Christian Solorzano [01:16]

Hello, you're listening to Underscore, a show by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I am your host, Christian Solorzano, and on today's episode, I'm delighted to share my conversation with graphic designer and member of the Chicago Graphic Design Club's team, Alexis Gonzalez. This past year, we've been collaborating closely on programming here in Chicago. Currently, she leads our social hours, so if you've ever been to any of those in person, you've probably run into her there.

And in this conversation, we speak about her introduction to graphic design by way of a computer program, which led to a love for Illustrator's Pen Tool. We also both discuss what the responsibility of a graphic designer is, and she also shares with us about how her identity as a Mexican-American shapes and influences how she sees the world, and also how she seeks creative fulfillment in freelance projects outside of her day job, and how she's able to find the confidence to pursue those things.

And as a longtime soccer player, she also walks us through how soccer teaches her life lessons centered around community, discipline, care, and growth. As usual, thank you for tuning in. We'll talk soon. Enjoy. Hey Alexis, I am very happy that we're having this conversation finally. You've been a very involved member of the Chicago Graphic Design Club for pretty much all year, right? You heard about us, you came to our first event.

Alexis Gonzalez [03:02]

February, because I couldn't make it January.

Christian Solorzano [03:06]

Yes, I remember. And then you came to our magazine launch party, and I remember that you made a comment about the magazine that it didn't include enough fonts. I think it's something along those lines. You made a, you made a snarky comment about the magazine, and I thought it was pretty cool that you were so bold to speak your mind.

Alexis Gonzalez [03:28]

I had to. I can't go to a Chicago Graphic Design Club magazine launch and like not state my opinion.

Christian Solorzano [03:36]

The listener, if they've, if they if they've been to our in-person events this year, they've probably ran into you. But for the people that haven't ran into you or that maybe are not in Chicago, introduce yourself really quick. Alexis Gonzalez, based out of Chicago. You grew up in the Chicagoland area and you graduated from design school not too long ago. So you're like New talent, a rising star.

Alexis Gonzalez [04:02]

I'm Alexis Gonzalez. I'm a Mexican, Mexican-American graphic designer and illustrator, and I'm now discovering I'm more than both of those things. So I'd say artist at this point. And yes, I did graduate from— it wasn't a design school, but from Roosevelt University in 2021. I do graphic design. It's my passion, like everyone else on this podcast. And I do host and organize the social Casual events at the Chicago Graphic Design Club, and I hope to—

Christian Solorzano [04:37]

And how'd you get into graphic design? I'm curious.

Alexis Gonzalez [04:39]

The usual, story of designers. I always loved, drawing growing up. I think, the first— maybe this was— I'm pretty sure this program was Design Coded. It was called PixArt. It was on a CD. I loved playing that game when I was, in first grade, and everyone in my first grade class wanted to play I Spy. And I wanted to play with the game where it was like, it was like Microsoft Paint, but they had a bunch of different stamps and basically Adobe Illustrator coded.

So I was into that. And then I didn't know like design was a career until I went to community college. Not even in high school, like I didn't take any art classes or anything. Like I would just do my own thing. But once I went to community college, I took an introduction to computer art class. And then I learned like the pen tool in Illustrator, and I learned that I liked the pen tool.

And then so from there I completed my 2 years and kept taking more design classes and transferred to Roosevelt University. And then I think Roosevelt University like really solidified like my passion for design. I really enjoyed every project I worked on, all of the student projects. In my— I decided I was going to be— I decided graphic design would be my major. Entering college, I didn't know. I didn't have a decision at all.

But prior or after I took all of those classes, decided that was the route. And I think the rest is history. I just kept going and going and really practicing. I didn't realize I was practicing. I was just having Fun.

Christian Solorzano [06:24]

What were you making, for example, when you, when you were in first grade and you were using PicsArt? Just what were you making? For me, I remember I made a Mother's Day poster when I was very young, like using clip art and stuff. Was it— did you make anything? Do you still have any of those things that you made? Did you ever print anything?

Alexis Gonzalez [06:43]

No, I never got to print anything because it was more like you get to choose and just play on the computer and not Print it. I think I just made like landscape, like drawings, or I used whatever stamps they had. I just had fun. It was like more like I didn't really have a subject matter. It was just like having fun with the tools that were there.

Christian Solorzano [07:04]

And then at what point do you say, I'm gonna go into graphic design as a career? And was there ever anything else that you could have, that you were maybe also interested in?

Alexis Gonzalez [07:15]

Well, like in community college, no. I mean, I think growing up I always loved animals and I wanted to be a vet, but I didn't. I think I learned that like you have to put dogs down and I was like, never mind, I don't think I don't think I can take that and continue to do that. I think I started realizing it could be a career in my first professor. His name's Sergio Gomez.

