Our events are thought-provoking, interactive, inspirational, and wildly different! Have an idea for an event you’d like to see? Let us know!

Sat, December 6th, 2025, 11:00a–3:00pm
Harold Washington Library, 400 S State

Tue, November 11, 2025, 6:00–9:00pm
Industry Ales, 230 S Wabash

Thur, October 23, 2025, 5:00–9:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thur, October 9, 2025, 6:00–9:00pm
SECRIST | BEACH, 1801 W Hubbard

Weds, September 24, 2025, 6:00–8:00pm
Monday Coffee, 3243 W 16th

Thur, August 21, 2025, 5:00–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Fri, June 27, 2025, 4:30–7:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Weds, June 11, 2025, 11:00am–12:00pm
NeoCon, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza

Tues, June 10, 2025, 6–9:00pm
Secrist Beach, 1801 W Hubbard

Fri, April 25, 2025, 4–7:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Tues, April 15, 2025, 4–9:00pm
Pilsen Arts & Community House, 1637 W 18th

Thur, April 3, 2024, 4–7:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Weds, March 26, 2024, 11:00am–2:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Fri, March 21, 2024, 6–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Sun, March 9, 2025, 2–6:00pm
FOURTUNEHOUSE Art Center, 4410 S Cottage Grove

DMoC, 72 E Randolph
Tues, Feb 11, 6:00–8:00pm

DMoC, 72 E Randolph
Tues, Feb 5th, 1:00pm-6:00pm

Wednesday December 4th, 2024, 3–7:30pm
Harold Washington Library

Wednesday November 20th, 2024, 6–9:30pm
Zachary A Studio, 4900 N Elston Ave

Fri, November 8, 2024, 5–9:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thurs, October 24, 2024, 5–6:30pm
Wild Mile, 905 W Eastman

Thurs, October 17, 2024, 6–9:00pm
SECRIST | BEACH, 1801 W Hubbard

Fri, October 11, 2024, 4–7:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thurs, September 26, 2024, 6–9:00pm
Chicago History Museum, 1601 N Clark St

Weds, September 18, 2024, 3:00–7:30p
Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S State

Thursday, September 12, 2024, 4–7:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Fri, Aug 2, 2024, 5–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Sat, July 27, 2024, 10:00am–3:00pm
Navy Pier, Polk Bros Park, 600 E Grand

Thurs, July 25, 2024, 7–9:00pm
Pretty Cool, 2353 N California

Sun, July 14, 2024, 1–3:00pm
Wildman BT, 3020 W Carroll

Friday, July 12, 2024, 5–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Weds, June 12, 2024, 11:30am–12:30pm
NeoCon, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza

Tues, June 11, 2024, 6–9:00pm
Secrist Beach, 1801 W Hubbard

Thurs, May 9, 2024, 6–9:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Sat, May 4, 2024, 1–4:00pm
South Side Community Art Center, 3831 S Michigan Ave

Fri, May 3, 2024, 3–6:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thurs, April 25, 2024, 4–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Tues, March 26, 2024, 2pm–3:30pm
Morningstar, 22 W Washington

Mon, March 25, 2024, 8–10pm
Illuminated Brew Works, 6186 N Northwest Hwy

Friday, December 8, 2023, 6–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thurs, November 30, 2023, 6–8:00pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Weds, October 11, 2023, 6–8:30pm
Wildman BT, 3020 W Carroll

Tues, September 26, 2023, 5:00–7:00p
Design Museum, 72 E Randolph

Weds, September 20, 2023, 6:00–9:00p
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State

Sat, September 16, 2023, 11:00a–2:00p
Happy Returns Studio, 5339 W Lake

Sat, September 9, 2023, 10am–3:00pm
Navy Pier, Polk Bros Park, 600 E Grand

Sun, August 20, 2023, 10:00a–1:00p
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Weds, August 16, 2023, 6–8:30pm
Stone Temple Baptist Church, 3622 W Douglas

Tues, August 8, 2023, 6:00–8:00p
Guild Row, 3130 N Rockwell

Tues, July 25, 2023, 6–8:30pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

July 14, 2023, 6–9pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

Thurs, June 22, 2023, 7:30–9:00p
Guild Row, 3130 N Rockwell St

Weds, June 14, 2023, 11:30a–12:30p
NeoCon (Presentation Studio) theMART

Mon, June 12, 2023, 3–4:00p
NeoCon (Public Space), theMART

Sat, June 10, 2023, 10:30–11:30a
Radio Flyer, 6515 W Grand

May 16, 2023, 5–8pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

May 12, 2023, 5–8pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph, 2nd Floor

