Christian Solorzano [00:00]

Hello, you're listening to Underscore, a show by the Chicago Graphic Design Club. I'm your host, Christian Solorzano, and today I'm excited to share my conversation with Sarah Adler, graphic designer, artist, and photographer. Most recently, I've been intrigued by her work with Gab Magazine and her creative sensibilities in regards to process and analog approaches to design. I'm glad we finally got to sit down and talk.

Sarah Adler [00:25]

Thank you.

Christian Solorzano [00:25]

Together, we're going to be exploring her origin story, from building websites in 4th grade and running a comedy YouTube channel at 10, to leaving Florida at 17 to study at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Sarah shares how her grandmother, a graphic designer in the 1930s who turned down a full ride to Parsons, shaped her sense of what it means to make things with your hands.

She'll speak to us about her role as creative director of Gab Magazine an independent Chicago publication now in its 3rd issue, and why she believes print still has something irreplaceable to offer. She opens up about her analog-forward practice, her values around intuition and craft, and what it means to build something real with the people around you in this city. If you enjoy these conversations, please support the show by following us on your preferred podcast platform and leaving us a rating.

It really helps us expand our reach here in Chicago and beyond. Thank you so much for tuning in and enjoy. How's it going, Sarah?

Sarah Adler [01:26]

Things are so good. I'm so happy it's warmer in Chicago right now. How are you?

Christian Solorzano [01:30]

Yeah, I'm doing well. I'm also happy that it's warmer, but I know that once it gets above 100, I will be wishing that it's 12 degrees.

Sarah Adler [01:40]

Yeah, I'm from Florida originally, and somehow the summers here feel like a bit warmer than there.

Christian Solorzano [01:47]

What do you— what are some of your warm weather activities that you like to do?

Sarah Adler [01:51]

Oh gosh, biking to the lake and then finally arriving there and just jumping in the lake. It feels so good. I feel like that's one of the best assets of living in Chicago is having like such a clean body of water to be in.

Christian Solorzano [02:06]

So you and I, we connected on Instagram. I think it was maybe 4 years ago. It's been— I feel like it's— it was— I think it was during COVID And we've just been following each other ever since. And we first met in person, I think it was at Tightfours last year. And then before then, I think we always had this like similar taste in music. And I think that's— it's always nice to meet people that share similar tastes in music.

Sarah Adler [02:38]

100%. Also a very like niche type of music. Electronic music from the '90s from the UK.

Christian Solorzano [02:45]

And then we saw each other, we ran into each other again at the Underworld concert last year as well. And that was such a fun— I mean, wasn't that concert so great?

Sarah Adler [02:56]

It was unbelievable. They're some of the best shows to see live.

Christian Solorzano [03:01]

I think even if you were to cover your ears, it was beautiful to see. And even if you closed your eyes, it was beautiful to hear.

Sarah Adler [03:07]

His cathartic way of presenting himself on stage is so much fun to watch. It feels like you don't really need to hear what lyrics he's singing to like feel it so deeply. I love that about Underworld.

Christian Solorzano [03:21]

So one of the questions that I always ask, the first question that I always ask people on the show is you your introduction to design.

Sarah Adler [03:31]

Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, I attribute my introduction to design to making websites when I was in 4th grade. My first creative love was cinematography and video making, and I had this comedy YouTube channel when I was around 10 or 11 that I was kind of neurotic and obsessed about. I think I made around 200 different skit videos.

I would write down the link to my YouTube channel and hand it out to everyone in my 4th grade class. And I was like, I loved having a lot of my friends be like guests appearing in some of my videos. But to promote that YouTube channel, I was making websites. And I would like put games on my website, chat room widgets, and my whole 4th grade class would like meet on my website after school to like talk to each other.

And you could like create your own screen name, so it was kind of anonymous. Almost similar to like PictoChat, which was the chat room on Nintendo DS. And also like online games, especially this one game called Go Supermodel. You could design your own clothes for your little character and your avatar, and I just loved zooming in on the little pixels and making like a dress or a shirt like perfect for my little avatar.

So I really attribute that to being like the first few things that I was making on a computer, really. Also, back then you could make your own YouTube headers, header photos and you could also like design the background of your YouTube channel. So I would like make them all seamlessly integrated. I have no idea what I was using at the time. I think it was something called Picnik, which was like a really old photo editor with really goofy fonts and effects.

I think it even exists anymore. Yeah, miss it.

Christian Solorzano [05:23]

And I know that you mentioned that your grandmother was also an influence with graphic design. So can you share with us who your grandmother is, was, and sort of how that inspired you to take something that you were using as a way to connect with your friends in school and as a form of self-expression self-expression to something that you're now getting paid to do?

Sarah Adler [05:50]

Absolutely, yeah. My grandma, her name was Constance Robinson. She went by Connie. She was a graphic designer in the 1930s. She actually went to a school in New York for talented women, talented creative women specifically. And in high school, she was designing like menu designs, posters, all hand-painted typography illustrated by herself. And there was no— there were no computers then.

And she ended up getting a full ride to Parsons School of Design, but back then women didn't go to college, and she decided not to go, and she became an art teacher. She was also the window display designer at Macy's in New York City, and I have all of her old illustrations and ideas for the window displays for like every holiday, every season.

Christian Solorzano [06:41]

They are so beautiful.

Sarah Adler [06:44]

But I really do feel so connected to her, even though we didn't get to spend a lot of time together. She passed when I was around 9 years old. I do feel like we— our souls are so intertwined, like we have so much in common. She also rescued cats, which I do in the city too. Yeah, we're soulmates.

Christian Solorzano [07:02]

So at what age did you discover that she was a designer? And at that point, did you— did that spark something in you that made you want to Make this your thing?

Sarah Adler [07:12]

Yeah, I didn't know as a kid, but my mom had all of her artwork and pieces hung up around our entire house, so I was always looking at it and surrounded by her design work. And it wasn't until I was, I think, around in like middle school or high school where I was like curious about them, and she explained the lore of Connie. It was around high school time that I took my first graphic design class with a wonderful teacher, Eric Riemenschneider.

And he really pushed me and had me enter like logo design contests. I'm originally from a small town, an island off of Florida called Sanibel Island. I wasn't really exposed to a lot of art and design and cool culture like Chicago has to offer. So he kind of like started a revolution in my life. He had me go to a summer design program at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Which is where I discovered that this is exactly what I wanted to do.

I had such wonderful teachers that believed in me, and it gave me a lot of confidence. So I decided to leave high school a year early and move to Chicago when I was 17. I was very nervous. I had never even been to the Midwest before. I had no family from the Midwest. I just up and left, and it was the best decision that I've ever made.

