Programming

Past Present Future, 20th Anniversary Celebration, Nov 9
Past, Present, Future: 20th Anniversary Celebration

5:30–9:00pm

Morningstar
22 W Washington St #7
Chicago, IL 60602

An evening celebrating Chicago Design — past, present, and future — from 20 years of the Chicago Design Archive. Guests were able to view work from the archive, featuring the newest additions, while mingling over light refreshments. There was a set of lightning presentations related to the past, present, and future of Chicago Design and the CDA from an amazing line-up of speakers. Following the presentations, guests were invited to continue the conversation in the gallery area over drinks.

Featured Presenters:
Lara Allison
Dakota Brown
Carlos Segura
Nada Abourashed
Nick Adam
Judith Mayer
Rotimi + Candace
Pedro Neves
Christian Solorzano

rotating gif of stills of the facade of the Merchandise Mart with projection mapping.
Chicago Design Through the Decades

Popup/Advance Screening Coinciding with NeoCon:
June 11–15, 2022

The Chicago Design Through the Decades project is a swift, exciting journey through the history of Chicago design spanning the last one hundred years (1920s–2020s). Investigating a human-centered approach and following engaging characters and textual tidbits from archived design works, the journey begins in the 1920s with the era’s painterly and illustrative techniques. Forms then evolve under the modes of photography, minimalism, futurism, three-dimensionality, and postmodernism throughout the 1930s–2010s. Ultimately, the journey ends in the 2020s with digital portraits produced by using neural networks, a machine learning approach that formed the foundation of much of modern artificial intelligence (AI) technologies becoming increasingly prevalent today in contemporary art. This part is a tribute to Chicago as an alma mater of neural networks, where in 1943, Warren McCulloch, a neurophysiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), and logician Walter Pitts from the University of Chicago, proposed the first mathematical model of a neural network.

The full Chicago Design Through the Decades team includes:

  • Daria Tsoupikova, UIC School of Design & Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL)
  • Sharon Oiga, UIC School of Design & Chicago Design Archive
  • Guy Villa Jr, Columbia College Chicago
  • Krystofer Kim, NASA
  • Jack Weiss, Chicago Design Archive
  • Cheri McIntyre, Chicago Design Archive
  • Lauren Meranda, Northeastern Illinois University & Chicago Design Archive
  • AI/ML visualization by Fabio Miranda, UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL)
  • Music by Louis Schwadron, Sky White Sound
  • Plus vocalist/activist Nnelolo Karen Wilson-Ama’Echefu and rapper Elijah Robb
What You Can See/Be photo
What You Can See/Be: An Exhibition of Chicago Designers' Journeys from Students to Professionals

You cannot be what you cannot see. The design industry has a long history of homogeneity, which is discouraging for student designers from marginalized communities. Lack of representation in design history and education has created a barrier of access for student designers. Design has a diversity problem. Lack of representation and accessibility are keeping underrepresented students from finding a place in the profession.

Curated and developed by students at Northeastern Illinois University, the longest-standing four-year public Hispanic Serving Institution in the Midwest, with the intention of celebrating Chicago designers from marginalized and under-represented communities, the exhibit acknowledges issues of diversity, inclusion, and belonging within the design community. Each designer featured in the exhibit showed work from when they were students juxtaposed with their more recent work. 

This exhibition was developed in partnership with Northeastern Illinois University, the Chicago Design Archive and the Chicago Design Club.

Featured Designers:
Alex Sommerville
Alisha Barnaby
Alyssa Low
Damian Loma
Elizabeth Thomas
Jawaan Burge
Jonathan Sangster
Vivi Lin

Exhibition Developed by: 
Peter Alegre 
Natalie Diaz 
Cristian Martinez Gomez 
Sofia Mejia 
Marco Mendoza 
Krusha Patel 
Vicente Santoyo 
Eve Sullivan 
Lauren Meranda (Professor, NEIU)

Type Tales Chicago
Stories of Chicago’s letterforms

Type Tales Chicago, was an informal two-day conference about type in the Windy City. It started with a day of explorations: studio and walking tours through Chicago’s typographic destinations, then workshops by John Downer, Roger Black, and others. At the end of the day, a reception and an opening talk by Paul Shaw, the type historian. Then, on Friday, presentations by and conversations with local heroes like Jennifer Farrell, Rick Valicenti, Sharon Oiga, Guy Villa Jr, and Jackson Cavanaugh. Moderated by Northwestern University’s Susan Mango Curtis.

9605b_0.jpg
Chicago Design Milestones

150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago

The Chicago Design Archive was delighted to showcase highlights of its collection in Chicago Design Milestones 1920–2019, the installation took place throughout July at 150 Media Stream, the largest media screen (3,000+ sq ft) in Chicago. The installation visualized the evolution of Chicago design by its examination and presentation of historic characteristics of design works in the CDA collection over the last 10 decades.

See a short clip of the CDA's installation here: https://vimeo.com/3151829948

Chicago Design Milestones was developed as a collaboration of CDA, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Design & Electronic Visualization Laboratory, and Columbia College Chicago. It is part of the ongoing research of this collaboration aiming to highlight the role of Chicago as a national design center through the use of new technologies.

150 Media Stream is comprised of 89 LED blades stretching 150 ft long and rising 22 ft high, located in the lobby of a downtown Chicago riverfront building. It is the only structure of its kind dedicated to showcasing Chicago artists, culture and history alongside renowned and emerging artists from around the world.

Creators:
Daria Tsoupikova (UIC)
Sharon Oiga (UIC/CDA)
Guy Villa Jr (CCC)
Jack Weiss (CDA)
Cheri McIntyre (CDA)
Wayne Stuetzer (CDA)
Krystofer Kim, (NASA)
Ali Khan (UIC)

Grant funding support:
Riverside/150 Media Stream
Columbia College Chicago
UIC College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts

This project also won the Design Incubation Communication Design Educator Award in the Creative Scholarship category (only 2 awarded). Read more at: https://designincubation.com/publications/abstracts/chicago-design-milestones/

LookingBack.tif
Looking Back: Chicago Design Milestones

Looking Back: Chicago Design Milestones was on display from June 21-July 19, 2019 at Archeworks, 625 N Kingsbury Street in Chicago the Chicago Design Archive was delighted to showcase highlights of the collection in Chicago Design Milestones, an installation from July 1-August 4, 2019 at 150 Media Stream (a media art display at a grand scale). Developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Columbia College Chicago, the Chicago Design Milestones installation visualized the evolution of Chicago design by its examination and accentuation of historic characteristics of design works in the CDA collection over the last 10 decades.

The CDA thanks everyone who came out to enjoy the Preview Gala and all those that donated items to our silent auction fundraiser. Our generous auction bidders helped us raise nearly $2000 at our first fundraiser. 

27ChicagoDesigners
27 Chicago Designers added to UIC Daley Library Special Collections

Designed by former 27 Chicago Designer Joseph Michael Essex and edited by former 27 Chicago Designer Jack Weiss, this book documents the work of the 125 cumulative members of the 27 Chicago Designers through its 55-year history. Published in conjunction with the exhibition, 27 Chicago Designers: Selling Design 1936–1991, co-curator Lara Allison said, “...without an understanding of 27 Designers, Chicago’s design history cannot be fully comprehended.”