May 11, 2023, 6–8pm
Rebuilding Exchange, 1740 West Webster Avenue

Apr 29, 2023, 3–6pm
DMoC, 72 E Randolph

April 11, 2023, 6–8pm
Design Museum of Chicago, 72 E Randolph Street

March 28, 2023, 4:30–6:30pm
Design Museum of Chicago, 72 E Randolph Street

March 20, 2023, 6–8pm
Bronzeville Winery 4420 South Cottage Grove Avenue Chicago, IL 60653

The Chicago Mechanical Keyboard Discord server is hosting another meetup!

Sunday, December 5, 2022
Design Museum of Chicago, 72 E Randolph
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM CST
Free and open to the public

February 23, 2023, 6–8pm
MANO 2150 South Canalport Avenue Chicago, IL 60608

Laughter By Design is a stand-up comedy showcase set in art+design spaces, in collaboration with the Design Museum of Chicago.

Friday, December 16, 2022
You Are Beautiful, 3368 N Elston
Doors: 7:30pm | Starts: 8:00pm
$15 online, $20 at the door

The Chicago Mechanical Keyboard Discord server is hosting another meetup!

Sunday, December 5, 2022
Design Museum of Chicago, 72 E Randolph
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM CST
Free and open to the public

Laughter By Design is a stand-up comedy showcase set in art+design spaces, in collaboration with the Design Museum of Chicago.

Friday, November 18, 2022
7:30 PM 9:00 PM
$10

Experts discuss the role of design in in our lives for the past 85 years and what it means for where design is headed next.

Thursday, October 13, 2022
6:00 PM–8:30 PM

Thursday, August 11, 2022
5:30 PM–7:30 PM

An exhibition about the intersection of sound and design from the Design Museum of Chicago. Celebrate with us and meet some of the artists.

Get personalized feedback and answers for some of your most burning getting-a-job-related questions from respected members of the design field in Chicago!

In this workshop with designer Cristiaan Jackson, you'll learn how to create non-linear book forms using folding techniques.

Want to explore the alphabet with your own two hands? Join Kelcey Gray for a workshop of analog letter making, stretching, and experimenting.

Join us as we celebrate the closing of A Designed Life at Expo 72!

Learn about the complex world of mid-century wallpaper design with Bassett & Vollum's Duane Timm.

Learn how to create a weaving using household materials with artist Bryana Bibbs.

In this live digital workshop, participants will use found and reused materials from their own home to make a sketchbook or notebook using a sewn binding method. The focus will be primarily repurposing common household items and materials into something new and useful.

The Design Museum of Chicago is pleased to introduce an event series that brings prolific artists and designers from different fields together in conversation. This conversation is between Bill Bartolotta, Carrie Kennedy, and Bruce Mau, and will be moderated by Stratton Cherouny.

Please join us at the annual 50,000feet Open House on December 6 for an evening of food, drink and art. As one of the Design Museum’s founding sponsors, 50,000feet shares our commitment to supporting arts and culture and stewarding an ongoing dialogue around creativity and design.

Design Museum Presents a screening of Obstacle Course, a new video play written by Jamil Khoury, Founding Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising.

Design Museum of Chicago and Society of Typographic Arts presents a screening of Endless Letterpress, a documentary film by Pablo Pivetta and Nicolas Rodriguez Fuchs.

Join us on October 17 to hear Mark Larson, author of Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater explore stage setting, lighting and sound design with four prominent Chicago designers: Jared Gooding, Rob Milburn, Linda Buchanan, and Regina Garcia.

Celebrate the opening of Setting the Stage with us and enjoy beverages and snacks, check out the exhibition, and rub shoulders with other Chicagoans who enjoy theatre as much as you do.

The On Art Run returns to Chicago! Join On at the intersection of art and running for a day of charity and celebration at the Design Museum of Chicago at Expo 72.

The Design Museum of Chicago is pleased to introduce a new event series that will bring prolific artists and designers from different fields together in conversation. The first, pilot conversation is between Maria Pinto (fashion designer) and Carrie Secrist (gallery owner), and will be moderated by Charles Adler (entrepreneur and lifelong nomad).

Come prepared to enjoy artwork and hear music from Chicago’s talented youth, and draw a self-portrait which will be integrated into the exhibition.

