Christian Solorzano [00:02]

Hello, you're listening to Underscore, a show by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I am your host, Christian Solorzano, and today's episode is very special because I spend time with the Chicago Graphic Design Club team, and together we reflect on 2024 and all that we've accomplished, and we give you a preview of our vision for 2025. Together, we share our favorite moments and highlights and share some of the things that are exciting and keeping us motivated coming into the new year.

We also spend time going over comments from our community survey, giving you a glimpse into how the CGDC operates and works behind the scenes. As usual, thank you so much for listening and for all of your support this year. Means a lot, and you are the reason why we do everything that we do. So I hope that we see you in person or virtual, or that we hear from you.

Please enjoy this conversation, and remember that if you enjoy this show, you can rate it, you can share it with your friends, you can subscribe to it. It helps us expand our reach and impact, and it gives Chicago a bigger footprint in the global graphic design landscape. Thank you so much, and we'll talk to you soon. Enjoy. Good morning, Cheryl, Alexis, and Jeffrey. What's up?

Cheryl Bever [01:39]

Morning.

Alexis Gonzalez [01:40]

Good morning.

Jeffrey Hitchens [01:41]

Good morning. Good morning.

Christian Solorzano [01:42]

How's everyone doing? It's Sunday morning, December 8th, 9 AM. I know it's very early for I know, Jeffrey, you're a morning— you're a morning person, right? You like wake up pretty early?

Jeffrey Hitchens [01:52]

Yeah, Sundays I get up a little later. I actually got up a little later than I wanted to before this. So I literally finished my workout and just got on this call. But yeah, I can get up. Not always, not always when I want to, but sometimes when I just need to, it helps me. I can be more productive when I get up earlier. Socially, I'm more of a night person, but in terms of like being productive, getting up really helps me a lot.

Cheryl Bever [02:18]

It's that nice quiet time when like nobody else is awake and you can think and just really kind of like ease into the day.

Christian Solorzano [02:24]

Yeah. And today it's only the 4 of us. Sean and Hamid couldn't be here. As I was telling you guys before we started recording, it's always so difficult to schedule time with people like at the same time. So Sean and Hamid, you're both missed. They're both part of the club's team as well. I wanted to do this episode just to celebrate and get our listeners a chance to get to know us a little bit more and give them some access to behind the scenes.

We've had a really busy year. We've all been here for this whole year. Alexis, I know you're like our newest member, but you've been here pretty much since the beginning of this year. So it's been a crazy year. It flew by. It's already December. And I remember when we were recording this type of episode last year around this time. I think it was you and I, right, Cheryl? I think it was just you and I.

Yeah. And people tend to like these episodes because it gives them some insight or information about like who we are. So I would say like, let's just go around introducing each other to the audience, just like very brief, like it could be 30 seconds. Just who are you? What do you do in and outside of the club? And I guess I could start. My name is Christian. You guys probably know my voice. I'm the host of the podcast.

And I am one of the people that help run this club. So I've been doing this since the beginning, since May of 2020. And since then, the team's gotten bigger and we've been evolving what we do for the community. So that's what I am with the club. Outside of the club, I am a product designer. So I work for a big consulting company, and I focus on product design, digital product design.

And then outside of that design stuff, I like to make music, do Brazilian jiu-jitsu, hang out with my dog, and take photos. Alexis, you can go next.

Alexis Gonzalez [04:46]

Hey, I'm Alexis. In the Chicago Graphic Design Club, I Organize our social events and then help everywhere and anywhere we need. And then outside of the club, I am a full-time graphic design manager at a marketing agency. And then you can find me like playing soccer or running, or like listening to music, going to concerts, vintage fests, literally like Everything and anything in between. But yeah, pass it to Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Hitchens [05:22]

Hey, I'm Jeffrey. I have been part of the Chicago Graphic Design Club for, I guess, what's 2 years now? Or almost 2 years. Within the club, I help with some of the organizing of events. A few other things I want to— didn't work out for getting off the ground this year that hopefully we can make happen into 2025. So overall, just, it's a good place to be for community and whatnot. Outside of that, I'm also on the board for AIGA.