Christian Solorzano [08:33]

And what was your first impression when you landed in Chicago?

Sarah Adler [08:37]

My gosh, I remember it was like rainy. I had popped into Reckless Records downtown for the first time and I had never been in any record store like it. I was like, oh my God, there's just so many cool things to explore and see. Obviously seeing the Bean and seeing all the architecture is like, it's stunning. It's hard to even believe that it's real and in front of me. I had never seen anything like it. So.

Christian Solorzano [09:06]

So you came, so you came to Chicago by yourself. Did you, when you said you finished high school a year early, does that mean you graduated a year early and then you moved to Chicago? Okay. Got it.

Sarah Adler [09:19]

Yeah. So I wasn't having a great time in South Florida at a sports-oriented high school. It definitely, I knew from the beginning, I— this was not for me. This is not an environment that was good for me. So I kind of was like immediately looking to get out and to figure out how to do that. And so my sophomore year, I talked to my guidance counselor and I was like, how can I get out of here?

Christian Solorzano [09:46]

Yeah.

Sarah Adler [09:47]

And he was like, you can try to take enough classes to get to like double up on credits, but nobody's done it at this school before. You can try. So I did. I took like a million classes at one time and passed them all, got out. Nice.

Christian Solorzano [10:04]

What was it like to go from a place that you don't like to now you're in a place that you do like? And you're also— what I'm assuming, you're surrounded by other people that are also into the same things that you're in. Was there a culture shock that you experienced, or what was that? Did any growing pains come from Being in a new place?

Sarah Adler [10:23]

Yeah absolutely. Going from being surrounded by a small handful of creative people to being surrounded by thousands of very creative and inspiring people was definitely a shock, but I think in a good way, in a way that it made me grow so much. I think I— what was the biggest shock was that SAIC is a very conceptual school, and I hadn't really Totally explored like conceptual background of design. In high school, I was making design because it looked cool.

So it really helped me tap into the more conceptual side of design, which I still keep within the work that I make now.

Christian Solorzano [11:03]

And I know that for you, your design practice isn't just limited to graphic design. I've seen you also post projects that you've done, like you made a lamp. And you've done some 3-dimensional objects.

So how does that— is that something that you regularly do, or what's that relationship like between— because I know that you were working in digital product design, but then you have these— you were at Square as a designer, and then you were also at the same time you're building objects and you're taking workshops. And then most recently, you've been for— I think for the last 2 years, you've been working on a publication, Gab.

So how do all those things sort of mesh into each other? And do you feel like they all— just talk to us about the relationship amongst all of those things.

Sarah Adler [11:56]

Yeah, I have always loved interior design, furniture design, and it wasn't until I took a class at the Little Craft School in Chicago, which is hosted by a couple of SAIC grads that are a little bit older than me, that I realized I love working with my hands and taking design work into a physical form. So I had made— I have it actually right here— I had made this lamp out of wood.

And it made me realize I love doing that. I ended up going back and making a clock. This is like a cell clock. We were given a prompt of creating a clock based on a memory of somebody else, and that memory was the first person to look at cells dividing. And he used like very bright colored dyes to watch them divide. And I was really excited to like use this bright blue color. And I wanted to create a clock that I had never seen before.

So the top part is the hours and the bottom part is the minutes separated. But yeah, with the Gab, I was approached by my good friend Isabella.

Who's a writer, and she was basically like, I really want to make a magazine. Do you want to creative direct it with me? And I was like, duh, let's do this. So we have 3 editions out now. The first one was the Heartbreak Edition or the Dumped Edition, and we made that because a lot of our friends were getting dumped at the same time and we wanted to tell all of our juicy stories in one place.

And that was definitely like our trial run of making the magazine. We had no idea what we were doing. We had no design guidelines yet. We kind of were just like throwing stuff at a wall, but it turned out great and we're really proud of it. And now we're at a third one, which is the Illusion issue. We have learned so much through each edition. This one has definitely taken a more chic path.

And I came up with the idea of an illusion issue because I've always been so attracted to illusions, making illusions, the graphic nature of them, and I wanted an environment or like a— what's the word? I wanted a place to be able to explore making those. But of course, Isabella is a genius and she found a way to have so many different beautiful writing pieces, poems, literature that Finds its way in the illusion space.

Christian Solorzano [14:25]

So, and as you're working through this publication, do you, do you wait until you receive the content to start conceptualizing the look and feel? Or how does, what does your process look like?

Sarah Adler [14:37]

That's a good question. It's kind of been a little bit different each time. This time around, we like to start by making a color palette. So when we come up with the concept, we started with the illusion issue and we're like, okay, what is— what do we think of when we think of illusions? And we're thinking of different movies. We're thinking of Vertigo. We're thinking of Persona. We're thinking of magical realism, different books.

And so with that, we kind of put a mood board together of like screenshots from movies, from different things that inspire us, and we come up with— A color palette based on that. And then we go from there.

Christian Solorzano [15:17]

Yeah. I really, I feel like sometimes the best way to go about doing a new project is by not knowing how to do it like the first time around, as opposed to trying to figure it out before. So, yeah. So that's cool. So that, so this is an annual publication, right? Or is it semiannual?

Sarah Adler [15:38]

We have it twice a year. Biannual.

Christian Solorzano [15:40]

Biannual. Semiannual is what? Is that also twice a year or is that biannual?

Sarah Adler [15:47]

I don't know. I feel like I associate semiannual with like sales.

Christian Solorzano [15:50]

Yeah, me too. So you're doing, so you're doing your, you have your day job and then you're also exploring all of these different other creative outlets. And I remember there was, it was a while ago when I first discovered when we first connected on Instagram, were you also, were you also in a band? You were also like, you were in music as well, right?

Sarah Adler [16:16]

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So long ago during the pandemic, I was in like a garage pop rock band. I have always wanted to be in a band. I was actually in a Led Zeppelin cover band in high school, but really wanted to write my own music and make something unique to myself. So I was in a band called Garden Unit with some of my friends. Very short-lived, by the way.

Christian Solorzano [16:40]

When you say short-lived, how short?

Sarah Adler [16:42]

Oh, like a year.

Christian Solorzano [16:44]

Okay, that's not that short.

Sarah Adler [16:46]

But I played the synth. A couple of my other friends were on different synths, and we were just kind of making this like wall of fun sound merging with some kind of like garage beat sounds. And I'm a singer. I've always been a singer. So I had a lot of fun writing some cute lyrics and singing.

Christian Solorzano [17:05]

And today, what are some of the— where do you tend to find yourself drawing inspiration from? I know music plays a big role, but what are your— there is one project that you posted not too long ago where you designed all these album covers for— it was like a booth somewhere. A display.

