Sun, June 8, 2025, 1:30–5:00pm
NeoCon, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza

Sun, June 8, 2025, 10:00am–12:30pm
NeoCon, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza

Sat, June 7, 2025, 12:30–3:30pm
NeoCon, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza

Sat, June 7, 2025, 8:30am–12:30pm
NeoCon, 222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Everybody has as story to tell, if you listen closely. The stories can be decades-long epics or minute-by-minute emotional roller coasters. Companies, marketers, designers and developers all create stories when they build customer experiences. But will those experiences be pleasant and useful, or frustrating and unproductive? User personas and journey maps help us architect stories of experience by understanding user needs and crafting key customer touch points. They’re great tools for understanding your audience’s feelings, motivations, questions and reservations at every step of an experience.

At this CIW Lab, discover the practice of Risograph printing, a high-speed printing system that has its roots in Japan. In the workshop, you’ll head to the Chicago Design Museum, one of Chicago’s most creative spaces, to learn the basics of the technique and how to operate the unique machine. Find out how the masters of the trade create breathtaking prints, and gain a grasp on how you can do the same.