visual communications for raleigh durham chapel hill cary

Janet Danforth, creative force of danforth design, was born and raised in the Albany NY area. She lived there until 2003 when she went to Savannah College of Art and Design. After graduation, she moved to North Carolina’s Research Triangle area where she lives and works today.

She has enjoyed creating art for most of her life. As a small child, her hands were constantly stained with markers. Today, her artistic pursuits are mostly computer-oriented. She still prefers to use messy traditional media in her illustrations and incorporates hand-created elements into many of her designs.

She believes design is visual communication and practices this philosophy in her own work. If a design is beautiful, but does not fulfill its intended purpose, it is not good design. Good design tells the story with or without words.

Of course, since graphic design is usually the visual expression of written words, the ability to write and edit the text is very important. Design and content are often developed concurrently and work off each other. Whether writing an article for a multi-page publication or a single statement for an ad, the visuals and words drive each other.

She’s also written advertising copy, web content and news articles. District, SCAD’s student newspaper won several awards–including the prestigious Pacemaker Award when Janet worked as a writer and editor there. Writing samples on this site are articles previously published in District.

When not working, Janet is still creating. She crochets, sews, felts, and loves to try new crafts.