SEATTLE — "The story of how I started goes back a ways, I've always been interested in posters and working with bands and being in bands," said Doug Cox, president of PosterGIANT.
Doug has been putting up posters for over 20 years but he says it wasn't until around 15 years ago that things began to really take off. He decided to start a business hanging posters for bands and clubs around the Seattle area.
"I didn't really know that it was going to be lucrative when I started off but I found out really quickly that there was a high demand for poster marketing. There wasn't a lot of other companies doing it in the Pacific Northwest so I thought it would be a good place to start."
Doug and his crew of between a dozen to 20 poster hangers operate throughout the city, putting posters up on walls and telephone poles. The poles act as mini time capsules with some having up to 5 years worth of posters on them.
"When I drive around the city and I see our work on the poles and on walls and in different spaces, we definitely take a lot of pride in our work keeping it up and looking good and fresh for our clients. It's definitely a good feeling to see our work all around the city."
"I put up around 250 [posters] per route," said poster hanger Wes Powers.
In the past, it used to be illegal to put up posters on poles but after a Washington State Supreme Court of Appeals ruling in 2002, the ban was lifted.
"I don't necessarily think it's littering," said Doug. "We do our best to keep up with it and keep the poles clean and send our teams out to maintain things on a daily basis."
Doug and his team have covered many bands over the years, from The Misfits to The Eagles and Pearl Jam. Doug said it's almost impossible to name them all.
"Pearl Jam was a great one, we did Pearl Jam's Home Shows campaign which was a lot of fun. We did posters and chalk stencils around the city."
Over the next few weeks, PosterGIANT will be rolling out posters for the XFL's Seattle Dragons.
"It's very satisfying and fun to work on these types of campaigns with a lot of different clients around the country."
"Looking back, it was a very good decision because we keep growing and it's a lot of fun, it's what we do."
PosterGIANT does work around the country and internationally as well. Currently they're canvasing different cities promoting the new Alicia Keys album.
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