Jeff Lilley - About

ABOUT ME

A brief history of Jeff: Designer

The early years

The role of "Designer" has taken on a lot of different meanings throughout my career. I went to school for graphic design, though it's been many, many years since that's what I considered myself.

After graduating from college I had a couple of low-level design jobs at different print publications. I got my first real break when I was hired as a Production Assistant for Eliran Murphy Group, an advertising agency in NYC that specialized in the live entertainment industry (mainly Broadway and Off-Broadway). I was responsible for taking that artwork and turning it a variety of marketing assets —billboards, flyers, brochures, magazine ads, digital ads (lots of Flash back then), etc. I worked closely with one of the most prominent Art Directors in the theater world who saw my potential and began asking me to help design poster art concepts for some of our clients.

I worked my way up to Art Director and began to get my own concepts published. Few things in my career have been more thrilling than seeing my poster art hanging at a theater on opening night. From EMG I went to another agency called AKA where I had a similar position but was much more involved in the digital side of things. I decided to leave AKA to focus on freelance and contract work, which took me in all different directions: web design, branding, print and packaging design, and eventually product design. At the time I had only the slightest familiarity with terms like UI and UX, but it quickly became my main area of interest. I still loved things like typography, color, and illustration, but really enjoyed thinking about more complex problems and end-to-end digital experiences. I knew that’s where I wanted to take my career.

The Backstage years

In 2013 I joined Backstage as the first member of the in-house product team. The new ownership wanted to take it from what was primarily a trade publication for actors to a full-fledged digital casting platform. Nearly 12 years later and I have designed and shipped an entire spectrum of products for all different types of users, helping Backstage become the go-to platform in the industry.

Other interesting(ish) things

I’m definitely not the most unique person you’ll ever meet, but hopefully not the dullest! To prove that here are some “interesting” tidbits about me:

I once skateboarded a marathon. I took me 2 hours and 9 minutes (I finished 86 out of 129) to skate 26 miles. It wasn't fun.
I hiked 28 miles of the Inka trail to Machu Picchu. At 14,000 feet I got altitude sickness—that’s the only part that was not pretty.
One of my life goals is to publish a children’s book. Progress is slow.
As previously mentioned, I currently live in a tiny home that I (mostly) built myself.

Personal life

Bio blurb

Always the class "artist" growing up, I sort of knew it was likely I'd end up in creative field, so not knowing what else to do, I went to school for Graphic Design at Keene State College in New Hampshire. I graduated in 2005 and briefly moved back to Connecticut before deciding I wanted to live in a big city—both for better work and social opportunities.

I moved to New York City in the Fall of 2006, struggling to find my footing for the first couple of years in Queens before settling into Brooklyn, finding my community, and eventually landing a real design job I actually liked.
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After 16 years in the city, and prompted by Covid like thousands of other jaded former-Brooklynites, I thought about finally leaving. I found a small piece of land in the Hudson Valley, converted a large shed into a tiny house, and have been there since.

I spend my spare time camping, kayaking, building cabins, running an Airbnb, and constantly trying to optimize my 400 square foot home for the best living experience possible, which is both fun and frustrating...but mostly fun.