Jess and Tim

Our favorite project—
designing our life.

Leaf in Tulum Jess looking like a babe in Tulum

From Baltimore, to New York, and San Francisco—our friendship and collaboration grew into love—and now we can’t imagine living our lives with anyone else. Cheers to the biggest project of them all, us.

Our Journey

If you know us, you know everything has gone completely as planned. 😉 For both of us, there’s life before MICA, and life after MICA. It’s where we met, became best friends, and where each of our lives changed. We thought we had a few things figured out, but as it turns out, life had other plans for us and we’re so grateful for this crazy journey we’re on together. Here are some of our favorite moments captured along the way.

2010–’12

Grad School @ MICA

We meet in Baltimore from LA and Lancaster. Tim definitely thinks Jess is “too cool” for him and she quickly teaches him not to underestimate her skills at making friends with everyone. In two years we learn a lot, start two businesses, become “Kern and Burn,” and make amazing life long friends.

Tim charms us in Charm City.
Classic Tim and Jess, bad habits and all.
Camping in Shenandoah National Park.
Buddies at the Walker Art Center.
The Minneapolis crew.
Post brunch coma.
Tim’s fashion sweats for men ad campaign.
BFFs.
Krissi brings Jess her fav sandwich, and thus begins a decade of feeding Jess.
Hangs in front of the Brown Center.
Perfecting our hand-cut joinery.
A rare night out on the town.
Jess in studio.
Kern and Burn Kickstarter. Someone should’ve told us to sleep before filming.
Celebrating our Kickstarter success in New York!
Prepping for our thesis show and looking like death.
Our “100 Days of Design Entrepreneurship” install.
Our Kern and Burn and The People’s Pennant thesis install.
We made it.

2013–’14

New York, New York

After Baltimore we both find ourselves in New York and our grad school friends become our roommates. We start working at these companies called “startups” and put our MFA degrees to work building our careers. We also decide it’s a great idea to work nights and weekends to bring Kern and Burn to life while commuting from Jersey City to Manhattan to Greenpoint—at least we have youth on our side. We have our share of high-highs and low-lows through these first few years (New York will do that to you) and learn a lot about life while falling in love.

Celebrating Jess’s bday in Greenport, NY.
Kern and Burn books arrive… on the streets of New York.
We host a Kern and Burn panel at Parsons School of Design.
Road tripping to North Carolina.
One of many cabin trips with our favorite people.
Tim’s boys visit NY.
The MICA crew crashes Tim’s annual family vacation in Ocean City, NJ.
Jess and Maddie bond.

2015

Tulum and California—the precursor.

We’re getting settled into life in New York. Jess is learning product design at Paperless Post and Tim’s leading teams at Canary. We still live with our grad school friends and roomies. We experience the magic of Tulum for the first time when our friends Kate and Nick get married and Jess loves it so much she travels back a few months later with her friend Amanda. She wants to show Tim California (and convince him they should move there one day) so for her 30th birthday they drive down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to LA. It’s a great year of friends, travel, and life together in NY.

Our annual OCNJ vacation pic.
Hoover family fun.
Jess’s re:life bff's in Tulum for Kate and Nick’s wedding.
Lookin’ good at Kate and Nick’s wedding.
Tim meets Jess’s family on their vacation in Put-in-Bay, Ohio.
Jess’s dad is much better at fishing than her.
Sunset on the bay.
Jess explores James Turrell at the De Young in San Francisco.
We see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time together.
Jess’s priorities are clear—bread and Diet Coke.
Hiking in Big Sur.
Tim is getting more convinced that California is awesome.
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirror Room at the Broad in LA.
Jess in her happy place at the Eames house.

2016

Long distance love.

Jess starts thinking about what’s next for her career, and also decides it’s time to live by herself. So, as any sane person does, she signs a lease in NY, flies to SF to interview, moves into her apartment in NY, and days later decides to quit her job, and move across the country for her dream job at Everlane. Tim agrees to this because he’s the best and they both decide to give it a go long-distance. We travel every 15 days to see each other and work remotely. SF → NY and NY → SF. We log a lot of hours on FaceTime (thanks Apple) and Tim is exhausted because Jess makes him stay up til 2am East Coast time.

Our daily Greenpoint commute.
That one time snow was pretty in New York.
Our brunch crew.
Jess’s “blue towel” enters the scene.
Tim moves into his new apartment in Greenpoint.
Jess moves in (and out) of her apartment in Boerum Hill.
She heads West to take on a new adventure at Everlane.
Jess, Krissi, and Virginia are in denial that they’re parting ways.
Jess consoles herself with plants.
We start our bi-coastal life by exploring the coast.
Visiting the SFMoMA.
And make the best of our long-distance love.

2017

California dreamin.'

