His designs sought to integrate scenic elements into the storytelling instead of having them stand separate and indifferent from the play's action.

His visual style, often referred to as simplified realism, combined bold vivid use of color and simple, yet dramatic, lighting.

The school in Florence would not accept Jones, so he went to Berlin instead, spending a year in informal study with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater.

Jones also brought his expressionistic style to many productions put on by the Theatre Guild, with innovative designs for The Philadelphia Story (1937), Othello (1943), and The Iceman Cometh (1946).

Though he created a makeshift set for the very first "production" of the Provincetown Players in the living room of Neith Boyce and Hutchins Hapgood's cottage in July 1915, Jones was not a member but a friend of the Provincetown Players and he worked closely with his friend Eugene O'Neill on many of his productions including Anna Christie, The Great God Brown, and Desire Under the Elms.