Hi there! My name is Jackie Plys but my friends call me "Jax".

I'm a self taught graphic designer and have been doing it for about 18 years!

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Born and raised in Southern California, I'm a real life valley girl from the 80s but I swear I don't talk like one. I grew up playing sports, doing arts & crafts, and listening to Frank Sinatra music. When I was in my early 20s I was in a relationship with someone who worked for Disney Imagineering. He was an incredible graphic designer, was truly inspiring, and taught me some basic Photoshop skills. I started out just making fun graphics for my MySpace page & then got into designing flyers for real estate agents when I worked at Realty Executives in Valencia, CA.

 

I moved to San Diego in 2006 and continued to do graphic design for other realtors but I also started designing social media graphics & event flyers for swing dancing! As soon as I moved to SD, I got involved in the vintage swing dance community there and besides designing logos, flyers, etc. for various dance events I also got into DJ-ing for all of the social dances. I met my husband Joel (pictured above) while out dancing. When we met he was a 2-time Hall of Fame swing dance instructor traveling the world and after we started dating I began teaching with him as well!

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Since 2011 I have devoted my time as graphic designer doing everything for our swing dance companies. Yes...we have had multiple companies, all with numerous dance events & classes. Each company and event/class requiring a website, logo, flyers, business cards, Facebook page, individual Facebook events, Instagram page, and various social media graphics. I also continued to do real estate branding during this time. Oh, and I popped out 2 amazing kiddos in 2015 and 2019. I didn't have the time to even think about starting my own graphic design business!

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Then COVID happened. Being professional dance instructors during a pandemic is one of the worst jobs to have. So when that started to become less profitable I decided it was time to focus on starting my own biz and here I am! As of 2021, Jaxgrafix Design is now a thing and I'm so excited to finally be able to offer my creative services to the world! Joel and I are still teaching dance, although mostly online. You can check out our websites (that I made of course) at www.NWSwingDanceCo.com or www.RetroRhythm.com

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read about me &

I can't wait to design something special for you!