YOUR PROBLEM-SOLVING PARTNER

EMILY YAHN

In January 2016, the last thing on Emily Yahn’s agenda was starting a design business. But being unemployed, seven months pregnant, and holding a mortgage on a new home changed her future. Emily launched Tangible Designs with nothing but a vision, a laptop, and pregnancy insomnia.

Thanks to her diverse background and extensive experience, Emily delivers work equal to high-quality agencies while running a lean operation that will not bloat a client’s budget. Her clients want a partner who is collaborative, creative, and strategic — and who is also highly responsive, affordable, and focused on quality results. Tangible Designs is a small, woman-owned business.

Emily holds a BFA in Graphic Design from James Madison University and brings more than 20 years of experience in branding and design. Her expertise spans marketing and promotion, creative direction, user experience, and technical design for both digital and print media. Throughout her career she has launched new products and campaigns, revitalized established brands, and translated complex ideas into clear, compelling visuals.

She has worked with a wide range of clients including large national corporations, small owner-operated business, government organizations, and non-profits. Before starting Tangible Designs, Emily worked at Ketchum Public Relations and Advertising in San Francisco where she designed for major national brands including Chase Credit Cards, Clorox, ConAgra, DIRECTV, Ghirardelli, Häagen-Dazs, Kikkoman, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Notable contributions include introducing umami to professional chefs for Kikkoman, launching the Clorox Bleach Pen, growing DIRECTV’s restaurant-sector subscriber base, and debuting Ghirardelli’s intense dark chocolate line. Emily art-directed photoshoots, collaborated with top illustrators, and contributed to new-business pitches.

In the Washington, DC, area, Emily was the art director at KSA-Plus Communications in Arlington, VA, where she specialized in education-related and non-profit communications design for clients such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DC Public Schools, and the U.S. Department of Education. Emily crafted brand identities for new programs and re-branded already established organizations by developing concepts for logos, marketing collateral, data visualizations, infographics, email campaigns, and complex websites built from the ground up.

Emily is a certified Small, Woman-Owned business with the State of Virginia.