Gianpiero D’Alessandro, an illustrator, graphic designer and artist, is the brainchild behind the inbetweeners NFTs together with his long time childhood friend Pasquale “Pavi” V. D’Avino, who serves as CEO for inbetweeners NFT.
Their project is about spreading positivity, not only in real life but also in the metaverse. This will be done through a collection of 10,777 Gianpiero NFT bears which live on the Ethereum blockchain. Each of the 10,777 bears is a randomised combination of over 175 Gianpiero hand drawn attributes of varying (inbetweeners NFT) rarity. The inbetweeners NFT collection aims to ‘uplift and encourage their community to be wholesome and healthy’ with a simple mission: “make the world a more loving place”.
Spreading love and positivity is at the forefront of the inbetweeners NFT project and Gianpiero has always had a long life admiration for teddy bears and the security they represented for him as a child. This stemmed back to when his grandmother gave him a blue teddy bear and told him that the bear would ‘love him’ and that it was his new friend. The 30 year old Italian artist remembers the moment fondly.
The Justin Bieber Effect
Despite his admiration for teddy bears, Gianpiero surely didn’t imagine this love for bears to be what bonded him with Justin Bieber?
Well after Bieber spotted a cartoon drawing of himself with his wife, Hailey, and dog, Oscar having been posted on Instagram back in March 2019, Gianpiero had a DM. Justin Bieber had written “Hey, can you send me your number? … wanna talk about doing some stuff with ya.”
And from here the relationship grew…
Bieber and his longtime friend Ryan Good invited Gianpiero to get involved with their streetwear brand called ‘Drew House’ which they launched that year. Testament to the artistry skills of Gianpierro as he is not the resident cartoon designer there and what was the star of the show? Yep, a brown teddy bear. One named Theodore who sports a signature purple button nose. This was the initial illustration that Gianpiero showed to Bieber and Good, a collection that now runs 70 odd deep.
What wasn’t known at this time was that Theodore would go on to be the signature bear for the whole inbetweeners NFT collection.
Inbetweeners NFT: Justin Bieber, Tom Holland, and Snoop Dogg
As Gianpierro and Bieber developed a friendship and mutual admiration of each other’s work, Gianpiero called Bieber and arranged to meet in Los Angeles in January 2020.
Having already been working with Bieber for ‘Drew House’, Gianpiero also provided the artwork for his February 2020 album ‘Changes’ and therefore Gianpiero was keen to get Bieber involved in his inbetweeners NFT project.
Having run the project past Bieber he was supportive of the project and enthusiastic about getting involved. Bieber was never an investor but was keen to publicly support the project and spread the word as much as possible.
Bieber and Gianpiero seemed to hold teddy bears in the same esteem which gave Bieber the encouragement to promote his recent friends project.
Following Bieber’s involvement in the inbetweeners NFT project a whole new community jumped on the inbetweeners NFT bandwagon as a result and there were stars across different entertainment industries.
Spider Man aka Tom Holland couldn’t resist the ‘Spider Bear’ NFT while Snoop Dogg described the “2Pac Bear” as “dope”. International soccer players Dele Alli and Kyle Walker-Peters are also inbetweener NFT holders.
Sign Out From Gianpiero Himself
“I started making art when I was very young. I have always thought of using art to enter a different reality where everything is happier. I really like designing objects that bring back my childhood. One of these is the bear that has always accompanied me in my growth. When I was little I liked to hug my bear to feel safe and happy. With this project I would like people not to feel alone and I like to be able to give comfort using images that are a source of happiness for me. Everyone deserves to be happy and loved and this is my help to the whole community. I’m trying to create a place where love is at the centre of everything. All you have to do to not feel alone is to enter this community”
For more information about what inspired Gianpiero, his achievements and further project info then visit the inbetweeners NFT website.
