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Upcoming Events
November Social Hour
November 16 at 3PM
Social Hour
Community, kinship, and sharing.
An Evening with Jennifer Sterling
November 21 at 6PM CST
Virtual
An evening of conversation and design.
Past Programs
October Social Hour
October 29 at 6PM
West Loop
A Halloween social hour of community, pumpkin painting, and design.
October 29, 2024
Confronting Values
Examining how values impact our design craft and disciplines, our clients, our ethics, and how we define success and impact.
October 17, 2024
Design B&B • Trivia Night
Join us for a night of trivia with Design B&B.
September 12, 2024
Flag Fest
Saturday, September 7 11 – 6 PM An Outdoor Sustainable Design Festival Free & Open to the Public
September 7, 2024
Creating Francis Magazine
It’s ok to go against the sea. By having a perspective and believing in yourself, you’ll make more of an impact.
August 22, 2024
Social Hour in West Loop
Enjoy the evening breeze with the design community.
August 14, 2024
Field Day at Navy Pier
An Outdoor Sustainable Design Festival
July 27, 2024
Social Hour at The Riverwalk
Enjoy the evening breeze with the design community.
July 10, 2024
Printer’s Row • A Walking History Tour
Explored Chicago’s printing history with a guided tour by Jackson of Okay Type.
June 28, 2024
REVIEWED: A Portfolio Critique
Get your portfolio critiqued by design industry professionals in an in-person, one-on-one setting.
June 15, 2024
Social Hour at Lincoln Park
Social Hour Wednesday, June 12, 6 PM It’s finally starting to feel like summer. This social hour we’re hosting a picnic at Lincoln Park.
June 12, 2024
Harold Washington Library Center • Design Tour
This tour will focus on the 4th and 8th floor collections, with an introduction to the Maker Lab and selections from Special Collections.
May 14, 2024
Social Hour at the Game Room
Social Hour Wednesday, May 8, 6 PM CST We are back with another social hour, this time at the Game Room at the Chicago Athletic Association in the Loop.
May 8, 2024
A Wildly Incomplete Introduction to Mother Design
A presentation by design studio, Mother Design.
April 11, 2024
Social Hour at Dark Matter
A casual social hour at Dark Matter – Star Lounge in Humboldt Park.
April 10, 2024
Talking Type with Ellen Lupton
An evening of typographic storytelling with Ellen Lupton.
April 3, 2024
In the Studio with Rick
A conversation with Rick Valicenti and virtual evening of sharing and storytelling.
March 7, 2024
Faculty Release Party
A celebration of community, design, & the release of our publication, Faculty.
March 2, 2024
Feminist Designer
Discussing feminist thinking, practice, and methods within design.
February 8, 2024
On the Personal & the Political of Design
A panel discussion on the realities of doing feminist design.
February 1, 2024
Design B&B • Interactive Studio Tour
Studio Tour New year, new perspective: Why do you design?
January 18, 2024
The Chicago Graphic Design Club meets at the Art Institute
A casual art walk and social hour.
January 6, 2024
Seeing Anew: A Downtown Chicago Walking Tour
October 7, 11am Discover the hidden layers of Chicago’s iconic landmarks with a unique walking tour aimed to shift your perspective.
October 7, 2023
Studio Tour: Firebelly
September 28, 6pm A studio tour of Firebelly, a socially conscious creative studio specializing in strategic design.
September 28, 2023
Confronting Artificial Intelligence
Panel Discussion & Workshop Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly shifting how designers and creatives approach their craft and processes, but what does this actually mean?
July 13, 2023
Let’s talk about Emigre
A group discussion about Emigre’s legacy and impact on graphic design.
June 29, 2023
the chicago graphic design club meets by the lake
Social Hour An opportunity to connect with other designers, make new friends, and enjoy the warm Chicago weather.
May 27, 2023
Storytelling Through Design Methods
Lecture & Project Share Catherine Bianca shared her process designing a modular, multi-channel visual language of design methods found in everyday infrastructures.
May 24, 2023
Ways of Being
Book Discussion A virtual group discussion of the book “Ways of Being” by James Bridle.
May 4, 2023
CGDC X MNML
Tour & Art Show The Chicago Graphic Design Club tours design studio MNML and co-hosts an art show titled “Chicago’s Tomorrow, Today”.
April 14, 2023
Graphic Design Is (…) Not Innocent
A virtual group discussion of the book “Graphic Design Is (…) Not Innocent” (2022).
March 9, 2023
Talk with Michael Ellsworth of Civilization
Lecture & Conversation “Studio culture, graphic design, and collective action.”
February 23, 2023
A conversation with Mitch Goldstein
Online Conversation A conversation with designer, artist, and educator Mitch Goldstein, about all things design.
January 26, 2023
The New ID
Tour & Discussion We visit the Institute of Design to tour its 85 Years of Making the Future exhibition and learn how ID’s past and plans for the future informed the creation of their new brand identity system.