And outside of that, I do freelance graphic design. I also do photography and video.

Christian Solorzano [06:04]

And then finally, Cheryl, the boss. Best for last.

Cheryl Bever [06:13]

So I'm Cheryl. I do— I help facilitate community engagement with the club and then do program organization and just general rah-rah, go team kind of stuff. I run an independent graphic design practice. I focus mainly on print design and product photography. And when I'm not doing any of those things, I am Super baseball mom and pretty much running my son around to baseball games and practices and all the things from December till September.

Christian Solorzano [06:47]

Anyone that's listening, everyone on this team is very easy to talk with on Instagram and LinkedIn and everything. So definitely if anyone's ever curious to learn more, reach out to any one of us. We'll put the links to all that stuff in the description.

Cheryl Bever [07:04]

Yeah, and we're all on Discord too, so feel free to reach out there and message us.

Jeffrey Hitchens [07:08]

Discord.

Christian Solorzano [07:10]

Discord, for anyone that's listening, is not aware of what our Discord is. Cheryl, do you want to explain Discord a little bit since you're like the Discord lead?

Cheryl Bever [07:19]

I try to be. I think probably everyone else knows more about Discord than I do. I had to have my son help me learn how to use it. But yeah, I mean, that's basically how everyone that has anything to do with the club, whether you have been to an event, whether you're wanting to go to an event, anything, just that's kind of the place where we all talk.

We talk about graphic design, we talk about the things we like about it, things we don't like about it. We share jokes. We just kind of— it's a great place to talk with each other and share each other's wins and just kind of talk and, kind of have that connection with each other when we're not doing events or we're not, getting together and things. It's just kind of always there for you to go into and— And talk with everybody.

Christian Solorzano [08:06]

Every time I open up the app, there's like unread everything.

Alexis Gonzalez [08:10]

Yeah.

Cheryl Bever [08:11]

Like it's at this point where it's kind of running without like me having to prompt anything. Like I love everybody that's so active in it, sharing their work and, asking questions and just really keeping that conversation going. It's really great.

Christian Solorzano [08:25]

Yeah. And I think right now we are at, yeah, over 500 members. So this year we had a 2 very successful things that we did for the first time ever. We launched our first publication, and then we also are now doing these recurring social hours. And those have been— they've both been like, I mean, they've been incredible. And shout out to Alexis for helping organize the social hours. They're always like—

Cheryl Bever [08:59]

Thank you.

Christian Solorzano [09:00]

Well attended. And people, I think people really appreciate coming together without an agenda and just kind of getting to know each other without having to prepare anything.

Cheryl Bever [09:13]

Or be forced to network. Like we were saying, it's like a network-free zone. Like we're just coming to hang out. There's no agenda. There's no feeling forced to like meet and get contact information. It's just, we're just hanging out.

Christian Solorzano [09:25]

I'm curious about, for you guys, what has been, what has been some of the Highlights of 2024 for you, both maybe outside and inside of the club. What's something that if you're looking back at this time last year, or like just looking back at January 1st, 2024, would have been some of your biggest victories and then maybe some of your failures or things that didn't go work out as well, but you taught you a lesson.

Jeffrey Hitchens [09:57]

The first one that's coming to mind for me is on the second issue of the Faculty. When we had the idea for that, because I did another submission, I did one last year, and now I'm doing another one this year. And I actually decided to focus on something I had been kind of sitting on with for probably like 18 months.

It has been in my head and kind of revisited, and I'll take notes on it, and then I'll sketch something about it, but I didn't really do anything with it because I didn't have any deadline for it. And then for this issue, I was like, no, let me, let me take this as an opportunity to kind of flesh it out a bit more. And so it was an opportunity for me to mix some more analog with digital.

So I did a bunch of watercolor paintings for it, just kind of wet on wet for it, and then took those to with some different shapes and everything, and some of the flower photography that I do to mix it for the shapes and mix those together a bit. There's some small tweaks I still want to make to the one that's an issue, if possible. Otherwise, I really am liking the direction it's going, and I can see a place for building on that.