Sarah Adler [17:28]

Yeah. So at my last job, Square, we had a huge offsite in Oakland, California, and they were creating all these different experiences. And one of them was a record store experience. So we wanted to create 50 different record covers and backs to try and tell the story of small business owners that use Square to power it. So each design is unique to each business. And on the back kind of tells a little bit about that particular person or business that uses Square.

Christian Solorzano [17:59]

And do you find, because I find that your process to me, or at least the projects that you tend to publish regularly, they all have an analog feel to them. And so what's the ratio of you working on the computer as opposed to working with your hands?

Sarah Adler [18:21]

So, great question. Yeah, I feel like I've just been naturally drawn to a more analog process lately, and I think that's as AI and technology has kind of taken over all of our lives and embedded in every facet of our lives. Taking a more hand-working approach kind of brings me back to my roots to the beginning of my time at SAIC, where pretty much all that we were doing was using our hands, pasting, cutting, letterpress.

I really appreciated my time there because it valued handcrafting so much. So my process lately, especially with making logos and album covers, has to— has been using like hole punchers to punch out circles and creating a font based on that. Also, getting a scanner really changed my entire process, a high-quality scanner. Nothing crazy, it was like $100, but it can—

Up to like 6,000 DPI, something crazy. So I'm able to have like a great amount of quality from these scans. So like scanning things in, printing it back out, cutting it up, pasting it, scanning it back in and getting that natural texture, that tactile, tactileness of it all. Feels very raw and feels very real. I feel like things that look too graphic and too perfect. Just aren't really not really— I'm not really attracted to it right now.

Christian Solorzano [19:45]

Yeah, because I get a sense that there's like the there's an analog component, but I also feel like there's a— there's this artist within you that is also using design not merely as a form of communication. You're not just communicating things. I feel like you're sort of going beyond that.

And you're in some instances, I like your the way that you're interpreting like various things that you tend to, that you tend to publish. So do you consider yourself to also be a designer? Because I know that sometimes designers draw a hard line between I'm a designer or I'm an artist or I'm both. But what do you, what would you define, what would you describe your role to be, or how would you identify?

Sarah Adler [20:34]

Oh, hard to say. A little bit of both. A little bit of design. Right now I'm a brand designer for the first time in my career, which has always been my dream. I've always looked up to brand designers so much and how they push the bounds of creativity as much as possible. And I kind of, that feels like my role on this earth is to push the realms of creative or creativity as much as possible.

Christian Solorzano [21:00]

Yeah. And what do you consider to be, for you personally, what are some of those benchmarks or some of those things that you feel take design to another level when it comes to, pushing boundaries? For you subjectively, what does that?

Sarah Adler [21:20]

I think creating From a very raw place. So instead of making a mood board or looking at inspiration, I instead will put music on and put a bunch of crafting tools in front of myself. And sometimes music is influencing what I am creating for a specific project. Sometimes it's meeting with a client and hearing like their background where they're from or what inspires them and having that in the back of my mind and really tapping into my subconscious and my intuition.

And I think that is what drives all of the work that I make is trusting my gut, trusting my intuition. Everything I make is off of intuition rather than inspiration. And I don't know.

Christian Solorzano [22:13]

And what do you do to trust your intuition? Because I think often designers, we can be sort of there could be self-doubt in the picture sometimes.

Sarah Adler [22:25]

Yeah, I think confidence is incredibly important. Yeah, you working on your confidence and the trust within yourself is so important because then your intuition can really shine and you can tap into that. And also not listening to anybody else. Yeah, sometimes when I'm following my intuition, and I show someone else and I hear their opinion, it's great and it influences my next moves, but I also think it can, it can distract from where you were.

Christian Solorzano [22:58]

My good friend and I, whenever we give each other feedback, if we disagree with what the other person is saying, our response is always, I'll take that into consideration.

Sarah Adler [23:10]

Yeah, and it's— and I don't want to put things into boxes either. I think that's a mistake because a lot of the time when I'm working on a logo, for example, the first logo that I show the client, they might hate. And then hearing their feedback on it is exactly what I needed to make the next move. And we end up in a very collaborative end form.

So like they have their piece that influenced what I made and the initial place where I was influenced what they were going to say. So collaboration is— Also incredibly important.

Christian Solorzano [23:42]

So how do you, how do you get, how do you build confidence? Tell me, because I feel like that's something that I see holding people back so much is I see incredibly gifted people and it's just the, sometimes it's the confidence that if they, if they had a little bit more of it, I think they would be, they would be propelling so far away into greatness. So for you, how did you develop that confidence? And was there, was there a mentor?

Was it just what was it?

Sarah Adler [24:17]

Yeah. My mom said I came out of the womb a know-it-all. So I think being a know-it-all has gotten me kind of far. I feel like I have faked it till I've made it my entire life. And I'm still faking it until I make, until I make it, basically. I do feel like there is a set of personalities from the Midwest that is a little bit more subdued. Not as many go-getters as opposed to, let's say, maybe New York City.

And for like, in a weird way, like my— both of my parents are from Brooklyn and they were very loud, confident people, funny people. And I feel like I got a lot of my personality traits from them. My mom, if she needs something or wants something, she just goes and does it. And I saw that my entire life, so I carry that mentality. Today, if I like want to talk to someone, I don't worry about what they're gonna think.

I just send them an email or I call them up or I send them a DM. A lot of the opportunities in my life have opened up because I am not afraid to just say hi or talk.

Christian Solorzano [25:20]

Yeah, I call that just showing up.

Sarah Adler [25:23]

Yeah, show up.

Christian Solorzano [25:24]

Everyone can do, and I think most often everything Goes well?

Sarah Adler [25:31]

Exactly. What do you have to lose? Just go for it. Also, life is incredibly short. What are you gonna do, just watch all of these opportunities go past you? No, go for it. Maybe you'll be embarrassed, maybe it won't go well, but who cares? At least you can say you tried, and then you're not gonna regret it.

Christian Solorzano [25:48]

That's it. That's the quote for this episode. So in addition to all of these, all of these things that you're doing, I wonder if there's this— I know you mentioned that you've always— like, this is your first time working in branding, and then that's something that you've always sort of admired, and now you're doing it. Is there— when you look into the future, do you tend to sort of have a game plan of the things that you want to do?

Or what are some untapped areas that you've yet to explore that you're looking forward to?

Sarah Adler [26:27]

Yeah, being a brand designer is something I had wanted to do so much the last 5 years. I was working alongside the brand designers at Square. They were always my biggest inspirations within the company. So finally getting there by accident actually was a huge stepping stone, I feel like, in my career. My main goal is to be an art director one day. I would love to do that. But also, I love baking and I love creating food and drinks for people.