January 17, 2023
Typespace • AR-First Variable Typeface
We welcomed Brooklyn-based designer, artist, researcher, and creative technologist, Rajshree Saraf. She discussed her approach to augmented reality and what it means to rethink the fundamentals of design for a brand new media.
December 1, 2022
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future
Book Discussion 11/3/2022 | 6:00–7:00p CST Join us for a virtual group discussion of the book “Design Emergency: Building a Better Future” (2022).
November 3, 2022
Normal Studio Tour
An in-person tour of Normal, a multidisciplinary graphic design practice based in Chicago, IL.
October 6, 2022
Tanner Woodford of the Design Museum of Chicago
Tanner Woodford, Founder of the Design Museum of Chicago, shared with us the museum’s history alongside details about their latest exhibition.
September 13, 2022
Letterform Archive Virtual Private Tour
A special private virtual tour of the Letterform Archive,
September 1, 2022
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
A virtual group discussion of the book, How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul (2010)
August 11, 2022
One Design Studio Tour
An in-person tour of the Chicago design studio, One Design Company.
July 26, 2022
Design After Capitalism
Design After Capitalism author, Matthew Wizinsky, talks book alongside interactive workshop.
June 9, 2022
Ways of Seeing
A virtual group discussion of the book, Ways of Seeing (1972)
May 12, 2022
Field Trip to Starshaped Press
The Chicago Graphic Design Club tours Starshaped Press, a letterpress and design shop in Chicago.
April 23, 2022
Show Who You Are
A conversation with Carlos Segura exploring meaning and value in design.
April 21, 2022
Fragile Self • Dissected/Interpreted
Barnbrook Design discusses their new audio/visual project Fragile Self.
March 17, 2022
Baseline Shift • Book Discussion
A virtual group discussion of the book, Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History (2021).
March 10, 2022
NFTs WTF
A conversation with Brian Morris about what the f*** NFTs are and how to get started.
March 3, 2022
Digital Lab, Latitude, Studio Tour
The Chicago Graphic Design Club takes a trip for an in-person studio tour of the Chicago digital lab, Latitude.
February 23, 2022
Ancient Futures Reveal Party
Join us for an opportunity to learn about the upcoming graphic novel, Ancient Futures.
February 17, 2022
The Discipline of Design and the Humanity of Designers
A talk that captures the design impact of a significant, shared cultural experience both for posterity and critical examination.
January 27, 2022
Span Studio Tour
Join us for an in-person tour of the Chicago design studio, Span.
January 13, 2022
CAPS LOCK by Ruben Pater
Book Discussion 1/20/2022 | 6–7p CST Join the Chicago Graphic Design Club to discuss Ruben Pater’s book, CAPS LOCK.
December 9, 2021
Reframing Design Through Anti-Racism
ChiByDesign design lead, Surbhi Kalra, shares with us what anti-racist design looks like.
September 30, 2021
Printer’s Row Printing History Walk
A tour focusing on the history of Chicago’s printing industry by exploring Printer’s Row.
September 25, 2021
Dope Your Life: Creating Ancient Futures
A conversation about the production and collaboration of the upcoming graphic novel series Ancient Futures.
September 23, 2021
Hot Design Manifesto Summer
An interactive conversation that explored the role manifestos play in our design practices.
August 19, 2021
Never Enough
BIPOC designers sometimes feel like we have to work twice as hard to prove ourselves, that no matter what we do, it’s never enough.
June 24, 2021
Evidence of Things Unseen
Observation lies at the core of everything we do—from art to design, science to journalism, politics to poetry to everything in between.
June 3, 2021
Natural Born Creatives
We’ve made our passion our business. How do we balance that reality with our convictions?
May 20, 2021
Designing Public Memory: Reimagining Monuments and Memorials
Lauren Meranda talks about her research on monuments, memorials, and the role of the designer in the creation of public memory.
April 29, 2021
Big Shoulders: Fonts for Chicagoans
Patric talks about the process and technicalities involved in making type for an entire community, from research to equitable representation to design to publishing, in a way that an entire city—government to citizens—can use.
April 15, 2021
…and the world isn’t flat anymore
Wizinsky shares experiences with integrating different research and design processes into collaborative and community-engaged research and design projects.
March 10, 2021
Design as an Attitude By Alice Rawsthrorn
February 24, 2021
The Design of the City of Chicago
Jason Kunesh shares what its like to design for the City of Chicago.
February 23, 2021
Seven Things Every Designer Needs to Know About Writing
Ellen Lupton shares her own experience as a writer who designs and a designer who writes
January 26, 2021
The Search for Mies Typography
Chicago design studio shares their research based approach to branding iconic Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Chicago buildings.
December 3, 2020
Experimenting in Graphic Design
Chicago-based educator, artist, and graphic designer, Jonathan Sangster, shares with us their experimental practice.
November 18, 2020
Are We Human? by Beatriz Colomina & Mark Wigley
September 30, 2020
Designing Design by Kenya Hara
August 5, 2020
August 5, 2020
The ABC’s of Triangle, Square, Circle: The Bauhaus & Design Theory
June 24, 2020
Design as Art by Bruno Munari
May 6, 2020