And just creatively, outside of clients and everything else, that's been really helpful for me, because I entire project has been very much a part of me getting better with my mental health. And taking responsibility for it, but also incorporating other things other than just graphic design, like music and mixing in different art and everything with it just for how I can think and everything. So that's, I'm always grateful for those kind of opportunities.

Cheryl Bever [11:39]

My favorite thing from this year was trivia night at Design B&B. That was so much fun. I don't know.

Alexis Gonzalez [11:45]

I don't know what else to say about it.

Cheryl Bever [11:47]

It was so much fun. It was like, we learned stuff, but it was a fun way to learn stuff, and everybody had a lot of fun, and there was friendly competition. Yeah, it was great. That was a great time.

Christian Solorzano [12:00]

My favorite— I mean, the magazine was really fun to see the reception. It definitely took me by surprise how many people were interested in it and bought it. Just the other day, there was a few more orders that came through. And just the support and the ability to have so many voices involved and have this printed thing be this reflection of— it's a timestamp of Chicago in this year.

To me, it means a lot, especially knowing that 10 years from now, we'll be able to look back and see who was doing what in this year and hopefully be able to for the contributors, for them to be able to see themselves evolve in the work that they're doing, and for issue number 10 and so forth. So I feel like it's been a nice extension of our mission to be community-focused, and I'm super excited about issue number 2. But I was also really—

I think the Confronting Design event that we did this year was also a big Another, big success for us, getting so many voices together to just share their expertise. And my favorite piece about that was the interactive elements. And I think anytime that we have anything interactive that gets people out of their seats to share their perspectives and to share their ideas and to make their voices be heard.

That's really cool. And also just people coming up to us and telling us that they really appreciate what we're doing. Like we, during the Confronting Design, there was the attendee, June. He got there early and he was helping us set up with the chairs and just— It's so cool because it reminds me of when I was early in my career. And just going to events and like just raising my hand and helping out.

And I feel like we're, we've established ourselves as that community that just listens, I think. And we have, and I, and I feel like our brand, I hate that word, but our brand equity is like so strong. Like we have, we're well respected. And I think it's a lot of it is just because of like. You guys and just doing such a great job at representing who we are.

Jeffrey Hitchens [14:34]

That entire— yeah, that entire process was really good as we were doing everything, meeting with David. Yeah, just weekly. And then all of the panelists being very open about their process. Yeah, I really, I really do like just talking with and meeting Nerman. She's always great.

Yeah. It's really uplifting to see these different professionals talking about how they— how values are really a big part of their work from a day-to-day focus. Because I feel like it can get easy to lose sight of that. We're just I just, I got to pay bills and stuff like that. So keeping that priority is important.

Christian Solorzano [15:23]

I think what the club does, what the podcast does, what everything that we do does is that it kind of breaks down the walls. It makes us all accessible to one another. You can be at an event and be sitting next to someone that's been doing design for like decades on your right, and then on your left you have someone that's still in school and there's no hierarchy. Like everyone is kind of like on the same on the same level. And that's just, it's so great.

It's such a great feeling. I know sometimes even when I go to our events, I'm taken aback by how great, everything is set up and just, I'm like, this is like a cool event? I'm like, oh, we did this.

Cheryl Bever [16:10]

If I didn't put this together, I would do, I would come to this.

Alexis Gonzalez [16:15]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [16:16]

Like the social hours are like, it's just such a cool idea. It's just, we're just getting together, going to different parts of the city. My favorite one was when we were at the Riverwalk, and then Lincoln Park, and then Lincoln Park. Yeah, so it's been, it's been really fun. So thank you guys.

Jeffrey Hitchens [16:38]

I want to say one more, but Alexis, were you going to say anything before I cut you off?

Alexis Gonzalez [16:42]

No, it's surprising that people like just show up and don't have any expectations. And then, they leave and they're kind of like— it's like the end of the event and they're still talking, which is great to see that.

And, they foster, these relationships within each other and, they all know each other now. They can, like, message each other. It's like just breaking down those barriers of just, remove— removing the word network and, just throwing it away and, just creating— like, it's literally just, organic interaction. And in a hangout, it literally is a design hangout.

