Sucess IN The City: John Lineweaver

 Photo by LeAnn Shaw

Among the descriptors on John Lineweaver’s business card are: graphic designer, product developer, strategic thinker, go-getter, award-winner and shazammer.

You know, shazammer, noun: one whose energy and creative sparks transform things – presto! – with color and impact.

The “product developer” on the card is getting the most attention these days for Lineweaver Design & Communications. Two years ago, Lineweaver began producing greeting cards, notepads, journals and wrapping papers that are now found locally at Swoozies, Sam Flax, Metropolitan Deluxe, Paper Affair and Container Stores. Nationally, his products can be found from Hawaii to New York.

Lineweaver, a native of North Carolina, and his partner, John Oetgen, live in Buckhead. “I like to think we live in the WOW,” Lineweaver said, using his trademark wordplay. “Colorful, friends, family, entertainment-focused and treating every day as a special occasion...to keep things inspired, fresh and always moving.” The two travel frequently to islands, Highlands, New York, North Carolina and often find new foreign adventures.

“I do keep very entertaining and visual diaries,” John said. “Collages and hand-drawn stories that remind me of a special place, a funny story or a fantastic meal.”

Here’s the story of his trip to success.

Growing up in Greensboro, N.C.,  John’s first foray into package design was wrapping Christmas gifts with remnants of papers smoothed and saved by his mother and grandmother. He continued to create his own wrappings and handmade cards.

As a child, John was surrounded by art and style. His grandmother and aunt are accomplished painters, and his dad, in the textile business, commuted to New York City each week, exposing John to his first view of the fashion-retail world. In an early sign of his competitive nature, John played on his high school tennis team and worked in men’s retail in high school and college, selling clothes by Ralph Lauren and Alexander Julian – also a North Carolina native and early mentor.

At Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, John majored in economics – “Can you believe it?!” – and continued to work during vacations. “So, retail, fashion, textiles and color all played in at an early age...,” John said. “I also wrapped a hell of a lot of Christmas presents at that store.”

After college, John moved to New York as a junior account executive for Young & Rubicam Inc., working advertising accounts for Colgate Palmolive and the U.S. Postal Service while going to design school at night, studying design, color and typography at the Parsons and School of Visual Arts. In the late 1980s, he moved to Atlanta and enrolled in the Portfolio Center and got a job on the loading dock of Peachtree Press. He did manage to design one book jacket and, as a school project in 1989, created the billboard for LongHorn Steaks, the one with the horns poking through. The prize was $100.

John returned to New York and worked for an ad agency as the art director for Rolling Rock beer, Motrin IB, Hyatt Hotels and the Irish Tourist Board. He moved to Richmond, then, briefly, Houston for other ad-related gigs before returning to Atlanta to set up a design shop in his two-bedroom house in Virginia-Highland. In the fall of 1999, he opened a studio on Lambert Drive.

In 2002, John won a competition for card design for the Museum of Modern Art holiday catalog. The card sold for two years and, when it was produced as a wrapping paper and a gift bag too, he realized, “This was a game I could play. I had the typography and design skills and a way with words, so I started writing longer, chatty greeting cards.”

The next year, for his first Stationery Show in New York, he put up panels of color to draw attention to his booth and in the first hour had 100 requests for wrapping paper in those panel designs. “We made up the pricing and just went with it,” he said.

Now, with a business manager who’s a stay-at-home mom, a “global” board of advisors that includes his brother, David, in New York, his dad, Brokie, in North Carolina, a licensing advisor in India, a product designer in Minneapolis and a public relations advisor in Chicago, John juggles Lineweaver Design – the greeting cards and gift wraps – with the Communications part of his business: corporate graphics, logos and brand development. He continues to branch out into the world of entertaining with invitations, hostess and holiday gifts.

What’s next?
Table top designs – colorful plastic, glass and acrylic platters, plates and serving pieces.   

    Success IN the City each month features an entrepreneur or creator making an impact on our world.