We work with teams, communities, and organizations to cut through the noise, build real coalitions, and make good ideas actually happen.
New ideas are the starting point. With a healthy dose of smart strategy and boldness, we love complex problems and move forward with purpose.
We aren't going to drop in with a slide deck and leave. Instead we want to work alongside you. Let us sort through the hard stuff. We'll stick with it until the job's done right.
We think branding is the story people tell about you when you're not in the room. So shaping that story is really important. From logo to voice to how you show up everywhere.
We are not fans of the one-size-fits-all answers. If you're growing a coalition or launching a statewide initiative, let's craft a plan that fits, and let's make sure it actually works.
"We work with teams and communities to turn shared goals into progress."
Southwind Collective is a Kansas-based LLC founded by Keith Lawing and Tim Huggins. We bring together strategy, creativity, and genuine partnership to help organizations. Grassroots coalitions to state-level initiatives... We accomplish things that actually matter.
Our approach is shaped by where we come from: integrity, hard work, and a deep commitment to community.
Meet the Guys →We bring digital strategy, community insight, and creative thinking to organizations that need all three.
We bring clarity to complex situations. Whether you're growing a coalition, launching a campaign, or trying to make a strategic plan, we help you chart a course that's clear, actionable, and built for real-world conditions.
We start by listening. We want to hear from people, data, and context. Every project begins with curiosity.
Smart, flexible plans rooted in real-world conditions.
We don't hand off a document and disappear. We have skin in your game and will stay with you through delivery.
As we said, branding is the story people tell about you when you're not in the room. Let's shape that story from visual identity to voice to every touchpoint. Award-winning work, rooted in your reality.
Let's uncover who you are, who you serve, and what makes you genuinely different.
Logos, color systems, type, and assets built to work together and last.
We make sure the brand works everywhere: print, digital, presentations, merch.
Let us help your teams communicate and deliver. We bring structure, clarity, and follow-through to complex projects. We've worked on projects from public initiatives to private campaigns. We keep things on track so you can focus on what matters.
We define what done looks like and build a realistic roadmap to get there.
Stakeholders aligned, meetings useful, progress visible — always.
Accountable to outcomes, from start to finish.
We design digital experiences for communities (not just users). "Clarity over cleverness." and "Accessibility over aesthetics". Real-world testing against real-world conditions. We know rural Kansas. We design for it.
We study who your users actually are — bandwidth, devices, literacy, context.
Clean, clear, fast. Built to work even where connectivity is limited.
We measure what works and improve from there (no disappearing acts).
Strategists, creatives, and problem-solvers rooted in Kansas values: integrity, hard work, and community (proud midwesterners!).
Keith Lawing spends his career turning shared goals into results that show up in people's lives — better jobs, stronger regional economies, and coalitions that actually hold together. He is Co-Founder and Strategy & Consulting Lead at Southwind Collective, a Kansas-based firm he co-founded in 2025 that helps organizations and communities cut through the noise, build real partnerships, and get good ideas across the finish line.
He also serves as President and CEO of the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, a role he has held since 2012 after seven years as Executive Director. He leads a team of more than 50 employees and a $10 million annual budget, directing federal, state, and local workforce strategy across a six-county region. Under his leadership, the Workforce Alliance has secured more than $50 million in grant funding since 2007 and been honored with the United Way Spirit of Caring Award (2015, 2017, 2018) and national recognition from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Keith also serves as Senior Administrator for the Regional Economic Area Partnership (REAP), a coalition of South Central Kansas cities and counties working to strengthen the region's economy through joint action.
Keith's influence extends well beyond his own organizations. In 2023, Governor Laura Kelly appointed him to the Wichita State University Board of Trustees, and he has twice been appointed to the Governor's Education Council (2017, 2019). He serves on the Greater Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors and its Government Relations Committee, on the Greater Wichita Area Partnership's Executive Board (following seven years on its Strategic Advisory Team, 2018–2025), and on the board of the Kansas Business Roundtable — adding to a long record of civic service that has included the Wichita Transit Advisory Board, the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board, the Wichita Area Outlook Team, the Mid Kansas American Red Cross Board, and the Wichita Historic Preservation Board. The Wichita Business Journal named him to its 2024 class of Executives of the Year, and the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs named him its Alumnus of the Year.
What ties it together is a consistent set of strengths: strategic planning that survives contact with the real world, coalitions built to last rather than exist on paper, and the policy fluency to move projects through government, business, and community stakeholders alike. It's an approach shaped by where he's from — Kansas values of integrity, hard work, and genuine partnership.
Keith holds a Master of Public Administration from the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs at Wichita State University and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Kansas.
Tim Huggins has spent his career making complicated things easy to understand. He is Co-Founder, Creative Director, and Project Manager at Southwind Collective, where he leads brand, story, and design. He stewards projects from sketch to launch. Somebody has to remember the deadline, and it's usually him.
He has been a professional graphic designer and marketing consultant for 37 years through his own studio, Tim Huggins, LLC. Along the way he has built presentations, brands, and motion graphics for companies like Workday, Salesforce, HP, Okta, and Nutanix. His toolkit runs from PowerPoint and Photoshop to Illustrator and After Effects. He also writes his own front-end code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a little PHP), so what gets designed is what gets built. He hand-codes his websites, which is either a strength or a stubborn streak. Probably both.
At Southwind Collective, Tim's job is to make sure good ideas look as credible as they are. That means messaging, websites, and the visual polish that helps a proposal or a pitch hold its own.
Tim has also been a professional musician for 40 years. He spent most of that time as a bassist, doing session work, making records, and playing in more bands than he can count on ten hands. Professional music taught him the same things that matter in client work: show up prepared, listen to the people you're working with, and make the whole thing sound better than the sum of its parts.
He was born and raised in Kansas, with roots that go back 5 generations. He lives in Kansas City.
I've never worked with a team that listened so closely and delivered so effectively.
Southwind (Collective) helped us cut through the noise and focus on what really mattered to our community.
Smart, strategic, and genuinely collaborative. They made the hard stuff feel possible.
Their clarity and creativity took our project to the next level.
You brought the kind of direction we'd been missing.
Whether you have a project in mind, a problem to solve, or just want to explore, reach out. No pressure, no pitch (unless you want one). Let's talk. No big whoop.