But yeah, I just love seeing that. It's like, I don't know, it's really beautiful to see and witness. And then I'm like, it's like I'm witnessing it, and then like I'm also like help— like I help organize it and facilitate that. And I'm like, I'm watching you guys just do your thing. Yeah. Well, while also I'm like, okay, I need help. I need help with like, so just, bringing it together sometimes.

But yeah, I love, I love seeing like just designers interact because like, I mean, sometimes it depends on like people's roles, but like you get so caught up in like just work, you don't really get to like gab or just talk about the industry at like just a low, like a low-key setting or something. And yeah, I don't know, it's— I really enjoy that aspect about our social events. And then like every single time people show up, I'm always surprised for some reason.

Christian Solorzano [18:22]

Because you never know who's gonna show up because there's no way to know.

Alexis Gonzalez [18:25]

Yeah, I'm like, well we'll hope for anyone please. And I'm like, I know I can count on you all to go, and I really appreciate that. But yeah, and then like I really did like the confronting design. That was like that was like, wow, humanity is beautiful. Human connection is so— it's so— it's just very needed. But yeah, but those are like my highlights, and I can't, I can't wait to like just continue social hours.

And there's so many like other organizations out there that we could partner with that we could introduce the Chicago community to.

Christian Solorzano [19:13]

Yeah. Yeah. I know a thing that we've talked about in the past was to do volunteering, like have the club just go volunteer somewhere. Maybe it's once a month or once every other month or something.

But I think it would be nice to— yeah, because there's a lot of— I don't know if the correct term is, but people that move from another, like transplant, like people that come from another city to Chicago and sometimes like just being able to show them like the city, like kind of like we are like their host. It's like we're helping them see Chicago for the first time or, being hospitable or whatever. So that'd be fun.

I think that's something we should look into is like next year finding some organizations that they don't have to be design related. It could be, it could be anything. And we can just have like, what is it called? Like a day of service.

Jeffrey Hitchens [20:12]

To branch off that, but before I do, I wanted to also applaud Alexis for the social hour, because I think that is really cool to have that space. I think it's really cool that you went and brought up the idea and Christian was like, well, do it.

Cheryl Bever [20:28]

For anyone that doesn't know, that was Alexis's introduction into the club team. She came to an event and was like, hey, we need to do more social hours. And Christian was like, great, join the club and organize. And the rest is history.

Alexis Gonzalez [20:43]

I was like, really? Like that? I'm like, okay, fine, I'll do it.

Jeffrey Hitchens [20:50]

That's really the cool thing about the club because that gives you those opportunities. You can take ownership of it. Like even As I mentioned, like the whole faculty thing, and my process was for creating that piece. It was like it was taking something in and bringing it out, and hopefully it could be something that's helpful for other people kind of a thing. But the other highlight for me was actually field day. I see Cheryl's flag behind her.

Because both Cheryl and Christian created flags that are really great, amazing. There were 72 total flags, or yeah, 72, 75, something like that. Yeah, there are a bunch of flags there. And then also really giving the club opportunity to meet other people that just aren't necessarily part of the design community, but maybe were designing at some point in their lives. And also seeing how many kids were coming in and interacting with the event, the activity we had at the table.

And I think that also speaks to different ways that design, specifically the club, can reach these other folks in different parts, in different in different walks of life. Yeah. Help them in different ways. And hopefully that 2025 will give us more opportunities of doing that as well.

Christian Solorzano [22:01]

Yeah, that day was so perfect. The weather was beautiful. So many people, like activities. It was so fun to see. Yeah, like the kids come in and do the activities and like with their parents. And then we had some Friends stopped by and they were just like sitting with us and everything. That was and that activity, that was another that was your Alexis idea, right, Alexis? The activity?

Alexis Gonzalez [22:30]

Yeah, it was. I like didn't even think of age when just thinking of the activity. I'm like, what do I want to do? What could I do? And then it ends up being like a bunch of little kids loving like the, loving the activity. And the activity was like basically recreate or like design your own, or redesign— like, not redesign, but you can fill in the C that we had, our Chicago Graphic Design Club C. And little kids loved that.

