https://nerdist.com/article/mondo-senior-creative-director-interview-talks-new-product-line-fan-centric-work/

For a long time, Mondo has been the go-to for fans who love to celebrate their favorite properties with literal works of art. But as Mondo continues to change and evolve, bringing to the table posters, figures, soundtracks, and more, it’s heartening to know that fans and their desires are still at the center of the company’s core.

At C2E2 in Chicago, Nerdist was delighted to speak with Peter Santa Maria, Senior Creative Director of Collectibles at Mondo, about what goes into creating a Mondo collectible, how fans shape the ultimate designs of Mondo’s works, what’s on the horizon for the brand, and more. Santa Maria was even able to tease a whole new kind of Mondo collectible on the horizon, citing something the brand has never done before. We can’t wait to find out what that is, but in the meantime, take a deep dive into the world of Mondo with us.

Nerdist: Mondo is known for its incredible creations and high-quality designs. Can you talk a little bit about how you decide what to make into a collectible and how you decide what it should look like?

Santa Maria: Yeah, across the board, whether it’s our soundtrack, posters, or collectible figures, we always start from, “Are we a fan of this internally?” So whoever is working at the company and is a fan is going to steer the product.

We don’t make something that we’re not likely to buy ourselves as a fan, right? So we have our favorite properties that we love to hit on, like Godzilla and Masters of the Universe; of course, we love Marvel and DC, but we also recently put out some Scott Pilgrim collectibles.

We love that. But the idea is if you’re going to work with a franchise that’s very big, very well-known, and has products out there, what do we bring to the table? So it’s curation. It’s finding the right artist out there and then matching them up with the right movie, show, whatever it is, so that it’s like a new synthesis that happens. People are like, “Wow, I’m excited because I never thought I would see so-and-so designed in that style.”

So, that’s really what I mean. Are we getting excited about the idea of it? Are we excited for so-and-so doing such-and-such project? If we are then that means the fans for sure are going to be.

Nerdist: Yeah, I was looking at the latest set, and I saw the Beavis and Butt-Head poster, which I thought was super interesting. So I think it’s really cool that you kind of follow your fannish desires and not necessarily just go by what movie is coming out.

Santa Maria: No, no, and there are a lot of times where we will turn something down that’s a big thing because we don’t have a personal connection or we don’t know what we would bring there.

So if it doesn’t talk to us, we’ll be like, “Not yet, maybe in the future.” But you mentioned Beavis and Butt, we just did that beautiful screenprint of the artist, Kensausage. Probably one of my favorite artist things of all time. He designed a bunch of sketches for us for what that poster could be like and we’re like, “Yeah, they’re all awesome, which one do we pick?” But that strange mutant version of Beavis and Butt together, we felt, we have to have that. It’s a new interpretation, but it feels of the show, of the movie when they have their psychedelic experience or whatever it is.

And now we’re also introducing a bunch of fans to Kensausage. And then you can place the poster back to the artist and their other artwork and it creates a brand new audience for that art, which is the best part of what we do.

Nerdist: So really, at any time, Mondo might decide to create something new for an older property? (Nerdist personally pitched more Hannibal posters.)

Santa Maria: Yeah, if we have the license, and we feel like there’s excitement about it, or we think, “We wouldn’t normally do this, but this looks awesome we should probably,” then yes.

You never know; you might see us design like a big robo-mechanized Hannibal that looks like it’s a figure that came out of Japan in the ’60s. Right? No one else would make that. That’s the idea.

Nerdist: I would be so into that. And I think that’s really great because so often, if you’re a new fan to an older franchise you won’t get the opportunity to experience new merchandise, so it’s cool that’s where Mondo can step in.

Santa Maria: Exactly, 100%.

Nerdist: How much does fan input influence your decision-making?

Santa Maria: We’re always listening to the fans in terms of, there are comments sometimes it’ll be about, “Hey, I love this line so much, please don’t forget to include such and such character because he always or she always gets overlooked.” Or, “I love the franchise. I love that you’re doing it on this scale, but why don’t you guys do it in soft line or whatever it is?” So we’re always listening to that, and that’s how we get better. We’re not going to be able to do this without fans and the fan’s excitement. So we do what we think is awesome, we put it out there, fans respond and go, “Great idea, or hold on we’re almost there,” and then we work on that.

Nerdist: Do you have an example of that kind of interaction?

Santa Maria: Yeah, Masters of the Universe, specifically. I can’t reveal anything, but there are certain characters that we know from other lines that don’t get put out as figures very often. In the Facebook group, people mentioned it, and I’ve seen it in the YouTube comments, and so we go internally, “You guys, we have to do this.”

And when people see it, they’re going to flip.

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Nerdist: That ties into my next question: Are there any upcoming releases that your fans can get really excited about?

Santa Maria: Yes, there are some big surprises that are going to be mentioned tomorrow in our panel. And then at Comic-Con, we have our brand new Scareglow from Masters of the Universe 1/6 and Scaremare, our original. We designed a character for Masters of the Universe that Mattel allowed us to do, and we’re debuting it at that show, and it’s going to be super, super exciting. Of course, Scott Pilgrim is coming out. Our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle vinyl figures are releasing. We’re trying to hit every fandom we can with something new, refreshing, that feels worthy of your shelf space.

Nerdist: Mondo is pretty well-known for its posters and, as you mentioned, figures, vinyls, and more. Is there another sort of arm or kind of collectible that you imagine putting out in the future or thinking about?

Santa Maria: I mean, yeah, we are working really hard on our posters, our screen prints, to figure out what hasn’t been done yet, what interpretations haven’t been done yet. We love going back to visit the universal monsters. We love going back to visit that.

But we’re exploring anime now in a bigger way and how anime gets reinterpreted when the fans already love the style of anime. But can we challenge those aesthetics and make something new and interesting? That’s a big one for us.

Also, our soundtracks, we continue to want to really engineer exciting designs for the packaging, so that people have that whole experience when they’re opening them up, listening to the music, but also going through the album. You can expect some great stuff.

Nerdist: But in addition to that could we see any new types of Mondo projects in addition to collectibles, figures, and soundtracks?

Santa Maria: Yes, there is a… Let’s see, I have to say this without spoiling. There is a new product line coming that will be announced in the next couple of months from Mondo. We’ve never done it before. I think people, especially people who love to do unboxings on YouTube and watch those, they’re going to love this one.

Nerdist: Just to wrap it up, what do you think your most successful release has been? And what is your personal favorite?

Santa Maria: Well, I’m biased to the figures that I personally designed, like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, and Mechagodzilla. But in terms of the most successful releases this year, I mean, we had a huge success with Rogue from our X-Men 1/6 animated line. We had a huge success with Scareglow, our soft vinyl figure from our Masters of the Universe line.

We also had a Godzilla: Minus One poster that worked well for us. That was huge. So you never know. You can kind of get a sense of what it’s going to be, but you never know. You always just have to see where the fans are and what they direct to you.

The post Mondo’s Sr Creative Director on a New Product Line Coming Soon and Embracing Fan Input appeared first on Nerdist.