Janell Nelson

Director and Graphic Designer, JNJ Creative

Director and Graphic Designer, Janell Nelson is a Creative Strategist and more. A thoughtful force who devotes her skill and heart to impactful change, her mission statement literally is "design for good". 

Her award-winning firm—JNJ Creative— has been the not-so-secret sauce behind many non-profits and equity-focused orgs and artists nationwide. From Harris Theater at Millennium Park to Englewood Branded’s storage-container POPCourt designs on 63rd st, Janell stewards the identity of spaces in Chicago and beyond. Her reimagining of educational design for the Folded Map Project curriculum has won a national Ideas That Matter award and her design of a public Action Kit for Folded Map non-profit, meant to disrupt segregation on a personal level, is featured at the Chicago History Museum’s “Designing for Change” exhibit.

She is also the leader behind Englewood Arts Collective’s mutual-aid initiatives (over 70K to other artists to-date) and she leads all of EAC’s community-facing art activations, including producing the EAC Arts Village experience at Englewood Music Fest. Janell’s accolades, like her portfolio, run long. Her proposals have won citywide competitions and she’s been honored as Chicago’s “Hidden Philanthropist” for the nationally toured Soul of Philanthropy Exhibit. From steering the public art for Tonika Johnson’s unBlocked Englewood restorative justice project, to realizing sculptures on both Michigan Ave and in Englewood, Janell is an artist who knows that designing with and not just for community—and that ‘community’ is intersectional— is essential for equitable engagement.