Biography

Anita Schuessler was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri, where she graduated from Joplin Junior College with a major in art and minor in business. During her college time in Joplin she worked for a Certified Public Accountant and as an accountant for an auto dealership. In 1960 she surrendered to the lure of working for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City and attending the prestigious Kansas City Art Institute at night so she could continue her art training and struck out on her own.

During her time at Hallmark she worked in the Art Department in numerous roles over the years and moved to the Public Relations Department to help with Hallmarkfree-publicity advertising. She continued her art training at night at KCAI. It was at Hallmark that she met, fell in love with and married Kipp Schuessler in 1964, a talented and prolific artist in the Contemporary Department. It was a grand era with artistic friends such as Charlie Barsotti, Bruce Cochran, Dill Cole, Mark English, Joe Isom, Russell Myers, Jim Parkinson, Mike Rokoff and many, many others.

In 1966 Anita and Kipp left Hallmark and began their own design studio with Kipp illustrating and designing for Hallmark, advertising agencies and independent companies in the Kansas City area while Anita took care of the financial end of the business. Anita began selling photography to American Greetings for their “Soft Touch” card promotions and continued the commercial photography until the birth of Ean in 1970 followed by Erik in 1972. And then the fun began.

What a challenge it was raising two extremely intelligent and artistic boys. Kipp and Anita used the philosophy of providing the boys with all the paper, pencils, paints, books, etc. that they could afford and let them do their own creations. Anita and Kipp had been heavily involved with the Kansas City Art Directors during this time in the capacity of President and Program Chairmen of the club where they met top designers, photographers and art directors from around the country. Surrounded by all these designers Ean and Erik certainly had an abundance of role models to emulate. They all had a grand life until Kipp was diagnosed with and died of cancer in 1981. After Kipp's death Anita began representing artists, writers and art directors from the East to West coast.

In 1983 Anita, Ean and Erik moved to Dallas to begin life anew. Anita started her own design studio called Electric Ink while Ean and Erik were continuing their education. In about 1990 Anita converted from traditional art to computer generated design. Through Electric Ink Anita provided clients with photography, illustration, desktop publishing and prepress handling over the years. During this time Anita joined the Electronic Graphic Artists of Dallas (EGAD) and became their Program Chairman and eventually their President for several years. When Ean and Erik were in their latter years of high school and college they worked with Anita at Electric Ink. 

Meanwhile, Ean and Erik graduated from college and began work with Novare International, later to become Brainfood, Inc. In February 1997 Anita began consulting for Novare International as a project manager and in November 1997 Anita became a full-time employee. When Marshall Weinreb moved to California in 1999, Anita took over Marshall's financial administrative role within the company. In April 2001 she was made Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary of Brainfood, Inc.

Her job entails doing whatever needs to be done to keep the employees and clients happy and make the company a success.