Today we’d like to introduce you to JD Soil.
Hi JD, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I started as a visual artist, and I’ve always wanted to build a career around creativity. While attending art school at Missouri Western State University, I was exposed to a wide range of artistic mediums. That experience gave me the confidence and inspiration to explore my creativity in new and exciting ways.
I’ve always been drawn to graphic design. Album covers, graphic T-shirts, bold posters, and strong visual identities have always caught my attention, so pursuing graphic design as my major felt like a natural fit. One of the things I enjoy most about design is taking someone’s idea and bringing it to life. Creating logos and developing branding has become one of my specialties, but I’ve always tried to keep my work diverse and explore different creative disciplines.
In 2018, I started JSDesigns, offering a wide range of graphic design services. My motto has always been, “If you can think it, I can design it.” Alongside graphic design, I continue to paint and create mixed-media artwork, which allows me to stay connected to my roots as a fine artist.
My creative journey has also led me into the world of museums and historical exhibits. I have the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors for the St. Joseph Museums, where I chair the Exhibits Committee and serve on the Black Archives Museum Committee. Being involved with the museums has given me an opportunity to combine several of my passions: art, design, history, and storytelling.
Throughout my career as a graphic designer, I found myself designing trade show booths and really enjoying the process of creating immersive environments. That experience translated naturally into exhibit design. Creating museum exhibits allows me to take my graphic design skills beyond a page or screen and turn them into physical experiences that people can walk through and interact with.
What I love most about this work is that I get to combine my love of history, graphic design and fine art. My goal is to create exhibits that not only look interesting, but also inspire curiosity, educate people, and make history feel more alive for future generations.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This journey hasn’t been a smooth road. It’s been filled with ups and downs, risks, and plenty of lessons along the way.
My oldest daughter was born about a year before I graduated college. Becoming a father gave me even more motivation to finish my degree and do the best I could in school, but it also came with the responsibility of providing for my family while attending college full time. I worked multiple jobs to make ends meet, including some pretty demanding work like cleaning out industrial grain bins.
Thankfully, shortly after graduating, I was able to land a job in my field. That opportunity gave me valuable real-world design experience and helped me begin building the foundation for my career. After working in the industry for a while, I decided to take another major leap and pursue my design business, JSDesigns, full time.
That was a huge leap of faith. I essentially bet everything on myself and my ability to make it work. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, tried a lot of different things, and learned some hard lessons, not only about running a business, but also about myself. Those eight months taught me more than I learned in school.
Eventually, I realized that in order to provide the stability my family needed, I needed to have a full-time job with benefits while continuing to grow my business on the side. Fortunately, I was hired as a graphic designer at Vektek, a local company that has given me an incredible opportunity to continue developing my career.
At Vektek, I’ve been able to hone my skills as a designer while expanding into new areas of marketing, all while maintaining JSDesigns. It has allowed me to continue growing creatively while also gaining experience in areas I may not have explored otherwise.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through this journey is that being a creative professional isn’t always about finding one path and sticking to it. Sometimes you have to create your own path. I learned the hard way that, to truly thrive as a graphic designer and provide the life I want for my family, having multiple streams of income and being willing to adapt is incredibly important.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Creativity is a form of spirituality for me. Somehow, someway, the two feel divinely intertwined. I need to create in order to feel whole and balanced. The medium doesn’t necessarily matter. Whatever I’m inspired to explore at the time, I’m going to try. Sometimes that means a painting or mixed-media piece; other times it might be music, a short film, poetry, graphic design, or whatever captures my imagination.
I especially love painting and mixed-media artwork, but graphic design comes very naturally to me. In a lot of ways, I think of it as painting with graphics, playing with shapes, images, typography, and composition to create something that communicates an idea.
For a long time, I thought this strange, multidisciplinary, almost spiritual approach to creativity was something that only made sense to me. I wasn’t sure how it would translate to a wider audience, and honestly, I didn’t really care. I don’t necessarily create because I think I’m supposed to. I create because I feel like I need to. The fact that it happens to be fun is just a bonus.
Through what I can only describe as a combination of the grace of God and a few remarkable synchronistic events, I eventually found myself on the Board of Directors of the St. Joseph Museums, where I was given the opportunity to design exhibits. Suddenly, I could bring together so many of the things I love: my experience designing environments at Vektek, my passion for visual art, my interest in history, and my love of music and sound.
That combination has allowed me to create exhibits that are more than just collections of information. I want them to feel like experiences.
The first exhibit I created at the museum was a complete recreation of the Civil Rights exhibit. I used bold, powerful colors, large blended images, striking quotes, and a soundscape featuring music from the Civil Rights era alongside powerful speeches and interviews from figures such as Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Stokely Carmichael. I wanted visitors to do more than read about the history. I wanted them to feel something when they walked into the space.
Next came the Africa exhibit, which I sometimes describe as the “Where did we come from, where are we now, and where are we going?” exhibit. This project allowed me to explore one of my deepest interests: African history and culture. I used large, striking imagery to highlight subjects including ancient Egypt (Kemet), the pharaohs, early human artwork, Mansa Musa, Ethiopian, Malian, and Nubian architecture, as well as traditional artistic and spiritual practices such as ritual masks, drumming, dance, body art, and modification.
