We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Don Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Don below.

Alright, Don thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

From the beginning, our mission has been to provide opportunities for artists. Poster Posse began as a passion project that turned into a business, so passion is a large part of what we think about in all the decisions that we make and artists are at the forefront of that passion.

We saw so many talented illustrators on social media who weren’t getting the recognition and attention we thought they deserved, so things began with a pop-culture blog where artist interviews were frequent. Don had the desire to get these amazing artists in front of the eyes of as many people as possible.

What started as a passion project projected to the far reaches of social media catapulted us into becoming a business where we could provide paid commissions for our exclusive, hand selected group of artists.

Now, we also share as much as we can with the artist community at large via social media and our Poster Posse Protégé Program where Rebecca, my wife and business partner, along with German Poster Posse artist Eileen Steinbach mentor up-and-coming artists.
We find it all very rewarding.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Poster Posse began as a happy accident in the best of ways. I had a pop-culture blog where poster art was a frequent topic. I truly enjoyed interviewing alternative movie poster artists and learning more about their path and their desires for the future. Being that I’m also a poster collector myself, it was great fun sharing my experiences attending San Diego Comic Con, waiting for the next Tweet from Mondo, and rushing to get in line for the next limited edition print.

It only made sense to incorporate my poster passion into my blog, so I reached out to a dozen artists I’d developed relationships with to ask if they’d be game to create an AMP, (alternative movie poster) for “World War Z”. Eight of them responded with really great artworks, which I featured on the blog and shared all over social media. A couple of weeks later, Paramount called asking about purchasing the art. It was mind-blowing and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to tell the artists about this news.
That single project steamrolled into the next and the next until Marvel saw our “Guardians of the Galaxy” passion project, thanks to James Gunn, and rang me up regarding purchasing the art. At that point, we created our corporation, MEOKCA, Inc. and Poster Posse became an official business.

Today, we have over 60 artists in our group that we utilize primarily for official commissions and collaborations with clients. Most of these illustrators are also designers and have many other skill sets, which we offer to our clients, such as: motion posters, storyboarding, character development, animation, video effects, concept art and more.

We have a unique business model, in that we are a creative services agency, but we work with a hand selected and vetted group of illustrators and designers. This ensures our clients can always expect the highest level of quality and on-time delivery. We also handle all project management, which allows our client’s to focus their precious time on many of the other aspects of their marketing efforts.

I think we’re most proud of how our group has supported us and each other over the years. We feel we have a “one for all and all for one” mentality and a special camaraderie. We wouldn’t be here without them and are so grateful.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

This probably seems obvious, but it was the Covid pandemic that began in 2020. The majority of the work we do is in the film and television/streaming industry, so when production came to a halt and movie theaters closed for several months, it was scary to say the least, as it was for so many small businesses.

Fortunately, my wife and business partner, Rebecca, was on top of all of our financials and applied for the PPP loans, as well as, EIDL, which is an emergency disaster loan that was available to us from the Small Business Administration. If it weren’t for those two things, along with having a little bit of a nest egg from a couple of great revenue years just prior, it would have been a real struggle to continue.

We were so fortunate to have a few commissions during 2020 that weren’t reliant on filming. Lucasfilm reached out about a Disney Plus platform takeover to celebrate May the 4th, which meant creating about a dozen artworks that became the main artworks on the Disney Plus home page for the Star Wars franchise for a couple of weeks. A dream project!

That, along with a few other streaming commissions helped keep things afloat. We used the slower time to do some fun things with our artist like hosting a Posse Palooza online event and relevant passion projects, as well as, work on some business things that we didn’t have time to pursue previously.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Well, my business partner is my wife, so I guess I found her when we met. haha Seriously, though, I’m thankful to have her through this crazy journey. We make a good team because we sort of have opposite things we bring to the table.

I’m the face of the company and the one who handles our social media and a classic pop-culture geek. My background is in customer service and sales, so I have the gift of gab, like my father, and my geekness is helpful in being in-the-know on what’s going on in pop-culture and entertainment and equally as important, what is coming up.

My wife held down a difficult, high-pressure job for several years, which allowed me to work on Poster Posse and to also be a stay-at-home dad, which is priceless. Eventually, her doing double duty working full time and then working on Poster Posse in the evenings and weekends became too much, so we had to decide to take the leap of faith. Thankfully, its paid off. Rebecca has a lot of prior small business experience, so she pulled together the back end with setting up the corporation, obtaining the insurance that is required to work with the large studios, contracts, accounting and most importantly, handling all of the project management and putting processes in place, among other things.

It’s not always easy working with your spouse, but I think we’ve navigated the ups and downs pretty well and we largely really enjoy being able to create something special together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.posterposse.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theposterposse/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/posterposse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/poster-posse/
• Twitter: https://x.com/PosterPosse
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@posterposse

Image Credits

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