Employee Highlight: Emily Burke, Graphic Designer
This month we sat down with Emily Burke, our Graphic Designer from our Creative Services team.
Emily is the first designer on IDEKO's Creative Services team led by Will Brockmeyer. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 2016 with a BFA in Communication Design, then worked in galleries, interior design, and, most recently, for HelloFresh. Informing her design and communication skills are her performing arts background, her flair for the dramatic, and her infinite passion for pop culture. Emily’s expertise has been instrumental in the success of our creative projects and we are very lucky to have her on our team!
Why did you choose IDEKO?
I chose IDEKO because our creative arm is so fresh. I was given a rare opportunity to learn the ropes of a completely new (to me) industry from the ground up. The vibe here is also unlike any place I've ever worked. Corporate America can be really nefarious—usually, companies will refer to their team as 'family' in order to take advantage of their employees, but at IDEKO everything is highly personal and there's a genuine camaraderie between each of us. I've found real mentorship here, which is unfortunately difficult to find once you graduate college.
What do you love the most about Creative?
That's a tough one! In terms of Creative Services, my favorite part is when we get an RFP and gather in a room and throw ideas at each other while super caffeinated. At this stage in my career, it's such a rare treat to play a role that involves other people listening to my ideas, haha. We'll talk it out casually and respectfully, with a dash of jokes and comically terrible ideas. Sometimes the comically terrible ideas end up being the most viable and impactful ones, then they wind up in a deck for a client, and it's like... Whoa. My perspective has value.
What inspires you?
I'm more inspired by wants than needs these days. Working in the private sector, scrolling through Instagram, being sold stuff, while also selling things in the form of pitching... it kind of defines my life in 2020. Artifice, self-image, vanity, all things shallow and maybe slightly evil, I find fascinating. We're all selling something.
Who is a creative mind that you admire the most?
I'm a huge fan of composer Daniel Lopatin, a/k/a Oneohtrix Point Never. I'll start by saying he's the deadbeat dad of Vaporwave- he brought that musical style to life, then basically gave it up for memetic adoption by the internet, as he had way bigger fish to fry. His music is like atmospheric rock and roll for nerds--these sonic landscapes that defy the parameters of electronic composition. It's not magic, he's been playing music for decades, experimenting, putting the work in, and I admire that because I have a difficult time earnestly focusing on anything, ever.
This is kind of lame to admit, but he's appeared in a lot of my dreams as a figure representing artistic ingenuity without ego- his stuff is so studied and esoteric, in stark contrast to the consumerism and narcissism that usually inspires me. He's a renaissance man who can make a 17-minute ambient soundscape, score multiple films, then turn around and put out these hyper-grunge cyber-pop bangers. My favorite album of his is Garden of Delete- I've connected with it on every possible level, from his augmented reality website to the made-up band and cast of characters that 'inspired' the album. I make it a priority to see him every time he comes to NYC. I could talk longer and give more specific examples, but we don't have the time. I have a project to work on!