So I would love to open up a cafe one day and design the interior of it, design the branding for that, and go all out there. That's kind of like an untapped, dream of mine. And also my boyfriend is a designer and he's kind of my right-hand man for a lot of my design work. I'll show him something, he'll be like, move that letter 2 spaces over here and change the color to something brighter. And I'll be like—

Whoa, that's exactly it. So I feel like we have kind of something there too. Maybe we start a little branding house or a design house together.

Christian Solorzano [27:30]

Do you guys collaborate often?

Sarah Adler [27:31]

Yeah, we collaborate a lot. Honestly, he has the final say in my work. Pretty much everything that I make wouldn't have gotten to that place without him.

Christian Solorzano [27:41]

So yeah. And how did you two meet?

Sarah Adler [27:43]

We met on a film set when I was 21. During the pandemic, I was really bored and I was just looking for random opportunities. And I saw someone post on Instagram that they were looking for actresses for their short Columbia film. And I was like, hey, eff it, let's try it out. I had never really acted before in movies. So I got the part and I showed up and I met Xander on set.

Christian Solorzano [28:06]

Hi.

Sarah Adler [28:06]

He was the director's roommate at the time. So he was like walking around, moving things, helping out. And then it wasn't until the movie was like edited and finished that the director had a little trip for a few of the people that worked on the film to go on at his hometown in Madison, Wisconsin. And that's where me and Xander really connected a lot, especially over music. We both were really into very niche music. And that's who you met at the Underworld show.

Christian Solorzano [28:34]

Yeah, that's awesome. I love origin stories. I'm just like Hearing how people meet, interesting. Yeah. So talk to us about cats.

Sarah Adler [28:43]

For sure. I always grew up with cats, always had them around. I feel like they are just such spiritual creatures. Growing up on an island, they were indoor-outdoor cats. So when I would go outside, we would just like hang out all day together. They would wait for me at the bus stop when I got off after school and they would walk me home. We just had this like unspoken connection and relationship.

And I realized when I moved to Chicago that I can't live without that energy in my life. So I started fostering when I was 19, which is a crazy idea to do in my dorm room. But you know what? I needed it and I knew I needed it. Again, going off intuition, I'm like, something's missing, just go for it. So I messaged someone on Craigslist. And they had a listing for like, fosters needed.

And I was like, hi, I'm Sarah, I'm 19, but I have a lot of experience with cats. Would I be able to take a stab at fostering? And she called me up and we got along great. And she was like, yes, absolutely. And from then till now, I have fostered and found homes for 60 Chicago cats.

All have been rescued from Kill shelters, from hoarding situations all around Illinois, sometimes Indiana. And it has been such a blessing in my life. I found my current cat, my first foster fail, from that experience.

Christian Solorzano [30:10]

And is that what it's called, foster fail, when you can't find a home for them?

Sarah Adler [30:14]

It's not being unable to find a home for them. It's falling in love too much with the foster that you're just I got to have this one forever.

Christian Solorzano [30:24]

Yeah, I was gonna ask, because like, I can imagine a sort of attachment that you develop with these cats. What is that like?

Sarah Adler [30:34]

Yeah, in the beginning it was very hard. Sometimes you say goodbye and they go off to a great home, but then you're like, oh my God. It's kind of like when a friend leaves a sleepover and you're like, I'm so lonely now. I miss them. We had, we had so much fun together. So there were definitely moments where I was like, oh, this hurts. And I would cry.

But the feeling of saving a life and knowing it's in a really good place and so much better than where it used to be is enough to keep going and enough to move on to the next one. But yeah, there definitely were a couple moments that were— I still think about. Yeah, a couple cats.

Christian Solorzano [31:11]

Were there ever any cats that you just didn't— you didn't like them? Like they were just jerks or you just—

Sarah Adler [31:18]

Very rarely. It's interesting. It was, yeah, very rarely. There were a couple kittens that were super skittish and were feral that I tried my hardest to domesticate and make friendly, but it just didn't work out. And one of them crawled into a crevice I didn't know existed in my apartment, and I couldn't find it for like, I don't know, like maybe 30 hours.

And I was panicking, and I was playing crying kitten noises trying to like find where this kitten was hiding, and of course, they finally came crawling out of the tiniest space I've ever seen. But yeah, not super common, but there were some moments.

Christian Solorzano [31:56]

So going back to the publication Gab, I'd love to hear about why I think print is more important now than ever. It's so crucial. And I'd love to hear, as someone that is producing a publication, and is working with someone with— I mean, you're working with various contributors to this, to these issues, right? Yeah, various stories. What is that collaboration like? And overall, what's your sense of like, what, where do you, what role do you, do you feel print plays in design today?

Sarah Adler [32:33]

Yeah, so I am creative director alongside Ali Shown, who is also creative director, graphic designer. And Isabella, who is the editor— editor-in-chief is the title. And we also have a photography team, Max Johnson, a stylist team, Mel Romansky. And we have a team of editors that read through a lot of our submissions and pick out which ones they like best, tweak some of the wording in some of the articles. But this last time we had 600 submissions for the Illusion issue.

And it just goes to show like how many people want to be part of a print physical publication and how much they want to get their pieces out into the world in a physical way. It's just something different holding a magazine, rolling it up, throwing it in your purse, going to the beach and looking through physical design work that it's an unspoken difference between looking at a computer screen or your phone screen. Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [33:41]

And there's something that is permanent about holding something in your hand. I feel like there's such a— for me, there's a big sense of fear with anything on the computer because it could just disappear.

Sarah Adler [33:53]

Or stay forever in a weird way.

Christian Solorzano [33:56]

Or stay forever. But I mean, if you think about like everything that you put on the cloud, it's somewhere else. Like it's not with you. You can't— there's no guarantee that it'll you can hold it or anything.

Sarah Adler [34:09]

So very true.

Christian Solorzano [34:12]

I really appreciate print. So 600 submissions that you received, and then about how many of those actually get selected? And do you guys have— happen to have like some criteria of what gets in, what doesn't?

Sarah Adler [34:26]

Yeah, so we created a syllabus for the first time for the Illusion issue that had different books, pieces, movies, shows for people to watch before they submitted anything, just to vibe check that they were on the same wavelength as us for what we were looking for the magazine. Yeah, what was the— sorry, what was the original question?

Christian Solorzano [34:49]

Yeah, just the criteria. How do you guys go through?

Sarah Adler [34:52]

Criteria. Okay, with the 600 submissions, I think we narrowed it down to, I think, 20 writing pieces and around 20 25 art pieces, I would estimate. And it was kind of like a puzzle trying to be put together. So like with the writing pieces that we wanted in the publication, we then wanted to find artwork that was submitted that would fit those pieces well.

