Our mother was an art teacher at the public elementary school in Cedar Rapids. She raised the two of us on a single salary, in a small house with thin walls and warm lamps.

The only luxury we had was art. But not the kind you buy. The kind she made. Hand-sketched prints she'd tape to the kitchen wall above the stove. Watercolor studies pinned to our bedroom door. A new charcoal portrait on the fridge every Sunday morning.

We learned, before we could write our names properly, that a wall covered in art is a wall that loves you back.

We started Atelier Poster in February 2025 with one fine-art printer, thirty designs Emma had been working on for years, and a stubborn refusal to charge gallery prices.

Iris ran the orders from a corner of her kitchen in Iowa City. Emma drew most evenings after her freelance work. Our first month, we sold eleven prints. Three of them to our mom.

By summer we'd moved to a small fulfillment partner forty miles east, still in Iowa. We do everything from here. The printing. The framing. The packing. The handwritten thank-you note that goes in every box.

Today, almost a year in, our prints hang in over 5,000 American homes. We still print to order, every piece. We still pack them ourselves on Wednesday afternoons. And the only luxury we offer is the one our mother gave us first. A wall covered in art that loves you back.