when it rains, it pours

You know how they always say, "When it rains, it pours!" and you always think, "Shoot! How do they always know!?" Because they are always right. Things come in waves and we are just little people standing on the shore. The good comes rushing in and knocks you to the ground and the bad sucks everything out from under you including the sand under your feet. Either way...you find yourself falling down. 

At Verily we just wrapped up our first full issue and started work on our second! The first magazines came back from the printer today and let's just say the whole team was in a dreamy state of pride for what we had accomplished. We are very excited to share the first issue with you - I am particularly excited to show off some of the hard work I have been toiling away on. I couldn't have done it with out some serious help - my graphic designer Loren, my design intern Haruka and a handful of other seriously talented photographers and designers helped put the visual side of the magazine together. I am so thankful to them and happy with what we came up with!

While starting in on the second issue I have also decided to take on another exciting side project. I have been turning down a lot of freelance projects lately to focus on Verily full time but a project came along that I just couldn't say no to. It's one of those projects that you just know you want to be part of because it is fun and happy and makes you feel good about yourself - hence the romantic, girly yet very bold moodboard above. I can't wait to share more about it but for now here is a visual sneak peek of what it will feel like.

On top of the excitement going on at Verily (we are talking dinner parties and editorial shoots galore!) and this new fun project, we have even more excitement coming our way! Big changes are on the horizon for the Riley family and we couldn't be more thrilled. Can't wait to share that news with you either! But let's just say for now, I am that awkward kid on the beach, with goggles on bigger than my head, just laughing as each new wave comes and grinds me into the sand. And I keep on taking wave after wave with a smile. Because when it rains it really does pour!

Caught my eye

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Have you seen the blog Montreal Bobo yet? These sisters are making some pretty cool stuff and I love their blog. I got a cute little package in the mail the other day... needless to say my camera is looking a whole lot prettier these days with that blue camera strap on it! And as someone who spent many, many... many of her college days in a ceramic studio I appreciate these simple moon plates with imperfect edges quite a bit. They are beautiful! Just thought I would share this gem of a shop with y'all. Perhaps you can find a last minute mother's day present here. (and yes, that's right, I've only lived in Texas for 6 months and I already say y'all... actually whenever I talk to anyone with any sort of accent I sort of adopt it. It's really annoying to me, I'm always worried the person I'm talking to is going to think I am mocking them, but I'm not, I just can't help myself! The other day I answered the phone and immediately started speaking with the heaviest southern accent upon hearing the woman's voice on the other end... I about dropped out of my chair I was so embarassed.) 

Fun Project

I recently had the opportunity to work on a fun project with Casey Leigh! She is incredibly sweet and was so much fun to work with! And talk about southern charm! Her slight southern accent is as beautiful as she is! Casey put together a Pinterest board (go here to find links to the images above) and I created this mood board as a jumping off point for her new branding and blog design. Once we got all of the branding elements and original art in place for her blog we brought Ana Degenaar on board to help us implement the design. I am convinced that Ana is the best BLOGGER designer in the entire world! (She is also just a great designer in general too!) If you are on blogger and you are looking for a new design go to her website right now! She sells beautifully thought out templates and does custom work as well! She is the best! 

Jump on over to Casey's blog to see her new blog design! It is definitely minimalistic and clean which is what we were going for! I am so excited about how it turned out and can't wait to work with these lovely ladies again in the future!

A bit of news

Things have been a little quiet here on the blog lately because I recently accepted a full time position working with Verily Magazine as their new art director! Needless to say this was a big decision! For the past few years I have had so much freedom being a freelancer - that is one thing I am going to miss, being able to walk away for a month if I want to. But, opportunities like this don't come along everyday. It is the perfect fit for our family and an answer to some of our prayers. I am so excited to jump in to this new team of women who I already love and admire. And to be able to do what I love? from home? while being a mom?! It almost seems too good to be true. 

ALSO! I need to find a couple of people to work with! Verily is allowing me to hire a visual team to work with! Crazy right?! I am looking for a graphic designer to help create layouts for each issue as well as design graphics and images for the magazine. I am also looking for a web design intern to help us keep the visual content on the website cohesive and well designed. The web design intern will be responsible for creating round-ups, and other relevant design layouts for online content. If you are interested in either position please apply! I can't wait to get to know you and work with you on the Verily visual team! 

