We recently connected with Jane Archer and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve loved to draw and tell stories from as early as I can remember. My father was a visual storyteller and filmmaker—he worked as an editor for 60 Minutes from its launch in the late 60s all the way through to his retirement in the late 90s. My mother is one of those creative people who has always been able to thoughtfully craft anything she sets her mind to: whether it’s a plate of eggplant parmigiana, landscape design, a custom designed cape with coordinating hat, or macrame jewelry. My parents—while not illustrators per se–were strong creative influences when I was a child.

Every other summer, as soon as school let out when I was young, my mom would bring me and my sister to Southern Italy to the small mountain town where she was from to spend our summer months with our grandmother. While I’m a native New Yorker who thrives in urban environments, I quickly came to fall in love with the countryside and village life in this sleepy town of San Demetrio Corone in Calabria. This town has a linguistic tradition where the first language natives speak is Arberesh, an antiquated form of the language brought over by Albanians who settled in Italy in the 15th century.

Those summers I was immersed in the retelling of family stories in various languages, while I was also infinitely inspired by the creativity of artist family members and the innovative design and craftmanship of italian fashion. I vividly remember sitting at my grandmother Nonna Rosa’s large wooden dining table where I would spend every afternoon siesta drawing comic stories and fashion designs —(siesta for me then was a sacred time I’d spend nurturing and following a constant stream of ideas. This was a luxury of time before I valued a good nap!) I recall sitting there as a gentle mountain breeze blew through the room where I sat. I would often feel this overwhelm of love and gratitude for this country, a vital energizing piece of my personal history. This peace I’d feel after immersing in the zone of the creative process revealed a truth of who I was: I was an illustrator and artist at my core and somehow, someday I was going to do it for a living.

Jane, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an award-winning NYC-based Art Director and Illustrator with expertise in books and gift products. I create unique visual experiences tailored to each project’s target audience by mixing rich color palettes and hand-drawn typography with custom patterns, textures and illustrations to create a personalized, gifty feel. My work and methodology have been described by clients and colleagues as “thoughtful, modern, charming, imaginative and elevated, with a touch of whim and quirk.”

I have art directed and designed hundreds of book packages cover-to-cover, while I also have created custom illustration and lettering for music, wellness, stationery, toy, advertising, and fashion clients.

I have enjoyed teaching design and illustration to college students at Pratt Institute, leading elementary-school age kids in a beloved neighborhood after school arts program, and running arts events as Volunteer Director of events for the Inkwell Foundation.

My career in publishing began when my English major from Mary Washington College landed me a marketing assistant job at Broadway Books, then the brand new imprint of Bantam Doubleday Dell (now Penguin Random House) in NYC. During my early career, I took classes at the School of Visual Arts in design and illustration, and gradually segued into cover and marketing design roles at the company. Those jobs were invaluable experiences in learning about book concepting and packaging and designing cohesive collateral for marketing campaigns, all while refining my typography skills.

While at Penguin Random House, I illustrated the bestselling THE BAP HANDBOOK and created a signature stationery line for Clarkson Potter called p.s. bella by jane archer. After several years, I took the leap to start my own studio where I designed the lifestyle titles for the pop culture imprint of Simon and Schuster (Gallery Books) for tv personalities Clinton Kelly, Katie Beagle, Eva Gutowski, Jenna Dewan, plus a host of others. In recent years I developed product and styled photography for boutique gift and stationery publisher teNeues, and I branded the full book packages of non-fiction titles for Callisto Media in the children’s, cookbook, and personal growth/development categories.

I have been fortunate to have had many gratifying career experiences. I am grateful to have had a wide variety of projects which has made me versatile in designing for different sensibilities and audiences. I am proud of the rewarding collaborations I have had illustrating the BAP Handbook, creating a stationery line that was sold all over the world, the books and special projects I worked on with Clinton Kelly, the range of illustrated titles I branded for Callisto, and most recently, the paintings I created for Phil Stutz and his website thetoolsbook.com. Stutz is the subject of Jonah Hill’s Netflix documentary “Stutz” and the brilliant creator of a powerful psychospiritual approach to mental health and wellness called The Tools®. Phil’s work has informed my own work and life in countless ways so it was a dream to create for him, his co-author Barry Michels, and their team.

The opportunities I’ve had to mentor and inspire young people especially via my volunteer leadership role for the Inkwell foundation has also added a rewarding dimension to my career. The Inkwell Foundation is a group of professional artist volunteers that offers free drawing sessions for kids and families facing hardship. I’ve learned so much about the healing power of art by witnessing time and again the way the energy in a room immediately uplifts once the kids and volunteers begin playing and creating. It is truly magical!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For a number of years I studied improvisational comedy in NYC for fun. The improv mindset wildly expanded my creativity and impacted my professional work as a visual communicator. One of the main rules of improv is to say YES and make connections with what you are offered and build on it. In creating. To not think too much, detach from any agenda, and instead act/move forward, despite the fear of the unknown. A coach once taught us that when we are out there on stage creating a scene, we are never to edit, plan nor judge what we are contributing. It is only later when we are on the sidelines when we can strategize or refine whatever concept we are working with. In much the same way, I love that in order to do my work well as an illustrator, I get to play like this. I truly believe that to honor one’s gifts as an artist and to be true to their voice, it’s vital to show up everyday and get into this zone of creating, flow and non-attachment and to approach the process with courage, curiosity and intuitive awareness. For me, I may play with media I may not be as comfortable with, try new techniques or styles, illustrate vulnerable but resonant themes. If I’m stuck, I may switch to another medium (film, music, etc) to find energy and a new perspective. It’s always worth this push through uncertainty to discover one’s unique expression as an artist. Creating feels infinitely more liberating for me since I’ve approached my ideation process in this way.

I find it great fun to plant secret Easter eggs into my solutions. I might embed Italian rap lyrics into an illustration of big curly hair (see Chantal D’Estate), or integrate lettered bible verse into a surface pattern for a devotional. It is always gratifying when a client or team member responds to my work with “WOW”, “I adore you” or personally calls to thank me.
I have also had the pleasure of collaborating with some truly stellar illustrators on my book projects which has informed and inspired my own work. I absolutely thrive when I’m collaborating with talented people bringing ideas and information to life.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to create content that engages, entertains, and empowers my audiences. Expressing myself creatively has proven to be a spiritual and deeply healing practice for me–whether it’s via an improv scene, a drawing in graphite, painting, lettering an alphabet or designing a fashionable character.

In recent years after overcoming health challenges, I have witnessed first hand just how important nutrition, creative expression, and psychological awareness is to overall health and wellness. Inspired by this, I am developing an illustrated memoir and guide to wellness for adults that celebrates the power of the body and mind to heal. I believe that finding that flow and wonder in daily play that teen Jane discovered in Italy all those years ago may be the key to living a fully expressed life.

Contact Info:

• Website: janearcher.nyc
• Instagram: @psbellanyc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janearcherdesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-archer-b9a4201/
• Other: inkwellfoundation.org thetoolsbook.com @wondrouspower

Image Credits
Callisto Media Art Direction: All books designed by Jane Archer. Top Row: Illustrations by Meel Tamphanon, Photography by Helen Dujardin. Middle Row: Illustration by Studio Muti, Jyotirmayee Patra. Photography by Shaina Fishman. Bottom Row: Illustration by Loris Lora, Pearl Law, Aura Lewis and Patrick Corrigan. Lettering by Jane Archer. Series Design by Angela Navarra.