Jennifer Jerde is a Founder and Creative Director at Elixir Design. They possess expertise in creative direction, art direction, corporate identity, brochures, art and 16 more skills. They is proficient in English. Colleagues describe them as "I've had the pleasure of working with Jennifer as a Colleague, Service Provider and Business Partner. Jennifer is one of the most creative, intelligent people I've every worked with. These traits coupled with her ability to translate client objectives into thoughtful strategy and design makes Elixir one of the premier design studios in my opinion. Jennifer's also one of the most honest people I've ever known and genuinely cares for her clients and employees success." and "Jennifer Jerde has an antique stuffed puffin in her office, which itself is a sort of museum she calls "Hansel and Gretel visit Transylvania." She lives deep in a dark redwood forest. So you would think that, as the name of her small but mighty company suggests, there is much mystery about why she is so successful at what she does. But there isn't. And I will tell you that secret in a moment. First, however you should understand that I have hired her several times, and she has always come through with shockingly smart, and honest thinking about the client businesses I have asked her to help me with. Likewise, she has hired me to help her with some very large projects. And in each case she has worked hard to meet and improve my thinking and writing about the client's business. We're getting closer. She lists her title as Creative Director. But she's a solver of problems that most people never see, because most people are not willing to ask the kind of hard questions she asks. Maybe because those questions would never occur to most people who do what she does: And that is to work in the design business. Which pigeonholes most people to thinking that it's about how things look and colors and styles and fashions. It also pigeonholes the thinking of most designers. Not Jennifer. Because she has a fundamental belief that what she does can and must materially affect the client's business. Everything she does starts with and works from the foundation of that idea. Which means that whether she's working on a film script, a shoe box, or a catalog, she's looking for the opportunities to make a bigger impact for her clients. Like a business consultant. If you're looking for those opportunities, and you're smart, you can find them. And she does. This is not normal. This is not expected. But this is what her lucky clients can expect. But if you're thinking you now know why Jen is so successful, you're in for a surprise. It's only the tip of the iceberg. It's also that she's insatiably interested in nearly everything. And obsessed with producing very involved, magnificent, hard-to-produce, precious little things for her friends and her clients. (One year she shipped each of her clients fifteen different cookies, each cookie in its own vellum envelope closed with a sticker and indexed with printed cards, inside a custom-built wooden box, inside a bigger box, AND SHE AND HER PEOPLE BAKED EVERY COOKIE. You wondered whether to eat them or send the whole thing to the museum of modern art.) It's also that for her, good enough simply isn't. It's also that she cares deeply, nearly desperately, about doing the kind of wonderful work that people just don't do anymore. But mostly, the secret of her success that I promised wasn't a secret is that Jennifer Jerde puts more heart, soul, and hard, hard work into everything I've ever seen her do than just about anybody I ever met. If you're lucky, she'll do it for you."