Speakers
Ann Willoughby
Ann Willoughby is the President and Creative Director of Willoughby Design Group, a brand innovation and identity design firm she founded in 1978. Willoughby Design Group has developed brand identity systems for groundbreaking retail start-ups including Three Dog Bakery, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Noodles & Co., SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza and Kevin Carroll. Other retail clients include Buckle Inc., Lee Company, Hallmark, Interstate Brands Corporation, Playtex and Nestlé.
Each year more companies turn to Ann and her collaborative team of 18 to help them create innovative products, communications and brand experiences that bring heightened beauty, emotion, simplicity and meaning to new generations.
Willoughby’s holistic approach to design and business is reflected in the company’s unique studio environment — a collaborative space where designers work alongside entrepreneurs, strategists, writers and specialists to innovate. The Willoughby studio, complete with a meditation room and off-site Design Barn retreat, helps attract and retain top creative talent and brings blue-chip clients to Kansas City.
Ever active with AIGA, the professional association for design, Ann is a former board member of the AIGA National Board of Directors. She is a founding member of the national board for the AIGA Center for Brand Experience and was co-chair of the 2004 AIGA Business & Design Conference in New York. Ann has been named the first design leader from the Kansas City area to become an AIGA fellow, to be announced in 2006.
Ann attended the pilot AIGA design leadership program at Harvard Business School and the Aspen Design Summit in 2005, and she has served on the HOW magazine editorial board for almost 10 years. Ann is a frequent design judge and in 2005 judged top-tier design for the Communication Arts Design Annual, the HOW Perfect 10, Hawaii’s 5-0 Design Competition and more. In 2006 Ann will speak at the Y Design Conference in San Diego and the HOW conference in Las Vegas.
The Willoughby team recently curated and designed “The Best of Brochure Design” for Rockport Publishers Inc., as well as “The Dictionary of Brand” for the AIGA Center for Brand Experience.
Willoughby Design Group has won awards from Print, Communication Arts, Graphis and AIGA and has been published for more than 25 years in national and international competitions and books. In 2005 Rockport selected Willoughby as one of the best design firms in the U.S. Also in 2005, the firm was awarded a HOW Perfect 10 for the Kevin Carroll identity and book, “The Rules of the Red Rubber Ball.”
Ann has taught design at the University of Kansas and at the Kansas City Art Institute. As a visiting professor at KU, she was instrumental in building a pilot program that helped graduating seniors and businesses create successful engagement models. She currently serves on fine arts boards for Johnson County Community College and the University of Kansas. Teaching remains one of Ann’s passions, working with students and children as much as possible through her firm and the Willoughby Design Barn.
Ann now works at the intersection of sustainability, design and business strategy. In 2006, the Willoughby team worked with Mohawk Papers to create the Strathmore Sustainability portfolio, which features the stories of seven companies that are paving the way for responsible business practices as corporate strategy.