WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE DesignHouse, Inc. reverses the traditional design process by starting with a single local manufacturer and designing a product suited to their existing capabilities, and using new distribution channels such as Kickstarter, to sell them. We host design jams, involve students in our post-jam product development process, and breathe new life into old industries. This reversal of the typical design process might be thought of as farm-to-table for design & manufacturing: we start with local capabilities and design new products around them, much like a chef might design a meal around locally grown, in-season produce.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
PAUL HATCH Designer
SUSAN P. ESTES Entrepreneur
PAM DANIELS Marketer
PAUL is President of industrial design
firm TEAMS Design, by day.
Following 5 years at TEAMS Design in Germany, Paul Hatch opened the Chicago branch in 1998. TEAMS Design now has five branches worldwide, over 100 industrial designers and engineers and has received over 1000 Design awards. Paul has spoken at many conferences around the world. In 2013, Paul was Chair of the International Conference for IDSA. He also co-wrote the IDSA books Impact: The Synergy of Technology, Business and Design and REALIZE: Design Means Business. He is also known for founding and running an “extreme debate” event called Fight Club (enough said). Paul has 29 patents and 30 design awards. In April 2009, Hatch was the third design professional ever to be awarded the IDSA Midwest Honors for Outstanding Achievement.
SUSAN
PAM
is a technology entrepreneur, scientist and artist.
is a Chicago-based product designer.
Her experience spans software, digital manufacturing, video, educational technology, spin outs, and 3D printing.
She is happiest when she is making something, and loves to tackle impossible projects of all kinds.
She serves as Senior Director of ATHENA, a private foundation focused on opportunities that cross the disciplines of technology, science, art and education. Prior to this, she was Managing Director, Global VC Business Development and Tech Expertise at UBS. Prior to that, CEO of OnCom, Inc, a global software and services firm focused on strategy, spin outs, commercialization and bespoke systems for clients around the world.
Previously Pam led large-scale innovation at IDEO and Starcom MediaVest Group. She serves as a mentor in Design for America and is pursuing a Masters in Product Design & Development at Northwestern University.
Her board directorship experience includes Hyde Park Art Center, the Poetry Foundation and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Whether building companies or Arduino constructions, Susan is a creative connector.
When she’s not designing something or reading, you might find her laughing with her improv troupe, playing in Lake Michigan or hanging out with her family, sometimes all at once.
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT At DesignHouse, we value student education. Our network allows for first-hand experience with local manufacturers, ranging from glass production to sand-casting. Students help lead design Jams and interact and receive feedback from local design professionals. In turn, DesignHouse gains young, fresh ideas from a talented array of students to develop preliminary concepts, create prototypes, and work through manufacturing considerations. Design House collaborated with Northwestern University and Virginia Tech to help realize the first DH product.
DESIGNHOUSE FOSTERS STUDENT EDUCATION THROUGH EXPOSURE TO MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN PROFESSIONALS
Most designers come up with an idea, develop the concept to be manufactured, and then look far and wide to find production options, often ending up overseas. At DesignHouse we think there’s a better way.
“ We believe design has a big role to play in revitalizing U.S. manufacturing. We grew tired of seeing small local manufacturers close their doors, and decided to engage the design community to develop new products based on the manufacturing capabilities we have here in Chicago.� - DesignHouse founding partner Pam Daniels
We begin by visiting local manufacturing facilities in order to select an ideal partner. We film their processes and use this to inspire participants during our unique DesignHouse brainstorm sessions called Jams. These Jams facilitate the creation of new DesignHouse products.
“ Small, traditional companies are
facing huge financial pressures and cannot afford huge investments in retraining or new machinery. There are plenty of cities across the US have a similar story to ours, so we eventually hope the DesignHouse approach can flourish elsewhere too. DesignHouse founding Partner, Paul Hatch
USER MANUAL
A GUIDE TO SUPPORTING LOCAL IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD
KNOW YOUR LOCATION CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
A CITY’S VALUES Every neighborhood and city holds different values. These values influence a citizen’s daily actions, interests, and purchases. Chicago’s incredibly diverse population creates a unique environment not available in many cities. Conversely, the city is unified by the immense amount of civic pride and love its citizens have for their home.