Apply for job positions here - Graphic Designer  /   Web Design Intern

*I have already had a lot of these questions so I am going to answer them right here:

You can work remotely but I will need you to be available to tune in to morning meetings over the phone often and be outrageously organized in order to meet quick deadlines that always seem to accompany editorial layout design. The graphic design position is paid (please see listing for details). The web intern position is for a student seeking college credit or recent graduate looking for real world work experience. 

Custom Letterpress Wedding Invitations

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Wedding invitation requests have started to trickle in which means wedding season is upon us. Brides! You gotta love 'em! (but in all seriousness I actually really do enjoy a feisty bride!) I mean I was a bride once, I know how it feels to want to have everything be so perfect and special for that once in a life time day. Just before graduating in graphic design Conor and I were engaged and I remember spending hours flipping through bridal magazines searching for all of the latest and greatest in wedding stationary suites to inspire my own invitation. I remember sitting at my computer at school and thinking to myself, "if someday someone that I don't even know asks me to do their wedding invitation and they pay me for it, I will know I have made it!" Haha! Design sure has taken me in a different direction, but I do still love taking on the occasional wedding invitation. There is something refreshing about hearing a couple's story, how they met, what their hopes are for the future and how they plan to celebrate the beginning of the rest of their lives with the people who matter most to them.

Since Chelsey and I teamed up for Fox and Anchor I have started to take on more wedding invitation requests. I used to send brides digital files of their design and refer them to printers but now I get to be involved in the whole process. It has been so fun and we are excited to take on more projects like this. Once we team up with a bride and groom we help them create a visual mood board for their day (if they haven't already done so). I'm not entirely sure you can actually call yourself a "bride-to-be" if you haven't created a Pinterest board solely dedicated to your big day. Anyway, we usually pull images from their Pinterest board and try to help couples really focus on the design elements that they love the most. We have been working with some pretty rad couples - the board for Melissa and John's recent Portland wedding (above) is proof enough right? After we establish a design direction we get to work making a mock up of their invitation, allowing them the chance to make revisions and changes to the design if they need to. Then Chelsey prints! I love that letterpress is such a hands on process. It really shows in the final product and makes each piece unique and beautiful. Once she is done we package up the paper with love and send it off to our couples with all of our best wishes!

P.S. Check out our feature on Paper Crave today. Thanks Kristen!

Need Read Greed

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This week's Need Read Greed is by Kathleen Shannon of Braid Creative and the blog Jeremy & Kathleen. I met Kathleen at Design Life 2012 this last summer in Palm Springs and was instantly drawn to her. She smelled like patchouli (which is a scent I love so much I want to name a little girl after it and call her Patch for short) and talked about working as a graphic designer in a really empowering, energetic, inspiring way! Plus she's funny as hell! So, she smells good, she's smart, and she's funny...yep that's someone I want to be friends with! Since Design Life we've had a chance to catch up and talk about collaborating on some exciting ventures and I am so excited that Dallas is not far from her home town of Oklahoma City. Oh, and if you are an entreprenuer or getting ready to launch your own little business sign up for some of Kathleen and Tara's (Tara is Kathleen's beautiful sister) E-Courses. I just finished one and LOVED it! Here is a little bit about each of her picks for the week:

Bodum Tea Press - I recently made the switch from a French pressed coffee every morning to a cup of tea. It would be nice to have a little tea press.

Be Here Now - One of my yogi friends insisted I read her copy of Be Here Now. The first half is this bizarre documentation of Ram Dass and his life - from a Harvard professor taking LSD with Timothy Leary to his adventures in India. Then it goes into this collection of radically designed metaphysical free form spreads on kraft paper. The whole book is so fascinating.

Block Shop Textiles Scarf - I actually purchased on of Lily and Hopie Stockman's scarves for myself at Christmas time. But I can't help but want another! They're so light, airy, comfy and beautiful.  

