Program Instructors
Natalia Ilyin
guest lecturer
EmersonHarris
As co-founder and principal of EmersonHarris, a brand consultancy in Seattle, Natalia believes in the power of brand story and strategy to increase public understanding and awareness of options for social change. Whether her team is working for an innovation group at Microsoft or a tiny innovator like CyBrite, a nonprofit funding institution like NonProfit Finance Fund or a grassroots organization like Cedar River Clinics, Natalia and her co-founder Pam Heath bring focus, clarity and strategic thinking to EmersonHarris’s work in brand story, strategy and design. She is also codirector of The SisterScarf Fund, a small refugee relief-organization that provides microgrants to stateless workers on the border of Burma and Thailand.
Natalia is a writer and design critic, and has a clear understanding of the stories NGO, nonprofit and innovations clients need to tell in order to communicate clearly with clients, donors and funders. Natalia also believes in the cultural importance of the arts, and is often chosen to clarify and forward the stories of musical organizations like Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, The Kurt Weill Foundation and Mannes College.
Natalia studied literature at Dominican University before earning her MFA at Rhode Island School of Design. For her, writing and design must work together to produce clear, effective brand experiences in the public sector. In the Nineties she worked as National Director of Programs for the AIGA, and currently teaches “Design for Social Change” at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. She is Critic this year for RISD’s MFA program in graphic design, and keeps a full roster of teaching and speaking engagements around the world. Her most recent book is Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design in Our Time.