He would showcase his work and he would say he would be able to like travel based on like what he was creating. And I was like, oh wow, he makes a living off of this. I didn't know you can do that. So.

Christian Solorzano [07:53]

Did you ever take a career survey? Like when you were a kid where you take a survey, you answer a questionnaire and then it'll tell you like, this is the career that you should do.

Alexis Gonzalez [08:02]

I think like, funny enough, either I did and I just ignored the results or I don't remember.

Christian Solorzano [08:08]

So you, so what I find interesting about you is that you're both a designer and you have like your job that you do, like your full-time job, but then you also take on a wide range of like different freelance clients. And most recently I saw that you were working with a musician, with an artist that you did the logo for. And it was cool to see how that logo scaled to something bigger.

And became part of like this live broadcasting, like backdrop that was on— it was on TV, right?

Alexis Gonzalez [08:45]

It was for a— it's a late night YouTube series. I forgot his name, but he launched his own like Chicago talk show. It's going to be like late night, like how Jimmy Kimmel— since we don't— Chicago doesn't have one. But yeah, I designed my friend Lauren Hall. I did her logo and brand identity. And then I also designed and illustrated her backdrop or her stage design for when she performed her new song on that, on that YouTube channel.

I don't know when that's gonna air, but it's— it looked really cool seeing that in person, like seeing like your— a logo, like a logo I designed. And then on top of that, like illustrations, like at that large scale, it looked like it was over like 20 feet or more. It was surreal. I like giggled when I saw it. I giggled when I saw it like a little kid. Like I got so excited.

Christian Solorzano [09:46]

Looking at it like super big, did you, did you was there anything that you're like, damn, I wish I would have done that differently? Or like any surprises? Because I feel like sometimes when you look at your work in such a big scale, you like notice certain things that you wouldn't otherwise. Let's say on your computer.

Alexis Gonzalez [10:04]

I don't think so. I didn't have like— I think maybe like one of the backgrounds was not the correct shade of yellow, but it was so slight that I could notice. Like no one else would have been able to point that out but me. But in terms of like outside of that shade difference in yellow, I don't think I wanted to change anything about it. I was like really it was solid to me. I really loved seeing it in that way.

And I was really happy I didn't— like, I had no regrets in like the way it was presented.

Christian Solorzano [10:38]

So you do— so you have your job, you do your freelance stuff, and then you're also like a competitive soccer player as well. And I want to know how you are able to manage all those 3 things in addition to having a life and friends and everything that comes with like, being a person in the city of Chicago, like going out, going to shows, et cetera. I'm very curious about how you, I love when there's designers that draw inspiration from other hobbies or passions of theirs.

And like in your case, like even the listener won't be able to see this, but you're wearing a soccer shirt right now. So like soccer is like a big part of your identity, I would assume. So can you talk to us about how you bring some of that maybe competitive nature or like team camaraderie or community? How do those things all sort of work and overlap and influence one another? Because I know soccer has been something that you've been doing for all of your life, right?

Alexis Gonzalez [11:40]

Yeah, since I was like 5. I think like starting off with how I manage my time, I learned how to manage my time like Since I've been playing club soccer, I had to— I had a schedule pretty much after school, so I had to make sure I had set aside time for my homework, and on top of that, go to practice. And I kind of learned how to manage my time from when I was a child, I guess.

And that obviously like really helped up until this point till now. And college really solidified the time management, because then it's like kind of on top of you. And I already had a system going, I guess. And I think like another thing about soccer that's integrated into like design and my work, I guess you can say like I am really competitive on the field, and I am competitive off the field, and I take that into design.

Not that I'm like gonna design my butt off next to somebody, but in a way that it completely like drives me. I know I want to do better in like in XYZ industry, or like right now I'm doing a lot of like brand identity and illustration, and I really like that. And I know I can— the work I've— what I've been working on, I know I can grow and get better. It's just a matter of like soccer practice. It's design.

And then, the camaraderie of design, of soccer that's in design. It's kind of like, you know how you have, your teammates in a team, and like you learn how to work with them. I also bring like that mentality to work, at my full-time job, and then now at the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I want to make sure, okay, what can I do to make this team better or uplift everyone in a sense. And that's why, that's why I wanted all those in-person events.

I kept bugging you, when are we having another one? And you're like, you do it. And I'm like, okay, fine, I'll do it. I like that, sense of belonging you get within, the— like you get out of a team, you kind of get that out of the design community. I was hoping to facilitate that sense of belonging. No matter like what background you're from, you're on the same team, which is the design team, the Graphic Design Club.