So like if it was a piece about, let's say, Visions of Gabriel, like we were looking for— ethereal artwork that maybe would fit well. So it was, it was definitely hard. We had so many talented people submit their artwork. I wish that we could highlight everyone. So tough. But we have 114 pages of a lot of wonderful content.

Christian Solorzano [35:45]

That's amazing. So what's so at the moment, what do you, what do you feel, what are some of the areas in your design practice that you feel like you're still sort of you're either exploring, or what are some of the challenges that you're working through today when it comes to like just your creative practice? Like what? Yeah, just curious about that.

Sarah Adler [36:10]

I would love to get into motion design. I haven't really dabbled in it quite yet. I've always worked alongside motion designers and have been pretty amazed by the magical things they create, but I haven't taken a stab at it, so that's something I want to focus on this next year. Do you have any tips on how to get into motion design?

Christian Solorzano [36:31]

I've heard about the one tool that I've been playing around with is Cavalry, and it was just bought out by Canva. So I think, I mean, from what the few times that I've used it seems like it's a, it's a way better After Effects. And it seems a little bit more intuitive. So I've been wanting to play with that. And I know that you can do some pretty interesting things with AI.

Like if you prompt it right, you can create animations now and like create almost like a create your own animation software with AI. And I've been seeing some designers do that.

Sarah Adler [37:10]

Have you have you been using AI within your design practice? And how do you feel about it?

Christian Solorzano [37:16]

I have. I was so anti-AI when it first came out. And I've been giving it a chance and it's been pretty incredible. But I use it to create, I mostly use it for coding and technical things that are more like backend stuff. I don't, I don't use, I don't use it for design. I find it a little bit, I don't know, I draw the— I have— I draw a line. What about you?

Sarah Adler [37:52]

Same thing. I've used it for more like complicated reasons, like making a word search. I'm not gonna spend all day putting 400 letters next to each other. So there's some cases where I'm like, oh, thank God that this exists. It's making things go by faster and easier. Yeah, but I don't use it too often, I would say. Just ways to like speed up the process and sometimes to help me ideate on an idea.

Christian Solorzano [38:24]

I have been seeing that there's been a handful of designers that have been building their portfolios with AI, like just the portfolio website. And most recently I saw one guy, he was using Claude Code. He's a photographer in New York and he also does field recordings. So he had AI build this interactive map that allows you to see where he's taken photos and you click on the photo and then it plays a sound recording from that space.

Sarah Adler [39:00]

Oh, that's so cool.

Christian Solorzano [39:01]

And I thought that was kind of cool because it's, he's doing photography, he's doing audio, and he's just having AI build like the container for it. So.

Sarah Adler [39:09]

That's so awesome. Is he Chicago-based?

Christian Solorzano [39:13]

No, he's in New York. And then the other day I saw a friend of mine shared with me, I don't know if this was with AI, but it was a guy who made this website where it's just these like 3D renderings of all the bathrooms that he goes Oh, that's sweet. And you can like zoom in and zoom out and like kind of pan around.

Sarah Adler [39:33]

Bathrooms are so inspiring.

Christian Solorzano [39:35]

Yeah. Do you have a favorite Chicago bathroom?

Sarah Adler [39:38]

Favorite has to be the 2 bathrooms that are at Breakfast for Dinner Studios. They're a creative production studio run by my 2 friends Evan and Alex, and they just creatively interior designed out all of the different spaces of this huge warehouse. And both of their bathrooms are incredibly trippy. There's like infinity mirrors inside, checkered flooring, bright colors. It's very fun.

Christian Solorzano [40:06]

That's cool. So speaking of Chicago you— how long— how many years have you been in Chicago for now?

Sarah Adler [40:12]

10 years, which is— makes me want to throw up.

Christian Solorzano [40:15]

Yeah. And what are some of your favorite like Chicago spots, or what do you usually find yourself doing?

Sarah Adler [40:22]

Oh, lots of eating. I'm definitely a food enjoyer to the max. Always trying new restaurants. What have I really liked recently? Oh, Superkhana has been probably the best restaurant I've been to in a very long time. It's like an Indian fusion restaurant. Emphasis on the fusion. You get like 10 different sauces. With each plate, and you can just like try so many different flavor combinations. It is such a fun experience.

Christian Solorzano [40:56]

Yeah, I feel like that's a part of. I don't, I don't, I don't know if you post that much about food on your Instagram because that, that's like a surprise to me. The food really.

Sarah Adler [41:06]

Oh my gosh! I am pretty addicted to food. Also, I am, I am devastated because an incredible sushi restaurant just opened up. 400 feet away from our apartment. And I'm gonna be broke. I'm gonna be broke. It's dry-aged sushi, so it has like a smoky flavor with no fishy taste whatsoever. It's like so succulent, almost like barbecue but for fish, but it's still sashimi at the same time. Very unique flavors. I highly recommend. It's called Yensei Moto.

Christian Solorzano [41:38]

Okay, cool. I will I'll look it up. I also am really big into food.

Sarah Adler [41:44]

Oh, really? I didn't know that.

Christian Solorzano [41:46]

Yeah, but I mean, I'm a food enjoyer. I'm not a food critic. I just enjoy eating the food and that's it. I'm like, you know what, lowbrow food.

Sarah Adler [41:58]

What is like the cuisine you normally go for?

Christian Solorzano [42:01]

I like Indian food and I like Mediterranean food and I like yeah, I would say those are probably my favorite.

Sarah Adler [42:09]

Have you been to Greek Islands in Greektown?

Christian Solorzano [42:12]

No, I have not. I'm also, I happen to be vegan. So there's like a handful of vegan places that I love going to. So I do try out new restaurants on a rare occasion, but I usually just go to the same like dozen all the time.

Sarah Adler [42:28]

Would you say Chicago is a pretty vegan friendly? City?

Christian Solorzano [42:33]

It is, but I feel like veganism is sort of on a decline. I think it was really popular a few years ago. Yeah, but I don't know, that's— that's— I don't feel like it's that popular anymore.

Sarah Adler [42:48]

Why do you think?

Christian Solorzano [42:49]

I don't know. I feel like people are— paleo got really popular, like the carnivore diet and all these. I don't know, at some point I feel like veganism was paired with health. And I think now health is like paired with like meats. And I think the—

Sarah Adler [43:08]

Like the raw, like that, those TikToks of like the cutting board with like the beef cut up and the sweet potatoes and the honey.

Christian Solorzano [43:17]

Exactly. That's the thing now. Yeah.

