The 2025 Chicago Design Archive Auction presented a one-night-only celebration of design history, creativity, and community. The auction featured contributions from Philip Burton, Marcia Lausen, the Design Museum of Chicago, Carlos Segura, and more.
Hosted by the Chicago Design Archive at the Design Museum of Chicago, this event celebrated design and screenprinting by transforming attendees' old or thrifted t-shirts with a limited-edition design. The I ♥️ the CDA Screenprinting Party fused sustainability and creativity in a hands-on experience on February 5th.
Field Day, hosted by the Design Museum of Chicago, is an annual event celebrating art, design, and outdoor spaces, featuring activities like a pop-up print shop from the Chicago Design Archive. The event emphasizes sustainable creativity and community engagement, offering screenprinted thrifted shirts inspired by the Archive's designs.
An evening at Morningstar celebrated 20 years of the Chicago Design Archive with exhibits, lightning talks, and discussions over drinks, focusing on Chicago Design's past, present, and future.
Chicago Design Through the Decades is an engaging journey from the 1920s to the 2020s, exploring Chicago design history with evolving forms and technologies. The team includes experts from UIC, Columbia College, and NASA, featuring AI/ML visuals and music.
An exhibition at Northeastern Illinois University showcases Chicago designers from marginalized backgrounds, highlighting the lack of diversity in design. Students curated the show, presenting designers' student and recent work.
Type Tales Chicago, a 2-day conference at Columbia College, explored Chicago's typographic scene with studio tours, workshops by experts, and talks by type historians and local designers. Sessions were led by industry figures and moderated by Susan Mango Curtis.
The Chicago Design Archive showcased highlights from 1920 to 2019 at 150 Media Stream, Chicago's largest media screen. The July installation explored the evolution of Chicago design through historic works from the CDA collection over 10 decades.
Chicago Design Milestones, exhibited at 150 Media Stream, showcased a century of Chicago design, highlighting historic characteristics from the CDA collection, developed with UIC and Columbia College Chicago.
The book, designed by Joseph Michael Essex and edited by Jack Weiss, chronicles the work of 125 members from 27 Chicago Designers, marking their 55-year legacy, and complements the exhibition 27 Chicago Designers: Selling Design 1936–1991.