Susan Isko
Work

About

I've led a rare double life: freelancing 17 years in international diplomacy as a simultaneous conference interpreter, alongside 12 years freelancing in the creative industry as creative director/producer, then strategist. It's been a struggle to make my nonlinear path understood and to have my creativity and intellect recognized. Today, no matter where you sit in creative or brand, the AI revolution has geopolitical and national security implications that will impact your business. A creative mind, who also comprehends those fields, is an invaluable asset. Here's my story...

Susan Isko, black and white portrait
Act I

FROM DIPLOMAT

For seventeen years I freelanced as a simultaneous conference interpreter/translator at the UN, NATO, the US State Department and the Department of Defense and other international organizations. I interpreted for heads of state in real time. I've spoken for Putin, Macron...no pressure. It was a fabulous job: far-flung corners of the world, cultural fluency, critical thinking at lightning speed. I can still tell you the shortest connection between any two airports, anywhere.

But I was always repeating the words of others. My own creative voice went unheard. Interpretation works best when it's invisible. My audacity had to stay quiet; my ambition, stifled. Late at night I caught myself thinking: "I'm not quite living the life I should be."

So I began to pivot...

Susan Isko interpreting from the booth at an international conference in Panama.
Act II

TO CREATIVE PRODUCER

I started small, producing parties on the side. They got popular enough that cultural institutions asked me to creative-direct, then festivals (Montreux Jazz, Polaris), then the sponsoring brands asked me to design their activations. That became The Inner Ear, a small production agency ("musical events for your brain") named after my most heartfelt event: a rave for Switzerland's deaf teens.

Susan Isko mid-conversation in a crowded, neon-lit club during an event.
Act III

TO CULT-STRAT EXPERIENCE DESIGNER

After covid, I went back to school to study the cognitive psychology and neuroscience behind behaviour change. I shifted from production to strategy.

A multilingual, multicultural perspective added to the behavioural lens, plus my gut instinct for problem-solving, turned out to be a rare combination in experience design (XD). That's how I became a Founding Member of the World Experience Organization, the leading global think tank on XD. I began to freelance for global brands (and their agencies) who were building experiences in several markets.

Today I work at the intersection of brand strategy, cultural theory, behavioral science and spatial storytelling. My methodology draws on Douglas Holt's cultural branding, on service design and on the cognitive psychology of memory.

I definitely have an insight kink. My safe words are "cultural semiotics," "neuroaesthetics" and "environmental psychology." You'll find me at Milan Design Week, Paris Fashion Week, Art Basel, and anywhere culture is birthing. In my spare time, I vibecode apps and sites and mentor on vibecoding because... why not?

Every day I wake up and ask myself: How am I complicit, in not getting what I say that I want?

Susan Isko signature

Susan Isko

Susan Isko in a grey leather jacket and beret, glancing back at the camera at a fashion event.

Skills

  • Cultural Strategy
  • Experience Design
  • Concept Design
  • Storytelling
  • Brand Strategy
  • PR Strategy
  • Business Development Strategy
  • Spatial Design
  • Journey Mapping
  • Environmental Psychology
  • Nudge
  • Neuromarketing
  • Cultural Semiotics
  • Cultural Intelligence