Come prepared to enjoy artwork and hear music from Chicago’s talented youth, and draw a self-portrait which will be integrated into the exhibition.

Join us at 6 pm on Thursday, 2/7 to hear from a variety of organizations, including Envision Unlimited, TPAN, and Romina N. Castillo, Community Planner at Muse Community + Design, and Vision Zero Consultant at the Chicago Department of Transportation, about their work and impact.

Hear from panelists from FrankenToyMobile, West Town Bikes, Bikes ‘n Roses, The Recyclery, and Mobile Street Art Cart Project about how Chicagoans are using bicycles to make change and empower people locally and globally.

In 1974, Enzo Mari published a do-it-yourself guide to furniture making that taught a generation how to build their own functional, practical, and beautiful pieces using only rough boards and nails. Mari’s designs were easy enough for beginners to build but timeless in their sophistication.

Join Petra Slinkard, Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Peabody Essex Museum, in conversation with Lauren Boegen, Curator of Keep Moving: Designing Chicago’s Bicycle Culture and Design Museum of Chicago’s Executive Director of Operations and Collections, in conversation as they discuss the history, fashion and evolution of style associated with bike culture.

In this presentation, Julia Bachrach, author of the City in a Garden: A History of Chicago’s Parks will illuminate the ways in which landscape designers and park administrators have responded to numerous and rapidly changing trends in recreation.

Come celebrate and take a first look at prints by international artists celebrating the culture and history of bicycles! Chain Reaction was curated by Colossal in partnership with the Design Museum of Chicago.

Learn about our mission, while you enjoy an evening of sweeping skyline views, music by the Jason Seed Stringtet, extraordinary food from Chef Gloria Hafer of the Culinary Arts Program of After School Matters, an engaging auction, and exceptional company and cocktails.

Help us perpetuate the cycle…of fun! Celebrate the opening of Keep Moving: Designing Chicago’s Bicycle Culture with an evening at Expo 72!

What defines urban cycling in Chicago in 2018? Join panelists from Streetsblog, CDOT, Active Transportation Alliance, and West Town Bikes to discuss the personal and civic impacts of bikes, modernity, and the urban landscape.

Join Matt Herlihy, OX’s Executive Director of Strategy, in a lively hands-on workshop that will help you design your story. You’ll learn best practices in both crafting and delivering your own elevator pitch. The resulting tale will be yours to tell, perfect, and share with the world.

Join Chicago Design Museum, the Chicago Loop Alliance Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art at the launch celebration for The Shape of Chicago: John Massey’s 1968 Banners Revisited.

Come to this lively discussion about the ins and outs of programming Clutch Gallery, dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art of all media.

Dr. Allison’s talk will address the Cold War context in which the Great Ideas of Western Man advertising campaign ran. She will also discuss the tensions that emerged between those overseeing the Great Ideas and artists associated with Abstract Expressionism.

In this selective and likely provocative overview of art and design in Chicago, scholars Jonathan Mekinda and Maggie Taft will explore the idea of the “modern” and its various meanings and affiliations in the city between 1910 and 1970.

Join Matthew Jorgensen, designer in the National Art Department at Field Notes Brand, in exploring the risograph.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” At the intersection of public art and public spaces, are progressive designers, artists, and real estate developers. The result is creative output that enhances communities. How do these projects start? Where do ideas come from? And how are collaborations coming together?

Lacy’s research on Mortimer J. Adler’s work has focused on Adler’s intentions and the larger ideas in play in order to counter studies that absorbed the wildly negative view that great books projects, and the great books idea generally, always diminished high culture.

During this talk, Pouya Ahmadi will be sharing his journey through editing and design process of his most recent project, Amalgam Journal.

As part of the Terra Foundation’s Art Design Chicago Storytelling Series, Chicago Design Museum Executive Director of Operations and Collections Lauren Boegen talks with designer Jonathan Solomon about the historic Great Ideas series and its impact today.

Hallagan Business Machines and ChiDM are partnering to host a one night only pop-up gallery entitled Risograph: Redesigned.

Come celebrate the Great Ideas project’s first installation in the ChiDM gallery and the work of designers and artists from around the world.

Senior Designer and Team Leader at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), Anthony works on high-performance projects that focus on the design, development, and use of parametric computational tools that push the boundaries of integrated performance-based design.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how leading brands use tools like purpose statements, persona archetypes, message maps and more to build an emotional bridge with customers that withstands the test of time and beats the heavyweights by not playing their game.

