Meet Jon Krop | Art Director / Graphic Designer / Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jon Krop and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jon, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Looking back, I don’t think I ever had a chance of escaping it. Art and music have been baked into my DNA for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was constantly drawing or building something. When store-bought Star Trek toys were out of reach, I did what any reasonable child would do: I made my own phasers and communicators out of cardboard, brad fasteners, and tape, and distributed them to the neighborhood kids like a low-budget prop department. I was also making my own comic books before I had any idea that was a job.

In my teens, I fell hard for music—especially rock and pop—and became convinced I was destined to be a guitarist in a band. My friends and I went to as many shows as we could, and I soaked up everything about the local scene. Along the way, I became just as interested in the visual side of music: record covers, T-shirts, posters, and the entire ecosystem that comes with it. In high school, I put this interest into work as an illustrator and layout artist for the school paper, and even wrote music reviews—clearly preparing myself for things yet to come.

To pay the bills, I worked a wide range of jobs: catering, delivering French bread, janitorial work, and stints at record and video stores. Inevitably, whenever a sign needed making, a window display needed dressing, or an ad needed designing, it somehow landed in my lap. Outside of work, I spent most of my free time learning, experimenting, and refining my craft—which I’m still doing.

Eventually, I accepted the hard truth that I didn’t have what it took to be a musician, so I refocused my energy on visual art—specifically graphic design, photography, and some of the earliest computer-based art classes available in the early 1990s. Friends and family supported those efforts by trusting me with my first “professional” projects, and things slowly grew from there.

It’s taken me a lifetime to get here, but art has always been the common thread—the thing that gives me a sense of joy, purpose, and forward momentum. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m proud of my track record of creating work that people genuinely enjoy and value. I don’t have a single, fixed visual style—and that’s very much by design. While many fine artists rely on a recognizable signature, my strength lives in adaptability: responding to the project, the artist, and the moment.

Working primarily in the music industry—while also collaborating with restaurants, non-profits, small businesses, and other clients—constantly pushes me to evolve and experiment. Every project feels like a new puzzle to solve, and that sense of discovery is what keeps the work alive, fresh, and engaging.

Growing up in the 1970s exposed me to a wide range of eras, movements, and cultural influences. I stay aware of trends, but I don’t chase them. Instead, I pull inspiration from graphic design and visual art, printing history, poster art, Czech New Wave cinema, retro ’50s work, Modernism, ancient cultures, photography—pretty much anything that sparks curiosity. Much of that comes from documentaries and deep dives. That broad perspective allows me to move fluidly between aesthetics and connect with artists who think differently from one another—and from me.

The strongest work happens when collaboration turns into creative trust—when clients are open to my ideas, willing to push back, and excited to explore something unexpected. That tension is where the magic lives. Much of my recent work has come from that kind of exchange, and I find the process—and those surprising “a-ha” moments—both addictive and exhilarating.

This is also where my approach differs from AI. I’m not generating solutions based on popularity or probability—I’m bringing lived experience, intuition, and shared human context to the table. I make decisions informed by real relationships, real culture, and real moments in time. I also allow and welcome those Bob Ross “Happy Accidents” to happen. That human layer—the messy, emotional, imperfect part—is something no algorithm can replicate, and it’s at the core of how I work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
They’ve been traveling, and we haven’t spent time together in a while, so I’d start with dinner at Old Weang Ping, just around the corner. It’s a wonderful, quirky Thai spot run by an elderly couple—he works the front of the house, and she’s the chef. It’s the kind of place where you get a great, home-cooked, healthy meal in an intimate setting, perfect for slowing down and catching up.

Over the next few days, depending on what’s happening around town, I’d suggest catching a live band at The Great American Music Hall or The Cornerstone. We might visit a museum—The Legion of Honor, SFMOMA, the Cartoon Art Museum, or The Exploratorium—or see a movie at the 4-Star or the Roxie. If we wanted some nature, we could head to Sonoma, Monterey, or Santa Cruz.

Where we ate would depend on where we ended up: Salito’s or The Stinking Rose, Café Colucci, Judoku Sushi, Mary’s Pizza (or Zachary’s), Breads of India, or Sam’s in North Beach would all be contenders. For local shopping and wandering, stops at Amoeba Records, Moe’s Books, and City Lights would be essential.

Ultimately, the plan would vary widely depending on the time of year, who I was hosting, and what was happening in and around the city.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Since the last time you interviewed me, a handful of people have completely reshaped the trajectory of my career.

At the top of that list are Bill Hein and Andy Zicklin of Label 51 Recordings, Flatiron Recordings, and Pressing Business. By trusting me as their Art Director, they didn’t just give me work—they gave me a seat at the table. Over the past three years, this has grown into my largest and most meaningful contract, opening the door to collaborations with an extraordinary range of musicians. I’m deeply proud of what we’ve created together. It still blows my mind that my work is connected to artists like Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), Wall of VooDoo, Peter Criss, The Divine Hand Ensemble, Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of The dB’s, Sixpence None the Richer, and so many others.

During that same stretch, Larry Hardy brought me on as the primary graphic designer for In The Red Records—a role that’s been just as formative. Through that collaboration, I’ve had the chance to work with artists I’ve admired for years, including Henry Rollins, Lydia Lunch, my longtime friends Redd Kross, Kid Congo, OSEES, and more.

Because of these relationships and the trust behind them, I’ve been able to unofficially retire from web design and pour my full energy into graphic design and print—the work I care about most. That focus has sharpened my instincts, raised my standards, and reminded me why I fell in love with design in the first place.

The kid who once dreamed of being a musician is now designing record and CD covers essentially full time for the very world he wanted to be part of. It feels like everything I’ve done has been quietly pointing me here. I don’t take a second of it for granted—I show up grateful every day that this is what I get to do.

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