Christian Solorzano [14:10]

We had that event here in Chicago about values and how values show up in our work and whatnot. I'm curious about how with whether it's like playing soccer, like designing or like doing freelance work or just like anything that Alexis does, how do you define success? And how do you like what, what's the, like an expression that I've heard you say in the past is like, what tickles your eyes? Or like, what's— yeah, just curious about how do you define success, pretty much?

I feel like with soccer, maybe it's like winning the game or having a good match or performing really well. But with other things that are not dependent on like scoring points or whatever, how do you define success?

Alexis Gonzalez [14:56]

I guess in the design sense, did I communicate what I intended to clearly, no matter what context it is. And I'm— it's different when it's something that's more nuanced like that, that's omitted. I think success is like, for example, when I revealed the logo for Lauren Hall, she like texted me in all caps about how much she loved it. And seeing, knowing that she loved what I created for her really fueled me. I don't know.

It like— I was so, I was so like happy she loved it. I don't— I think this is something that I've always— I've been trying to define, what is success? Because I think success to me is like knowing, did I do something in its— and present it in its truest form to me? To like a client, or to like— it could be to a client, it could be to myself. Did I do my best?

Did I— did the other person get excited about what I presented to them? Did I think this is something that's like not really— you don't see surface level. Did I do enough research about that topic? And but I think it's a hard question for me to answer right now, because that's something I'm trying to like Put my finger on, what are the— what do I determine? I think that's TBD. And what I've just said, I, I'm still trying to figure that out.

And I figure that out with every single project that I do, like just getting feedback, or the way people respond to what I make is kind of like what I determine as success at this point. And I'm— and I know there's— there I can— it can be better. I just need to find that, those reasons.

Christian Solorzano [16:54]

And how, so like finishing school, so you graduated, you said in 2021, right?

Alexis Gonzalez [16:59]

Random December 2021.

Christian Solorzano [17:01]

So you're finishing school and you're going into this like new, like this industry of design. I would say that from the time that I've, that I've known you, which is almost a year, you have like this confidence about you that like even you mentioned like earlier in our conversation here.

And I think with, within our podcast, a lot of our like, as you've seen in our events, our audience sometimes tends to be like younger designers that are either brand new in school, like maybe they're freshmen, maybe they're just fresh out of college. How, what kind of advice or like words of wisdom, or maybe share your story of how you're able to draw the confidence to like initiate freelance work or like just pretty much put yourself out there?

Because I feel like putting yourself out there is obviously the first step to do like anything is like just raise your hand, put yourself out there. But it's such a— for some people it could be such a scary thing because, I mean, for one, like our industry is so oversaturated with like so many designers like everywhere, and you have them all in your fingertip now.

So how do you like cut through all that noise and still like break through and say like, I'm Alexis Gonzalez and I'm gonna do the thing and not get intimidated or overwhelmed by all the what-ifs?

Alexis Gonzalez [18:37]

This took me like a while to accept. I think I thankfully accepted it in school because you when you're in school, you have to like research, and then you see like, oh wow, there's already so many great designers out there, especially like the historic ones and how iconic they are. And then you see it in context, and who are their local designers? And you see like, wow, they're actually amazing. What am I gonna do to contribute to this, to this industry?

I think I just learned to start off by like Accepting the noise around you. There's always gonna be someone better than you subjectively. It's just like up to— beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's up to whoever is making that decision. But when it comes to yourself, I just learned to accept, I know there's someone that's gonna be better than me. That's just how our industry is.

But what can I do to just like amplify my perspective and My perspective is not the same as everyone else's around me and every other designer. Your perspective is unique to your own, and how can I— how can I amplify that in a space that's already saturated? So it's like more— I like thought about it a lot. I'm like, okay, but not the person next to me will never have the same experience as me. It's always going to be pretty different.

And how do I bring that into my work? How do I bring my— the way I see the world into my work? And I think that helped me stand out in like the sea, in the sea with all the design fishes. And I always— and I learned that I'm always gonna be learning. I'm not perfect.

As much as we strive for perfectionism in our work, I learned to appreciate when Other designers, they create something and they publish it, and it looks like it has like quote-unquote imperfections, but that's just how they presented it. And I really appreciate that about designers. I'm like, okay, I know, if someone else can do that, I know I can do it too. But how do I make it different and different, unique to my perspective, and bring that to my work?

And then in terms of like words of wisdom, like I said, you'll always be learning. I learned how to like just DIY, do it yourself. But do it, do it yourself, and then do it for yourself. Do not do it for like other reasons, for other people. I learned that a lot of the work I did in school was for me, and it appealed to me. I didn't think about like, I don't know, a group of other people's opinions.

