Denise Sommer
Denise Sommer is the co-owner and creative director of Ahoy Studios, a boutique multidisciplinary design studio with offices in New York City and Zurich. Over a 25-year career in design, she has progressed from a young designer to majority owner, cultivating a reputation for thoughtful, mission-driven work. Denise specializes in multidisciplinary design, branding, and digital platforms, with a focus on conceptual and cross-medium solutions that amplify the impact of nonprofits, cultural institutions, and global organizations. Under her leadership, Ahoy Studios has executed projects for the United Nations, The Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Conservation International, earning recognition from Graphis, Print Magazine, and the Art Directors Club.
A graduate of Parsons School of Design, Denise studied in both Paris and New York, where she discovered her passion for typography and communication design. Her career began with roles at V Magazine, Number 17 Design Studio, and Workman Publishing before she found her home at Ahoy Studios in 2006. Fluent in multiple languages and shaped by her experience as an immigrant and extensive travel, Denise brings a unique global perspective to her work, approaching design challenges with creativity, cultural awareness, and strategic insight.
Beyond her professional achievements, Denise is deeply committed to community and philanthropic initiatives. She serves in leadership roles within her children’s parent-teacher associations, acts as a portfolio reviewer for Pratt School of Design, and lectures at NYU. Her philosophy centers on “design for good,” combining creativity and purpose to produce meaningful, visually compelling work that drives social impact. Denise continues to mentor the next generation of designers, emphasizing conceptual thinking, personal style, and strategic guidance in an evolving industry shaped by AI and technological innovation.
• Parsons School of Design - Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic & Communication Design
• Multiple awards from Graphis
• Awards from Print Magazine
• Awards from Art Directors Club
• Member of AIGA - American Institute of Graphic Arts
• AIGA Leaders Group
• VP of Class Parents
• Volunteering
• And Communities at son's school PTA
• VP of Community Building and Events at child's school PTA
• Portfolio reviewer for Pratt School of Design
• Guest lecturer at NYU
What do you attribute your success to?
I think what's really been a factor for my success is being multilingual and being an immigrant, and having traveled a lot. Being open to new ideas and looking at things from different angles or different viewpoints has been incredibly important. I think that openness and curiosity that comes from exposure to different cultures and perspectives has really shaped how I approach design and problem-solving. It's allowed me to bring a unique lens to the work we do at Ahoy Studios.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
To remain curious and open-minded. Denise believes that exposure to different cultures, ideas, and disciplines strengthens creative thinking and allows designers to approach problems from new perspectives.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I really think that with AI and all the new developments, what is key is building your skill set out on conceptual thinking and really forming a point of view. It's about creating a style or a sense of style for your work - almost like branding yourself - and understanding what type of design you want to put out, what is the concept for the projects you're working on, and what is your point of view. I think this will become more and more important because as all the AI tools get better, a lot of the technical things will be able to be executed by AI. So what I think is still really important is that you have a point of view, that you have conceptual thinking, and that you can advise your clients on what the best strategy and the best look and feel for their projects is. Those are the skills that will be the most important for future careers. I will say that I was 10 years into my career excited about what a leap our industry had made in terms of inclusivity and including women and building a great career path for them, but recently I was a little frustrated how that stagnated. I thought 10 years ago we would be further along now than we are.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I'm sure you hear this answer from everybody, but I think it's both a challenge and also, in my opinion, a good challenge - it's AI. It's amazing and has made our small studio so much more efficient, and it has amazing tools, but it's developing so fast and there are so many new tools out there. It's super exciting, but it's also quite a challenge to find the right tools and make them work exactly how they should be working so that they're really efficient. For me and my team, the biggest challenge at the moment is finding the right AI tools and making them work 100% fully efficiently for our advantage. It's about learning how to harness these tools to support our creative work rather than replace it.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
What's most important to me is staying true to our mission of using design for good. I really love what my partner Connie and I have built over the last 25 years - this boutique design studio that crafts beautiful, award-winning design for nonprofit and cultural clients. We focus on global institutions while also working with very local, small institutions. What I would love to build out even more is partnering with organizations that are interested in doing work towards an even more refined look and feel in design. I want to find clients to add to our roster that have the same mission and ideas as us - to really use design to create a better place and make the mission and the work shine not just from a strategic and meaningful place, but also from a design point of view that looks beautiful. Finding that synergy even more would be my dream. On a personal level, I'm deeply involved as a mom of two, serving in leadership roles in both of my children's parent-teacher associations.