Nick Haas hails from Cleveland Ohio and has been calling Chicago his home since 1998 when he moved to the city to attend DePaul University’s graphic design program. As a child, Haas became fascinated with comic books and the way typography, layout, color, and design, came together to tell stories but it was in Chicago that he developed the foundations of design that allowed him to build a career that has spanned over the last two decades.
Since then, Nick Haas has worked in a wide range of industries — designing for clients like William Morris Endeavor, Loews Hotels, Random House, DigitasLbi, and Keller Williams, leading design at various agencies, to currently being Director of Design for the consulting firm PwC’s Products and Technology team.
Growing up in Cleveland, Haas was surrounded by a post-industrial landscape that today continues to influence the personal work that he does under his company, Haastyle, which is where he produces large-format urban artwork that pays tribute to Chicago’s industrial environments — he explores the city through a beginner’s mind that allows him to continuously get reacquainted with the everyday world.
His artist statement is
The urban environment fascinates me. I love the everyday objects- buildings, power lines, cars, train tracks- for their complexity and function. We co-exist with them, yet take them for granted and they go unnoticed. We interact with these objects every day but overlook the role they play in defining the city’s appearance. This idea inspires much of my artwork. To create these pieces,I shoot large format digital photographs and bring them together in a digital environment. Each collage takes the individual objects out of their normal context and places them into one that more clearly expresses the beauty of the urban landscape’s form, color, and structure.
His aim is to explore Chicago’s urban, desolate, and industrial landscapes — photographing the subdued and often ignored, subject matter such as decaying buildings, bridges, warehouses, and so forth. His work functions as contemplative artifacts that invite the viewer to take in the beauty through an alternative lens.
And although Haas has been in Chicago for over two decades, he continues to approach the vernacular of the city, finding inspiration everywhere.
In our latest podcast, we explore the evolution of the design discipline, ways to balance professional and personal creative practices, places in the city from which he draws inspiration, and general life advice.
Follow Nick Haas on Instagram.
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