School of Art, Media, and Technology

BFACD Alumni Feature: Melisa Ozkan

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Branding and identity proposal for developer Antoine Germain. Inspired by how markup languages are written. Worked on during my time at Untitled—Paris.

After graduating from Parsons in 2013, alumna Melisa Ozkan started working at Federation, a design studio in Istanbul. While she was working full time, she got accepted to SVA’s two year graduate program MFA Design / Designer As Author + Entrepreneur. In the summer, she had the opportunity to experience the graphic design industry in France while interning at Untitled-Paris. She is currently working at Pentagram for partner Michael Gericke.

Brand identity for Kinoscope, an independent film organization at The New School. Kinoscope’s visual identity started as my undergraduate thesis project at Parsons, I have continued to work on it ever since. It is based on the idea of moving away from promoting films with photography and film stills.

What were your favorite classes at Parsons?

My favorite classes were Thesis with Ken Meier and Spatial Graphics with Isaac Gertman.

What did you wish you knew as a student that you know now?

Do not hesitate to reach out to people when it comes to job opportunities or advice.

Designer’s Cut, a website that explores how film can inspire and influence graphic designers. Graduate thesis project at SVA MFA Design.

Who do you look up to in the design community?

There are so many designers I appreciate.

To name a few: Erich Brechbühl, the designers of Experimental Jetset and Project Projects.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

I have been very lucky to have been exposed to the graphic design culture of some of the most exciting creative cities: Istanbul, Paris and New York.

Each designer I have worked with has taught me values that I will carry with me throughout my career.

We were asked by Stephen Doyle to design something that communicates information but also transmits a “feel” for the subject, for his class at MFA Design, School of Visual Arts. For this project; I decided to re-design the poster for Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi’s The Tribe.

 

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