SPEAKERS
JEN BILIK, Principal, Knock Knock
Jen Bilik is the founder, owner, and overall head honcho of Knock Knock. Under Jen’s leadership, she and her team create products distinctive in concept, content, and design, immune to the disease of committee homogenization
Jen grew up handy in Berkeley, California, quilting with her mother and learning carpentry with her father. At the University of Michigan, she majored in English literature and film studies, plying her secret arts-and-crafts hobbies on the side.
After college, Jen decamped to New York City and labored variously as a film development intern, apprentice film editor, architectural draftsperson, tutor, babysitter, and newspaper proofreader before accepting an actual salaried job in publishing. Happenstance landed Jen in coffee-table books, exciting mini-productions unto themselves with graphic designers, illustration sources, four-color printing, authors, and copyediting.
While serving as the point person for text on late-breaking books, she inadvertently enjoyed a series of deskside internships in graphic design. After a freelance stint that included editing many books as well as co-authoring two (Todd Oldham: Without Boundaries and Women of Taste: A Collaboration Celebrating Quilt Artists and Chefs), Jen moved to Los Angeles to ponder how she might make her elusive mark. A few years and a million head scratches later, Knock Knock was born out of Jen’s desire to play with paper and wit.