The Chicago Graphic Design Club thanks you for making 2024 a year of community, belonging, and design. We look forward to continuing our mission of building a positive culture within the theory, craft, and practice of graphic design.
As Founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club, I feel immense pride and joy to see our community grow and evolve. When I started the CGDC, the goal was to have it simply be a book club (originally, it was called the Chicago Graphic Design Book Club) but shortly thereafter, we saw opportunities to create programming that is relevant and leads to thoughtful conversations that shape and inform the language of graphic design across our lives and practices. It’s an honor to serve Chicago and connect with many of you. And I look forward to more more more.
The year began with a tour of Design B&B, followed by our first live book discussion panel at DePaul University. We also published our first publication, Faculty, which exceeded our expectations both in sales and support from the community. Our friend, Rick Valicenti, gave us a private (and intimate) virtual tour of his studio, which consisted of show-and-tell stories and a Q&A with attendees. We also kicked off our social-hours series, which consisted of monthly designer meet-ups throughout the city. We also welcomed Mother Design for a lecture where they discussed their process and perspective on design shaping culture.
This Summer, we hosted (and quickly sold out) our first Portfolio Review in collaboration with Chicago’s design leaders, who participated as reviewers. In June, our friend Jackson of Okay Type gave us a tour of Chicago’s Printer’s Row history — which was followed by our participation in the Design Museum of Chicago’s Field Day at Navy Pier — where we met with hundreds of attendees and made new friends and lasting connections. We produced our first short film covering the archives of Carlos Segura. We also created our series Back to Basics, a fundamental and foundational guide to job searching in graphic design. We also released a t-shirt series that is available through our shop. And after years of wanting to have Jennifer Sterling speak with us in November, that finally turned into reality.
Overall, it was a fantastic year, and we thank everybody for their support, encouragement, and engagement. Underscore continues to grow its collection of conversations with Chicago designers (with a growing listener base across the country).
Last, thanks to the team that made this year’s programming possible — Cheryl Bever, Sean Fermoyle, Alexis Gonzalez, Jeffrey Hitches, and Hamid Alavi. They relentlessly lift their sleeves to do the work to bring our community together. You can read Alexis’ reflection on our social hours here.
