Jacqueline Savage-McFee

I had a chance recently to reconnect with an amazing woman I met at the WISE conference earlier this year, Jackie Savage-McFee. Jackie is a Liverpool native (currently living in Charlotte, NC) who produces a line of stationary and school supplies that are as exuberant, fun and colorful as Jackie herself. She graciously agreed to donate some of her products for a cystic fibrosis fundraiser here in Syracuse and she wondered if we would be willing to package them up so that they weren't just laying on a table. Of course I jumped at the chance to work with her - Jackie is a pretty cool chick! This is a picture of one of the gifts we designed with her "Perfectly Plaid" and "Flutterbys" collections.

For those of you who attended WISE, you might remember that Jackie was part of the panel discussion with Amy Tormey of Ray's New York Bagels, moderated by Julie Abbott of Bridge Street on Channel 9. Her story was fascinating - she had an opportunity to work for Hallmark right out of college, which had been her dream job. But then she got an offer from a much smaller company called Notebound. It was a critical turning point, but Jackie took the risk because it would give her more creative freedom. Her JSM Design Studio produces a fun line of products that are sold all over the country - you can find them at Target, Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, and locally at Wegman's. When I spoke to her last week, she was jetting off to Hong Kong to work on some new business ideas. How cool is that?