We're the Imposter Squad
Who we are
Imposter Squad is a collective of wannabe ex-agency creatives embracing their imposter syndrome—because doubting yourself means you care. We create designs for those who’ve battled bad briefs, last-minute edits, and unreasonable deadlines. Creativity is human. Never AI.
Our Story
Why we started Imposter Squad
After years (and over a decade for some of us) working at agencies, we were getting frustrated by the lack of creative freedom. It felt like companies were only getting more conservative—afraid to take any creative risks or make bold creative choices. This was leading to producing the same safe, boring work over and over.
We needed an outlet to express ourselves creatively, without the constraints of clients, bosses, or C-suites forcing us to use AI. Where we’d never have to hear ‘well, my nephew knows how to use Photoshop, and he thinks…” or “I made this design in Claude, can you use this instead?”.
At the same time, as creatives, we always had a deep sense of imposter syndrome. No matter how long we’d been successful professionals, how many awards we won, how many followers we gained on social media, we felt like we were never good enough (or even good, period). We realized that this was an almost universal feeling amongst creatives. So we decided to lean into the feeling.
Imposter Squad was born. A brand for creatives who care too much, doubt themselves constantly, and still, for some reason, keep making the work.
The creative industry needs a champion now more than ever.
Then, Generative AI entered the picture, and somehow things got even worse. Built off the theft of all human work, it pumped out more ‘same-y’, more mediocre outputs at record speed. The pressure to output as much slop as quickly as possible became intense. We weren’t even designing anymore. We were monitoring the outputs of AI, fighting with it to produce something acceptable. We were trying to rescue work that should have been made by a human in the first place. Clients started running our work through AI to provide “feedback”. Feedback that was contradictory, didn’t make sense and made the work objectively worse.
Mission
- Helping creatives overcome imposter syndrome (or, more realistically, use it to their advantage)
- Support the creative industry by partnering with creatives
- Create amazing designs that creatives are excited to wear, that make them feel seen
- Develop a community of creatives that support each other
Vision
To become a creative brand, community, and platform that champions human-made work in an increasingly anti-human world.
A place where creatives can laugh at the absurdity of the industry, feel called out in the best way, discover artists they love, buy things that actually feel made for them, and remember that doubting yourself doesn’t mean you’re bad at what you do. It usually means you give a damn.
Long-term, we want to build something that creates real opportunities for creatives—through collaborations, paid commissions, artist features, community projects, and products that prove human creativity is the only creativity.
Values
Pay Creatives
Exposure does not pay rent. We believe in partnering with and paying real creatives.
Advocacy for Human-Made Work
We believe creativity is human. It comes from taste, life experiences, emotion, skill, humour, context, and all the weird little references living rent-free in your brain. We’re not interested in living in a world full of AI slop.
Make Good Work, Not Just More Work
We believe in quality over quantity. Output is not the same as creativity. We care about ideas, craft, taste, and making things that actually feel like something
Imposter Syndrome Is Not a Character Flaw
Most creatives doubt themselves because they care deeply about the quality of their work. We’re here to make that feeling less isolating, less shameful, and maybe even a little useful.
Community Over Competition
The creative industry can be hard to break into. It can be gatekeepy and weirdly competitive. We want to build a community where creatives can support each other, share the struggle, and celebrate the wins.
Roadmap
Where we want to go with Imposter Squad
Imposter Squad is the passion project of a collective of burnt-out creatives who wanted to make something creative, human, and, especially, entirely our own.
We’re starting small: apparel and adjacent goods produced through print-on-demand suppliers, with designs created by our internal team. It’s the most realistic way for us to launch without overproducing, creating unnecessary waste, or pretending we have a warehouse full of custom products on day one.
But print-on-demand is only the beginning.
As we grow, our goal is to move into thoughtfully designed and manufactured goods that are exclusive to the brand—products with more custom details, stronger creative direction, and more room for experimentation, at the best quality possible.
More importantly, we want to use this platform to collaborate with other creatives beyond our internal team. Illustrators, designers, writers, makers, and artists deserve opportunities, credit, and actual compensation.
This is just the beginning. Here’s where we want to take it:
Artist Collaborations
Limited-run drops created with real illustrators, designers, and creatives with proper credit and proper pay.
Original Manufactured Goods
Moving beyond print-on-demand into custom apparel, accessories, stationery, and other goods designed specifically and exclusively for Imposter Squad.
Our goal is to create pieces that feel more intentional, thoughtful, and custom than standard merch. Because the delight is in the details.
Creating a Community
Spotlights, interviews, process breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes stories from creatives doing interesting work. A Discord server is on our roadmap.
Creative Resources
Practical tools, templates, guides, and pep talks for freelancers, agency creatives, designers, illustrators, and anyone trying to build a creative life without losing their mind.
We hope you’ll support us along the way to help build Imposter Squad into a platform that celebrates and champions human creativity.