This month, The Ivy Group welcomed Emily Burlingame to the team. We sat down with her to find out why.

Your official title is Design & Social Media Specialist. What does that mean, exactly?

It means that I handle the visual components of social media marketing. I'm lucky because, at The Ivy Group, I also have the opportunity to tackle bigger graphic design projects and some copywriting here and there.

Cool! So what's your background?

I majored in fashion design at Virginia Commonwealth University and then worked with a couple of start-ups in Richmond. That helped me hone an interest in brand identity and storytelling. Be-fore moving to Charlottesville I spent a year at sweetFrog Headquarters, where I managed the sweetFrog social media accounts and learned how photoshop pink backgrounds onto everything.

What do you like about social media marketing?

For me, social media marketing is kind of like solving a puzzle. You want to put together the right visuals and copy that get your audience's attention and combine that with strategic targeting and posting. I love the challenge of crafting an image and caption that will not just get a click-through but that will set the brand above the rest. I'm all about creative problem-solving.

What do you like about graphic design?

Honestly, I just love beautiful things. I never stop doodling and I love learning new graphic programs. It's just like fine-tuned playtime for me.

What's your childhood dream?

My childhood dream was and still is to write and illustrate my own books. I read plenty of age-appropriate books, but I also have a growing collection of children's books and graphic novels.