About
I help teams like startups, NGOs, cultural institutions, and companies both small and large build visual languages that make their ideas clearer without losing what makes them distinct. A lot of that work happens before I draw anything: understanding a team’s language, their constraints, their audience, and where the current approach is breaking down.
Every project starts from a different place. A different context, a different need, a different story worth telling on its own terms. That’s exactly what keeps the work exciting after 15 years of it. What stays consistent is how I show up to it: calm, a listener first, trying to understand deeply before I propose a direction. I’d rather find the right approach for a specific team than apply the same one everywhere. I also like staying close to the work as it grows. Thinking and guiding alongside a team rather than just handing off a deliverable. Mentoring where it’s useful. Building something that keeps working after I’ve moved on to the next thing. Teaching at Parsons School of Design and Rutgers University feeds the same instinct: explaining ideas clearly, listening to how they land, and adjusting until they do.
Approach →
Approach ↓
Approach ↓
I think of good design as the meeting point of intellect and imagination, where logic and creative instinct pull in the same direction. Intelligence, in that sense, means the work is functional and purposeful, grounded in a clear idea rather than surface choices.
The thinking starts with context. Before anything visual, I want to understand the audience, the constraints, the existing language, and where it breaks down. That understanding shapes everything that follows.
I work collaboratively and iteratively, moving between research, dialogue, and making, testing ideas before they’re locked in. Details matter throughout: typography, hierarchy, pacing, rhythm, color, the small decisions that accumulate into either clarity or noise. A well-built system makes the right choice the easy one: reliable for everyday communication, yet expressive when the moment calls for it. The goal is work that’s precise and durable, not just visually considered, but genuinely useful to the people who inherit it.
Resume →
Resume ↓
Resume ↓
Work Experience
Fevkalade
Founding Partner and Director
2012—Present
The Atlantic
Senior Designer
2025
ISType
Co-organizer
2019—2022
Katalist
Graphic Designer
2007—2008
Teaching Experience
The New School
Parsons School of Design
2026—Present
Rutgers University
Mason Gross School of the Arts
2025—Present
Binghamton University (SUNY)
Department of Art and Design
2022—2024
Özyeğin University
Communication Design Department
2022
Sabancı University
Visual Arts & Visual Communication Design Department
2017—2018
Education
Sabancı University
MA in Visual Arts & Visual Communication Design
2011
Yeditepe University
BA in Visual Communication Design
2007
Services →
Services ↓
Services ↓
Identity & Systems
— Brand Identity
— Brand Guidelines
— Design Systems
— Art Direction
Print & Physical
— Print/Editorial
— Packaging
— Environmental
Digital & Type
— Digital
— Type Design
Contact & Links →
Contact & Links ↓
Contact & Links ↓
emreparlak[at]gmail.com
Instagram ↗
LinkedIn ↗
