Amy Jones
This week I interviewed Amy Jones, a graphic designer from Raleigh whose work was recently featured in Print Magazine. I met Amy while she was a designer with Flywheel in Durham, and since then she has moved on to work for FWV Distilled and Vintage 21 in Raleigh.
How did you get into graphic design?
About as ‘by the books’ as possible. My degree is actually a Bachelor’s of Graphic Design. When I was a junior in high school, my parents & I were doing the whole go-take-tours-at-all-the-universities and when we got to NC State and strolled through the design school, I was sure that I wanted to make things to hang on the wall and look neat. I had taken one or two art classes in high school and had an absolutely stupid portfolio, but someone must have made a fortunate clerical error and 6 years later here I am, a Graphic Designer proper. The College of Design was awfully, awfully fun. The first year is spent attempting to reduce the egos of these 18-yr-olds which have been inflated by acceptance into this program which I still believe is one of the top in the country (it didn’t work) but during that year I had a professor actually take my computer over, create a folder which he titled “McShit Turd,” and drag the file I was working on at that moment into this special folder. And that’s how I got into graphic design.
Ah. My grandparents’ favorite question which I’ve apparently never answered successfully. There are two answers. Half of the week, I work as a graphic designer for FWV Distilled, which does advertising + design + eMerging media (I pulled that from their website). I guess that basically means I do identities, websites, print publications, etc. It’s nice to work with some more experienced folks there.
The other half (+) of my week is spent working for Vintage21 as the “Director of Design” or “Lead Designer” (or a variety of other titles). Begun six years ago with artists, musicians, & designers making up a large part of its people, Vintage21 is a church that hopes to be a really relevant place for God-doubters & seekers to be in community with God-followers. So if good design is important to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, good design is important to Vintage and is crucial to communicating the Gospel in a way that our city will hear. That means I work on everything from signage & print materials to websites & videos, and I get to work with photographers, industrial designers, and fine artists regularly. It’s pretty hard, and pretty great.
Please don’t visit the Vintage21 website. It is a monstrosity and I’m working on its replacement. We also recently did a mural of the Raleigh skyline in the lobby of V21, and we’re launching a Durham campus in January so I have signage and lots of little things to create in preparation of that. At FWV Distilled, I’m working on some collateral for this year’s CIAA basketball tournament, as well as some stuff for the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. I love that both of my jobs require a love of the city. And they are only a block apart, with the Raleigh Times in between! My husband and I will probably live in Raleigh for another 40 years.
I married McKinney’s IT Manager in July, and we’ve been working on home-ifying our house. He let me paint our study in some lovely Martha Stewart colors (“Book Cloth Brown”… how great is that) and I have a plan to surround the window in our bedroom with photographs of it at different times of day & different seasons.
I’m also trying to sell some of the centerpieces Ellie & I made for my wedding on etsy, provided I ever finish photographing them, would like to break out the Gocco much more often, and have been making stuffed animals for my friends who all seem to be having babies. What the heck. And, I’ve been playing with a Holga and cooking more often.
What’s your favorite font?
I’m sorry… Helvetica.
(Amy’s wedding invitation photo by Whitney Deal)
Thank you Amy!
I love amy’s stuff. She’s an incredible designer.