2018: Our Year in Review

December 19, 2018

It's been a big year for us! We we've been busy as honeybees at CAN in 2018 and wanted to share some of the highlights with you. Huge thanks to all our artists for making everything possible, and to all of our non-profit partners for working so hard every day for the causes we care about!

 

We Swung Left! In partnership with Swing Left, our Postcards from America's Swing Districts campaign prompted our artist community to design vintage-style postcards from the 78 'winnable' U.S. Congressional Districts across the country. And Team CAN joined hundreds of fellow canvassers in California Congressional District 10, just before midterm elections, armed with the coolest hashtag ever, #knockharder, to help Democrat Josh Harder flip the district!

 

 

We launched a new book, What REALLY Makes America Great! We enlisted our artist community to create posters celebrating the inherent American values that really make America great. Thanks to all of our published artists who continue to share What REALLY Makes America Great with such passion!

 

We launched a new product: Vote Buttons! Designing non-partisan vote buttons was a hit with everyone in our artist community, including our youngest designer who is all of six years old. We published over 100 Vote! button designs leading up to the November midterm election!

We sold sweatshirts at Gap! Our See America Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone National Park designs were licensed by Gap and hit the shelves in time for the holidays. Our See America products proudly support National Parks Conservation Association and we're over the moon to get them more exposure at Gap stores worldwide and online!

 

Our Just Undo It design went super viral and rocked appearances at a election rallies across the country, on national tv on The Rachel Maddow Show, on npr.com and all over social media! Well done, Luis Prado! your design made 2018 a year to remember!

 

 

And did we mention we inspired Van Jones this year? During the launch of What REALLY Makes America Great launch, he tweeted about our book which supports his social justice organization, The Dream Corps. Getting a shout out from him was definitely an exciting moment for all of us at CAN!

 

We made Conscious Company Media's list of Social Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2018! Congrats to Max and Aaron, our co-founders who "believe that art is the most powerful tool to make change." Pretty sure our artist community would agree with you!

 

We raised $400k in funding in a whole new mission driven way this year! Check out Max's juicy post on our alternative journey to financing. The bottom line: When CAN makes money, our artists make money, our non-profit partners make money, our investors make money, and most importantly, more social-impact artwork is created and distributed. It's a win-win-win-win-win!

 

Our company got bigger! This year, Team CAN grew by one! Her name is Holly Savas, and she’s a mixed media artist herself from Madison, WI. If you’ve noticed any improvements in our marketing efforts this year - that’s Holly! We couldn’t be more thrilled to have her on board or excited for what’s in store next year. Plus, she’s submitted some pretty great designs herself!

 

Whew! We could go on and on, but it’s time to catch our breath for five minutes until the fun starts up again in the new year. THANK YOU to our incredible community of artists who volunteer their time and talents every day, and to our inspiring community of non-profit partners who fight day in and day out to make the world a better place. We couldn’t do any of this without you! Here’s to 2019 being prosperous and creative for everyone in our wonderful community!

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