Higher calling
Craig Thompson using artistic talents to help nonprofit, Christian organizations
Profile
By Andy Ashby, Memphis Business Journal
Friday, August 24, 2007
Craig Thompson, president of Disciple Design, is a man who has found way to merge his talents with his passions.
Before striking out on his own, Thompson worked as an art director for 10 years at Archer>Malmo and Weinstock White & Associates.
"I was feeling led to do my own business, but I was not a great businessman, so I was scared to do it," Thompson says.
While he was working at Weinstock, the company was sold. At the time, he was doing some side work for various Christian organizations with his bosses' blessings. Thompson wanted to improve the quality of these organizations' designs.
"The nonprofits, churches and Christian organizations, it's like they were afraid to spend money to make anything look good because it was like wasting resources," Thompson says. "I wanted to take the talent that God had given me and apply it to, what was to me, the most important message."
So he started his own company, Disciple Design, splitting his accounts between market-rate clients and non-profit organizations.
"I really felt strongly this was what I was supposed to do," Thompson says. "We wanted to give the nonprofits and Christian organizations work at one level, but charge them at a lower level."
Thompson personally works with clients, coming up with ideas and concepts, before taking them back to his team of eight-nine employees for development.
With a solid group of accounts, Thompson can afford to be selective in his projects.
"One thing I've never been comfortable doing is working on something I don't believe in," Thompson says. "I'm very passionate about my work and I love what I do. If it's a product or service I don't believe in, then I can't do good work."
Disciple Design tends to avoid work on tobacco and gambling accounts.
"We don't want to be exclusive at all, but we also don't want to promote things that we wouldn't be comfortable promoting to our families," Thompson says.
One of the designs that Thompson is most proud of is the University of Memphis leaping tiger logo.
He had just graduated from the university and was trying to get tickets to basketball games at the Mid-South Coliseum, which was sold out in those years. Thompson volunteered his services to the athletic department in order to get Tiger Club credits for buying tickets. University of Memphis assistant athletic director Bob Winn asked him to redesign the logo, which is still leaping today.
Another of his favorite projects was designing a contemporary Bible with Navpress, a publishing division of Navigators, four years ago.
"That was a dream project for us," Thompson says.
Although he loves his work, Thompson has taken a few steps back in the past couple of years to spend time with his family.
When he started Disciple Design, he used to come home in the evening to take care of the children and then go back to work. One night, his daughter asked if he was going back to work.
"She wanted me to be home, even when she was sleeping," Thompson says. "It just broke my heart."
So Thompson hired more staff and cut his hours back. He doesn't work weekends unless he has to, trying to balance his life after years of being a workaholic.
"I've tried to get to where work is not all-consuming," he says. "Family is important and God is important and you have to make time for those things."
David Lewis, president of Seeds Ministries, is a former pastor at Bartlett Methodist, where the Thompson family attends church. He's known Thompson for more than 20 years.
Thompson has designed the logo and various materials for Seeds, an organization put together two years ago to support short-term mission trips.
"The reason I deal with Craig is not only is he good at what he does, his heart is into what he does," Lewis says. "It really comes through in his work."
Thompson has many clients, but Lewis says he makes them all feel special.
"You don't feel like just a client," Lewis says. "He treats all of us well and he's genuinely interested in what we do."
Lewis says Thompson takes suggestions well.
"I don't know how his ego stands it," Lewis says. "If he comes up with something and you don't like it, he'll come up with something else."
However, Thompson also knows when to stand his ground.
"When he comes up with something he feels strongly about, he'll say 'Dave, this is it,' " Lewis says. "He's usually right."
Craig Thompson
President and creative director, Disciple Design
Age: 46
Birthplace: Memphis
Residence: Bartlett
Education: Bachelor's degree in fine arts from University of Memphis
Family: Wife, Cindy; daughter, Rachel, 20; and son, Nathaniel, 17
Hobbies: Softball, reading, working out, outside sports
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