on the site!  And never, ever stop doing what makes you happy – creating art!  Feel free to follow along, and chime in where you see fit.

Until next time, take care and have fun!

Yours in art,
-Mike, Co-Founder, CollegePikasso.com

The "We Want You" artist recruitment campaign has begun.  Two weeks ago College Pikasso recruiters began running around local campuses in Cleveland, Kent, & Akron posting & handing out the following flyer to everyone they saw on campus.  

Getting the word out to whomever they could find in the Student Unions & the Art Departments was a long, focused, fun, & rewarding process for the CP team.  The response has been exciting & promising thus far & they look forward to continuing their invasion of these campus areas to find the youngest, brightest, and most ambitious artists out there.  Its Cleveland, Akron, & Kent for now, but they are planning to expand outward around Ohio & then out of the state & into the rest of the country! 

The flyer is posted below.  The image depicts Pablo Picasso in a similar manner to the old United States' Army Recruitment campaign with Uncle Sam (which began to be used in the War of 1812).