Analog 2011

Lee Bey is a photographer, writer, lecturer, and consultant who documents and interprets the built environment—and the often complex political, social, and racial forces that shape spaces and places. His writing on architecture and urban design has been featured in Architect, Chicago magazine, Architectural Record, and many news outlets. His photography has appeared in Chicago Architect, Old-House Journal, CITE, and in international design publications including Bauwelt and Modulør. A former Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic, Bey is also a senior lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and served as deputy chief of staff for urban planning under former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Craighton Berman is an industrial designer, creative director, and illustrator. Craighton is interested in using design as a lens for understanding experiences and as a tool for bringing conceptual ideas to life. He runs his own studio and he also teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Previously, Craighton was a lead designer with the innovation agency gravitytank.

Jeremiah Chiu is a designer and cofounder of Plural, a Chicago-based creative studio practice. With a focus on pursuing meaningful projects, Plural explores new approaches within the design process, experimenting in a wide range of media including print, web, video, sound, interactive and installation.

Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer are cofounders of the firm Design With Company, which explores the intersection between literature and architecture through speculative urban scenarios, writing, temporary installations, and built projects. Hicks received his MArch from Princeton University; Newmeyer from the University of Michigan, and they both teach at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sarah Dunn co-founded UrbanLab with Martin Felsen. Sarah is a Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and also teaches advanced studios at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. After working at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam, she and partner Martin Felsen established UrbanLab, a collaborative architecture and urban design firm. UrbanLab strives to respond to the complexity, growth and unintended consequences of the modern city by developing a catalogue of architectural, infrastructural and urbanistic design strategies, in particular examining natural and artificial systems underpinning the built environment. Built work to date includes mixed-use commercial buildings, housing, houses, restaurants, art galleries, large-scale resilient infrastructural projects, recreational landscapes, and cities.

Cody Hudson is a Chicago based artist, also known for his graphic design contributions under the name Struggle Inc. His graphic work and paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe and Japan. He has produced logos, album covers, and clothing for clients such as Nike, Converse, Stussy, The Cool Kids, and A-TRAK.

Caroline Linder is the co-founder of ODL. ODL (or the Object Design League) promotes experimental and independent object design through public exhibitions and events to bolster the city’s budding contemporary design scene. ODL operates out of the Spice Barrel District, an emerging creative industries district between Pilsen and Chinatown in Chicago, IL.

Jason Pickleman is a graphic designer and partner at JNL Graphic Design based in Chicago. His clients include the Steppenwolf Theatre, Hyde Park Art Center, The Renaissance Society, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Transit Authority, and Avec restaurant.

PORT is a design consultancy based in Chicago, and founded by Andrew Moddrell and Christopher Marcinkoski in 2010. Drawing from a collective background in contemporary urban issues, the practice specializes in new forms of collective space ranging from plazas and public waterfronts to framework plans and regional planning strategies. With projects in Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia, PORT’s work has been the recipient of a number of professional awards including an AIA Award in 2014 for the Denver Parks and Recreation City Loop project.

Jessica Rodrigue received her MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. She has exhibited at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and the Institute for Contemporary Art / Maine College of Art among other institutions. Her work is currently on display at the Hyde Park Art Center as part as the exhibition No Place Like Home.

David Schalliol is an associate professor of sociology at St. Olaf College who is interested in the relationship between community, social structure, and place. He exhibits widely, including in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. His work has been supported by institutions including the Graham Foundation and the European Union and featured in publications including MAS Context, The New York Times, and Social Science Research. David is the author of Isolated Building Studies (UTAKATADO) and co-author, with Michael Carriere, of The City Creative (The University of Chicago Press). He additionally contributes to such films as Almost There and Highrise: Out My Window, which won an International Digital Emmy for Non-Fiction. His directorial debut, The Area, premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 2018.

Karen Semone is the Director of Content Strategy at VSA Partners, an experienced, high-performing branding firm for the modern age. VSA Partners blends world class strategic, creative and digital capabilities to help businesses drive results by inventing, reinventing and building brands positioned to thrive in today’s dynamic environment. For thirty years VSA has helped some of the world’s leading businesses including IBM, Nike, Harley-Davidson, P&G, GAP, Caterpillar, and GE.

Strawn Sierralta is a young, boutique architecture and design studio based in Chicago and run by Brian Strawn and Karla Sierralta. They are deeply committed to investigating the specific qualities of each project—its natural, cultural, social, and political environments. Their goal is to find fresh solutions that are simple, bold, innovative, and unexpected.

Lisa Smith is the co-founder of ODL. ODL (or the Object Design League) promotes experimental and independent object design through public exhibitions and events to bolster the city’s budding contemporary design scene. ODL operates out of the Spice Barrel District, an emerging creative industries district between Pilsen and Chinatown in Chicago, IL.

John Szot is an architect practicing in New York City and Portland, Oregon. He is a prior contributor to MAS Context, and his work in building design has been exhibited internationally. His forthcoming book Buildingness is slated for publication in early 2024. He has previously taught design at Columbia University, the Pratt Institute, and the University of Texas at Austin, and he is currently a member of the faculty at the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Environment.

Cheryl Towler Weese is the founding partner of Studio Blue, a Chicago-based firm that works with museums, universities, and other organizations that serve the public. She is also Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Graphic Design at UIC. Recognized for her conceptual approach and interdisciplinary collaboration, Cheryl’s work explores design’s civic potential. Through projects that span publication, identity, interactive, and environmental design, she investigates design’s ability to participate in public dialogue and shape collective consciousness. With this approach, she endeavors to foster an engaged and thinking public by encouraging discourse, participation, and individual perspectives.

Rick Valicenti is a producer, director, and collaborator working with a wide network of designers and artists. Formerly the founder and design director of Thirst, a venerable Chicago design studio, Valicenti is a recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) Medal, 2006, and the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, 2011. Rick is also an invited member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). His complete works are recently archived at the Newberry Library, and the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Large selections of Valicenti’s work are at the Ryerson Library at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Lubalin Center at Cooper Union, and the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography at Art Center in Pasadena, California.