Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, Anna Jacobs always assumed she’d own a business. Her mother owns a family business that Jacobs’ grandfather started almost 70 years ago.
Throughout her childhood, she’d been interested in art, but when she learned about graphic design while on the yearbook staff in high school, she knew that’s what she wanted to do.
The Clarksville native earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a graphic design emphasis from the University of Arkansas in 2012.
Her first design job was at Fayetteville agency Doxa. She spent about seven years there before starting Jacobs & Co. in 2019. She also started adjunct teaching at the UA that year.
In August 2023, she began creating the nontraditional, first-name-forward branding for Molly Rawn’s successful mayoral campaign.
As part of a team of small businesses, Jacobs is working on a multiyear rebranding of the Razorback Greenway, which includes redesigning wayfinding, digital tools and signs along the 40-mile trail. She has created branding for Maxine’s Taproom, Northwest Arkansas Pride, and Block Street Block Party. Other clients include HFA, Experience Fayetteville and area entrepreneurs.
“The bread and butter of most of my business and revenue is small restaurants, bars, house painters, the guy who fixes your A/C — that kind of close, personal work,” she said. “All of these small businesses are businesses who I’m working with monthly or quarterly or that come around a couple times a year.”
In the coming years, she plans to continue working on projects that matter.
As a volunteer, she does pro bono work for nonprofits such as Northwest Arkansas Jazz Society and Northwest Arkansas Equality. She enjoys jazz, gardening and her screened-in porch.