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It is not possible to picture him hunched over a potter’s wheel, flecks of wet clay speckling his clothes. He’s too tall, for one thing. Too fastidious. And his clothes too well tailored. Fortunately for us, Jim’s parents wisely redirected the former college ceramics major to a far more felicitous field of study, introducing the aspiring artist to an inspiring creative director at a Detroit ad agency. And it took.

That pivotal conversation was the spark that ignited Jim’s lifelong passion for fine design – whether captured in the sleek lines of a concept car (he is a Motown native, after all), or expressed in well-designed architecture. “If I had any ability in math and physics,” he says, “I would have been an architect.” Jim passed on his passion for architecture and the arts to his two college-age sons, Ian and Eric.

Jim graduated with a design degree, and did subsequent graduate work at the Pratt Institute in New York.

Somewhere along the line, he also picked up a degree in Advanced Sarcastic Wit. And then he joined the workforce, working first for a large non-profit (PBS), then a large corporation (Deluxe), and finally, a small ad agency. When his independent streak kicked in, at age 27, Jim realized he needed to pursue his own vision, and thus The Nancekivell Group was formed. Jim’s next realization was how much he didn’t know about running a creative business. But he learned: ambition (and his wife Karen) spurred him on. Today, Jim’s obsession with smart design is embodied in our credo and commitment to creative intelligence.

Jim has been a seminar presenter on topics from creating successful investor communications to the design of corporate histories, and he has many awards to his name. But what he finds most rewarding in his off time is knocking about the house and yard with power tools in hand, hiking, biking or skiing on a trail near here or the mountains out West.