And I think when you're creating something that's more authentic to yourself, then it may stand out next to others, if that makes sense. I would say to like anyone that doesn't have that confidence I think it comes with time too. There's a time where like I kind of had to accept that I know I'm shy and it takes a lot for me to come out of my shell.

I'm like, okay, I just need to like, if I really want to get out there and make a career out of this, I have to like just I can't say. I had to tell myself, you need to get over it. The person, the designer next to you is trying to find their way too. They're just like you. It's not— no one's above you. Everyone's next to you.

Christian Solorzano [22:08]

It's funny that you say that you're shy because I never I would never get that.

Alexis Gonzalez [22:17]

I'm shy outside of designers because, when you're with designers, and whatever you understand, they understand. It's like being with your people. Like I'm with the people that can tell if the letter, the kerning is too close, or there's not enough, or if the color palette's off. The people that can see the world I see, if that makes sense. I think I find myself in a different state of being when I'm around designers. When I'm next to like corporate people, I feel weird.

Christian Solorzano [22:51]

And so far, like with your involvement, what do you make of the Chicago design community? I think what's fascinating about our team, I think, is that we have like a wide representation of like people along different stages of their career. And it's nice to— it's like, it's a joy to have you on the team. Because the way that you see things is very different than like some, like someone that's, been doing this for like, let's say, a decade or over a decade.

So have— what are some of the biggest— what have been some of your observations when it comes to community? And has community, the definition of community, evolved since you've been a part of it? And do you wish that there was more of something? What's the good? And then what's the not so good that you're like, I wish this could be a little bit better or different?

Alexis Gonzalez [23:54]

I realize a lot of the designers that do go to our events, they just want to have a conversation with someone that's also maybe in the same boat as them, or just someone that, they want a different opinion. On how they should navigate like their design career, and not even just like their design career. Sometimes people just want— they want to go to a place with other like-minded people like them. And when you're going to a design event, you know what you're kind of getting into.

You know what kind of people there are, you would hope. Seems like everyone just wants to like sit down and disconnect, for a little bit, and either, disconnect from work and connect on the design in the design world. And it's really heartwarming to see, when we had Confronting Design, I felt like that was probably the warmest moments of Chicago Graphic Design Club. It felt like the whole room was glowing in, orange and yellow, and it was like Orange and yellow is a warm color.

It just— the way I felt inside. That's why I'm like, it's all like, we're all just designed people trying to like relate, and we all have— we have some like similar experiences in this industry, and they just want to talk to somebody. And not in like a therapist way, but in like a— in a friendly way. You know that I know I can't go to like my friend who's not in the design industry and like try talking about the issues of the design industry.

They want like someone that has a complete understanding, like the blueprints of the design industry, and like can just build off of that. And I think the not so bad is like maybe not in the Chicago Graphic Design Club, but maybe—

Christian Solorzano [25:52]

Not so good, you mean?

Alexis Gonzalez [25:53]

Not so— oh, wow. In the not so good. I would say, well, I haven't gotten this from our events. From when I have attended other events, it felt so like when you use the word networking, it just feels like it turns people away. Or just when you say the word networking, the air gets stale and it feels forced. And I didn't really like that when I went to another event that wasn't ours.

I don't, I don't think we should ever use the word networking when we're in this industry. Like a lot of people introverts, networking just feels forced. And it's like, you're like, you have to have a good time now when you say networking. And then I think I haven't experienced this, but from what I was taught in education, like a certain type of design is rewarded, if that makes sense.

And I think there's also something that's not so great about, I guess, the space sometimes, not our space, but just design space in general. It feels a little gatekeepy sometimes. Like you see people like post, oh, like really great work, and then they don't emphasize how they got to— how they either won that work or won that client. They don't share their resources, which sometimes it's not physical, it's like something you have as a designer.

And I hope like we can change that with the Chicago Graphic Design Club.

Christian Solorzano [27:22]

And I feel like we are, because I have the same sentiments. I'm allergic to the word networking. I just imagine like a net. People are tangled in it and they're like trying to work their way out of it. And it's just like—

Alexis Gonzalez [27:33]

Networking should be the next haunted house for design. Try to go through the haunted house of networking. I'm not going in there.

Christian Solorzano [27:43]

And I'm curious about like your— so you're pretty like, even outside of the club, like you're pretty involved in Chicago in general. Like you're always attending a lot of events and like making connections with like designers and artists and so forth. So I'm curious about your inspirations. Where do you draw inspiration from?

