Deborah Withey

Deborah's most recent staff position was as Deputy Managing Editor/Presentation of the The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia. She now freelances and runs an art studio in Wales.

Before joining the Pilot in June 2004, Deborah was Design Consultant for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Award-winning redesigns for Knight Ridder newspapers designed by Deborah are: the Detroit Free Press, Detroit, MI, the American News, Aberdeen, SD, the Centre Daily Times, State College, PA, the News-Tribune, Duluth, MN, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, CA, The Herald, Monterey, CA, and the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia, PA.

Five newspapers redesigned by Deborah have been chosen as finalists for the “World’s Best-Designed”: The Detroit Free Press, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, CA, El Universal, Caracas, Venezuela, the Centre Daily Times and the Daily Camera, Boulder, Co. The Centre Daily Times was chosen as one of the “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers” by the Society for News Design for three consecutive years.

Deborah has won gold, silver, and awards of excellence for her illustrations and page designs from the Society of News Design, as well as Print, American Illustration, New York Art Director’s Club, APME and a variety of state press organizations. She was featured as one of the newspaper industry’s outstanding young professionals in Presstime magazine’s “20 under 40,” and was the 1999 recipient of the Majeri Award for Innovation and Leadership in Visual Journalism from Ball State University.

Previous to her position with Knight Ridder, Deborah was the design director of the Detroit Free Press and assistant art director of the Dallas Times Herald, Dallas, Texas. She graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University with a BFA in visual communications.

Deborah was the 1995 president of the Society for News Design and a Founding Judge of the Malofiej International Awards for excellence in informational graphics. She has been a visiting professor of visual journalism at the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain and a Professional-in-Residence at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Florida.

In addition to her consulting work with Creative Circle, Deborah works internationally as a design consultant and discussion leader on the use of color, art direction and conceptual thinking for InnovAtion, a media consulting group based in Spain.