Musings from a Creative Director
By Bella Pipke
In March 2024, an Instagram account with a profile picture of a pink felt stitch “J” was created. This account had five followers (our two founders and their friends). A couple weeks later, an Instagram post was made with a link to a Google Form, encouraging San Diegans to apply if they wanted to be in a part of a trinket-collecting magazine. I applied.
I was the sixth follower of the JELLi Instagram account. I knew of Jem and Juli through their BeachySonny meets (shout out those of you who remember XD), and decided to follow this account with five followers. I worked on my application, but didn’t want to be let down in case I didn’t get in. Luckily that wasn’t the case, I was accepted as a member of the creative team, which then evolved into being a creative director for JELLi. Being a 2024 graduate and having to deal with the tortuous entity which is the current job market, JELLi became a place for me to feel like I have purpose. I feel so lucky to be working on something so special and aligned with all of the things I love. I’m also honored to be working alongside such a wonderful team comprised of our EICS (Jem and Juli), Jade (our other creative directors), our team directors, and all of our lovely and deeply talented members. It’s truly a dream come true.
Now, it’s been two years since JELLi was conceived and we’ve grown our community to 53,000 followers. While that number may be small in the grand scheme of social media followings, every day we are in awe and deeply grateful to our community. We have built this from the ground up, thanks to our amazing and dedicated team and all of you who care enough about our work to want to keep up with us. We all do this because we love it. JELLi is special to each and every one of us, and we hope it’s special to you too.
Graphic by Kiera Davidson
ARTiCULATED: A Porcelain Performance, has probably been our trickiest issue thus far. After our release party for iSSUE 02, PARADiSE, we began to blow up a bit, and rapidly increased our follower count to 10k then 20k and so on. We felt the pressure yet also passion to continue making something that resonates with us and with all of you. Straying from our heisei-retro, bubblegum-esque aesthetic of EMBELLiSH and PARADiSE, we chose to walk along a darker and more mysterious path, which is embodied through ARTiCULATED.
There is an interesting dichotomy for those of us who appreciate cutesy bobbles and knick-knacks. There’s a good chance that we have experienced bouts of sadness in life, and collecting these tiny treasures have brought us moments of happiness. There’s also a good chance that we have been teased for our interests. JELLi is inspired by Japanese fashion and magazines, and it’s likely that many of you guys (like us) have enjoyed anime or K-Pop now or in the past. (And while those might be mainstream now, I remember getting made fun of for watching Naruto when I was 12 and liking K-Pop in high school!) Even now, most of the people in my life don’t “get” JELLi, but that doesn’t matter to me because I know there’s many out there that do “get” what we do and why we do it.
All that to say, while we might individually present ourselves in colorful patterned attire with bags engulfed in various keychains, at the end of the day each of us carry our own unique sorrows, struggles, and baggage. With this upcoming issue, wanted to pay homage to each and everyone of you, who just like us, may have felt like you’ve had to put on a performance in order to be accepted by your peers and the world around you. This issue is for all of those who have had a hard time expressing themselves, finding a voice, or being accepted for being different. All of us here at JELLi accept you and see you. <3
We hope you are just as excited about ARTiCULATED as we are. As always, thank you for the support, we are eternally grateful. And thank you to our amazing team, who has worked fiercely to make work that they are proud and want to share with all of you.
XOXO,
Bella
