About

“There’s a big difference between looking at the town you live in and truly seeing it.” —Jeff Johns

 Jeff Johns’ paintbrush is extremely well-travelled. Since 2008, he’s created numerous cityscapes, tracing the geometry of countless buildings, bridges and boulevards—and fixing the shifting skies that frame them—brushstroke by brushstroke.

An award-winning creative director in his professional life, Johns got serious about painting as a fine artist once he found his muse in the Cincinnati skyline. His epiphany arrived while watching the city’s flickering transition from day to night, from the vantage point of Devou Park, a Northern Kentucky hilltop mere minutes from where he grew up. At that moment he decided to dedicate himself to capturing the ever-shifting face of cities and making them instantly knowable through his art. He soon learned, however, that a town’s essence doesn’t yield easily to the paintbrush. That takes time. One of his larger canvases usually requires up to 150 hours, over multiple sessions, before Johns feels he’s successfully captured the energy of a given moment in a city’s life. The paintings subsequently find their way into the homes of collectors, many of whom claim they feel a greater connection to their cities, thanks to their daily interaction with Johns’ work.

While painting is traditionally a solitary pursuit, Johns has also found a meaningful way to break that convention through a unique collaboration with fellow painter Colin Daugherty. The two artists complement each other, with the rawness of Johns’ more impressionistic style balancing the precision of Daugherty’s more photorealistic style. Working side by side, they’ve generated dozens of paintings together, frequently under commission by highly engaged collectors. Today, Johns and Daugherty’s creative partnership shows no signs of slowing. Which is fortunate. After all, there are still miles and miles of cityscapes to cover, brushstroke by brushstroke.

Specialties:

Seasoned professional, over 17 years experience. Jeff consistently delivers breakthrough on-strategy creative at lightning speed. Currently facilitates marketing one of the the country’s fastest growing innovation firms.

Specialties:
• Package Design
• Corporate Branding
• Brand Architecture
• Data Visualization
• Prototype Development
• Shelf Impact Optimization
• Consumer Shopability Fruition
• Brand Strategy
• Marketing Communications
• Concept Development
• Social Media Expert
• New Product Ideation
• Print Advertising: Concept to Layout
• Top-level Presentation Development
• Menu-board Optimization
• Photography
• Video

Expert at Adobe CSS (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
Expert at Microsoft PowerPoint and Word

Recent Posts

My Art Journey | Experience at Covington Catholic and how art has played a role in my life.

As I look forward to the Covington Catholic Alumni Art Show on January 25 and this special evening celebrating creativity, talent and of course the 100 year anniversary of the school.

For this event I was asked to write about my art journey.

My experience at Covington Catholic was an inspiration that still fuels me to create art, design and branding today as a creative professional and fine artist, one who focuses on painting our amazing Cincinnati skyline and other regional icons. I was absolutely blessed to have amazing parents who sent me to Covington Catholic, which ultimately led to having Tim Hader as my art teacher. I started taking art classes my sophomore year, a pivotal time when you’re growing and really figuring out who you are. Tim has always had a genuine way of connecting and inspiring students and I remain eternally grateful for his influence on my life, passion and career. My hope is to create a legacy of artwork that brightens homes and captures moments with a lasting presence on walls that endures well beyond my time. 

Hader’s art class is where it all began. Under Tim’s guidance and alongside other talented students, I developed my creativity, refined my talent and found my focus and drive to pursue art throughout life. I would pour what I thought was a lot of time and care into my work, only to scan the room at pieces other people were working on and realize I needed to work even harder to reach my potential. I also realized that time would just fly by whenever I picked up a colored pencil or paint brush. 

My growth as an artist was a true progression I could achieve with discipline and measure objectively. While I enjoyed other school subjects, I could clearly see my personal improvement in art from piece to piece. Often, once I’d complete a piece, thinking it was ready to turn in, I’d prop it up on my nightstand before I bed, fall asleep looking at it, and wake up the next morning to refine it even further. (In addition to art, I also liked to make prank phone calls, but that’s another story. So, I’ll stick to this one.) 

From sophomore year until I was graduated, I focused more and more on art, especially work using Prismacolor colored pencils. Those pencils would have me up all night bringing to life visual concepts with the perfect blend of colors. From there, it was about sharing each piece with the class and explaining what it meant to you during critique times. It was about learning to take and apply feedback, collaborate with others and make each piece better for the next round, which really kept me excited. Toward the end of senior year, my passion for art continued to grow and Hader’s inspiration and guidance continued guide my career. I remember Tim mentioning that I should look into graphic design, believing I would excel at it. I honestly had never heard the term before, much less know you could make a career of it. 

Fortunately, I did look into graphic design and saw my hard work pay off when I received offers of art scholarships from Thomas More College and Mount St. Joseph. However, my choice was ultimately shaped by a chance encounter at a Frame & Save, in Florence, Kentucky, where I ran into another talented Covington Catholic alum and former Hader student, Kevin Brummer. Kevin was dropping off a still-life painting for framing. I was impressed by his work and asked where he was attending school. He encouraged me to check into Cincinnati Academy of Design, so I compiled my art portfolio and set up an interview with the school’s Mike McGuire. 

I ultimately attended Cincinnati Academy of Design, which trained art directors and creative directors on the visual side of the business, starting with illustration, design and typography. In 1997, I was graduated as class valedictorian. From there, my professional art career started in earnest. Through it all, I have been thankful for the guidance of my amazing teachers—Tim Hader and Mike McGuire. Wow! Absolutely incredible people who have inspired so many students. I am blessed to be among them. 

Here are a few of the paintings of the Roebling Bridge that will be for sale at this event. A portion of the proceeds will help fund the Kathy Haders Adversity Scholarship

A few of my Favorite Things Featuring the Roebling Bridge | 24″ x 24″ Acrylic on Canvas $1275.00

The Amazing Roebling Bridge | 48″ x 60″ Acrylic on Canvas $4250.00

The Magnificent Roebling Bridge | 48″ x 48″ Acrylic on Canvas $2480.00

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