AJ Favors

AJ Favors is a multidisciplinary design strategist and accessibility-driven visual storyteller with more than a decade of experience shaping transformative creative solutions for government agencies, national nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations. She specializes in transforming complex social, educational, and community-focused initiatives into visually compelling, equity-centered design systems that scale across print, digital, and experiential platforms. 

As Executive Creative Director at Avidano Digital, AJ leads inclusive visual communications with a rare blend of strategic clarity, research-driven insight, and expressive design craft. She guides cross-functional teams through brand development, narrative visualization, design-system governance, and multiplatform execution—building culturally resonant creative that amplifies stories, strengthens trust, and elevates impact for historically marginalized communities. Her leadership is grounded in accessibility, empathy, and a commitment to design that serves real people in measurable ways. 

Prior to joining Avidano Digital, AJ served as Senior Creative Lead at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she drove the visual direction for large-scale investigative reports, developed multimedia storytelling for social justice initiatives, managed creative teams, and led art direction for high-stakes national campaigns. She transformed abstract, data-heavy subject matter into clear, powerful visuals—including editorial design, illustration, data visualization, and interactive layouts—while ensuring everything met rigorous accessibility standards. Her leadership defined the creative vision for flagship SPLC reports, major brand assets, and content for the Intelligence Project’s Hatewatch platform. 

Before SPLC, AJ set a new standard for visual communications at the New York City Department of Education, where she unified the NYC Public Schools brand through a comprehensive visual identity system. She established entirely new branding guidelines, architected design systems, led Out-of-Home campaigns, and delivered accessible, multilingual creative for the nation’s largest school system. Her work strengthened family engagement, elevated digital communications, improved citywide alignment, and advanced accessibility compliance for millions of New Yorkers.

AJ’s foundational government experience began at the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development, where she directed digital and print design across citywide youth-reach programs, managed cross-agency collaborations, and produced strategic visual campaigns that dramatically increased participation and engagement. Under her direction, the agency’s social media presence surged, achieving a 270% increase in followers, and her design revitalization efforts contributed to a 119% growth in participants in one of NYC’s premier youth workforce programs.

A designer with both breadth and depth, AJ’s expertise spans human-centered design, inclusive design systems, typography, branding, data storytelling, digital accessibility, and equity-focused communications. She is skilled in Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, Sketch, Datawrapper, Flourish, WordPress, and a wide range of project and asset-management platforms—bringing both conceptual vision and executional precision to every stage of the creative process.

Known for her calm leadership, thoughtful creative judgment, and ability to synthesize research into visual clarity, AJ excels at bridging communication between writers, designers, strategists, editors, data analysts, and organizational leadership. She approaches every engagement with the belief that design is a service—and that inclusive visual storytelling can deepen understanding, strengthen communities, and create lasting social impact.

In every initiative she leads, AJ brings a singular, mission-driven, equity-focused philosophy to her work. She doesn’t just make things look beautiful—she makes them meaningful, accessible, and human.