We were also able to bring authentic African artifacts from the museum’s collection into the exhibit, giving visitors an opportunity to experience these objects alongside the larger visual story.
Interestingly, the St. Joseph Museums, particularly the buildings that occupy what was once the old asylum, have long been associated with paranormal activity. The museums have become a destination for ghost hunters from around the country.
At one point, the museum director told me a story about a ghost hunter who was in my Africa exhibit attempting to communicate with a spirit when he suddenly appeared to “melt” through the wall.
There is actually a perfectly practical explanation for what happened. Drywall had been installed over an old window, and moisture had caused the material to become extremely pliable under pressure. But I’m sure that explanation didn’t necessarily change the ghost hunter’s interpretation of the experience.
That story actually leads into my latest, and possibly my favorite exhibit.
The museum needed an exhibit for a tunnel connecting two buildings, and they wanted it to appeal specifically to the ghost hunting community. I immediately jumped at the opportunity.
The result was the Carl Jung Psychedelic Experience Exhibit, inspired by the more unconventional and mysterious aspects of renowned psychologist Carl Jung’s work, particularly his infamous Red Book. The exhibit combines my artwork with Jung’s imagery and ideas in a dim, neon-soaked, black-light environment.
As visitors move through the space, the exhibit gradually shifts from something that feels relatively familiar into an increasingly strange, psychedelic, and metaphysical environment. Strong imagery, psychedelic lighting, looping art video, and a Buddhist chant create an immersive atmosphere that works together with the already mysterious character of the museum itself.
You’re almost guaranteed to feel something.
That is what makes this project so meaningful to me. I was able to bring together so many of my interests, spirituality, history, psychology, art, sound, video, and installation, and focus them all on a single subject. I’m incredibly honored that the museum trusted me enough to give me the freedom to create something like this.
I think that same fearlessness is at the heart of how I approach all of my creative work. Whether I’m designing a logo, a trade show booth, a mural, or an entire museum exhibit, I’m willing to take risks and throw my whole self into the project.
I think that willingness to explore, experiment, and fully commit to an idea is ultimately what people connect with in my work.
If you haven’t already, come visit the St. Joseph Museums. I think you’ll find it’s worth your time.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Being born in Los Angeles, specifically the Venice Beach area, had a lasting influence on me. If you’ve ever been to the Venice Beach Boardwalk, you know it’s a cultural melting pot. You’re surrounded by artists and performers of all kinds, but alongside them you’ll find skateboarders, gang members, famous people, travelers, surfers, graffiti artists, muralists, people experiencing homelessness, and visitors from all over the world.
There is such an incredible variety of people, styles, personalities, and energy packed into one place. Growing up around that left a strong impression on me. I think it gave me a foundational appreciation for individuality and self-expression that I’ve carried with me my entire life.
As a kid, I was creative, wild, and athletic. I remember the first career I wanted was to be an archaeologist so I could study dinosaurs and the pyramids. That dream changed pretty quickly when, at about seven years old, I decided I was going to play in the NFL. Turns out, life had different plans.
I was always the energetic kid in elementary school, the one teachers wanted to put on Adderall to calm down, and I was constantly coming up with clever ways to bring my RC car to school. I was also always making things and expressing myself through art. I did very well in art class, but I assumed that was normal. I thought everyone could do those things. I didn’t realize that creativity could actually become a career, so it was never really on my radar.
When I got into high school, my focus shifted heavily toward sports and socializing. My goal was to perform well enough to earn a college scholarship. Creativity took somewhat of a back seat, but it never really went away. There was still a lot happening beneath the surface.
It was also during high school that I began discovering that I had a natural aptitude for logos, branding, and organizing. There’s actually a story behind how I discovered that, but I’ll save that one for another day.
Around the same time, I also fell back in love with history. There was a show on the History Channel called Ancient Aliens that I loved watching. Even though I didn’t necessarily agree with all of its theories, the show introduced me to ancient sites, civilizations, and historical questions I had never encountered before. It sparked a curiosity that stayed with me and eventually led me to study history much more deeply.
By the time I graduated high school, I had an opportunity to play football and run track at a smaller college. But by then, I was burned out on sports. I had spent so much of my identity focused on being an athlete that I was ready to explore something different.
I decided to attend Northwest Missouri State University, and that decision ended up being incredibly important for me. For the first time, I had to start with something of a blank slate. I had only a couple of friends from high school, and I no longer had the identity I had carried for so long as an athlete.
So I had to ask myself: Who am I?
Naturally, I found myself creating again.
I started exploring art and creativity in all kinds of different ways, and the more I created, the more I realized how important it was to me. It was during that period that something really clicked. I realized that creativity wasn’t just something I was good at or something I enjoyed doing, it was something I needed to pursue.
From there, I took it and ran with it.
I eventually graduated from Missouri Western State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and was fortunate enough to receive Best in Show at the university’s student art show. Looking back, that moment felt like a confirmation of something I had been slowly discovering about myself for years: this was the path I was supposed to be on.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jsdesigns.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shamanvision223?stkn=MXVtMXJxMjYyOXUzNA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JSDesigns223/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdsoil/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shamanvision223