They love glitter glue, and they love spilling the glitter glue. But it was so beautiful to see. I loved— it's like you can reinterpret like that space in so many different ways, and just seeing like a bunch of kids and even like adults filling that out. That was like, I don't know, it wasn't— it was like surreal. I'm like, oh wow, people like having fun on pieces of paper.

But yeah, just giving like kids or just people the opportunity to just like let themselves go on like an empty canvas essentially was— it was awesome to witness.

Christian Solorzano [23:40]

So looking into 2025, what are Some of the things that you're all looking forward to. 2025 is going to be our 5-year anniversary.

Cheryl Bever [23:52]

That's huge, man. How do you feel about that? I mean, you started this and yeah, the one that's been here since the beginning. So watching it grow that far, I mean, that's got to be a bit surreal for you, huh?

Christian Solorzano [24:01]

I feel good about it. I try to not dwell on it too much. It does feel very like anytime that I update our website, like I go to our programming page, like I take an upcoming event and I label it as now past, and it goes to like the past programming. Like it just gets like a bit— the scrolling becomes longer and longer.

So being able to see all the programming that we have, that we've had, I think we've done like 90 events or something in the, in the last almost 5 years. And according to Eventbrite, we've had like thousands, probably not thousands. We've had like over 1,000 people register for like our events, probably more than it, probably, and it's probably in the thousands because that's including virtual stuff as well.

So like just knowing that there has been that many people that have like come into cross into the path with the Chicago Graphic Design Club is pretty cool. I love knowing that Other cities, know of us, and that Chicago has kind of— the Chicago Graphic Design Club has kind of had, this footprint in the community now for the last few years.

Alexis Gonzalez [25:18]

I forgot to tell you guys, you guys were my number one podcast. On Spotify.

Cheryl Bever [25:24]

Very cool.

Alexis Gonzalez [25:25]

I'm a fan. How can I say I'm a fan?

Christian Solorzano [25:28]

You were listening to your episode over and over and over again.

Alexis Gonzalez [25:32]

No, I was not. I was I listened once and I'm like, maybe I should listen again. No, my mom hasn't even listened to it. She's like, I haven't had time. Sorry, everyone but like my family members, like even like, even like my partner's like brother listened to it and my mom's like, I haven't had time. I'm like, what do you mean? Whatever. It's fine. She can, she can do whatever she wants. She birthed me.

Christian Solorzano [26:06]

And getting to— getting a chance to meet some of my heroes has been like pretty surreal. Seeing them kind of like as a peer and not as someone that's like up here, that's been, that's been really funny. I had my, a friend of the club, Nicolette, came over. We were, we were talking the other day and she made a joke and she said something like, the real reason why you started the club is just so that you could like Meet your heroes.

I was showing her the video that we did with Rick and some of the things that he was sharing with us.

Jeffrey Hitchens [26:41]

And a clip of that video of you and Carlos is actually in one of Christo's video.

Alexis Gonzalez [26:47]

No way!

Jeffrey Hitchens [26:48]

Yeah, because he's talking about Carlos Aguirre.

Alexis Gonzalez [26:50]

What?

Jeffrey Hitchens [26:51]

He uses a clip from that video, and I share with you. I forgot.

Alexis Gonzalez [26:56]

We better share that like immediately. Yeah, it is not. Hey, you made it! You're on Chris's show! I mean, I would probably like, I don't know, scream at him.

Cheryl Bever [27:11]

As long as he's not tearing it apart.

Alexis Gonzalez [27:15]

Right. That's pretty cool. That's nuts. I mean, that shows you that there's like not much documentation of like Carlos in front of a camera. Just speaking about anything.

Christian Solorzano [27:28]

So that's what I want, for 2025. That's what I would love for the club to do more of is like, I would love for us to do more document— documenting of creative creatives. And I didn't plan. And the other thing is like, none of this was planned. So that's the best part. And I feel like my ignorance is kind of like this, my superpower. Is that I don't tend to, overthink or just plan super ahead. It's just kind of just do it.

Someone told me once that you kind of have to pin yourself in a corner. You just have to have an idea and then, just say you're going to do it and, you don't even know how you're going to do it. You just have to, figure it out and that's it.