I know that you, when we have a conversation like internally within the club, you talk a lot about like your background as like a Mexican American and how that inspires or like how that just shapes your outlook on your work and just how you live life. So I'm curious about how inspiration, your identity, and maybe even like your upbringing, how that gives you your unique point of view.

That, to your point, like you were mentioning earlier, like your perspective is gonna be very different than like the person next to you, because totally different lives. So Curious about that. How does all that come together?

Alexis Gonzalez [28:50]

With what inspires me, I realized like my upbringing inspires me and my experiences and like how I reinterpret that. To this day, I'll have— I'll just— I am always just thinking. I'm always just thinking. And if I'm doing something at home or I'm out, and then it reminds me of like something I did when I was younger, and then it's like I'm kind of like re-experiencing that like in the modern day. And then maybe I'll bring that like to what I'm working on.

But my upbringing really inspired me, and like I grew up with 5 siblings, or 4 other siblings to me, 5. And every year my parents drove us from Chicago to La Piedad, Michoacán, which is like a 2-day trip.

And so I reflect on just like the experiences I had from like the time I'm in the United States, and then from the time I'm in Mexico, and then what I experienced in between those times, and like what I see overlapped when I'm in Mexico or when I'm in the United States. Just I think my design-wise, like the visual language changes so drastically when you're in Mexico compared to the US.

And then I'm like, as I was younger, I'm like, why is it— why does it look that way? I was always asking, why do things look certain ways when I'm either here or when I'm in Mexico? And I really think that shapes the way I see the world and like how I interpret literally everything to this day. That's something I'll never let go of. It's just something that lives within me that I'll always have.

And then growing up like with 4 other siblings, it's like, okay, it's just I have my perspective, but so do my 4 other siblings. And how does— how do I make things work at home sometimes? But it's like we're playing like I grew up playing a lot of video games, like a bunch of Nintendo games, and we played like Mario Party a lot, or like Mario Kart, like a ton of Nintendo games.

And just the way that like me and my siblings like interacted with those things like really helped shape the way I view the world. And again, like going to Mexico and like seeing how different life is over there, comparing it to over here, then seeing that every year. It really affected me, and I think that's what I bring with what I— the perspective I bring in my work. I'm like kind of hyper-aware of everything.

You have to be hyper-aware of everything in the way that I grew up. I was the oldest girl, so I'm like, okay, I have to be considerate of all my siblings. I have to be considerate of like where I'm at in Mexico. I have to be considerate of like, all right, I need to learn Spanish. So I can talk to all my siblings, so I can talk to my family in Mexico, back and forth of the US-Mexico, pendulum swing. It inspires me.

It really shapes the way I view the world, and I don't— it's never gonna stop. It's like I'm always thinking, I always have ideas, or I always have, I visualize it a lot when I'm— every second of the day sometimes.

Christian Solorzano [32:19]

A question that I tend to ask our guests is what keeps you up at night?

Alexis Gonzalez [32:23]

One of maybe like a corporate one, it's like, when are we gonna redefine what corporate design is? Because I'm sick of it.

Christian Solorzano [32:31]

That's a big responsibility.

Alexis Gonzalez [32:33]

It is. And I'm ready to, I'm ready to fight it at this point. I'm tired of seeing all these, all these presentations, these sad little presentations. Another thing that keeps me up at night is Maybe like, all right, how can I, how can I change the world vaguely? But how can I start that at like a micro level with the Chicago Graphic Design Club? How can I be more involved with the club or like the community?

Or if it means like the community is in the design community or like the soccer one, like that keeps me up at night too. And then like Another one is like, what is good design? That super vague thought. But I think, like I said, I, I've realized that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and whoever that beholder is. And also like, how can I get better at design?

Christian Solorzano [33:36]

Okay.

Alexis Gonzalez [33:37]

And how can I don't know. I have so many thoughts rushing in my head sometimes. Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [33:44]

So speaking of beauty being in the eye of the beholder, what is beautiful to you? Totally subjective. You could be, yellow is the best color.

Alexis Gonzalez [33:55]

I was about to say, thank you. Yellow is one of the best colors. Like and then I really like, I've noticed like the way I design is super clean. Sometimes I really love rigid, imperfect design, and I'm trying to change, like turn a tide. I'm like, okay, how can I integrate that in the way I design? Because I really enjoy that.

I go to a lot of music shows, a lot of concerts, and I like seeing like the design when it's more rigid and like not clean. Because when you see clean design, it's kind of correlated with corporate design, and I'm like, this is too clean. I don't really like— I don't as much as seeing like a design with grain. I love seeing texture when it's on top of— on like merch design, on band merch, or on like a poster.