ART | ENVIRONMENT | INDUSTRY HEALTH | HISTORY | CONNECTIVITY With 77 distinct neighborhoods, Chicagoans can have vastly different definitions of their home town despite living in relatively close quarters. Many times, these definitions are driven by a smaller set of values that each community member experiences in the context of their own neighborhood. These values influence a person’s everyday interactions ranging from their political affiliation to consumer preferences, family life, and career choice.
SELECTING A MANUFACTURER A COMPANY WITH CHARACTER AND HISTORY
� They key is to find the right fit for the manufacturer: a company with a character and history, which in turn drives our passion to help them. Our mission is part evangelizing too, so we only choose the sort of companies that would not have considered that
design could help them. While other organizations have also focused on getting closer ties between designers and manufacturers, they tend to do it on mass scale, such that the manufacturers are defined by their machines and services on a long list.
Our approach is to understand what really makes them tick, the character and emotional side of the company, and use that to make them thrive. �
DesignHouse Founding Partner, Paul Hatch
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Aztec Plastics, custom injection molding Erva Tool +Die, metal law+garden product Design Lab, lighting S&B Finishing, powder coating Hendrick Metal Products, sheet metal fabrication Engineered Glass Products, casted and heated glass SKOL, metal bending Universal Electric Foundry, sand-casting Midland Metal, CNC wire bending Chicago Metal Factory, Metal fabricators
TOURS We were able to use DesignHouse’s previous relationship with the Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) to develop a list of potential manufacturing candidates to visit. Most manufacturers already give general tours and were more than willing to show us around their facilities, but having JARC as a reference gave us credibility when approaching prospective partners. By experiencing manufacturing first-hand, we were able to gain a more detailed understanding of materials and processes and how to more effectively design for manufacturing.
Company atmosphere? Family owned? Unique story or history? Machines and capabilities? Open to change and new opportunities?
OUR PARTNERS
SKOL
Metal Bending
UEF
Sand-Casting
S&B
Powder Coating
WHY WE LOVE SKOL
DesignHouse’s first completed project, REVEAL, was turret punched by SKOL and sold through Kickstarter. SKOL Manufacturing, a fourth-generation metal fabricator on Chicago’s north side. was the subject of the first design jam in June as well as a workshop held during Chicago Ideas Week in November. Among the many small local manufacturers considered, SKOL rose to the top for this initial release because of their personable leadership, reputation for quality, and openness to innovation.
DESIGN JAMS:
A COMMUNITY BRAIN STORM
Design Jams are hands-on ideation session to imagine new product concepts which can be made locally. Hosted quarterly, Design Jams gather professional design community members for an evening of camaraderie and creativity.
BUCKETS
Buckets, like categories, help to bring focus to the design group by narrowing the type of market that the product might be found in. Some categories specific to Chicago that we featured in our Jams included: Kickstarter, Lighting, Made in Chicago, CB2, Outdoor Furniture, Urban Gardening
POST JAM IDEATION THE AFTERMATH
After hours of ideation, we collected hundreds of ideas and needed to narrow the focus. By sketching and using paper for quick prototypes, we iterated and built upon select ideas that had potential. We gradually added details while keeping the manufacturer’s capabilities in mind.
PROTOTYPING & PRODUCTION
Low fidelity prototypes gave us proof of concept, but we needed to refine details in our design. We moved from physical to digital and created Solidworks files to more accurately test our dimensions. These files allowed us to have more productive conversations with the manufacturer and provided more insight into what was mechanically feasible.
COMMUNICATION: KEEPING PEOPLE ON THE SAME PAGE
CONCEPT TO PRODUCT
KICKSTARTER
RETAIL
A crowdfunding website that enables makers with ideas who need a little financial help to realize their goals.
VS.
• • • • • •
Kickstarter Fees: 5% Credit card Fees: 3-5% Shipping Costs Receives product long after payment Must set up Amazon account All or nothing funding
• • • •
Sales Tax: 5-15% Retail mark-ups In-store purchase Instant gratification
KICKSTARTER EXAMPLES
POTATO SALAD Humor and a good story
GOLDEN GOOSE Individuality and quality
COOLEST COOLER Timing
Press Phenomenons
Products Sell Themselves
Campaigns Never Die
Zach “Danger� Brown launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10 in order to make potato salad. The campaign was discovered by a few media outlets, and before he knew it Zach was on Good Morning America. The project raised $55,000 dollars and highlighted a humorous side of the Kickstarter community.
