Hudson County is filled to the brim with innovative small businesses and creative entrepreneurs, and this BNR Hoboken resident is certainly no exception. Meet Joe Spano, a born-and-raised Hoboken resident, art director, and the owner of Hoboken design company, JS Design. Even though he planted his entrepreneurial roots in his hometown of Hoboken, his company now serves brands nationwide. Read on to learn Joe’s inspiring story and all about his company, JS Design.
About JS Design
Joe’s daughter, Nicole Spano, reached out to us to share about her father’s business and the creativity he brings to his job daily.
“As a long-time Hoboken resident,” Nicole said to us, “my dad is an art director and owner of JS Design. He specializes in unique, creative, and memorable business solutions that build brand recognition and drive sales.”
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Beyond the design expertise, he brings to his local community and beyond, Joe has quite the impressive resume. He began his career in the toy industry as a designer before going on to work with a wide range of national brands that include Slim-Fast, Campbell’s, Nabisco, Lysol, and Hershey’s, as well as local brands including NY Waterway and Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey.
Nowadays, Joe’s work is circling back to that first passion. He recently published the “Hoboken Coloring Activity Book” — a children’s coloring book that includes familiar images from around Hoboken as well as historical facts about the town — which can be downloaded here. It also is available at Little City Books in Hoboken.
He’s also created coloring pages for children and made the printable PDF sheets available on his website. Some of the illustrations include thank-yous to frontline workers, an adorable “bee safe” coloring sheet with bees, a Jersey Shore maze, biking through Liberty State Park coloring sheet, letters that spell out “Thank You”, and he even has the entire alphabet uploaded for custom messages. You can download these at any time, free of charge, here.
Nicole, a born-and-raised Hoboken resident herself {previously featured with her mom as a Hoboken Generations feature here!}, shared with us that her dad thought it was important to offer children a creative outlet for children while at home during the pandemic — while also spreading positivity and offering thanks to our frontline workers.
“He is consistently creating new content on his website and just released special 3D bouquet coloring sheets for Mother’s Day as well,” Nicole explained.
Mother’s Day Illustrations
As part of his coloring sheet PDFs, Joe created a range of illustrations for Mother’s Day cards for children to color and give to mom (so download ASAP here!). From flowers to hearts to cut out frames, all you have to do is pick one — or a few — download them on your computer from the website, print them out, and let your little one get creative and color it in.
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The illustrations even come with step by step instructions, making a great project for kids of any age, and a wonderful outlet for their creativity while stuck at home.
As talented as Joe is, he’s quite modest. “He’s not the best with social media, so I wanted to share all of the amazing things he’s been doing lately,” she said in her email.
In the spirit of Mother’s Day and Father’s coming upon us, we figured there’s no better way to celebrate than sharing some serious Hoboken family love.
Know of a local resident with some serious entrepreneurial spirit? Email us at hello@hobokengirl.com!
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