Mary Burke is a designer, artist, photographer and educator working from her studio just outside Cambridge. Her graphic design practice centres on book design and visual storytelling, often shaped by poetic imagery, rich materiality and a sensitivity to language and form.

She works with artists, writers, publishers and organisations to create books, identities and catalogues that honour the spirit of the work within.

Mary is particularly drawn to creative partnerships within the arts: experimental theatre companies, galleries, museums, magazines, fashion and music clients, independent publishers, craftspeople and record labels — anyone working at the convergence of imagination, material culture and meaning. She also brings art direction to live performances, pre and post production film projects, printed matter and cross-disciplinary projects.

Before returning to study as a mature student, Mary worked in television, PR, arts marketing, event management and community initiatives. She completed her BA in Graphic Design at Cambridge School of Art in 2018 and her MA in Graphic Design & Typography in 2023. She now teaches part time at the Cambridge School of Creative Industries at Anglia Ruskin University, teaching Graphic Design, where she encourages students to see imagination as central to creative practice and how materiality can enhance the lived experience in harmony with the digital.

Alongside design, Mary is a painter and photographer - many pieces of her design work include her photography. Her large-scale paintings explore the relationship between gesture, process and form, while her photographic work quietly documents light, stillness and everyday beauty.

Across disciplines, she approaches each project with care, curiosity and an openness to the unexpected.