Welcome to the Chicago Design Archive

The CDA is seeking design work that has received special recognition (in competitions or media coverage), is Chicago-related, or is innovative and contributes to Chicago's impact as a center for art and design.

The Chicago Design Archive is an exclusive and permanent online record featuring Chicago-related experiential, graphic, and product design created from the 1920s to the present. The CDA provides a means for Chicago design firms and clients to showcase their creative effort to a worldwide audience.

The Archive is not merely a static collection of historically important design, but also a living, growing record of the vibrant Chicago design scene.

The mission of the CDA is To share the best of Chicago design.

Current Programming

Chicago Design Museum's What's Worth Preserving / Noteworthy Work (by invitation)
password: broadshoulders

27 Chicago Designers exhibition at UIC Special Collections

27 Chicago Designers book is in the collection

90 Years of The Society of Typographic Arts is a 100+ page book (of records, essays, and design work documenting the history of the STA, recently published by CDA Press

Commissioned exhibition (with grant funding) in collaboration with Daria Tsoupikova at 150 Media Stream, to open in July 2019