I don't like seeing texture digitally because I think it's meant to be printed. If you are adding texture, it should probably be printed on something. There's such a fine line of bad design to the point where it's like, this is kind of good. I don't know if you've seen like work where it's like meant to be like not good, but then like, but then it turns out I kind of like it like more rigid, more rough, more like less like a draft.

I like seeing illustrations/designs when they're, they, they're meant to look drafted, but that's the final product. And then like, I love display typefaces. I love that sometimes you can't read them. Which is like kind of contradictory.

Christian Solorzano [35:36]

Yeah, it's nice when graphic design makes you work a little bit to like understand the message. Yeah, the corporate stuff or like the clean minimal or whatever you want to call it, sometimes it just, it looks too mechanical. And I think it's, there's a time and place for that. But even with I've said this before with everything that's happening with like AI and like AI trying to reach this like perfection that's so subjective. It's nice to see things that are more humanly imperfect.

But there's like evidence that there is like a human hand there. Like I've, I sometimes even appreciate like a good typo because I'm like, I could tell this was like, Done by, a person made this mistake. This is a human error, as opposed to, computer intervention.

Alexis Gonzalez [36:37]

Yeah, I like, I really appreciate that. Well, yeah, when you can tell someone took the time to execute it, or like they're tracing something on, what is it called, a piece of art, and then it's like kind of they kind of messed up, and I'm like, oh, why do I enjoy that? Why do I enjoy seeing that mistake?

I think it just reminds you that you too, like all of us, we all make mistakes, and you find comfort in that next to a clean, quote-unquote boring design.

Christian Solorzano [37:10]

Any other like unexpected places that you tend to find inspiration in? And it could even be like places in Chicago too? I know you spend a lot of time in the city.

Alexis Gonzalez [37:22]

Unexpected places. Just taking— I usually, my partner and I, we like go to Pilsen and we just walk. We just walk. And sometimes, of course I look at the signs. And when you're in Pilsen, I mean, it's like, it's reminiscent of Mexico. And the signage I see reminds me of what the Signs I see in Mexico, and it's like I kind of gets my gears going. I'm like, oh, it looks like this. It reminds me of like this sign I've seen in Mexico.

And then it's like, and like I kind of like maybe misremember, and then I reinterpret it, and then I'm like, oh, wouldn't it be funny if I put like XYZ on it? So it's like even just like going for a walk and like looking at like silly signs kind of gets my like gears going in terms of inspiration. Yeah, there's like a few spots in Chicago, probably more than a few.

I'm gonna knock them out because I was like, I do go to a lot of places. I think like the first one is kind of like a chill— if I were to go to a bar, I would go to Maria's because it's nice. I love Maria's. The space is so it's like, it's so low-key. It's kind of like a book dark bookshop vibes, but it's a bar. I like how they have the outside too.

You can either like be in with the loud music or go outside and relax and just chill. The next one is new. I went to Inga Books. My partner took me for my birthday, and it's an art bookstore in Pilsen, and they're only open on Friday and Saturday, I think. But I bought like 2 books from there. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. I've been waiting for this my whole time living in Chicago, like an art bookstore.

I mean, it's different when you're at like a library, but this bookstore is dedicated to art books, and they're all like, they're all pretty like indie books. You don't— I didn't know anyone that was showcased in that bookstore. I do love Dia Hall too, and Dark Matter, the Star Lounge. We had the meetup there. I'm like, this— I went a few times after that. I'm like, wow, I really like it here. It's like a nice, just a nice coffee shop.

You can get work done, whatever you're working on. Those are just a few spots. I'm sure there's more.

Christian Solorzano [39:49]

So looking into the future, 2025 and beyond, what are some of the things that you are hopeful for or that you're looking forward to? It could be personal, it could be with a club, it could be with a community, it could just be in the world. It could be as small or as big as you can imagine. What does your utopia look like?

Alexis Gonzalez [40:16]

My utopia? That's good. I don't know. I'm hopeful. Well, for maybe like Chicago Graphic Design Club, maybe next year we'll get I'll apply for us for a grant so we can go to like bigger and cooler places in Chicago, or not even just that, like just be able to bring a big group to like a special place that requires money.

I would like to also— I'm hopeful like our social hours grow, but like I kind of don't mind the consistent 15 people, which is very nice because once it gets more than that, it feels kind of gets a little scary, but I know I can do it. And then, I'm also hopeful, maybe in a general design sense, what good design is, quote unquote, good design is redefined and reclaimed by designers, whether that's in Chicago or like outside of the United States.