The Golden Goose campaign was product driven from the start. The simple idea was communicated in an understandable yet detailed way, utilizing sketching, CAD, and working prototypes. Their thoroughly covered process created a lot of trust within the backer community, and in turn allowed them to earn $170K.
The Coolest Cooler shows a great example of timing. The first campaign was launched right before Christmas and flopped. After a few tweaks to the design, the campaign was re-launched before summer and raised 1.2 million in funding.
REWARD TIERS Reward tiers are the way to get your product into your backer’s hands, while raising the necessary funds to get your project off the ground. Small backer levels enable individuals to follow along with backer updates, while the larger reward tiers reward the backer with product.
SHOUT OUTS
EARLY ADOPTERS
These rewards are small, usually ranging between $1-$10 and usually entail using social media to publicly thank the backer.
These rewards will be priced based on the product costs but tend to be between $15-$100 dollars. Early bird specials, gift giving, and color options are common variants when designing offerings at this level.
CHARITY Raising money for charity is prohibited on Kickstarter, but large reward tiers are allowed as long as a product is provided. Backers understand that they are paying more to support the cause, but they still receive the product.
LONG TERM RETAIL The “Support Local� movement carries a set of values that are shared by designers, manufacturers, and boutique retailers who champion all things local. When assessing potential retailers for REVEAL, we recognized places like Lillstreet, Neighborly, and CB2 for their great pre-established reputation within Chicago. Supporting the local economy ensures a cyclical flow of jobs and money.
Lillstreet
Neighborly
CB2
Intro On the first day, we were challenged with bringing DesignHouse’s first product to Kickstarter. Having no precedent to follow, we learned to use the eclectic nature of our group to our advantage and stepped outside our comfort zones in order to push the boundaries of what DesignHouse sought to be. Our time was limited and the fast paced environment forced us to make decisions quickly and rely on each individual’s strengths to achieve a unified goal.
The DesignHouse Team Along with the three founders of Design House, our team consisted of six Industrial Design students from Virginia Tech’s Chicago Studio Program. The group’s overall dynamic grounds itself in the breadth of experiences and capabilities that each individual brings to the whole. With backgrounds in areas ranging from videography to entrepreneurship, this diverse mix made for an ideal team to continue to further propel Design House.
THE PROMPT Investigate
Ideation
Business and Marketing
Weekly Tuesday meeting at TEAMS with Design House
Design
Dissertation
INVESTIGATION: Manufacturing Tours
As part of our beginning task for Design House, it was the group’s job to tour numerous local manufacturers, learn about their processes and capabilities, then determine if these manufacturers would be a good fit to work with Design House’s process. We toured a metal foundry, a powder coating facility, two metal fabricators, an injection molding facility, and a custom glass facility. Being able to go to these places gave us a unique opportunity to see how specific products are manufactured, as well as begin to understand Chicago’s rich industrial history.
SKOL SKOL is a metal fabricator located in Ravenswood, Chicago that specializes in custom lighting fixtures for commercial and industrial applications, custom parts for constructions, electronics, and green roof edging using over 60 different alloys. At SKOL, they are able to bend, turret punch, weld, and finish metal. Design House used a pre-established relationship initiated through the Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) to prepare their first ever Design Jam around SKOL’s capabilities.
THE PHONE STAND
Design Jam 001 This simple, flat pack phone stand design came from Design House’s first Design Jam, which focused on SKOL’s capabilities of bending and turret punching metal. The founders believed that this concept could be a strong fit for Kickstarter due to the number of successful technology focused products previously funded. However, they new this design was not refined enough and wanted the six of us to iterate on the concept.
ITERATION
The six of us, along with two members of TEAMS Design, started iterating on the phone stand, focusing on its simplicity. We went from thumbnail sketches, to renders, to 3D models, to chipboard prototypes. We also played with many themes such as wall mounting, multiple configurations, and cord management. Through our iteration, we were trying to make this phone stand unique in order to captivate somebody scrolling through Kickstarter. We also started to look at packaging design and how to convey the feeling of “local” and Design House’s story through it. We considered materials and the possibility that the packaging could be reused, not just thrown away, after receiving the product.
