The Future Jonathon Kimbrell Creative

Happy 2026, y'all.

Hopefully, the new year is off to a great start for most, if not, all of you. Twenty twenty-five was definitely a challenge for everyone, to say the least. It was a strange and fairly difficult one for me, emotionally speaking, but I won't dwell on that. I'd rather look forward, keep movin' on, and continue to carve out my own little corner of happiness and creative productivity.

My main focus for this year is to continue working on album packaging for labels and artist, big and small. I have a few projects already on the books (which I can't share, yet) and they give me something fun to look forward to amid day job design duties. My album packaging portfolio is getting a bit of a makeover, too. Thanks to my buddy, Justin, for kindly taking updated album photos, I'll soon have something new to shop around to various record labels and pressing plants, even if they merely drop my name to perspective clients.

I also have some Texas Jukebox Project design projects cooking up, too. Of course, can't share those at the moment, either.

I say all of that to also say for the foreseeable future, I won't be taking on any custom printing projects or painting commissions. Frankly, I no longer want to spend my time or energy working on projects that no longer bring me joy. In fact, I've become quite bored with my own painting and pop art, in general. When the work feels boring and doesn't generate any interest, it's time to move on. (The creative guidance of David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen this past year has been incredibly valuable to me.)

I'l still be dabbling in printmaking, letterpress, and collage-making amid my other design duties, but these things I keep for myself. I still have intentions to publish another art book or two, possibly a handful of zines this year, but we'll get to those later. For now, my real world and online presence will solely be centered around music and record packaging. You'll also find me spending less time on social media this year, especially IG. I'm going old school, folks. The website is where I'll be hanging out for awhile. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions/concerns/inquiries. I'm usually quick on the response time.

So, may the new year bless you with happiness, sanity, creativity, and adventure. But whatever you do, don't let the bastards get you down.

Cheerio. -JK