Where did this guy come from?

Thanks again for taking a look at my blog postings I have seen an uptick in traffic to this blog so I sincerely hope that the information I’m providing is helpful to you all!

In my day to day, I get asked a lot of questions about how I got to where I am as I have been working in this space professionally since 2012. From large licensing partnerships to small art tables at craft fairs and so on. As such I wanted to offer some context in this realm.

I’ll begin by re-introducing myself and confirming my credentials. My name is Blake Jones and I have been working in Fine Art Publishing, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Production Management, manufacturing of varying types, and so on for the last ten-plus years. I began this career journey working as a stock clerk and cashier at Eckerd (bought by CVS). Clerk became Assistant Manager and led to Photo Lab Manager, while running the Photo Lab I pushed ahead in my degree toward Fine Art Photography. When I learned through friends who worked at FedEx Kinko’s that I could make my images even larger I became enthralled, well obsessed, with oversize printing. I took that a step further and applied and got the job of Production Coordinator at FedEx, hilariously I have come to find out a ton of graphic designer friends and colleagues began their trajectory at Kinko’s as well. I worked that up to Assistant Manager, and transferred to sunny Los Angeles to become the Assistant Manager of Sign and Graphics at the Sunset and Vine location. This is where it really took off for me as I felt the Dallas art scene was a bit too insular and I needed to stretch my legs. I had graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art the year before and wanted to learn the most. After tiring of that grind I pushed hard to find a job that aligned more with my Fine Art Background.

ENTER ACME ARCHIVES!!!! I started at Acme Archives as the Fine Art Printer, and all that photography, graphic design work, and color correction REALLY came in handy for this. I was taking artist originals and digital files and reproducing them on canvas, paper, and other substrates. This REALLY got my feet wet, but I still wanted more creativity in my role. I then began shadowing a wonderfully talented Creative Director by the name of Crystal Hidey, who went on to become the Licensing Specialist for Her Universe (eventually Hot Topic after the acquisition) and NOW is the Associate Manager of Consumer Products for Activision Blizzard. She offered to show me how to do submissions for licensing submissions and I took some of the art direction off her plate. I took some of the properties that she wasn’t as enthused or resonated with her like the Simpsons, Predator, and some other smaller licenses we held at the time. This then pushed me into full creative direction mode. I kept finding more artists that I resonated with their work, and how it could apply to the various properties that we worked with.

Dan Mumford’s ‘Predator’ Regular Edition printed with Silver Metallic Inks.

One of those was Dan Mumford (featured on this site many times over), and our first project together was the Predator silkscreen that he illustrated for Dark Ink Art. It did find its audience, but did take a bit more time than I would have liked. Our next collaboration was a bit more successful as I really tried to understand more about playing compositionally to his strengths and guide what the image was going to be and we came up with this Illustration for Star Wars Called ‘The Fall of Jabba’.

Dan Mumford’s Illustration, the ‘Fall of Jabba’ printed with Gold Metallic Inks.

I worked this one through licensing, and as you can see demonstrated by his style sweeping landscapes, flames, and all those CRISPY lines made for an incredibly appealing image. This took off for me as I took over all of Lucasfilm. I also onboarded and directed Blizzard as a program, established and built out our program with Iron Maiden (which led to more collaborations later on), and more. I eventually took on our wholesale accounts as well as creative direction. So I was working on our art programs, sales, partnerships, and so on. I learned the craft and found out what worked and what fell flat. There were also a few prints that I worked with artists after listening to fans and critics to realize some say they want something, but when presented with it they never would have purchased it. Just wanted to see it. Since then there have been compositions that I will draw out for artists I work with, some that I just know will crush it based on the brief with little to no direction too. But that came with a fair amount of trial and error on my part.

All of that led me down the licensing route and you’ll see more information on my later career in other blog posts. But now I’m back at publishing for a handful of artists and traveling back down that road.
In my next post I will discuss Quantum Mechanix.

I hope that you’ll follow along on this journey. Shoot a like, or a comment, on this to let me know if any of you resonate with this journey, and share yours as well. Happy to get this rolling this year!