VISIT TO CRAIGHTON BERMAN’S STUDIO AND INTRO TO THE ART OF STORY TELLING
STORYBOARDING 101 With the Kickstarter launch date approaching, we started to explore video concepts for our project page. The Kickstarter market is saturated with tech oriented products, so what made our phone stand particularly special? Even with the compelling “support local” motivation behind our idea, we knew that solely relying on its “locally made” mantra wouldn’t be enough to captivate buyers. Fortunately, we were able to meet up with Craighton Berman, a Virginia Tech alumnus and story telling expert. During our meeting with Craighton, we learned the background to his three successful Kickstarter campaigns, along with his strategy for story telling. His insights on how to best balance the story of our product with the equally important story of Design House became a crucial take-away from this experience.
THE TURNING POINT: CHICAGO IDEAS WEEK
As part of Chicago Ideas Week, Design House held its second Design Jam at Catalyze Chicago called “Concept to Product in just One Week.” For this Design Jam we invited forty non-designers to come brainstorm product ideas with us focused around SKOL’s capabilities. During the Jam we focused on three categories - lighting, local to Chicago, and items for Kickstarter. Participants broke up into groups based on their interest on a particular category while we paired off with said groups as facilitators . By the end of the two-hour session we had numerous ideas for potential new products to be manufactured by SKOL. With the end of the Jam session came our next goal-iterate and have a final product developed by the end of the week.
Curation of Ideas
Picture Frame
Sconce
Colander
RAPID IDEATION Once the Design Jam was over, the team quickly started looking through all the concepts developed during the Design Jam and pulled out three favorite ideas that we felt had the most potential. These ideas were a wall sconce, a colander, and a photo frame. Once we decided these were the three topics we wanted to explore further, we split into three groups to start iterating. We drew numerous sketches, made multiple low fidelity models, and created files to be cut on the LaserCAMM and water jet.
THE RESULT
After a week of ideation our final product came to be a simple 2D to 3D photo frame. This design focused on the ease of printing photos with access to digital archives. By removing the glass, the frame makes it simple to swap in and out new photos as quickly as they are taken.
BUSINESS AND MARKETING Kickstarting REVEAL
During the process of designing the photo frame, the six of us quickly gained a sense of ownership over the design. By being a complete part in the development of this photo frame, we found the courage to change the direction of our Kickstarter campaign despite the approaching launch deadline.
Telling the Story We began by storyboarding out our ideas for possible video directions and then made our most refined outline into a rough cut version. Over the course of the next few weeks, we showed it to our peers and professionals to understand the weaknesses in the story. After three solid iterations, we were ready to move forward with other aspects of our campaign.
CREATING REWARDS
Rewards enable the project creator to provide their product to backers. After researching successful and unsuccessful campaigns, we chose to provide three categories of rewards: social media shout outs, product, and product/donation. Creating a tier between $1-$5 provided backers with an opportunity to support local and follow along with the journey. The product rewards provided variations in size, number, and colors of frames. The larger reward levels provided backers with picture frames as well as the opportunity to finance future Design House projects.
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Get backer-only updates and a big thank you from Design House!
4x4” frame in your choice of three anodized finishes
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4x6” frame in your choice of three anodized finishes
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4x4” and 4x6” frames in your choice of three anodized finishes. Holiday Duo shipped by December 18th
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Three 4x4” frames in your choice of three anodized finishes
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HIGH-FIVER HAPPY INSTAGRAMER PHOTO-OP DUO & HOLIDAY DUO SQUARE TRIO RECTANGLE TRIO SUPER SNAPPER CREATIVE CONFIDANT BACKSTAGE PASS CHAMPION
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Three 4x6� frames in your choice of three anodized finishes
Supporting local with even more oomph and get three frames in your choice of size and finish
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Help make design decisions on packaging, plus receive three frames in your choice of size and finish
Underwrite our next jam, join the creative process, and receive three frames in your choice of size and finish
Help fund future Design House products, plus receive three frames in your choice of size and finish
FIGURING OUT OUR PR PLAN Even the most compelling product will fail on Kickstarter without a well thought out and well executed PR plan. As we were refining the design of Reveal, we were also refining our approach to PR. After compiling a collective list of individuals in our networks, we met with Kate Garmey, a communication and press strategist, to identify opportunities to reach out to bloggers, design professionals, and other media outlets. Prior to launching, we had an extensive list of who to contact and what messages to send.
