Bill Ford
Senior Lecturer
Bill Ford teaches JOUR 2200, Applied Design for Journalists, and is the Director of SWOOP, the student-managed advertising and public relations agency in the Mayborn School.
Education:
Ford earned his BS in Commercial Art at Eastern New Mexico State University and his MS at Texas A&M-Commerce.
Experience:
Bill Ford joined the Mayborn School faculty in 2011 after serving as a Visiting Associate Professor in the College of Visual Arts and Design where he taught classes in Art Direction, Art Direction Portfolio, and Design Thinking. He also taught at UNT in the CVAD as an Adjunct Lecturer for nine years from 1989 – 98.
Prior to reconnecting with UNT, Ford taught in the MFA Graduate program at Texas A&M-Commerce as a Lecturer and Adjunct Lecturer. Ford served as an Executive-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University where he taught advertising, and where he was distinguished as a HOPE Professor, one of 50 nominated by students, for three years in a row while at SMU. He also coached the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team for four years, taking the team to the national finals in 2006.
Prior to academe, Ford was a Creative Director for Luminant Worldwide, an Internet solutions company, where he served as Creative Director for clients such as aa.com (American Airlines), hilton.com (Hilton Hotels), and containerstore.com (The Container Store) to name a few. At Luminant, he was directly responsible for oversight of design, content, project management, and site architecture of projects, and successfully presented concepts to clients. His groundbreaking ideas for aa.com have set standards for the travel industry, and his direction for The Container Store successfully brought them into e-commerce.
Ford was the owner of his own advertising/graphic design agency in Dallas for 15 years where he worked on clients such as Southwest Airlines, Frito Lay, and Disney, as well as many local companies. During this time, Ford served as president of both the Dallas Society of Visual Communications (DSVC) and the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA).
Ford is also owner of The Positioning Center, which specializes in brand positioning and competitive marketing strategy. These elements, he feels, are the main compass points for the road map of success for a company.
As a side interest, Bill is a blues singer in a popular local band, ”Bona Fide Blues.”