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!

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. 

Chelsea Scanlan Photography

I recently had the chance to work with photorapher Chelsea Scanlan. I met Chelsea while still living in Hawaii and really loved her style and photography. I've watched her grow over the years and her stuff is just getting better and better and BETTER! Together we came up with the mood board above to really map out her style. Then we dove in to designing logos, banners, social media buttons, business cards and her blog. It was such an honor to work with her and I have loved every project we have done together. 

Chelsea has a very minimalistic style and approuch that is refreshing and inspiring all at the same time. We kept her business cards pretty simple with just black typography and then her name blind embossed in the middle. (Cards printed by Type A Press). Her photography is beautiful, joyful and just amazing! And we wanted her branding and blog design to just let the photography do all of the talking.

(all photos by Chelsea Scanlan)

Her approuch to blogging is also very simple and minimalistic. She wanted to have a space that was really clean and organized and allowed her to show her most recent work. I am so happy with how her site and branding turned out and I love visiting her blog and seeing the beautiful images she is creating! I seriously wish I still lived in Hawaii, for a lot of reasons, but one of them is defenitly because I wish I could have our family pictures taken by this talented lady!

Let's Shower Together!

A few years ago I bought a nail polish color called "shower together." I thought it was the sexiest two words and wore the polish a lot! ....aaaaaahhhh....hot steamy showers!.... So, anyway, when Chelsey and I started working on Valentine goodies for our Fox and Anchor shop I knew I wanted to make a card with this invititation on it! Give it to your lover and then, well, you know... hop in the shower and go cuh-razy! Click over to the shop to see our other offerings. 

Also, what are y'all doing to celebrate Valentine's day? I've been trying to think of something unique, not over the top, but meaninful for the husband and for the man child. Got any good ideas for me out there?

Home Office

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So you all know we recently moved, across the Pacific ocean and then halfway across the country, leaving us with very little furniture (or much of anything besides clothing). We have been hanging out on our bed or at the kitchen table for months and months now because we haven't had a couch. But this week we are so excited because we will finally have a couch! Not only are we going to get the couch we ordered back in November for our living room but we are also getting that little sofa from Urban Outfitters (No. 3) that we ordered for our office. We debated about that sofa for a long time because the reviews weren't that great but when the charcoal version went on sale for $249 we jumped on it! It is going to be perfect in our office - right next to the mid-century record console Conor just happened to run in to at the thrift store and purchase for $30! He cleaned and repaired all of the broken peices and put a new finish on it and I swear it looks like it's worth a thousand bucks now! I also found a chair similar to #1 up there for $5, recovered the seat in black leather and it also looks great! Who knew Dallas was so abuntantly full of unwanted treasure?!?

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 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!

Design Retreat 2012

Quite a few months ago I received an email from Promise Tangeman and Alyssa Yuhas inviting me to a design retreat at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. There were a lot of names on the list that I recognized as fellow designers... designers that I admired and looked up to. I was flattered that they invited me and I nearly jumped out of my chair with enthusiasm to go. Then, I second guessed myself and considered not going... I have emailed several of these girls about projects and about blogging but I had never met any of them in person. Meeting 20 new girls all at once seemed very intimidating, especially these girls - so on top of their game and as talented as they come. But I had so many questions I wanted to ask, and so many projects I want to collaborate on, and so many things I wanted to say... I just had to go. Plus I was dying to just let my hair down and have a good time. So I swallowed all of that stupid fear and I went. 

I am still nursing. Henry can't get over the boob. He loves it. So I had to take him with me. And I couldn't just leave him alone in the room all day long while I nerded out with my new design friends so I had to take Conor with me too. I felt a little awkward showing up with my husband and my baby. It was kinda like when I moved to a new school in 4th grade and made my mom come with me and sit by the playground while I met new kids and played. You know, so if anything weird happened my mom was right there to back me up. I promise I'm not that scared of meeting new people... but it was sorta nice to have my boys there, waiting for me to come home after late night dinners and pool side chats. It was really nice actually. I love those boys. 

The entire weekend was nice. I think it was so nice because it was all just for fun. No one paid an entrance fee. No one needed a ticket to get in. No one was "leading" the group. There were no exclusive events, sessions, seminars, lectures. No one was there to make money or sell their product. Everyone was simply there to enjoy each other, learn from each other and talk about the ups and the downs of being a freelance designer. I felt like everyone had something to bring to the table. Even the girls I considered "more experienced" designers were asking as many questions as they were answering. We hung out by the pool, we totally geeked out over Star's (my new favorite person) web developing skills, we told funny stories about our personal lives and gave each other friendly advice about our professional lives. We ate out and we took a lot of pictures. We complimented each other. We inspired each other.

On the ride home I wrote 10 pages worth of new ideas. Over the last few days I have been working harder, not to compete with these girls but because I am inspired by them. I guess my point is that if life hands you an oppertunity to surround yourself with inspiring, talented people jump on it. Even if it seems scary. Take a risk. Go outside of your comfort zone. Take your husband and your baby and your mom with you if you have to, but show up! Be nice, and share what you know. It will all come back to you. I am so glad I showed up because I definetely made some really cool friends and I loved every minute of it. 

Thank you girls for being so awesome! I can't wait for the next oppertunity I get to be around each and every one of you again! Until next time - babies totally exhist, get your mom to QA that f#$%er, cut everything your doing in half, and say no when you're spreading yourself too thin! Love you all to the moon and back! 

Type A Press Open House

Remember how I posted about the Type A Press Open House a while back? Well, it was a sucess! A lot of people came out and everything was beautiful. It was so fun to finally see the branding work I have been doing for this little shop in real life. So often I send clients files through digital drop box and occasionally I see pictures of their buildings, or their packaging once they receive it from print but not very often do I get to see it and touch it and experience it in person. It was especially fun to letterpress my own card designs. 

The highlight of my night was meeting Chelsey (owner and founder of Type A Press) in person for the first time. The two of us have been collaborating on projects and ideas like this open house for the past year but have never been in the same room until a few weeks ago. It was strange walking up to her and giving her a hug - it felt like we were old friends and did this everyday! Poeple like Chelsey make me love my job! AND make me want to stand up on a soap box and testify of the bueaty of the internet and what an amazing thing it is! To be able to create these friendships even when we are thousands of miles apart is really incredible and I love to think about how just a few decades ago that would not have been possible. And now that you all know I how desperatley in love I am with the World Wide Web I will stop now... But seriously, thank you Chelsey for being so amazing and inspiring and for being a friend that makes me want to create more and work harder!