Rosanna Menza

Rosanna Menza has a passion for designing mazes – a challenge that is not only aesthetic but also rigorously intellectual. “Good design can’t just be decorative; it should be functional,” she said. “It has to solve a problem, and I love solving problems.”

Over the past three decades as a graphic designer, Rosanna has helped hundreds of clients solve their problems – engaging customers, developing brands, and achieving business goals through an array of visual tools and strategies.

“I start projects by trying to understand a client’s intentions,” she said. “Intention is everything. Intention guides mood, character and impact. Most importantly, it defines how the world sees you.”

One of Rosanna’s favorite projects in recent years was designing the logo for Gulliver’s Gate, a quirky attraction in Times Square featuring an enormous display of miniature monuments and landscapes from 50 countries around the world. Designed to inspire wonder and delight, Gulliver’s Gate unfortunately went bankrupt, but her Escheresque logo lives on.

Rosanna traces her love of graphic rigor to a childhood of puzzles, doodling, hidden-object books and playing with Lite-Brite, a toy that allows users to create pointillist designs by inserting translucent pegs into a back-lit grid. “I always knew I wanted to be a creative,” she said.

After graduating from Rutgers with a BA in Fine Arts, Design and Photography, Rosanna joined Schell /Mullaney Advertising, where she helped design ad campaigns, annual reports, packaging and collateral. Later, at Inc Design, the White Horn Group, dpgw and her own design firm, she helped develop brands, design campaigns, manage creative teams and create award-winning visuals for clients that included PepsiCo, Miele, Nickelodeon, Oxygen Media, SlimFast, Jennifer Convertible, KPMG and the Food Network, among others.

“I love what I do because every project is different,” she said. “It’s always new. And that constant challenge is satisfying.”

When she’s not helping clients solve problems, Rosanna enjoys being outdoors, playing with her miniature dachshund, designing patterns and reading voraciously. She lives in Brooklyn.