A graphic designer who taught at two Big Apple colleges was found dead with bruising to her neck inside her apartment about a block from Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery Tuesday – and investigators are probing her death as suspicious, cops and sources said. 

Claudia Brandenburg, 58, was lying in bed unconscious and unresponsive inside her co-op apartment on Prospect Park West near 17th Street when her husband found her and called 911 around 7:45 a.m., authorities and sources said. 

Brandenburg — a part-time assistant professor at the New School’s Parsons School for Design since 2002, and an adjunct professor at NYU Steinhardt School of Art and Art Professions since 2015, according to her LinkedIn page — was pronounced dead by first responders, police said. 

Brandenburg had “markings” on her neck and bloodshot eyes, leading investigators down the road of potential foul play, the sources said.

Her official cause of death will be determined by the city medical examiner’s office, authorities said.

This is from Erin Johnson, Undergraduate Director of Studio Art in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University.
“She was loved by her students and colleague,” said Erin Johnson, undergraduate director of Studio Art at Steinhardt.

“She brought warmth, rigor, and excitement to the possibilities of the relationship between design and fine art. She was a true inspiration to her students,” Johnson said of Bradenburg. “She’s irreplaceable and will be lovingly remembered by every student who had the opportunity to work with her.”

A neighbor told The Post that residents of the four-story building on the mixed residential and commercial block were puzzled by the news of Brandenburg’s death.

“I don’t know what really happened,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified and described Brandenburg as a “very nice lady.”

“She was a force of nature. She was the president of our co-op.” 

“I was out when the cops came,” the resident said. “When I came back, they were knocking on everyone’s door. They were asking if we knew her or if we heard any strange sounds.” 

“Everyone is just hoping that it’s natural causes.” 

Brandenburg was the founder of a graphic design studio called Language Arts, according to her LinkedIn.

A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Brandenburg previously worked for Bureau NY, The New York Times Magazine, and Architecture magazine, according to the networking page.