Exactly 364 days after Jess moved to San Francisco, Tim joins her in California. They have had enough of hanging out on a screen and are excited to finally live together. Tim says goodbye to his crew at Canary, moves into Jess’s apartment in the Mission and joins a new crew at airbnb. Jess finally finds a woodshop and starts prototyping benches. They explore the coast, travel to Vancouver, and spend time in the Outer Sunset a neighborhood they come to love for its laid back surf culture and proximity to the park and the ocean.

We discover our love for Scribe Winery in Sonoma.
We spend a lot of time in the Outer Sunset at Lands End.
We make the most of our New York weekends and set off on trips upstate.
Tim’s boys are back in NY.
Virginia and Graham get married and the MICA crew is excited to reunite.
We clean up pretty well too.
We discover the wonder that is Yellowstone National Park.
An epic Hoover family vaca in Montana.
Jess’s sisters on their family trip to South Carolina.
Karle family vaca in Isle of Palms, SC.
Our last long-distance FaceTime.
Tim moves to San Francisco 364 days after Jess.
We celebrate Jess’s bday in Vancouver.
And discover that Vancouver has a thing for suspension bridges.
Tim braves the Sea to Sky Pilot suspension bridge.
It rained a lot but we loved it.
Jess gets back into woodworking.
We make Thanksgiving dinner in our tiny apartment in the Mission.
And celebrate Christmas with our very first Christmas tree.

2018

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

Jess and Tim find an amazing place in the Outer Sunset and move into their first real apartment together and make it their home. We host friends and learn how to cook our signature fish tacos. Jess travels back to Tulum with Krissi and Virginia to show more of her people this magical place. Tim’s parents visit and we show them our favorite coastal towns. Life throws some curveballs our way and Jess finds herself looking for a new job. So, naturally Tim also decides he’s in a “like but not love” relationship with his—and we both decide to take the leap and work for ourselves. But, the biggest moment of all of 2018—we get engaged in Hawaii! Tim proposes in the perfect setting at Waianapanapa’s black sand beach. We also see a volcano sunrise, explore the Road to Hana, and survive Hurricane Lane. With a record amount of change, and the feeling that we’re just getting started, 2018 is one for the books.

Our big 2018 moment, our engagement at the magical Waianapanapa State Park in Maui.
Re-enacting the proposal because we’re cool.
We start the year off making moves, starting with our move to the Outer Sunset.
Tim’s parents visit and we show them the coast.
Jess’s Everlane journey comes to an end and we embrace the detours together.
Annual OCNJ family fun pic with a new addition, baby John.
Krissi and Drew visit and we take some glamour shots.
Jess’s sister Olivia visits and they do all the touristy SF things.
Jess and Madre Karle kick-off fam vacation.
Karle’s kayak during their summer staycation.
We head to Maui and do all the touristy things, starting with our first luau.
We see the sunrise on the top of Haleakalā volcano.
And explore the Road to Hana. Jess’s blue towel is apparently the only “outfit” she brought.
Hurricane Lane shows up and makes us question our survival skills.
The Marriot gives us survival buckets and Jess is thrilled about this.
Fortunately, we survive to celebrate our engagement stateside.
We travel to Savannah for Amanda and Sean’s wedding.
Jess’s re:life bff’s at Amanda and Sean’s wedding.
More coastal explorations in Mendocino, CA.
Tim’s team dresses up like him for his last day at Airbnb.
Jess attempts to reject this photo from this slideshow and does not succeed.
The Hoover boys annual Eagles’ game.
Our second Christmas tree in California.

2019

Laying our foundation for the future.

We enter 2019 optimistic for the future and are settling into the unknown. Jess spends some quality time with family in Utah, Tim spends time with friends in Lancaster, and we both travel to Tulum to see our venues. We aren’t sure what the future holds, but in this moment we are enjoying working for ourselves, starting businesses, and designing our lives (and this wedding) together. We’re excited to see what the rest of this year brings and we look forward to an amazing 2020 celebrating with our friends in family in one of our favorite places (can you tell it’s our favorite?). See you in Tulum.

Exploring the Outer Sunset becomes a regular routine.
We love living by the ocean.
Even though it is never warm, it is really beautiful.
Krissi agrees :)
Jess’s family spends a formative week in Utah together.
Jess, Krissi, and Virginia spend time in Joshua Tree.
Tim’s annual Manbash weekend.
Happy exploring our Tulum venues.
And getting some much needed relaxation time.
Enjoying an amazing dinner at Arca.
And the beautiful Tulum sunset.
Jess’s re:life crew gets together in SF.
We continue our coastal explorations.
And enjoy a peaceful weekend in Santa Cruz with our NY-to-SF crew.
We’re all happier in Northern California.
Jess takes the leap and starts her own business.
And we embrace the realness of everyday life together.

OUR FUTURE IS BRIGHT

We don’t know what tomorrow brings but we’re excited to see where life takes us. We’re incredibly thankful that we share our lives with all of you and we’ll see you in Tulum in February!