Women in Design . . . Annie Dow
In the lead up to Women in Design Day 2025: Moments of Change—an annual event dedicated to fostering community, celebration, and education among women in the design industry in Aotearoa New Zealand—we’ll be releasing interviews with each of our speakers to give you a sense of their career journeys and the types of conversations we’ll be diving into at the live event.
Today we are chatting with Annie Dow the founder and owner of Dow Goodfolk and Brother Design and a passionate and vocal expert on the value of branding and believes creative and strategic excellence transforms brands, her mantra of ‘Design Delivers Value’ is legendary within the industry.
Who/what were your early creative influences?
My father was a big influence, as an engineer/neon sign & display designer. Working alongside him watching him develop 3 dimensional display stands from a very young age. I used to work in the weekends and learnt a great deal about vacuum forming, neon glass and how to help sell a product through designing how to display it for instore.
Who/what inspires you creatively now?
I am such a traditionalist with style, I would say that most of the design influencers still remain the same. Christian Liagre, Phillippe Starck to name a couple. I have not found anyone new, but haven’t been searching either.
Can you describe your career path?
I believe I left ATI (now AUT) back in the late 70’s. Let’s be honest it was easier then to get a job in the creative sector and I started at Woolworths as a paste up artist, then worked at a couple of small design agencies. Had a stint with my father visualising and rendering display stands and then went to Sydney and onto the UK, which is where I was born. I freelanced at Billy Blue Group in Syd, then Pentagram in London. Suddenly finding my passion for packaging. It aligned with all the 3D display work with my father. When I returned to New Zealand I met Greg who became my partner in life and business. He had owned Formula Communications an ad agency. We decided that with my passion for design, packaging and his for client servicing and advertising we would start out on our own. We saw the gap in the market back then with only a few packaging design companies, the rest is history…
What does your typical workday look like?
I hung up the creative tools many moons ago. Now, I’m more of a businesswoman leader yet still have the keen intuitive creative eye. My day is always a day of business hustling. Meeting, greeting and even more so in this market, trying to get new work in the door. Making sure my team are still happy and doing the best work they can. Being as supportive as I can to them as they navigate a very fickle world of marketing now.
Tell us about a project, made memorable because it challenged you. What did you learn from that work?
If I look back over my 30 years in the industry as a business owner of Dow Goodfolk and Brother Design there really are many. The most may have been the brand creation of Q Theatre. It was more of a passion project for the love of arts and it involved aligning the founders values with the stakeholders and sponsors like ASB. The stakeholders were from various art sectors, plus the Auckland City Council. It was an extremely challenging process to get them to all decide on a brand name for this new unique home for theatre in Auckland.
I think what I learnt from this project was that sometimes one has to take control and drive a decision harder. Listening to the opinions of many, whilst yes being respectful to their needs, was not working. In the end we did just that, took control making a shortlist of 3 names, with an absolute decisive outcome to select one. You will never make everyone happy. Many meetings later and a process that took far longer. than it should have
How do you foster innovation in your work?
Over the years we have had many innovative ideas for ourselves and our clients. Generally this is fostered from a problem that we have faced, where a creative or innovative solution is required. A new way to look or approach a problem. Then if we have found this to be of value, we would integrate it into our suite of product offerings for clients.
What do you think career/creative success looks like?
It is about being truly authentic to your creative self. Your values, what is important to you and what you believe in. Obviously there is much learning & growing along the way, but having core values and integrity is the absolute benchmark for success in the creative sector.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
The best advice was from my late husband back many years ago when I started to move into being the sales driver for the Group. Darling never price to low in negotiations, as you can always price down, yet never price up! With these guiding principles I have become a master of the art of negotiation. A skillset that is sadly being lost in the creative sector.
…and the worst?
The worst advice was the pressure from my leadership team about a decade ago, to buy a digital design company. Although I also possibly brought the wrong one, my gut was telling me this is not our core passion and it became a super expensive lesson for me. The moment your gut says No, it’s a No. You can unpack the details later.
What barriers have you come up against (or seen) in the design industry throughout your career? How have they affected your work?
By far and large the biggest barriers have been other peoples egos. Be it men or women. The tall poppy syndrome is chronic in this country. I have always felt that due to my success people were needlessly intimidated by me. Get to know me and I am a down to earth person who values what the creative sector offers and especially when you have the ethos of client first like we have in my business.
What do you hope for the future of design in Aotearoa New Zealand?
I seriously hope that the creative standard of excellence remains. That the value of design excellence is not shot to the core. There are too many creatives and not enough commercial clients in NZ and so I would like to see us export our talent more successfully. This is something DINZ should be supporting the design community on, sadly they are just an award organisation with no guiding principles for graphic design anymore.
Annie Dow | Founder and Owner, Dow Goodfolk and Brother Design
Annie’s tenacity, her passion for design, smarts and generosity have not only enabled her to grow two highly regarded strategic brand and design agencies, but provided opportunities for generations of designers in Aotearoa New Zealand to grow their own talents.
Annie is a passionate and vocal expert on the value of branding and believes creative and strategic excellence transforms brands, her mantra of ‘Design Delivers Value’ is legendary within the industry.
Annie received the 2019 Black Pin award—recognised by DINZ, for her contribution to the design industry.
Women in Design Day 2025— taking place on 21 March in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
This is your opportunity to unplug and reconnect with your practice. An annual event dedicated to fostering community, celebration, and education among women in the design industry in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through out the day you’ll be able to enjoy hands-on activities, time in nature, and hear the inspiring stories from our speakers – enjoying shared experiences and validating experiences as women navigating a career in design.
*Design Assembly Friends use your discount codes to access our discounted ticket options.