Sarah Adler [43:20]

What was your original reason for being vegan?

Christian Solorzano [43:23]

It was just being a 7th grader and wanting— like, I listened to— I was watching a movie that showed you the slaughterhouse footage, and that was sort of the thing that did it for me.

Sarah Adler [43:40]

So you're an animal lover?

Christian Solorzano [43:41]

I am an animal lover. Oh yeah, I don't— I like— I'm a dog— if I had to choose between dogs and cats, I'm a dog person. I do appreciate cats, but I feel like cats and I don't really get along.

Sarah Adler [43:54]

What cats have you— okay, I feel like part of my purpose in life is to show people that they have a soul cat in this world. And that cats are like people, like each one is so violently different from another. Yeah, just like people that you meet on a daily basis, like each one is so different. What cats have you met or Experience throughout your life that kind of made you feel that way?

Christian Solorzano [44:22]

I have a few friends that have cats and they're cool cats, but I don't know. I like to the thing about dogs is you can pick them up and you can wrestle with them and you can walk them. And I feel like, I feel, I feel like a sibling energy with dogs. I feel like I'm also a dog.

Sarah Adler [44:42]

I feel that. And with your natural energy, aligns with a dog's energy.

Christian Solorzano [44:48]

Yeah, I get cats. I feel like cats think that they're like better than me. Like they're just like on a— I feel a little judged when I, when I'm around cats.

Sarah Adler [44:59]

I get it. I will say though, my cat plays fetch and she falls asleep in my arms when I hold her. So again, maybe you have a cat out there that will want to wrestle with you. Yeah, but maybe TBD.

Christian Solorzano [45:15]

So I know that you're also a collector of albums. And there you go. And you're also I see some artwork on your wall as well.

Sarah Adler [45:26]

I'll switch over here for this part of the conversation.

Christian Solorzano [45:29]

So I'd love to know when it comes to designers, we often like to surround ourselves with like beautiful things to draw inspiration from, and I'm curious about what are some of the objects that you— that draw your eye, and maybe talk to us about your relationship to the things that you collect and the things that you cherish.

Sarah Adler [45:53]

So a lot of artwork found at thrift stores. Okay, this piece right here, I was lying on the floor at a thrift store in Michigan. Let me Try and pull this up. It is by an artist from Michigan. His name is E.F. Higgins. He passed away, and his art was primarily through mail art. So he would paint these beautiful paintings, turn them into stamps, send them to different places around the world to himself, and add more stamps every time it would come in the mail.

And it kind of creates this really chaotic, really cool piece covered in different stamps. That he's made. So I think like it kind of goes back to like intuition and trusting your gut. Like when you see something, like trust that you're attracted to it for a reason, and it's— it doesn't matter if anyone says it's cool. If your eyeball likes it, that's really all that matters.

This is a drawing that my friend's dad's, who is a really great illustrator, he His student drew this photo of me, and I didn't know that this was happening. I saw it on an Instagram story. I'm like, wait, that's me?

Christian Solorzano [47:05]

That's creepy.

Sarah Adler [47:06]

And I was like, hey, can I buy that from you? That's me. And they're like, sure, $100. I'm like, let's go. And then around my house, I have a ton of different illusions, which also goes back to what I was talking about earlier. I love illusions, so These are both thrift store finds. This is a Saanen Zimmer piece. Saanen Zimmer is a Chicago-based design duo. I'm sure you know that. But they were one of the first designers that I got into in high school unintentionally.

I remember seeing their work online and on Pinterest, and I was like, wow, that is everything. How do they do that? How do they get that texture? How do they get that, print look. And then I met them later on and I got to see their studio and everything is screen printed, everything is hand done. They are amazing. I love to show off all of the magazines that I've collected over time.

And I also love like physical objects again, like neat candle holders that are at the thrift store that look like you could buy it at MoMA, but it's for only a few bucks.

Christian Solorzano [48:18]

Yeah. So what are your— do you have any piece that you own that, like if your house was on fire, what are like the 3 things that you would get, you would collect?

Sarah Adler [48:30]

Probably my wooden lamp. I want to say my shelf, but that would be really hard to run down the stairs with.

Christian Solorzano [48:38]

This is a slow fire.

Sarah Adler [48:40]

Okay. A really slow fire. Okay. It would have to be my bass guitar. That I got at Sweetwater in Chicago, and it is a Chicago-specific colorway, a tortoiseshell on black. I would grab my wooden lamp that I made, and I would grab this homemade shelf that me and my boyfriend made that holds all of our books, and it also is a stool. So it would be those 3 things.

Christian Solorzano [49:05]

Yeah. And what are some everyday objects that you carry with you? What do you— what are the things that you must have near you when you're working?

Sarah Adler [49:13]

Oh, good question. My rings. Okay. A matcha.

Christian Solorzano [49:21]

Are you a matcha— like, do you make your own matcha or do you buy your matcha made?

Sarah Adler [49:26]

Both. I love to make my own matcha. It's just gotten a bit expensive, and I don't know if you've heard, but there's a matcha shortage.

Christian Solorzano [49:32]

I heard about that. Yeah.

Sarah Adler [49:33]

Matcha's become so popular that it's getting so expensive and it's a little bit harder to find. And I'm just unfortunately like one of those annoying matcha connoisseurs where I can taste the difference between like really good matcha and bad matcha. So I do, I want to get the good matcha.

But I love to make my own. I also love making homemade syrups to go along with it, like a ginger syrup or like a blueberry syrup or a honey cinnamon syrup. Also why I want to open a cafe to make cool matchas.

Christian Solorzano [50:06]

Are you do you put like sweeteners in your matcha or are you like a purist?

Sarah Adler [50:10]

Those syrups that I mentioned, normally use like honey in the syrups and then natural like fruits or flavors.

Christian Solorzano [50:18]

Yeah, there is a place near my neighborhood that sells really good matcha. It's called Todd and Holland and they're just like a tea supplier, like bulk teas. And their matcha is so good. They recently, they've gotten, because there's a shortage there, they have like 3 grades of matcha and their, and their 2 bottom grades are always out of stock or they just don't have them anymore. So I've had to like get like the really good matcha recently.

And you can taste the difference. Like it just, it's like a whole different level when you get like really good matcha.

Sarah Adler [50:55]

So good. You know what I've been wanting to try recently? A banana pudding coffee or a banana pudding matcha.

Christian Solorzano [51:03]

I've never heard of that.

Sarah Adler [51:04]

I keep seeing videos about it and there's like a ton of different cafes around Chicago that are making them right now. I'm like, that's my next.

Christian Solorzano [51:09]

That's my goal. One of my friends, she got me a matcha that had gold flakes in it. Oh my gosh.