Alexis Gonzalez [28:11]

I feel like that's the best part because you kind of like, you don't know what you don't know. And you're also, like you said, figuring it out while also learning at the same time. And then, even if you knew everything, I feel like that just places, you're just putting expectations up already, and then you're— and you can just, fall into, a rabbit hole of just, am I doing this right? Am I not? And then, just feeling it out, you're, discovering how we can do it.

And, even after, you can reflect on, okay, we did it went well, how can we do it better instead of just like having standards in place and like trying to fulfill them. And you're like, oh, for it, you're kind of like already afraid with expectations.

Christian Solorzano [29:01]

Yeah, essentially. Anyone else? 2025, what are you looking forward to?

Cheryl Bever [29:04]

Just more of everything that we're doing. And yeah, seeing more people, like giving people more opportunities to show their work and get out there and do stuff.

Christian Solorzano [29:15]

And I'm gonna share something with you guys right now. Continue to talk. I'm pulling it away.

Jeffrey Hitchens [29:19]

We've talked about this, so I'm going to say it here as a— hopefully as a way of manifesting it. Just talking to some kids. Yeah talking like maybe going to high school and just talking about graphic design. Showing— And showing how graphic design can be a profession. Probably, yeah, probably like high schools, I feel like, because I know Excuse me for doing that. But yeah, just making that a priority.

Christian Solorzano [29:49]

I just put in the chat our community survey results. So for anyone listening, we've put out a survey for people to fill out to let us know how you want to be supported and the kind of programming that you want to see in 2025. Maybe we could go through some of these.

Alexis Gonzalez [30:07]

I'm going to add on to Jeffrey's. I am also looking forward to, just going into just educational spaces or, high schools and, letting kids know you could— this is a career, it's a viable career. It doesn't have to be whatever conventional expectation of a career is to you.

And also, more, larger events and social events, going to like I said, partnering with other orgs and like going through their spaces and in that. And yeah, meeting new designers and trying to weave them out of their little holes in Chicago. But yeah.

Christian Solorzano [30:53]

So some of the events that— some of the programming that people want to see, things— some of these things we're already doing. There's multiple people mentioned workshops. Discussions, more social events with design studios. The Design B&B was the best one yet. Portfolio reviews. We also did our first portfolio review this year, which I almost forgot about, and that was pretty sweet.

It— someone says it would be cool to have an in-person poster show where club members could submit a design based on a prompt, print them out, show them in a small gallery setting with everyone in a low-key event, like a low-key event. So that would be fun. I know that's something that we've talked about is doing some kind of show portfolio reviews.

Jeffrey Hitchens [31:39]

Yeah, I met with someone earlier this year that also was like really suggesting, because they liked the call for submission poster thing we have on the website for posters. And they were—

Christian Solorzano [31:50]

Yeah, someone said, I really like what's been happening. One idea, and it's probably bigger than a single event, but it might be cool to have a sister city in a different country that we could do some exchange with a couple of times a year.

Alexis Gonzalez [32:02]

Oh, wow. Million-dollar idea. Holy cow.

Christian Solorzano [32:06]

I'd imagine it would mainly be Zoom meetings at first, but maybe there's a trip planned in the future. That would be so cool.

Jeffrey Hitchens [32:12]

Oh, man. That would be really cool.

Alexis Gonzalez [32:13]

This is where grant money would be amazing.

Christian Solorzano [32:16]

Yes. So, yeah, so there's some cool ideas, and we'll continue to collect and to go through these. Go through these more in more depth. But I think that's also another part of the club that I really like is that we, I don't know, we listen, people say things and then we take them into consideration and we do what's feasible. So Cheryl, you said more of more of what we're doing. Jeffrey, you want to do more just engagement with like the next generation. And Alexis.

Alexis Gonzalez [32:46]

Wait, what do I say? Sorry.

Christian Solorzano [32:49]

Well, asking like, what's some of the stuff that you'd want to see next year in 2025?

Alexis Gonzalez [32:53]

I mean, continuing social hours but scaling them a little larger, outside of the box in terms of like, I mean, the hangouts, but what else could we add to it while not being a full-fledged event?