I think more— I'm thinking mostly of like non-Western perspectives are that take the spotlight, because I mean, I don't know, I'm sure me and you, we both grew up, or we both learned graphic design, the history of graphic design book. That was like just one perspective. It was just like a bunch of European dudes, and I'm like, okay, where's everybody else? No, it was just limited to like the white Eurocentric standard of design.

And I'm hopeful, now that, I mean, the rise of social media and, the internet, we're seeing more and more, international, non-Western perspectives on design and how that's being showcased. So I'm like, I'm also hoping, the Eurocentric standard is kind of, crushed. But whatever is like the world that's in like Latin America or in like Asia, like just shining a light on them since they didn't really have—

Christian Solorzano [42:29]

What do you think is the responsibility of a graphic designer? I often think about how there's like some professions like a doctor, like a lawyer, that require you to like take an oath. Or pretty much to like make a commitment that you're gonna practice lawfully, that you're gonna be an honest doctor that isn't, doing malpractice and so forth. And I always feel like with design, it's like, I'm glad that it's so like democratized and like it allows anyone to sort of enter the field.

But I do also feel like design is so complicit in so many really great things and also like really awful things because it tends to touch just about everything. And through visual communication, you can spread misinformation, but at the same time you could spread like objective truth and like science or things that are like evidence-based. You could spread like peace and love, and you could also spread division and hate and all these terrible things. Should graphic design— should graphic designers take an oath?

I don't know, is there an oath? Is there something? A long time ago, there used to be a manifesto called First Things First, these principles that designers were promising to live by. It was published, originally published in 1964, and its intention was to return to a humanist aspect of design. It lashed out against the fast-paced and often trivial productions of mainstream advertising, calling them trivial and time-consuming. Its solution was to focus efforts of design on education and public service tasks that promoted the betterment of society.

And then a lot of designers would like sign this manifesto, and they were pretty much like making a commitment that what they would do would be some Something that would better society. And I'm always like, there— does that need to exist today? Do we need to create some kind of declaration that encourages us to maybe be a little bit more responsible with the things that we do or the messages that we put out there? So, yeah, I don't know. What do you think about that?

Should— what is the responsibility of a designer? And do you think— That's something that should be defined at the individual level or at the community level, industry level. What do you think?

Alexis Gonzalez [45:07]

I think, I think we do as graphic designers, we do have responsibilities. We need to, we do have like a ton of responsibilities to uphold. And I do think we should have like a manifesto like this on a community level and individual level. Because there's a— I mean, in this day and age, there's a lot of misinformation and a lot of things that lean towards— that are like right-leaning, and they lean towards dividing and just produce more harm than good in this world.

I think we— this is something we need now. I think not that everyone has to do it, but like maybe on a smaller, like micro level and a community level and individual level, you should have some sort of principles to live by and not just design blindly and hope it's— there's positive effect from it. Like you'll be doing yourself and like a grand group of people a disservice to just design blindly and just keep going.

I think that's— we do need to be conscious about the responsibilities we have of the information that we are designing and the information we are passing on within the design at hand or within the ask at hand. That's me personally. And I think in terms of responsibility, in a general sense, are you designing something that's gonna harm a group of people? Are you spreading misinformation? Are you, are you designing something that's manipulative?

Is there language in there that's going to change your— that's going to really change your opinion on either like a group of people or on an idea? There's a lot of— there's a lot of things that people, that designers are responsible for. And then at the end of the day the designers are the ones to execute it, you're not just going to take an ask from a client and like not read the brief and just create it and send it out.

You need to be conscious about what you are creating and how that affects other people and how it can affect the world. Because we kind of do have the power at the end of the day, refuse. Yeah. Not that anyone is creating anything against their will, but that's something that you need to be extremely conscious about.

Christian Solorzano [47:45]

I agree. And maybe that's something that we could do in the coming year is like define a collective principles or values for Chicago. And I think the beauty about it is that they could evolve and grow and shift as like society changes and so forth. So that—

Alexis Gonzalez [48:03]

I mean, I need to go and look at the 1964 one and see how relevant it is to this day.

Christian Solorzano [48:11]

I know we're almost at time, but I'm curious about what you're up to these days. What are some of the projects that you're working on? I know you just had like a big launch on your Instagram about the work that you were doing for Stanley.

I was able to like witness you working through that like these past few months and, supporting you through the club and like just all being there for one another and kind of seeing, hearing the background and like the backstory behind the scenes of like everything that went into it. And really cool work. So like anyone that's listening, look up alexisgonzalez.studio on Instagram. So you can't ever change your username now.

Alexis Gonzalez [48:49]

I wasn't planning on it.