Join us at Lost Arts for the opening party of Great Ideas of Humanity: One of a Series. Cocktails provided by Stolen Rum. Secure your spot and get tickets via Eventbrite.

Cartoonist Klaus, architect Stewart Hicks, and game developer William Chyr will present on Wednesday, February 14, as part of MAS Context’s 2018 Spring Talks series.

Robert Lzicar and Davide Fornari will be in the U.S. for a multi-stop tour to present their co-edited book, Mapping Graphic Design History in Switzerland. Lzicar and Fornari will do a short presentation on the book, followed by a panel discussion about the relationship between Swiss and American design. Doors will open at 5:30 pm.

Mapping Graphic Design History in Switzerland features eleven selected essays on the mediation and consumption of graphic design artifacts and processes by authors from the German, French, and Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland. Published by Triest Verlag.

Video Game Levels as Works of Art, Architecture, and Design

Editor in Chief of VGA Reader Tiffany Funk will introduce Chris Totten, contributor to the inaugural issue of the VGA Reader, a scholarly academic journal about game art. Chris will speak about level design in video games as works of art, architecture and design, followed by a Q and A with Tiffany.

The Unknown Islands is a two hour puzzle game, centered around a giant map of over 60 islands.

The Unknown Islands is a two hour puzzle game, centered around a giant map of over 60 islands.

Video Game Art Gallery (VGA) Executive Director Jonathan Kinkley will speak about architecture of virtual worlds. Unlike architecture in the physical world that is constrained by gravity, resources, materials, zoning codes etc, the architecture of virtual worlds is only constrained by the imagination of its builders.

Still haven’t finished your holiday shopping? We’ve got your back!

The Unknown Islands is a two hour puzzle game, centered around a giant map of over 60 islands.

At the 50k Holiday Open House, we will have the usual suspects on hand: food, drink and music—along with a special appearance by ChiDM with an invitation to handwrite a letter in response to the question and title of their upcoming book, What’s Worth Preserving?

The Unknown Islands is a two hour puzzle game, centered around a giant map of over 60 islands.

For nearly 40 years, Pac-Man has excited audiences by revolutionizing arcade games in 1980, then spawning a cultural and merchandising empire. The simple, dot-munching character began with a handful of pixels, but has grown and evolved with the times.

Imagine using a banana to play Donkey Kong. Or a cardboard box to make music. Or a dance to take photos. In this workshop we’ll create alternative controllers that explore using our bodies and other common household items to control digital games and apps. We’ll talk about how the experience changes when we create different ways to interact and new perspectives on play and accessibility.

Chaz Evans, Director of Exhibitions and Programs and Co-Founder of Video Game Art Gallery, will discuss the work of Hey! Play! participating artist Feng Mengbo as well as the work of Cao Fei.

The power of art and running collide for a night of charity and celebration hosted by On at ChiDM.

Kick off Chicago Design Week by role playing at the opening for HEY! PLAY! Games in Modern Culture on October 20.

Confluence • 20+ brings pioneering design talent from Hong Kong to share their philosophy and endeavors inspired by local traditions and heritage, as well as their creative visions across multiple latitudes and culture.

Bamboo bundling is one of the most common traditional crafts in Hong Kong. In this workshop, participants will take part in a hands-on art-making experience which is tactile, free and improvisational. You will use bamboo to create complex curves and structural forms.

How small your home can be? Hong Kong architectural designer Gary Chang is known for his specific focus on the growing global phenomenon of compact domestic space as well as his flexible designs that transform interior spaces and architecture. His workshop constructs a play lab of your own exploration of a domestic space of 330 square feet.

For the final edition of Confluence • 20+, Julie Progin and Jesse McLin’s work will involve an interactive installation. They will transform part of the display into a live ceramic studio where they will be producing a unique edition of Fragment(s) – casting discarded molds brought directly from the factories of Jingdezhen, China.

Confluence • 20+ is a monumental roving exhibition series showcasing a wealth of collaborative works by best talents in the Hong Kong design scene.

Join us for an opening reception at the Blackbox Gallery showcasing the screen prints of Jay Ryan!

Stop by Chicago Design Market on Friday for the August Happy Hour!

ChiDM wants to celebrate you! You are invited to an exclusive pizza/beer closing party for the Dan Friedman show. Aug 10th, from 5–8pm.

Join us to hear David Rygiol discuss the inspiration for the NPS 100 project, TypeHike‘s process, and what’s in store for the future.