Jeffrey Hitchens [33:11]

Escape room.

Alexis Gonzalez [33:14]

Oh my gosh. I mean, that is an option.

Christian Solorzano [33:17]

It's like you're escaping like a client's, like a client. Client meeting.

Alexis Gonzalez [33:23]

I wish if we could like theme it, a theme in escape room, and it could be that. Yeah, that'd be, that'd be funny. And oh my God, that'd be so entertaining. Every email is an escape room. Every email is an escape room.

Christian Solorzano [33:42]

How do I get out of this?

Alexis Gonzalez [33:47]

How do I say what I need to say and get out of here? No, seriously, the yeah, like going to school, going to high schools, like more soldier hours, or like with other designers like that have orgs that we don't know about or may know. And then really looking forward to— are we gonna have another publication like party or Launch party. Launch party.

Christian Solorzano [34:18]

Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah.

Alexis Gonzalez [34:20]

That I'm looking forward to. And then what else? And then like more like cooler, like trivia night. I have major FOMO. I didn't go and I hear about how fun it was and I'm like, I wish I was there. I wish I went. So maybe more than one would be nice. And then, yeah, like showing like somehow those people who do move to Chicago, like those transplants, and like giving them like a warm welcome. Or anyone that moves to Chicago that's not familiar.

Having like an event around that. What else? Yeah, more portfolio reviews would be nice. I mean, I know, logistically, organizing, it's just getting a hold of people sometimes. Yeah, I'm honestly, looking forward to literally everything we can think of and execute for the community.

Christian Solorzano [35:28]

So I want to do a design Pictionary. I think that would be fun.

Alexis Gonzalez [35:32]

That would be fun.

Jeffrey Hitchens [35:34]

I'm gonna have at least one person with an illustration background. This is gonna kill everybody.

Alexis Gonzalez [35:38]

Yeah, right?

Christian Solorzano [35:39]

And just shout out to the Design Museum of Chicago for being like freaking awesome. Kevin, so supportive. And yeah, it's been great to be— I, I'm always going to think of them as like our older sibling.

Jeffrey Hitchens [35:52]

I hope this year we don't have a big event planned on the same day though.

Christian Solorzano [35:57]

Oh yeah, a little bit of sibling rivalry, right? I don't know, I don't have anything else to say. I just want to thank you guys for being awesome and making this club be what it is. In my mind, I think of us as a band, and we have a good band, and every one of you has a different— plays a different instrument. And together we make really good music that people love to listen to. Hamid's probably doing some crazy 3D graphic design stuff right now.

Alexis Gonzalez [36:36]

Right. He's cooking. He's actually cooking in the studio right now. He's just—

Christian Solorzano [36:41]

He's in the— he's in the lab.

Alexis Gonzalez [36:42]

He's in the lab. He's like, what can I pull out of my sleeve?

Jeffrey Hitchens [36:47]

Wow.

Alexis Gonzalez [36:49]

Yeah.

Cheryl Bever [36:49]

And Sean's made 4 typefaces and 5 books and— In this hour. Right.

Alexis Gonzalez [36:56]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [36:57]

That's another thing that we could tease a little bit. Next year, the club is planning on Launching its own typeface collection. So stand by. Anything else from anyone before we say goodbye?

Cheryl Bever [37:15]

I don't think so.

Jeffrey Hitchens [37:17]

Just generally, thank you to all of you here, and Sean Hamid that could not make it as well. Thank you for your contributions, and even Carson who had to step away for different reasons. Also, thank you for his yeah. And thank you to the design community. So, it's always good to have that space where you can get out of your head when you think everything is just happening to you, and it's most of the time it's not. Yeah. Yeah.

Cheryl Bever [37:43]

Bye everybody.

Christian Solorzano [37:44]

Bye everyone.

Alexis Gonzalez [37:45]

Bye.

Christian Solorzano [37:48]

Thank you for sticking around till the end. We hope that you enjoyed this opportunity to get to know us a little bit better. Thank you for all of your support in 2024, and we will talk to you soon. To learn more about us, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. Talk to you soon. Goodbye.