Creative Director, Mission Partners, Rockville MD

Anne has over thirty years of experience in nearly every type of graphic design project, in either a design, production, or managerial capacity. She is most fulfilled when working with people and organizations dedicated to improving our world. In addition to her solo practice, Anne Likes Red®, Anne is a partner and the design director at Mission Partners, a Certified B Corporation and women-owned social impact communications firm. The award-winning team brings decades of experience in strategy, nonprofit communications, messaging, and branding. Working at the intersection of PR, policy, and philanthropy, the team understands the nuances of purpose-driven organizations and uses that knowledge to help organizations meet their greatest moments of impact.

Anne is a longtime member of AIGA and completed their executive business certificate program, Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders at Yale School of Management. She has a BS from the University of Maryland and has periodically taught graphic design courses. Anne received the Lifetime Member Award from the (now sunset) Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, DC, and her work has been recognized by Graphic Design USA. Anne is on the Design Continuum Fund endowment committee, a scholarship program to increase diversity in design.

Tell us how and why you became involved in socially responsible communications, any thoughts on why design can be an especially effective tool for this goal, and, if you wish, give us an example of a project of which you are proud?

Over the years, I’ve been conscious of our industry’s environmental effects and have tried to mitigate adverse impacts. But how we think about socially responsible design must include the organizations we work for and the messages we put into the world. It must be inclusive and representative. I’m lucky that Mission Partners only works with values-aligned clients because developing visuals for their communications issues is rewarding in creative and ethical ways. Our process includes the community through conversations, interviews, and surveys at multiple points in a project, ensuring the results will resonate and be appropriate. While print design is my first love, I’ve also been involved in digital, animation, web, packaging, and 3D projects. Overseeing and designing for comprehensive brand identity is a specialty.

One project I’m particularly proud of is The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread rebrand. Their logo was modeled on a complex composition that Frank Lloyd Wright designed to represent the Wingspread home he built for the Johnson family in Racine, Wisconsin. The process involved messaging and purpose clarification, then updating the visuals to reflect that strategic work. We simplified the mark to work better with 21st-century brand needs and developed a robust visual language for their collateral.

Given the confluence of events and challenges our society now faces, does this moment in time present any special opportunities, urgencies, obstacles to designing for good? An area of design that has not been widely emphasized is accessibility?

Apart from federal government requirements, stronger enforcement is coming in 2026 and 2027 for state and local governments as well as for private businesses. I’ve been implementing accessible design principles more and more over the past decade or so, but I strive to be more fully compliant. Ensuring access to effective communications for all is at the very heart of socially-responsible design.