Confrontations is reading and discussion series curated by Dgenerator and hosted by ChiDM. Each iteration features a set of interrelated readings which exist in dialogue with each other.

Openbox will be joined by Juanita Irizarry, Executive Director of Friends of the Parks and Jonathan Pereira of Plant Chicago, representing policy, media, the arts, urban planning, and more to explore a variety of “Designing for Good” topics.

Join us on Saturday, July 22 for a special night with the Jason Seed Stringtet in our gallery. Featuring string players from the Milwaukee and Chicago Symphony Orchestras and guitarist Jason Seed, the Stringtet will perform two sets of Seed’s eclectic collection of classical crossover pieces in addition to arrangements of Radiohead, Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, and more.

In our current political climate, we must challenge ourselves and each other to design more inclusive, empowering, and representative spaces (both physical and digital) in order for relationship-building and storytelling to take place to encourage more effective action.

Prolific and visionary, Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most influential architects of the modern age. Join Frank Lloyd Wright Trust curator David Bagnall as he provides an introduction to the life and work of one of the 20th century’s most radical modernists.

This workshop will explore how we remember and describe experiences through color. Using colored paper, attendees will develop a series of color vignettes based on their memories of meaningful events.

Grab a drink and check out the new Chicago Design Market!

Given that play is among the most powerful, beneficial and joyful facets of childhood, explore how thoughtful design is used to create and communicate meaningful play experiences at CCM.

Savor two of Chicago’s greatest assets—architecture and beer—on a walking tour of Loop architecture led by Dr. Jonathan Mekinda, assistant professor in the Department of Art History and the School of Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

First opening its doors in 1946 in Toyko, Japan, Risograph finds its roots in mimeograph technology. The machine is designed to create a master on wax-like paper, almost like a stencil, and stamp it onto the pages, creating a “live ink” look. The machine uses soy-based ink and can offset print runs of hundreds at 150 pages per minute.

Native Tongue Magazine is a food and community organization that seeks to improve food literacy and education in Chicago’s underserved communities. The intent is to drive cooking, food, and nutrition education through a fun and engaging platform. Our design aesthetic is inspired by our own love for hiphop culture and we will explore this through the four pillars of hiphop: Graffiti, DJing, Break Dancing and MCing.

Writing has a long and storied history. Since the genesis of human communication, it has served as both function and visual expression. To this day, it is one of the most basic ways in which we brand and present ourselves to others. Though modern technology has dramatically changed our style of communication, the handwritten letter still serves as an honest, purposeful, and authentic way of connecting with other humans.

Escape the daily grind and discover inspiration with this private experience of Edgar Miller‘s Glasner Studio. The Glasner Studio (1928) is Edgar Miller’s masterpiece of art, design, and architecture, incorporating Miller’s woodwork, metalwork, mosaics, stained glass, and more. Part of a private enclave in Chicago’s Old Town, Glasner Studio is a brilliant amalgam of arts and crafts, art deco, and early modernist styles and building techniques.

How can the design process be reinvented to better approach our city’s most complex and entrenched issues? This series will explore the methods and partnerships that can bring bigger, better, and faster change to pressing social, environmental, and economic topics. Through interactive discussions with local experts and pioneering practitioners led by Foresight Design Initiative, attendees will be exposed to new tools for more deeply understanding and addressing Chicago’s complex challenges.

Come to the first ChiDM Presents event of Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist! Chris Pullman, AIGA medalist and friend of Friedman, will provide a personal reflection on the eclectic career and evolving philosophy of a positive modernist in a post-modernist world.

Bridge boundaries and celebrate expression at the opening of “Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist.”

Sneak a peek at the new show with drinks and 80s & 90s beats from DJ David Castillo, while networking with design enthusiasts.

Before desktop printers and the designer as author, a massive typesetting industry turned copy into printed matter. For most of the 20th century, the International Typographical Union set the terms and conditions of work in the field. But the union’s power was eroded by its inability to adapt to the introduction of new technologies and a shifting political climate. From the ITU’s ashes was born the contemporary creative hustle. Join us for a discussion between the design scholar Dakota Brown, and journeyman typesetter, labor organizer, and sociologist Michael Neuschatz for a discussion on the relation of Typography, organized labor, technological transformation, and the prehistory of the contemporary Designer.

