Obituary: Johanna Riley

April 24, 1971 – July 21, 2024

Johanna Margretta Riley passed away at her home in Encinitas, California, on July 21, 2024 from complications of a chronic health condition. Born in Berkeley, California, Johanna spent most of her childhood in Aspen, Colorado, where she attended kindergarten through twelfth grade, graduating from Aspen High School in 1989. She received a BA in Art History from the University of Oregon in 1993 and an Associate of Arts degree in Graphic Design from Seattle Central College in 1995.

She began her career working for Starwave, a software and website company founded by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and later, designed and created props for the children’s TV show Bill Nye the Science Guy.

In 1998, Johanna joined her parents, Michael and Linnea Riley, at their Seattle business, Linnea Design, producing her own line of poster calendars, cards, and art posters. In the early 2000s, Johanna moved to the San Diego area and in 2009, Johanna assumed the business, and continued to grow Linnea Design’s product line. Over the years her work appeared in Pottery Barn, The Discovery Channel Stores, The TravelSmith Catalog, the World Wildlife Fund, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, Mondavi, Concord Records, and the Art Institute of Chicago catalogs. Her work could be seen on such television shows as The Today Show, Friends, and HGTV, who named Linnea Design as one of 2019’s top wall calendars.

She was known for her artistic talent and eye for design, her generosity, intelligence, and adventurous spirit. Always one to enjoy planning the best European vacations, one month prior to her passing, she enjoyed a trip to the South of France where she and a friend rented a car and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and tastes of their travels.

Johanna was preceded in death by her parents, Michael (2018) and Linnea Riley (2020), owners of Aspen’s Best of All Worlds (1976-1993) and Linnea Design (1986-present), and is survived by her children, Alex and Anna Kriesel, of San Diego, California, her sister, Katie Riley Nakamura, of Honolulu, Hawaii, and her many friends and family across the globe.