LCCA’s Subject Lead for Graphic Design is a designer, researcher, and art director for some of jazz’s biggest names.
Dr. Irem Ela Yildizeli has built a career where sound and visuals collide. A designer and art director with more than 50 album packages to her name, she’s worked with world-leading jazz musicians and labels from New York to London all while shaping the next generation of designers at LCCA.
“Music has always been an inseparable part of my life,” she says. Raised in a musical family and trained in classical guitar, Irem found her creative home in Graphic Arts, where she began blending audio and imagery through motion graphics and video work.
Her deep passion for jazz drew her into the global jazz scene in 2013, eventually leading to long-standing collaborations with HighNote and Savant Records. Since then, she’s crafted album identities for Grammy-winning pianist Alan Broadbent, producer-turned-jazz-drummer Richard Baratta, and many more.
One of her most touching projects was a posthumous album for Grammy-nominated pianist Larry Willis. After his passing, Irem reimagined the artwork as a grove of trees formed from piano keys as a visual tribute to his final session and legacy.
Another favourite project was Going For It by Harvie S Trio, a rediscovered recording from the1980s that inspired Irem to turn tangled cassette tape into hand-drawn instruments across the album design. “Each project feels like entering a new creative universe,” she says.
For Irem, design is an identity, not just a skill, and that’s exactly how she teaches. “My goal is to help students become designers, not just learn software,” she explains.
Under her leadership, students have:
- attended talks with industry creatives
- visited world-renowned design studio Pentagram
- showcased typographic research across London
- prepared entries for D&AD New Blood, one of the world’s biggest design competitions
This year, she’s also expanding the typography exhibition internationally and launching a cross-disciplinary collaboration with the London College of Contemporary Music, mirroring the real-world partnerships she navigates as an art director.
Alongside teaching, she’s preparing the English edition of her PhD book Finding Eve and currently art-directing Griot with acclaimed jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.
“I feel most alive when I’m discovering new sounds, people, and ideas,” she says. “Working across design, music and education allows me to share that energy with students and help them find their own creative voice.”