Competition Kitchen is a deliciously creative party game. Imagine if you could play Chopped at home, but without the mess! (And you won’t need to keep a live squid in your bathtub) Players create tasty dishes based on challenge cards and secret ingredients. One player serves as a very partial judge that decides who wins each round. Competition Kitchen was designed by Kevin Reader and Joe Gennaro of the Nerdologues. For all you foodies out there: Secret Ingredient card contributors include: Mario Batali, Ina Garten, and Kenji Lopez-Alt and more!

“Between the Folds” chronicles 10 stories of fine artists and theoretical scientists who are abandoning more conventional career paths to forge lives as modern-day paper folders.

Toast diversity in architecture and the voices of those who create it at a celebratory happy hour at ChiDM. Take advantage of this final opportunity to see the conceptual installation project that was inaugurated at Sydney University’s Tin Sheds Gallery and will continue on after leaving ChiDM.

"Devon Morris is the 2016 Recipient of AIA Chicago’s Martin Roche Travel Scholarship, which gives a student the opportunity to independently study architecture abroad

Confrontations is reading and discussion series curated by Dgenerator and hosted by ChiDM. Each iteration features a set of interrelated readings which exist in dialogue with each other. These readings, read prior to the event, then serve as the basis for a conversation around the various, often conflicting ideas contained in each piece. The intent of Confrontations is to push design discourse towards the places where the discipline intersects with contemporary society and its structures.

Color is one of the most powerful visual tools a designer can use to communicate. It influences our perception of space, shapes and moods, and embodies diverse meanings across cultures. Deborah Sussman’s work was intensely focused on the interaction of color, especially as it relates to our perceptions of space in both two-dimensional graphics and three-dimensional environments.

"The complexity of the contemporary city requires architects and designers to discover and define new methods, tactics, tools and approaches to projects. Andrew Balster’s lecture will focus on hybrid forms of design education and practice, along with current projects at Archeworks.

"Edgar Miller Legacy presents a five-part discussion series rediscovering the history and art of Chicago’s modern era “Renaissance Man” Edgar Miller

"Russ Maki, president of Graphic Conservation Company in Chicago’s South Loop, will present the importance of the conservation of works on paper. The primary area of focus will be blueprints and architectural drawings. Additionally, questions about fine art and important documents and collectibles can be discussed.

"Join us in celebrating the season with art, food, drink and conversation. This year, 50k willl be featuring a series of posters first shown in the Chicago Made exhibition at 2016’s Business of Design Week, an annual global design symposium hosted by the Hong Kong Design Centre. Part of ChiDM’s Great Ideas of Humanity campaign, each poster presents a contemporary designer’s interpretation of a quotation by one of several of the world’s greatest thinkers.

"Editor of Poetry Magazine, Don Share, discusses founding editor Harriet Monroe’s view of poetry and how that has translated into the Poetry Foundation’s architecture. In 1912, Monroe saw the need to create a home for poetry, and envisioned a magazine that would serve as a gallery of poems. Over 100 years later her “little” magazine has evolved into a major literary organization with a suite of robust programs, including a literal home for poetry, designed by architect John Ronan, which includes a gallery for artwork that resonates with poetry.

From the first perspective drawings through the advent of computer aided design, the architect’s tools have given us greater and greater ability to engage with virtual architecture at a human scale. A progression in the paradigm shift of Building Information Modeling, virtual reality gives the designer and stakeholders the ability to inhabit their designs rather than just view them from a user’s perspective. This visceral sense of presence within VR – the cognitive feeling of being in a remote or virtual place – can make the user a human scale, spatial participant in a virtual place like no other medium that has come before. Through a number of case-studies spanning design phases, this presentation will make the argument for presence-influenced architectural design to create human-centered spaces.

Often described as a cross between screen printing and photocopying, the Risograph blends modern technology with the ancient art of printmaking. This workshop will highlight a tool that is often used as a workhorse for production, a mode for graphic artists, and as a press for small-run publications. On site, we will have a Risograph machine for you to learn about and experiment with. Come learn, make, celebrate the end of the semester, and meet other ChiDM student members!

Come join us to celebrate you! ChiDM will be hosting a Volunteer Appreciation happy hour at the Whistler (2421 N. Milwaukee) on December 9th at 6 pm. Come see a Great Ideas of Humanity install (it might look a little familiar…), hang out, and relax with your fellow volunteers before the craziness of the holidays begins!

Please join us for an exclusive Lost Arts and ChiDM member tour of Parsons & Charlesworth: Spectacular Vernacular, led by designers Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons!