Andrew’s life for the past 30 years has been the “world of paper!” He worked 25 years for Unisource/Veritiv Paper Company as Director of Specification Sales servicing the Chicago Design and Print markets. In 2018 he launched his own unique paper consulting business -Resource Engine Group- continuing to service the creative community of Chicago.
Betsy is a type designer and might be an artist. They enjoy drawing type that is swirly and curly. They also like spending money they don’t have on records, doing myriad crafts, and contemplating what makes a letter a letter.
Bunky Pop Sleigh Bells One time I listened to this song 8 times in a row
Cheryl Bever, Creative Catalyst at Tandem Creative Works, brings 20+ years of design expertise to her Chicago studio. As a leader & community builder at the CGDC, she believes creativity isn’t just work, it’s how she approaches everything from client collaborations to everyday life.
Utz Cheese balls The best!
Jimmy’s Pizza NY style and oh so good
Fritos Can pretty much go on anything
Red velvet cupcakes But honestly any cake will do
Stickers Send them my way
Antique/thrift/resale stores Always looking for treasure
Midnight Burger (audio drama podcast) You can thank me later
Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me tapings Current events have never been so funny. They do their podcast tapings at the Studebaker Theater every Thursday.
Son’s baseball games Is it baseball season yet?
Nature Walks There are so many great places in the city to get away.
Christian Solorzano is the founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club, a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, occasional writer, host of Underscore, educator at DePaul University, and a ton of other stuff. His practice explores the intersection of contemplative awareness and creativity.
1. Embrace the concept of not-knowing
2. Details always matter
3. Sometimes do the opposite of what you normally would do
Designer, café founder, former musician, candid photographer, and new father. Drawn to experimentation before explanation following instinct first, then rationalizing later. Interested in identity and the quiet addiction of self-improvement. Believes design lives everywhere, whether as a graphic or in the way you move through space. Trusts that growth comes from trying, noticing, and refining, and that sometimes you are the through line.
David is a designer, educator, husband, and father. You can find him most often at One Design, and on the occasional evening at DePaul University. For reasons he still can’t quite explain, David was embarrassed to listen to music until his sophomore year of high school. He’s been making up for lost time ever since by obsessively collecting sounds he finds interesting?”sounds his wife often refers to “pennies rattling in a can.”
She is an associate professor of design and design futurist at DePaul University, where her work explores design fiction, technology, and civic engagement. She serves on the board of directors for DePaul’s Institute for Business Ethics and is particularly interested in exploring design improv.
Designer as Civic Specialist Designing the structures of public life including policy, participation, and shared governance.
Designer as Worldbuilder Giving form to possible worlds so we can see, question, and choose among them.
Designer as Digital Sovereignty Advocate Protecting human agency and freedom in digital systems shaped by power, and platforms.
Designer as Futurist Practicing foresight to help societies sense what is emerging and what might be avoided.
Designer as Ethicist Providing insights on care, responsibility, and attention into design decisions.
Designer as Provocateur Creating scenarios that unsettle certainty and invite difficult, necessary conversations.
Designer as Mediator Holding space between disciplines, cultures, and communities to create shared understanding.
Designer as Inventor Turning ideas into reality through experimentation, prototyping, and enterprise.
Designer as Performer Using play, improvisation, and storytelling to teach adaptability and collaboration.
Designer as Re-wilder Designing less, removing excess, slowing systems, and making space for non-human life and simpler ways of being.
Reading and scrapbooking have become a healthy break from screen time. What Johnny enjoys most about reading is taking notes along the way. This allows him to handwrite again, which has surprisingly become more challenging after years of constant typing.
Michal is a designer at IDEO, lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, founder of Studiobema collaborative, and a company member at Trap Door Theatre. He is known to on-occasion hide vinyl record purchases from his husband and pretend that “no, yeah, we always had an extensive collection of Skinny Puppy albums, and you’ll love them I’m sure.”
SHADY REST Pilsen, amazing curation, limited editions, fantastic community DJ events
SIGNAL RECORDS Logan Square, absolute alt gems, Japanese imports and more
RECKLESS RECORDS Wicker Park, Lakeview and Loop, the OGs, best bag design ever
SHUGA RECORDS Wicker Park / Logan Square, great murals and vibe
WAX TRAX! Online, but based in Chicago, perfect for that 1990s Industrial fix
Nick Adam is Design Director and Associate Partner at Span. His work treats identity as civic infrastructure?”building systems for cities, culture, and communities that earn trust and create belonging.
HELP STOP HATE With Help Stop Hate, we helped state policy choose people first.
ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS With the Illinois Department of Human Rights, our work is helping truth outrun polish and lead nationally.
SLOW & LOW With Slow & Low, our design became memory infrastructure, not decoration.
ASPIRE At Aspire, we helped a closed West Side school reopen as possibility and history find a voice.
SOUTH SIDE HOME MOVIE PROJECT From the South Side Home Movie Project, Jacqueline Stewart helped us see archives aren’t nostalgia?”they’re authorship.
ILLINOIS HUMANITIES With Illinois Humanities, we’re helping public culture survive a funding cut?”and refuse to shrink.
POETRY FOUNDATION With the Poetry Foundation, we were asked not to explain the work, but help it move. KOHL CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Working with Kohl Children’s Museum, we’re learning design for kids isn’t about play?”it’s about empowerment.
FIRST LADY CRUISE REBRAND With First Lady cruise rebrand, the world meet Chicago again as it was voted 3rd greatest experience in the U.S.
Nick Rissmeyer (b. 1994) is a graphic designer based in Chicago (formerly Richmond VA) with a focus on identity design and motion. Currently at One Design Company. Big fan of riffs.
RASPBERRY MOON Hotline TNT The best guitar music out right now. From Nineteen in Love to Cartwheel to Raspberry Moon it seems like it’s impossible for these guys to write a bad song. Every single track could be a single. It’s so catchy and so fun to listen to.
NO SCOPE Crushed Indie pop alternative that will make you hit play again right as it ends. Bre Morell’s (Temple of Angels) vocals are unbelievable. Really cool aesthetic that extends from the music to the merch and packaging doing the Y2k and 90’s thing in an actually cool way. Standout tracks: cwtch, oneshot, weaponx
LAST LEG OF THE HUMAN TABLE Cloakroom Indie rock staples. 5 ish records in and they’ve made a masterpiece. Feels like the most mature and focused version of their sound. Awesome stuff.
THE BERRIES The Berries Folk Rock king. I’ve been a huge Matt Berry head since hearing the Big Bite 2016 tour tape and truly the guy can do no wrong. The guitars sound incredible here, the lyrics are so good, shit is speaking to my soul I’m telling you. Standout track: Run You Down
IF NOT WINTER Wisp Super hooky shimmery shoegaze dream pop. Production sounds insane. Every song is great here but Save me now and Serpentine had a grip on me for a few months in March.
SEEN ENOUGH Spy SPY is my favorite current hardcore band and this 6 song 10 minute EP is the best distillation of their sound so far. Makes you want to stomp and kick in various directions.
LOTTO They Are Gutting a Body of Water Awesome loud alt rock weird guitar music. Rocks.
SUPERHEAVEN Superheaven Revived by TikTok (very strange but congrats) and 10 years later still writing some of the best rock songs of this generation. Sounds of Goodbyes, Long Gone, Stare at the Void, Next Time, track after track bangers. Love to see this band get the recognition they deserved in 2013.
DANCE FINITE Dance of Days This just came out December 1st but is SO up my alley and reminds me of Lust for Youth and Night Sins and all the synth, dancey kind of post punk/new wave stuff I love. Script of the Bridge inspired album cover too.
BLEED Bleed Late 90’s early 2000’s Nu metal alt rock revival at its absolute best. Cool logo. Standout track: Marathon.
Honorable mentions that didn’t fit: Baptized in the Gutter ?” Mongrel God in Drag ?” You Wish new Momma record ?” and that Fugitive single.
Nicolette brings strategic clarity to brands in transition. After 14 years building marketing systems, she still gets excited about the perfect pen, a tasty cocktail, and museums that shift perspective. Chicago-based. Founder of Do It Better Design.
Concert Thee Sacred Souls Millennium Park One for the memory books?”a breezy June evening, wind blowing through Millennium Park, Chicago at its finest.
Film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives Apichatpong Weerasethakul As seen at the Siskel: a meditative contemplation on life, memory, and the liminal space in between.
Album Horizon Resavoir Resavoir’s latest collaboration puts you right at the lake. Chicago jazz to soundtrack golden hour perfectly.
Book Honeymoons in Temporary Locations Ashley Shelby Discovered at Aspen Ideas Chicago, the world-building in this book is nothing short of transportive.
Fashion FELT Bucktown A destination for the best fashions in the city?” including Fashion Brand Company (fave brand of the year).
Coffee Bueno Days Little Village Their ‘Made Possible by Immigrants’ merch makes the statement we need right now. A memorable menu you won’t find anywhere else.
Restaurant Pilsen Yards Pilsen Comfortable, consistent, and the best service in town. Their Oscar Valentin cocktail always hits the spot.
Office supplies Topdrawer Wicker Park I would be lost without their Grand Voyageur refill pages keeping my thoughts in order.
Exhibition SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change Chicago Architecture Biennial Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork’s Variations in Mass, Nos. 5, 6, 7 stopped me in my tracks. Spatial poetry?”on view through Feb 2026.
Conference Shapeshift Summit: Responsible AI Institute of Design at IIT Where AI practitioners wrestled with actual responsibility, not just capability. Thought-provoking, experiential, timely.
Patrick has been in the branding, digital, advertising, design, marketing or whatever people are calling this business these days for over 20 years. That length of time in this profession would have broken most people’s spirits, and maybe even their will to live, but somehow Patrick carries on. Call it the luck of the Irish, or just a glutton for punishment, Patrick actually enjoys this business, the creative process, and the people. Well, most of the people anyway. He’s thankful for the creative industrial complex because his options are limited; too short for the NBA, never quite mastered the Phrygian Dominant Scale on his guitar, and any opportunity to become Pope has already passed him by.
Formerly the design director of Thirst/ Chicago. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario. Today, Valicenti is sharing a handful of projects with friends and is the recipient of the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design.
1. In 2025 I re-discovered time in my little studio filled with the sounds of Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal while Winnie and Coco, our two poodles, sleep by my side.
Suzie Shin is a Korean-American designer, educator, and artist based in Chicago. Her practice is based in an analog-to-digital process, where handmade sketches become the foundation for larger-scale projects. The heart of her work is a love for color, play, and rhythm.
NEWBERRY LIBRARY ARCHIVES A beautiful and historical building. When you schedule a visit to the archives, ask to see a sampling of the postcard collection.
GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY Particularly lovely to visit in the dead of winter. I suggest bringing a sketchbook or that film camera you never use.
MYOPIC BOOKS An excellent place to get lost and kill time. I usually look for the most dusty and unloved photography books. (They are perfect for collage!)
UNCLE MIKE’S PLACE Enjoy a hearty Filipino breakfast ?“ I usually order a full skirt steak, medium rare. Make sure to appreciate the tiles on the wall. I need to find them or recreate them!
PALMISANO (HENRY) PARK Walk to the top of the hill and lay out on a picnic mat. See the skyline and think about how much you love Chicago.
POETRY FOUNDATION Find some peace and quiet in the library/reading room. Certainly a space for focus, ideation, and writing.
INGA BOOKSHOP Small, cozy space that features self-published and independently distributed artists’ books.
TEXTILE DISCOUNT OUTLET A magical building with a million rooms and floors. Head to the scrap bins and try not to fall in.
Tanner Woodford is a Chicago-based designer, museum founder, and optimist. His work blends community, typography, and storytelling. He believes design can make everyday life a little better.
