WHERE DO I START...
Hi — I’m Jay St James. I’ve been in design, art and creative direction for over a decade — my natural disposition as a punky skater kid from New York was fashion and for so many reasons inside and outside of me, I organically merged into advertising, social impact design and storytelling. I care about the way design moves us, the power and poetry it can possess and all the ways we can ignite people, move the needle and change the world around us. My background both personally and professionally grew a multi-faceted, subculturally influenced design career that also spanned other creative practices — cc Lucky Boy Tattooing — tattooing is the ultimate high stakes design and requires an acute eye for perfection, and a lesson in accepting that nothing manmade will ever be perfect.
Design was never just a career for me but how I interact with the world inside and outside of a work context. I’m always collecting, tearing down and building up, self-initiating, painting, making and allowing the world to feel more tactile. Street culture, youth culture — and being trans — has moved my work to find it’s own tenacity of grit, and care. I’m moved by all of the details around us — in LA, where I am currently based, it’s strip malls, old gay rights propaganda, big blue skies, custom license plates and handwritten discount supermarket signs. But wherever I am, whatever the commission, I find the elements that are smart, referential and help us, together, make work that moves.
Please say hello! Let’s make some beautiful work. Or come get tattooed.
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Hi — I’m Jay St James. I’ve been in design, art and creative direction for over a decade — my natural disposition as a punky skater kid from New York was fashion and for so many reasons inside and outside of me, I organically merged into advertising, social impact design and storytelling. I care about the way design moves us, the power and poetry it can possess and all the ways we can ignite people, move the needle and change the world around us. My background both personally and professionally grew a multi-faceted, subculturally influenced design career that also spanned other creative practices — cc Lucky Boy Tattooing — tattooing is the ultimate high stakes design and requires an acute eye for perfection, and a lesson in accepting that nothing manmade will ever be perfect.
Design was never just a career for me but how I interact with the world inside and outside of a work context. I’m always collecting, tearing down and building up, self-initiating, painting, making and allowing the world to feel more tactile. Street culture, youth culture — and being trans — has moved my work to find it’s own tenacity of grit, and care. I’m moved by all of the details around us — in LA, where I am currently based, it’s strip malls, old gay rights propaganda, big blue skies, custom license plates and handwritten discount supermarket signs. But wherever I am, whatever the commission, I find the elements that are smart, referential and help us, together, make work that moves.
Please say hello! Let’s make some beautiful work. Or come get tattooed.
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