Sarah Adler [51:18]

So extra.

Christian Solorzano [51:19]

It was so extra. And I thought to me, I thought the gold flakes, because like the little canister had gold flakes on the label, and I thought that was the gold flakes, that it just had gold flake label. And no, there was gold flakes in the actual matcha powder.

Sarah Adler [51:34]

So curious how much that matcha cost.

Christian Solorzano [51:36]

I don't know. She didn't tell me, but it was so— I felt guilty drinking it. I'm like, this is to be— to look at, not to drink.

Sarah Adler [51:45]

I know. Are we meant to be drinking gold? I don't know. It feels weird.

Christian Solorzano [51:49]

Yeah, I heard, I heard, I did hear that gold, you could, you can buy gold pills on Amazon. It's like a supplement that people—

Sarah Adler [51:56]

It sounds like something you would see at like a 7-Eleven as one of the supplements. Like totally 24-karat gold in this supplement. Okay.

Christian Solorzano [52:05]

That's so true. Next to like a 5-Hour Energy.

Sarah Adler [52:09]

Oh my God. Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [52:10]

That's funny. So you're, so those are the, so the things that you can't live without is like your rings. And your matcha.

Sarah Adler [52:18]

What about—

Christian Solorzano [52:20]

I don't—

Sarah Adler [52:21]

This is just off the top of my head. I'm probably gonna think about this later tonight and be like, no.

Christian Solorzano [52:25]

Yeah. So in Chicago, is there anything that specifically about Chicago that's kept you here for so long?

Sarah Adler [52:33]

Definitely new restaurants popping up.

Christian Solorzano [52:37]

New restaurants.

Sarah Adler [52:37]

Restaurants. The music scene. Absolutely. Just like being able to go to a concert for $20 and so impromptu, like the night of, and it not being sold out is such a blessing. I don't, I have never lived in New York, but I assume it's a little bit harder to like catch yourself finding a dream concert and be able to just like go if you want.

So I'm very grateful for that. Music, food, and my friends. I'm surrounded by so many talented girls. I'm very grateful to know them and to be able to create with them, especially Gab. Having that outlet for all of us to work on together has been really cool.

Christian Solorzano [53:16]

What do you think is the hallmark of a good community and also a good collaboration? What makes those things for you?

Sarah Adler [53:26]

Everyone being down.

Christian Solorzano [53:28]

Like down to do stuff or like down like as in—

Sarah Adler [53:34]

Yeah, down like, hey, I'm going to the lake. What's up? Y'all want to come? Yeah, let's go. I'll pack sandwiches. Or like, y'all want to see this movie tonight? Yeah, I'm not doing anything. Let's go. Just being down to have new experiences. And yeah, all of us just, I guess, making time for each other.

Christian Solorzano [53:56]

Yeah. And what is your— how frequent do you go back to your hometown, like Florida? I know that there was like this big natural Disaster that happened a few years ago?

Sarah Adler [54:08]

I go home probably a couple times a year. Yeah, we got hit by Hurricane Ian in 2023, and it was very devastating. We had around 12 to 14 feet of water in our house. So my mom, she lives alone in our house, and this is the same house that I grew up in, and so she's still working on the repairs from that. I lost a lot of my Pretty much all of my items really, because of course I kept everything in the basement.

But I— one thing that I lost that I still think about is a jewelry box that my dad got me. He passed away when I was 17, and he also loved thrifting and finding like unique items. And I remember one year for Christmas he surprised me with this pink velvet interior wooden jewelry box that like had all these little compartments that you could pull out and I remember that being such a huge loss.

And for my birthday a couple years ago, my boyfriend found me a near-identical version of that jewelry box. And while I was asleep, he took my old jewelry box and untangled all of my necklaces and filled up the new one with all of my jewelry. And when I woke up, it was like presented in the kitchen, like on the counter. And I just like— it was the most thoughtful thing I've ever been gifted in my entire life.

So yeah, we lost a lot of sentimental things. It's not like I care about things or items, but it was, it was our family photos, it was my birth certificate, it was the jewelry box, and it was also my entire design portfolio from school.

So I lost all of the handcrafting, handcrafted work that I made when I was at SAIC, which is very painful for me to think about because that was a bit before I was documenting things digitally. I thought I would have them forever, which is also like interesting that we were talking about how things online don't live forever, but print goods last a bit longer.

But you never know when you're just going to be hit by a natural disaster and you lose all of the physical things that you have. And it seems to be more and more common with around the world, like California, Hawaii. It's— yeah, you never know when you can lose everything.

Christian Solorzano [56:19]

Yeah, that's so true. I know that there's— when a while ago you posted on Instagram, it was, I believe, I don't know if it was like your logo, but it was a star that you recreated, I believe. And it was like a star that you drew when you were a child. Or can you talk to us about that?

Sarah Adler [56:38]

Yeah.

Christian Solorzano [56:39]

That star motif.

Sarah Adler [56:40]

So I had a blankie growing up that had stars all over it. Some of them were embroidered and some of them were like printed within the fabric. And it was, like any blankie to a child, a sense of comfort, companionship, being— feeling lost without it. It was definitely like a part of me. And so when I was making my logo a few years ago, I was like, I've always loved stars. Why do I love stars? Oh wait, it's like my blankie.

And so I took— I scanned the embroidered stars star, one of them, and I digitally traced it and that became my logo. It just felt true to myself, and I like that it's kind of a wonky star too. Some of the legs are a little bit shorter and wider than others, so I appreciate the imperfect nature of it. Yeah, which goes along with a lot of the other work that I make too.

Christian Solorzano [57:34]

Yeah. And today what are you currently listening to? I know that like we've been talking, like music is a big part of your life, but are you the kind of person that listens to the same song on repeat over and over and over again? Or what kind of listener are you? Are you obsessive? Like deep dive?

Sarah Adler [57:52]

Yeah, I'm definitely a bit obsessive. If I find a song that I'm like, oh my God, this melody is stuck in my head and I'm obsessed with it, I'll probably listen to it all day long until I get sick of it.

I've been really loving Lali Puna a lot lately. I love Orbital. I've really been liking— I've been revisiting Gorillaz because they just came out with their new album, and revisiting some of the older albums I used to love in high school reminds me just how incredible Damon Albarn is and how creative he is. This one album, the Fall he had made while he was driving through each state in the United States on tour.

And I hadn't found out that fun fact until recently, and re-listening to it all, makes a lot of sense. Looking out the window of a car this one song Detroit, having visited Detroit it just feels so of the area.

