Ann Willoughby is the founder, president and chief creative director of Willoughby Design –
a brand innovation and identity design firm established in 1978. Willoughby has developed brand
identities and campaigns for United Nation’s Deliver Now, Kauffman Labs, Park Place Development,
Noodles & Co., SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza, Feng, Lee Jeans, Hallmark Cards, Hershey’s and Blue Valley
CAPS School (Center for Advanced Professional Studies).
Ever active with AIGA, the professional association for design, Willoughby served on the national
board of directors and in 2006 was named Kansas City’s first national AIGA Fellow.
She is a designer, illustrator, international speaker, design judge, teacher and writer. She helped launch the pilot AIGA design leadership program at Harvard and the Aspen Design Summit in Colorado. Willoughby was
named one of the Top 20 International Identity Designers in the 2009 book "Masters of Design." As a
charter member of the Designer’s Accord, a founding board member of the AIGA Center for Sustainable
Design and an ambassador for the Living Principles, she has become an acknowledged expert in
sustainable design. Today, Willoughby brings her experience to companies on the forefront of
entrepreneurial and business innovation.
Willoughby has a fine arts degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Willoughby was appointed the Joyce C. Hall Professor of Design at KCAI in January 2012. The design professorship honors Joyce C. Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards and is underwritten by the Hall family. The position has been held previously by a distinguished line of design professionals including Katherine McCoy, Mary Lou Brous, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser and Emilio Ambasz, each of whom has helped contribute to the shape of the School of Design’s curriculum.