BACKER UPDATES Backer updates are messages sent out during a campaign to keep individuals up to date on the campaign’s progress. Updates are a great way to generate buzz, enable backers to participate in the journey, and to add some fun to the campaign. Reveal’s campaign is built on an ethical foundation of “Support Local”, while backer updates provided us the opportunity to engage our audience with elements of fun and tongue-in-cheek humor.
KICKSTARTER PACKAGING Packaging for Kickstarter differs from typical retail packaging because of its need to be quick and easy, yet strong and cost efficient. Early concepts included mailing sleeves and varying envelope sizes that could easily be customized with the DesignHouse logo. Final decisions ended on recycled brown envelops because of the consistent simple design that works with the aesthetic of REVEAL’s as well as its availability and price.
RETAIL PACKAGING IDEATION
Eventually, DesignHouse envisions their creative process skipping past Kickstarter and ending up directly in boutiques such as CB2 and West Elm. In order to compete in a retail market with other products, the retail packaging for REVEAL must differ from the convenient mailing sleeve used for Kickstarter shipments. Retail packaging is a unique opportunity to tell the DesignHouse story of supporting the local economy to an audience who may not have seen the campaign before.
NOW WHAT?
After successfully funding REVEAL, DesignHouse’s first product, on Kickstarter, we are challenging ourselves to keep the momentum going.
DESIGN JAM 3 Universal Electric Foundry is located west of the Loop in the Kinzie industrial corridor that specializes in sand casting in stainless steel, brass, bronze, nickel, and other special alloys ranging from ½ lb to 500 lbs. Recently, they had to lay off most of their employees due to a lack of work. After realizing Universal Electric Foundry needed help, DesignHouse hosted its third Jam. We gathered about thirty local designers and set off on our mission to “save the foundry!” From the Jam, we generated many ideas including candle holders, modular furniture, and community umbrella rentals. Although we had to leave Chicago before bringing these concepts further, the next generation of DesignHouse students will continue where we left off.
Intro VT Chicago Studio F2014 is the first time Industrial Design has been represented in the satellite studio program. Six of us had the opportunity to experience design in an urban context and through the lenses of different design disciplines. We uncovered similarities between the disciplines, but we also learned that there are remarkable differences in scale, research methods, and communication styles.
For all of us this was the first time living in such a large city, but we learned to thrive. The cities ample resources provided us many opportunities to explore and learn, while our networking connected us to the greater design community making Chicago feel like home. The success of our Kickstarter campaign is the culmination of our semesters work, but only hints at all of the resources, people, and experiences that worked to shape and mature us as designers.
THE TEAM
Caleb Rancourt | Blacksburg, VA | Fourth Year
Chris Kitchen | Richmond, VA | Fourth Year
Caleb has a background that is too diverse to describe. A “Mover & Shaker” by nature, if you need something done, he probably knows a guy.
Chris has an interest in sketching and furniture design. When he’s not sketching with his Wacom tablet, you can probably find him at a local music venue.
Claire Butterfield | Pittsburgh, PA | Fourth Year
Claire has already used design to help poverty stricken areas in places like India. Her level head and sense of humor makes her unshakable in the face of deadlines.
Amanda Phung | Centreville, VA | Third Year
Morgan Matt | Canton, CT | Third Year
Stephanie Pekala | Ellicott City, MD | Third Year
Amanda is an optimistic sports nut with an interest in photography. When she’s not taking photos or recording with her dLSR, she is probably editing video, which she is excellent at.
Morgan has a background in music, dance, and art. If she’s not cooking up delicious food, you can probably find her cooking up striking graphic icons.
Stephanie has a strong interest in design research and a background in graphics. When she’s not managing our Kickstarter social media plan, you’ll probably find her managing her fantasy football lineup.
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP 14 VIRGINIA TECH | 4 MONTERREY TECH (MEXICO)
In 14 years of Chicago Studio, there has never been a studio as diverse as the Fall 2014 group. With students from so many backgrounds and disciplines, there was a lot to be learned from the overlapping interactions. In Blacksburg, we are pretty segregated in our disciplines, hardly making contact beyond our own peers. Other than first-year foundation, many of us had no exposure to interior or architectural projects. By sitting in on everyone’s reviews, we were exposed to professional critique and detailed student work. In the Blacksburg studio, pin-ups generally consist exclusively of peers and professors. Now we were being reviewed by an everchanging audience that consisted of mostly architects. This interdisciplinary environment lead us to better understand the importance of telling a story both in our work, as well as while presenting the work. It was also a unique opportunity to explore the commonalities between these disciplines, understand the consistencies design maintains as a means of communication, while also noting the differences that inevitably occur in approaching projects of different intent.