PS - I just want to say thank you for all of the encouraging words about Henry not sleeping. All of those mothers out there going through this same thing I really feel for you!  I guess I always feel like I have to follow all of my "my baby doesn't sleep" complaints with, "but I seriously love him so much! and I am so thankful that I have him!" Because I am. I am so so so thankful! and I know you other moms fighting this battle are so thankful too! I recently had a friend point out to me that challenges are always easier when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and this is just one of those things that doesn't have a delivery date. When Henry will finally get the hang of sleeping is unknown and that's probably one of the hardest aspects of this challenge. But again I just want to say I count my blessings every single night and he is always at the top of that list. 

Fox & Anchor Paper

Oh hey! Here I am again! Second blog post in two days! Way to go Jane! So, I feel like I have been mentioning this letterpress collaboration between me and friend Chelsey of Type A Press for a while now but haven't really formally introduced you to our line. Well if you were here in person I would wave my hand in front of my monitor and in a loud voice shout, "Fox and Anchor everyone!!" Then I would proceed to show you some of our photos and designs. The above pictures were taken by the lovely Carissa Gallo of Sea Chant (and the blog Andrew and Carissa) over Christmas break at our little "team meeting."

Fox and Anchor is a collaboration between me (Jane Reaction being the Fox and the designer/art director) and Chelsey (Type A Press being the Anchor and the printer/producer and all around awesome person). I met Chelsey online a few years ago when I did her branding for her - nautical ropes, anchors, sea flags and the like. It was a fun project and we meshed really well. She recently had her anchor logo tattooed on her wrist which you know, I thought was pretty cool! 

Anyway, growing this little side business together has been fun, a lot of work and a bit of a challenge for me as I have never really thought of myself as a stationer. We scrambled to get some things together for Christmas and New Years. We some how managed to get some coasters we made featured on the home page of Etsy and on a few different paper loving blogs. It was so fun and exciting to see how receptive people were to our designs right away! We almost couldn't believe it! Now we are scrambling to get some cute little tags and cards together for Valentines day. Is it just me or does everyone else feel like January just slapped you in the face as it passed you by?!

Along with the cards, coasters and tags that we have been mass producing we have also been working with small businesses, creative professionals and anyone else needing design work done (like, oh, I don't know...brides? hehe!). We have been making business cards, greeting cards, invites, menus... you name it, we've been working on it! Next up! Custom stamps! Gotta love some rubber stamps! Below are some shots I took of our Christmas line up. Can't wait to share more on the Valentine goodies soon!

The Brand Life Pt. 2

I'm excited to announce that I have a new contributor to the blog. Remember this post about Imogene + Willie called The Brand Life? Well Loren from the blog Little Gems is going to help me curate posts for this series. The idea is to find a brand and a product and match it with a well thought out lifestyle that represents that brand and the culture behind it. Fun, right? Also, check out Lo's blog Little Gems for more eye candy and fun design - you won't be dissapointed! 
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Dusen Dusen is an independent clothing line by the designer Ellen Van Dusen. Ellen works with unique patterns on basic, timeless cuts. Her spring/summer 13' line is inspired by the Italian design collective, Memphis. Its refreshing to see neutral colors paired with such bold patterns. The lifestyle, like the brand, is similarly a fusion of a modern and artful minimalism. I'd say these pieces are innovative staples, no? -Lo

The Christmas Crunch

This time of year is always crunch time for graphic designers. It seems that even the non-holiday stuff piles up around December first. I honestly love this time of year with all of the fun and unique Christmas card design projects. One cute little family is getting the above design letterpressed! I was really inspired by the current Anthrolpogie typography. Isn't it so beautiful? I think the card is going to turn out beautifully too! Can't wait to hold it in my hand.

With all of these deadlines right around the corner I am going to be posting more speradically here on the blog. Hopefully, I will have three gift guides up soon showing you of some the little treasures we have our eyes on for Christmas. Money is always tight right after a move so we aren't going to go too crazy in real life but we sure are going to have wild wish lists on the blog! :) See you around!

Etsy - PDX Photo Styling Workshop

While in Portland a week ago I attendied an Etsy sponsered photo styling workshop hosted by Chelsea Fuss from Frolic. My friend Chelsey from Type A Press was attending and I thought it would be fun to get together with her and photograph some of our work together. I've also been toying with the idea of making more of these hand dipped antlers below and maybe selling them online somewhere? Not sure yet... they were just fun to make and now I have a bunch laying around my house.