Christian Solorzano [48:51]

So you announced that project and then you also your Lauren Hall project as well. And you had an exhibition earlier, like a piece at an exhibition at the Design Museum of Chicago earlier this year as well in May. For their ideas of humanity events. What else is up? What's next?

Alexis Gonzalez [49:17]

Gassing me up with all these. You need to relax. Right now, I mean, I just finished a piece for the publication coming up, and I won't reveal it until the publication comes out. Right now I finished 2 large pieces. I'm not— one of them I won't— you won't see till next year. The other one I'll be uploading soon to my Instagram, the illustrations you were talking about earlier with Lauren Hall. But right now, I like— those 2 were like kind of back to back.

Right now I'm just I need to relax. I kind of just dedicated like a lot of my time and energy to both of those projects. I think right now it's just a matter of finding my next piece or finding my next project. I do wanna push myself and do something that I'm not— that I haven't done before. But yeah, I do wanna continue. I'm gonna continue working on just— I might just do silly design just to relax a little, post a little fun design.

I think it's nice that just in general I can do like large pieces of work and then like, all right, I have my little silly design, like let everybody know it's okay to design cool things. But yeah, I think in terms of like large scale or long term, next thing is probably like I might take a class, another typography class or something.

Christian Solorzano [50:52]

Yeah, that's the thing. You, you've you all, you're also interested in typography and you created a '70s Latin rock inspired typeface a while ago, right? It's been, it's been a while. It's been over a year. Has it?

Alexis Gonzalez [51:10]

Yeah, it's been a year. I was just reflecting on that. I'm like, wow, I should probably do another one or just start another typeface just for fun, like just to have fun and like just learn more on how On how to create a typeface. I don't know. I just like to go into like different avenues and then see how far I go, if that makes sense. I was— next thing is just learning, continuing to learn pretty much.

Christian Solorzano [51:37]

And how do you how do you take care of yourself? Because I feel like we're having this conversation and you're doing a lot of cool stuff, and I feel like we're showing one side of things, like the— we're glory— we're glorifying the design the design the design life. And I know that it's not all fun and games, and I know that there is definitely sometimes like a lot of work or like deadlines or like client feedback and like just a lot happening all at once.

And how do you, how do you take care of yourself?

Alexis Gonzalez [52:08]

I kind of love to steam off by like going, I go to the gym in the mornings when I'm not in office, and then a lot like yesterday, Sundays and Mondays I play soccer, and I just, I find that's my way of decompressing, just releasing a ton of design energy on the field, maybe more than design energy on the field. I also love going on walks. I have to go on a mental health walk every day, every day, no matter what.

I have to go on a walk, and it helps me like recalibrate. Also, I think eating is a form of self-care in a way. Just maybe finding— not even like, not snacks, but just, like you need your nutrients, you need to feed yourself, you need to find energy. I think that's another way of taking care of myself. But yeah, I think those are like the main things. Going to shows, I find like going to concerts is kind of like self-care.

I mean, that's what I'm interested in. And then art shows too. I find all these things like not only make me happy, but like kind of fulfill me in a way in terms of like taking care of myself. And then just sleeping enough every night, pretty much. I would say all of those stacked on top of each other like a big self-care sandwich.

Christian Solorzano [53:37]

So if people want to hear more about you, they could find you on Instagram. Or your websites, and I'll include those links in the descriptions, in the description for this episode. Anything else? Like anything cool? I know you're into music. Anything that you've been listening to lately? Any artists that you've been digging? Any, anything that you want to not gatekeep?

Alexis Gonzalez [54:02]

Right, well, one's not like gatekept at all. She's kind of big now, the Marias. I've been listening to their latest album, Submarine, pretty much every day. And then there's this Argentinian band, they're called Mora y los Metegoles. They just released an album and that bangs. I really love that album. And then what else? I kind of have like a— to not gatekeep, it's a Spotify playlist, Shame on Me. It's called Mexican Doomer.

Yes, I find that playlist pretty cool if you want to listen to something different. But those 3 are what I'm listening to nowadays.

Christian Solorzano [54:52]

Awesome. Well, I enjoyed our conversation and I've enjoyed collaborating with you for much of this year, and I look forward to Continuing the collaboration into the new year. You've been— you bring great energy to the team, and I feel very lucky to be building this community alongside of you. So thank you, Alexis.

Alexis Gonzalez [55:20]

Thank you so much. Right back at you.

Christian Solorzano [55:23]

Thanks again for tuning in till the end. I hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. To learn more, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. Thank you and talk to you soon. Goodbye.

Alexis Gonzalez [55:36]

Goodbye.