Responsibilities: Ann Johnson is the Artistic & Creative Director for the Lettuce Consulting Group. Her primary responsibilities include concept ideation, attribute development and food product stylization. Ann provides art direction through her work with concept board development, historical and social research, material selection and menu writing as well as the conceptual development of promotional and public relation project content.

Consulting Experience: Ann has been an instrumental member of the Lettuce Consulting Group's creative development team. Working in the early stages of the projects, Ann has assisted in the strategic brand positioning then directed the expression of the creative ideas by selecting and managing commercial artists, overseeing construction build-out and approving finish work. Her artistic and creative direction skills were used to position and develop such projects as a multi-national American diner concept, a fine-dining club start-up, a national casual-dining Italian chain, a QSR donut chain and an independent varied-menu casual dining chain.

Industry Experience: Ann began her career as a performing artist in New York City where she studied voice and commercial advertising. At the same time, she was the New York Director for DMA (Direct Marketing Association), an educational seminar organization teaching "Technologies for Creation," a lifestyle planning and cultural improvement program. While leading DMA's area group, she taught and facilitated hundreds of seminar participants. Ann joined LEYE as a front-of-the-house server and quickly rose to the headquarters group. For the past six years, she has served Rich Melman as an artistic director and special assistant, working on many of LEYE's new restaurant development projects. In addition, Ann has been an integral part of Rich's creative, special projects team - a particularly challenging position.

Education: Ann completed her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English and a minor in Theatre at the University of Wisconsin.