Today we’d like to introduce you to Tommy Dunn.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tommy. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I have been an artist since I was in the 3rd grade, I started off by drawing pictures of stick man Ninjas. I was infatuated with kung fu flicks at that age. I won a few art prizes in high school, and did a little art while I was in college, but I chose college sports (Football and track), over going to an art school in California after high school. After I graduated, a friend of mine gave me some editing software to make graphics designs with (Adobe Photoshop), so now I just do all my artwork from my computer. Like with art, I have always been a creative storyteller, which got me trouble when I was younger because I was drawing and creating comic books and not doing most of my work, plus some of the material was inappropriate for my age. When my camera and laptop got stolen in Austin at my friend’s wedding, another friend at the time invested in me by purchasing me a new camera and laptop and I have been making movies and creating graphics and website designs every since.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I graduated from Langston University, I was working at Walgreens. I really didn’t like that job. It was never the work, it was always the people that I worked with and while I was there, I always writing down notes, writing stories, writing music, and notes on getting other stuff done that I wanted to do in life. I realized that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in life, I just knew I was a creator, and I loved creating things. One day my fraternity brother (Omega Psi Phi brother) asked me if I want to invest in a party with some local rappers, so I did. Fast forward a few months later, I started doing more events and even picked up bartending on the side as well. Still working at Walgreens, I was a promoter and a bartender on the side. I only bartended two nights a week and was throwing parties a few times a month.
As a promoter, you have to learn how to keep your overhead down and maximize your profit. We were paying for flyers, security,and the venue. We also had to workout a door split, promoting, and etc. One of my promoter partners that was promoting teen clubs at the time showed me that he was doing his own graphics and gave me the software to do my own. It was the first Adobe Photoshop, and at that time I had downloaded a graphic editing software online and it was a lot of work. So he gave me this editing software and showed me the basics on how to use it, and from there I practiced and practiced, doing my own flyers and doing free designs for people until people started to refer me to other people. One of my first paying customers was bar manager “Twon”, at a club downtown Dallas called the Ice Barr. I appreciated big brother for pushing me forward and trusting me enough to pay for my work. Before that, I was doing free work trying to get my name out there. From there, I started working with a lot of different promoters, making a lot of flyers, and those flyers started turning into a lot business opportunities to the point that I had to rebrand my company from Party Profiler to PpSquared Production because I was missing out on business due to the name of my company not indicating or sounding business oriented, so I had to learn branding, marketing and a different type of promotion. I still do a lot of event flyers, but now I get a lot more of everyday type flyers, not just party flyers. When I started doing videos, I was still working at Walgreens and one day I was working in the Photo department. I saw a video camera on sale and purchased it. It was a small HD camera with no battery life. I could only record very little, and it took pictures as well, but the picture quality was terrible.
At this time, I was working with my friend Mr. Nike, and we had one of the largest Tuesday night open mic venues in the city, and we were going to other big promotional events very often. I could only record for a small amount of time, so I invested into a camera and laptop to shoot better videos and just worked and worked until I got better at doing graphic Designs. I worked my way up to doing videos for weddings, which led to me doing my friends’ and family’s weddings. I was in Austin for my friends’ wedding when someone stole my bag with my camera and laptop in it, so I was back to square one. A friend I was with at the time, invested in me and purchased me a camera. A Nikon D3200 and a laptop, so my equipment being stolen, ended up being a blessing or maybe I was just blessed for the people I had around me at the time. From that day forward, I have been producing movies, doing photography, designing websites, and creating graphic designs that my clients love. My advice to everyone is to believe in the process, follow through on your vision, and also write it down on paper and speak it into existence. Do it diligently and make it happen and never let anyone stop you.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about PpSquared Production – what should we know?
I’m a creator! I specialize in graphic designs. I’m also a website designer, photographer, videographer, and I’m a movie producer. I write, shoot, and I edit all content, and I put them out. I would say I’m most proud of my brand, and we are consistent. We give you exactly what you ask for or better. If not, we will give you a 100% refund. As far as a movie producer goes, I’m proud that people really enjoy the projects. One of our films have won several awards, and since then was selected for the Denton Black Film Festival. We are also investing in making bigger and better projects. What sets us apart is quality and customer service. We are hands-on with all our clients. As far as movie production is concerned, we are always working on bettering our projects visually, audio, sound-wise, and editing!
Which women have inspired you in your life?
My mother, Myra Dunn. She has always inspired me to be a better me.
Pricing:
- Flyer Designers are $45 (event flyers, business flyers, invitation, etc) Note: (Pricing reflects design only)
- Business Cards are $35 (Double side business card, front and back) Note: (Pricing reflects design only)
- Logo Designs starts at $150 – $500 (from a words logos for your Business to a design and words logo to higher cartooning logos designs)
- Web designs starts at $250 – $1500 (depends on the type of site you need, information site is cheaper to the more advanced e-commerce websites)
- Custom Designs starts at $50 – $250 (such as Movie Posters, T shirt designs, menu designs, etc)
- Movie Production, shorts films starts at $1,000 – $2,500, feature film starting at $3,000 to $5,000
- Branding (Logo, Flyer, Business cards, website, motion graphic, sound design and patterns) $1500
Contact Info:
- Website: PpSquared.com
- Phone: 972.926.3370
- Email: PnpSquared@gmail.com
- Instagram: @PpSquaredProduction
- Facebook: PpSquared Production
- Twitter: @PpSquaredPro
Image Credit:
William Davis
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