We were lucky to catch up with Jane Malone recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jane , appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I’ve been in art and design my whole life. My grandparents owned a photofinishing studio, and our whole family worked there. It was an Albuquerque staple for 48 years. So, I learned to develop black and white photos before I could read. I worked there as the master printer for five years, during my time at the Art Center Design College (now the SouthWest University of Visual Arts). I started my graphics company after college, when the photofinisher closed. Initially, I kept some of their clients, as I had been doing mostly photo restoration and digital manipulation. Now, I’m mainly in event poster design, and I couldn’t love it more. It’s a total dream to be able to wake up every day and make cool things for awesome people.

I started Comedy when I was 34, though, and I’d give anything to go back and start in my early 20s. I think you take more risks when you’re younger, especially with performance art. There’s always a bittersweetness to finding something you LOVE later in life. I wish I had all those years back, so I could spend them on this incredible thing I love, and will never get enough time to devote towards. It’s like dying with a stack of unread books… but, who gets enough time to read everything?

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a designer. I love making things that look the way they’re supposed to look; well thought out, lovingly crafted, intentionally placed. I try to give my work a level of polish and professionalism that makes your event or product look like it’s THE thing of the moment. I strive to make you look GOOD.

I’m swayed heavily by clever design in my own life. I choose the more aesthetic of two like items, nearly always. I think people are naturally drawn to things that have a lot of intentional wish-fulfillment. We, as consumers, know what we want a can of orange soda to look like, so I like to work within those unspoken lines, and then add a twist, or flare, or something to make it unique, but still feel like it belongs on a can of orange soda.

I create a lot of event poster designs, and those can be much more free than typical design projects. I love the creativity they support, and I have always loved to draw. Getting to marry all my favorite things together is an absolute dream, too. I get to make awesome things for the coolest people I know, and they’re for events I actually want to attend, artists I love working with and supporting.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

With design, I’m trying to make art happen in a poorly printed rectangle taped to the wall of a dive bar that somehow also tells you the date/time/place/cost/host/performers and cocktail tie-in. It’s a lot to ask of an 8.5″ x 11″ rectangle, and I feel it’s my mission to make it make sense.

I like clearing the chaos of an event and ordering it into a legible hierarchy. I have a real love for unifying a series of items or events, making them cohesive and correlate while trying to keep the “boring” out of repetition. I completely adore letterforms, and finding new ways to use type excites me. So, in a way the mission IS the journey itself. Art gives you the luxury of never having to stop growing and learning, there’s always something new to try, so it becomes self-perpetuating. The further down the rabbit hole you go, the further there is to go…

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s not the money! I’m no “starving artist,” I make a decent living, but it’s not a career path for those that need to be monetarily rewarded to feel of value. The most rewarding part of art is getting to make the art. Expressing the internal in an external capacity, with a flourish, if you can. When I’m done, there is something new in this world, that *hopefully* looks like it should be here. I’ve made something new happen, and most of the time it’s just a business card or an event poster, sure. But, it’s new. It wasn’t, and now it IS. And, the serotonin on that is through the roof.

Contact Info:

• Website: Flickingjane.com
• Instagram: @flickingjane
• Facebook: Flickingjane
• Twitter: @flickingjane
• Youtube: @MaloneyBologna
• Other: My graphic art links are all Flickingjane. My comedy links are all MaloneyBologna.