Özlem Yalım

Born in Ankara, Özlem Yalım graduated from METU Industrial Design with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1995. Since 2001, she has been living and working in Istanbul.

Throughout her career, she has worked across product design, spatial design, exhibition design, brand strategy, corporate communications and creative industries. After co-founding Kilit Taşı Mimarlık, she held senior roles at Terminal Design, Adressistanbul and Koleksiyon, focusing on project management, product development, design and brand direction.

In 2009, she proposed the idea of the Istanbul Design Biennial to İKSV and later realized it as Biennial Director between 2010 and 2012. She left her role as Biennial Director in 2013 and İKSV in 2014, where she had continued to work on special projects and consultancy for BE.

She appeared on NTV’s Türk Mucit in 2007 and was named among “Turkey’s 50 Most Creative People” by TurkishTime in 2011 and 2012.

Between 2015 and 2025, she served as Strategic Brand Director at TEPTA Lighting, working with nearly 100 global brands and leading strategic positioning, international brand communication, corporate structuring, digitalization, communications and sponsorship relations.

In 2025, she founded Vanguardis Strategy and Design, where she provides consultancy in brand strategy, corporate communications, marketing communications, design and product development. She also serves on national and international design juries and is a member of the Design Management Institute, Idealist, Kerpic.org, Technocrats Association.

Since 2017, her articles on creative industries have appeared in Cumhuriyet Pazar, T24, Gazete Pencere and Gazete Duvar. Yalim currently writes weekly at Medyascope and biweekly at Cumhuriyet Newspaper.
She is also a co-author of several books, guest editor of Design Unlimited/Maestro, and presenter of Dünyayı Kurtaran Tasarım on Açık Radyo. She has published two poetry books: #özlemötesi and #yoz.