8 ARCHITECTURE 3 INTERIOR DESIGN 6 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 1 URBAN PLANNING
A DESIGN HUB
As the third most populated city in the US, Chicago is buzzing with design opportunities: dozens of large corporate firms and headquarters, smaller consultancies, and newborn start-ups.
FIRMS 220 Design Acco Brands Corporation Baer Design Group Barrettype Beyond Design Blueprint Usability Boschwerks Brandimage - Desgrippes & Laga The Carlson Group Cesaroni Design CHOi Design Control Alt Design David Harris Associates Dean Lindsay Design Deep/Design-Engine Design Integrity Designcraft, Inc. eFactory Euforia Design Farm CP Forteos GCM USA Geochord gravitytank Herbst Lazar Bell IA Collaborative Ideation Studio Inc IDEO - Chicago Ignite USA Insight Product Development Inventables Jerome Caruso Design Joss Design Group Kaleidoscope KDA Kent Solberg Design KornickLindsay LucaciStudio Lunar Design Medela Minimal Models Plus Montgomery Design Int.
Morrow Design Motorola THENATE.COM OK Works Onyx Product Development Optimistic Design Paragon Design International Product Development Technologies Product Council Radius Product Development Sanford Square-1 Product Development SRAM/RockShox Streng Design Studio111 Tangent Design Group Tangible TEAMS Design Tres Design Group Vessel Ideation Visde Visualize Inc Webb Scarlett deVlam Whirlpool Y Line Product Design
SCHOOLS & PROGRAMS Archeworks Columbia College Institute for Design (IIT) Northwestern University Southern Illinois University School of the Art Institute of Chicago Segal Design Institute (Northwestern) University of Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago (IDSA and Innovation Center) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ONE BIG TEAMS By diving into the working world in a consultancy like TEAMS design, we were able to experience a glimpse of what life would be like after school. It was intimidating to be working around professionals with their amazing sketches and rendering skills, but as we slowly became apart of their family, we discovered that they are just a bunch of goof-balls 3D printing armies of minions and make their own beer labels. Don’t mistake their comfortable work environment for slacking, however. They are the epitome of work hard, play hard.
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A Working on Kickstarter B Foosball lunch break C TEAMS studio D Mike Hubert (co-worker) E Old School Car Class F Halloween happy hour
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KEY PLAYERS
(L-R): Patrick Nally | Beyond Design, John Dimatos | Kickstarter, Zack Kaplan | Inventables, Pam Daniels | Design House, Stefani Bachetti | dscout, Paul Hatch | Teams Design and Design House, Jonathan Dien | Gravity Tank, Cliff Kräpfl | Teams Design, Michael Una | Inventables, Tony Kirk | Whirlpool, Zack Filbert | UIC, Steve McPhilliamy | Insight, Susan Page Estes | Design House, Bill Fienup | Catalyze Chicago, Sona Patadia-Rao | Lunar, Craighton Berman | Craighton Berman Studio
STEFANI BACHETTI A Virginia Tech ID alumni, Stefani Bachetti came to many of our reviews as the only professional with an ID background. Her input was refreshing to hear over the course of the semester, and provided a needed contrast to the various inputs made by other design professionals. Her opinions were greatly useful and helped direct many design decisions. Outside of our reviews, Stefani also helped us gain access to Whirlpool and Insight for tours.
PATRICK NALLY Patrick Nally kindly welcomed us into Beyond Design for not only a tour and discussion on design, but for a skillshare workshop as well. As a VTID alumni from the class of 2008, Patrick answered questions that helped us grow as designers. His workshop on digital sketching and portfolio review proved to be useful insight and a reality check of what to expect in the working world.
CRAIGHTON BERMAN A genius in story telling, sketch-notes, and Kickstarter, Craighton Berman is a Virginia Tech ID alumni from 2002. He has works in the permanent collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and is the professor of a Kickstarter class at UIC. We were lucky to have Craighton bestow some of his storytelling wisdom upon us. We learned that a product without a compelling story won’t go very far. He has successfully launched three campaigns and helped ours get on its feet.