So it's cool to revisit things that you've listened to at such a young age and recently and having a different feeling and perspective, but also having memories come back that you originally associated with that. Music for me is definitely— captures times of my life and all of our lives.

Christian Solorzano [59:11]

Are you more into the lyrics or the sound or both?

Sarah Adler [59:17]

Both. I feel like the process of listening to music for me is melody first, then lyrics last. So if I become obsessed with a song, I will like be addicted to it, and then I'll be so addicted to it, I'm like looking up the lyrics, I'm finding out the meaning of the lyrics, and then I'm like just all around so devoted and obsessed to it. And I think, yeah, a little bit of both.

Christian Solorzano [59:44]

And what about film or just any kind of video stuff? Are you also into Watching film?

Sarah Adler [59:52]

Yeah, I definitely used to be more of a film watcher in college, like at SAIC. I lived next to the Gene Siskel, so I was there all the time, and each semester I took a different film history class, and so was watching really unique arthouse Criterion Collection movies all the time. It's not really a huge part of my life anymore. I find that certain mediums of art fizzle out and then come back at different periods throughout my life, just depending on what I feel like.

Christian Solorzano [60:25]

Yeah. I used to be really into film, but I just can't. I just can't anymore for some reason.

Sarah Adler [60:34]

Yeah. I know. It's hard to put your finger on why not. Do you, have you thought about maybe why you're not as into it anymore?

Christian Solorzano [60:42]

I think it's just, it's another screen.

Sarah Adler [60:46]

So true.

Christian Solorzano [60:47]

Like a bigger screen.

Sarah Adler [60:48]

So true. I'm like, I work all day looking at a screen and then I end my day at a different type of screen.

Christian Solorzano [60:55]

Yeah, but I maybe one day I'll get back to it.

Sarah Adler [61:02]

What do you like to do these days after work besides watching movies?

Christian Solorzano [61:05]

I like to, let's see, I like to, I mean, I do these things. I do the podcast. I walk my dog a lot. I teach and I do Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And that's pretty much it. Just every day is like a new, some new thing. Like today I'm talking with you and tomorrow I'll do something else. And just—

Sarah Adler [61:30]

I feel like you have so many hobbies and they're all so varied. But they're very balanced too, like jiu-jitsu, being active. How did you get into jiu-jitsu originally?

Christian Solorzano [61:41]

My brother is— my brother started training a year before— he started training 2 years before I started, and he's 11 years younger than me. Oh wow. So when he started training, he was about maybe 10 years old, and I was teasing him because jiu-jitsu, if you, if you see it looks really boring and it's just people rolling on the and it just looks so lame. And I, and I would tease him. I'm like, your stuff does not work. It's just, you're not doing— it looks boring.

I said, I bet it won't work on me. And then he took my back and he choked me and I, he wouldn't let me escape. And I got really mad and I said, I have to, I have to sign up.

Sarah Adler [62:24]

That's awesome. So was it for self-defense reasons? Like you wanted to be able to like fight back?

Christian Solorzano [62:29]

No, I just, I was just this actually works and this is this is— this actually is kind of fun. But yeah, but the self-defense part, that's like the least important to me. To me, it's just— it's good exercise, it's fun, and it's a good community of people that I've been— that I've known now for, yeah, 10 years. So it's fun.

Sarah Adler [62:53]

Does it give you a sense of like awareness of your body too? I, I've been doing yoga recently and I've really appreciated how it's connected myself to my body.

Christian Solorzano [63:03]

Yeah, I feel like my reflexes are much sharper. And yeah, like sometimes I'm driving and if a, if a car cuts me, like if there's, if there's like this split-second decision that I have to make, my body just makes it before I have to think about it.

Sarah Adler [63:19]

Cat-like instincts, huh?

Christian Solorzano [63:22]

Exactly. Kind of like a cat, but less zoom.

Sarah Adler [63:25]

That's awesome.

Christian Solorzano [63:25]

Yeah, but it's fun. I enjoy doing it. I'm gonna actually— that's what I'm gonna do later tonight. So it's fun. So yeah, so I think at some point it'd be cool to— I know for— you created a curated playlist for us a couple of years ago, but I think it'd be nice to see if there's a way to collaborate on something at some point in the future. Maybe it's— I don't know what that thing could be.

Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of overlap with a lot of the stuff that you're doing and some of the stuff that the Design Club is doing as well.

Sarah Adler [64:01]

Yeah, I would love to.

Christian Solorzano [64:02]

Yeah, I know one of the things that me and my team, we've been talking about is an idea of putting together some workshops later this year that can serve as a, as a space to get people to maybe step away from the computer. Yeah. Create with their hands.

Sarah Adler [64:21]

Oh my gosh.

Christian Solorzano [64:22]

Yeah. Because the one thing that I, that I keep hearing from other graphic designers is that they're just also fed up of the computer. Yeah. And of AI. And I think it's in our biology to like make things with our hands.

Sarah Adler [64:38]

Absolutely. I'm glad that we're all kind of in the same boat. It's comforting.

Christian Solorzano [64:42]

Have you been to any of the I know that there's listening rooms that are popping up in Chicago and it's just, it's like a bar, but people bring in a record and they'll just like listen to music together.

Sarah Adler [64:56]

I haven't, but it's so up my alley. I've heard of places like Parachute that are like a restaurant and a record listening bar lounge, which is such a great idea.

Christian Solorzano [65:09]

There's a really cool place that you should check out. It's called what is it called? Audio Sound Chicago. I'll send you the name of it later, but it's a it's just it's these 2 guys, or maybe it's 3 guys, and what they did is they built like this hi-fi listening room.

Where they have like the highest-end gear that you can think of and a huge record collection. And you can just go there and bring your own record and like something to drink and just sit and listen to music.

Sarah Adler [65:50]

Oh, sounds like a dream. I need to hit that up ASAP.

Christian Solorzano [65:53]

So yeah, I like doing those kind of things.

Sarah Adler [65:57]

Please send me the name of that right after this. I gotta go. Well, thank you so much, Christian.

Christian Solorzano [66:04]

Yeah, thank you for doing this. Thank you for your time.

Sarah Adler [66:07]

Yeah, and so much fun. Thank you for having me. It's an honor.

Christian Solorzano [66:11]

And I will include your links and all that stuff in the description for this episode.

Sarah Adler [66:17]

Awesome. Thank you.

Christian Solorzano [66:18]

Thank you so much for sticking around till the end. As always, I appreciate you listening, and I really appreciate when you leave us a rating wherever you Thank you, and we'll talk to you soon. Goodbye. And also, to learn more about us, visit www.chicagographicdesign.club. I'm pretty terrible at promoting that, so there you go. We have a website. Go follow it. Thank you and goodbye.