JONATHAN DIEN While not a graduate from Virginia Tech, but close friends with Ed Dorsa, Jonathan Dien helped shape up our presentation skills. He hosted a workshop at Gravity Tank where we spent four hours determining the story we wanted to leave Chicago with and were able to ask him portfolio and post-graduation questions.
CHICAGO
CHI-TOWN THE WINDY CITY THE SECOND CITY CITY OF BROAD SHOULDERS CHICAGOLAND
WELCOME TO THE CITY Within our group, we ranged anywhere from city-dwellers to suburbanites to the native Blacksburger, so there was a lot of awe when we arrived to Chi-Town. Outside of our 8-5 work schedules (plus an hour long commute each way) we tried to find time to explore the city when we weren’t catching up on sleep.
NAVIGATION Chicago’s 234 square miles seems relatively small due to its near flawless transportation system. From the buses, the subway, the Divvy bike share system, to the “L” (elevated train), you can get anywhere you need without a personal car. The Ventra system allows users to ride at ease by swiping their network enabled cards on every bus and train station. If you are really running behind, taxis and Ubers will pick you up in a heartbeat. Just a warning, buying a 30-day unlimited pass ($100) is NOT the same as simply adding $100 to your account...
THE BEST SPOTS SIGHTSEEING FOOD & DRINK MUSIC & ARTS
As experienced Chicagoans after three months in downtown, we thought we’d share some of our favorite spots to hit up. Ranging from the typical tourist spots to the holes in the walls that you have to dig to find, Chicago has a wide selection of venues that will satisfy your needs.
Jay Pritzker Pavillion
Buckingham Fountain
The Cloud Gate a.k.a. “The Bean”
Willis Tower a.k.a. Sears Tower
Background: Marina City
Whether you are an architect or not, you will find breathtaking and awe-inspiring structures throughout the city. By taking LSD (Lake Shore Drive) south towards the Loop, you’ll see the luminous Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. About a mile down, you’ll find Millennium Park which contains the infamous Bean and the eclectic Gehry amphitheater. Keep heading south and you’ll hit the geyser that is Buckingham Fountain,the Field Museum, Planetarium, and Aquarium.
If you’re trying to view the city from above, Skydeck Chicago is $20 and about a four hour wait at the Sears Tower. A better alternative would be to grab a drink on the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower’s Signature Lounge where the drinks are about $15, but there’s no wait, and no additional costs for the view.
FOOD Chicago is famous for its deep dish pizza and over-the-top hot dogs but it has a wide selection of other delicious foods. Whether you’re a vegan or just a passionate epicurean, you will find something in Chicago to fill your stomach’s desires.
DOWNTOWN RESTAURANTS Flaco’s Tacos Native Foods (Vegan & Vegetarian) Purple Pig Flat Top Grille Union Sushi Eataly Rockbottom Big Star Glazed and Infused High Five Ramen RPM Italian Yolk Sprinkles Downtown Dogs
A LITTLE FURTHER OUT
The Girl and the Goat (Vegan) Little Goat Big Delicious Planet La Colombe
DEEP DISH
Lou Malnati’s Giordanos Pizzeria Due Pizzeria Uno’s Ginos East
CAFÉS
Dollop cafe Lavasso Argo Tea Old Town Intelligentsia Cafe Heritage Bikes
BARS
THE NIGHT LIFE An entirely different world emerges when the sun goes down and the lights go on in Chi-Town. For the ones 21+, there are a plethora of beverages to expand your limited college palate. Drinks can be pricey, especially when you’re on a terrace on the Trump Tower overlooking the city, but there are also more affordable, quirky dive bars to explore too. If you’re looking for unlimited arcade games, look no further than Headquarters Beercade where the games are free, but you have to pay for the drinks.
Streeter’s Tavern Sable Violet Hour Three Dots And A Dash Kincades (VT Bar!) Riverview Bar Deville Green Mill Mother’s Too Trump Tower Terrace Bar (Seasonal) John Hancock Signature Lounge Headquarters Beercade Red Headed Piano Bar
BREWERIES Lagunita’s Revolution
YOUR OWN SUPPLIES Binny’s Trader Joe’s Mariano’s Walgreen’s