Underscore

Our guest is Hannah Cormier, a visual and digital experience designer at One Design in Chicago.In this episode, Hannah speaks with host Christian Solorzano about a design origin story rooted in curiosity, sensory processing disorder, and early web culture. Adopted from China and raised by musician parents in rural Illinois, Hannah shares how the way her brain processes physical and digital environments became the foundation of her approach to systems-focused design.Hannah traces her path from a middle school design tech class to building and selling virtual goods on IMVU, freelancing in high school, and eventually finding her home at a Chicago design agency. She talks about what drew her to web and product design, what it means to design experiences that compassionately address the end user, and the value of getting comfortable with endless iteration and troubleshooting.The conversation also explores the future of interfaces — where invisible design works, where it breaks down, and why the threshold between invisibility and control is one of the most interesting problems in design today.Music by the band Eighties Slang.

Eric Hotchkiss, interdisciplinary designer, engineer, and founder of Made in Englewood, builds community-shaped spaces. He recalls DIY childhood making and explains designing with neighborhoods, youth-led projects like a miniature golf course, and creating lasting artifacts and an Afro-diasporic outdoor kitchen. He discusses relinquishing control, documenting local stories, and why now feels like the right time to make things.

Nika Simovich Fisher, a writer, designer, and Parsons professor who studies how design shapes belief. She talks about early web memories from Neopets to MySpace, uncovering forgotten internet histories, vernacular visual culture and political merch, daily writing routines, and mixing academic and public-facing practices to rethink how we see digital aesthetics.

Christian Solorzano, founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club and studio Opal, traces his path from discovering design on a Sony VAIO at eleven to building Chicago’s creative infrastructure. He and Rick Valicenti talk about starting the club during COVID, running experimental projects like Point and Faculty, type design collaborations, and creativity as a necessary act of resistance.

Rod Hunting, Chicago designer and artist who builds intricate compositions from floppy discs and co-founded the Post Family collective. He talks about long Illustrator sessions and meditative play, how skateboarding taught patience, deciding when a piece is finished, balancing client work with personal practice, and the craft resurgence amid AI-driven sameness.

Our guests are Kelsey McClellan and Andrew McClellan, the husband-and-wife team behind Heart & Bone Signs, a Chicago-based studio specializing in gold leaf and hand-painted signage.In this episode, Kelsey and Andrew speak with host Christian Solorzano about their journey from casting aluminum mushrooms together in an undergraduate sculpture class to becoming two of Chicago's most respected sign painters. They share how discovering gold leaf window signs on Michigan Avenue led them to cold-call the man whose signature they found—Robert Frese, who would become their mentor and closest friend in the city.The conversation explores Chicago's sign painting legacy, from the Beverly Sign Co. and the design innovation known as "The Chicago Look" to the ghost signs that still haunt the city's brick walls. Kelsey and Andrew recount their effort to save two 1920s signs from a Ravenswood building slated for demolition—a project that led to their book The Golden Era of Sign Design, a collaboration with Field Notes, and a permanent installation at the American Sign Museum.They discuss the realities of running a business as a married couple, the discipline of practicing simple brushstrokes, and why they believe the energy poured into handmade work is something viewers can sense—even if they can't explain it. The conversation closes with their advice for aspiring sign painters and a reflection on what Chicago stands to lose if its neon and ghost signs disappear.Music by the band Eighties Slang.

Our guest is Oscar Solis, a designer, researcher, and educator who was born and raised in Pilsen and has called Chicago home for most of his life.In this episode, Oscar speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his journey from clinical research science at UChicago to pursuing graduate work in design. He shares how receiving a camera from his mother at eleven sparked his love of visual storytelling, and how co-founding Film Front—a micro-cinema in an old Pilsen barbershop—became his first real design education.Oscar discusses his philosophy of co-design, tracing it back to 1970s Scandinavian political activism and explaining why top-down approaches to community work never sat right with him, even as a kid. He talks about non-hierarchical pedagogy, what it means to create "queer diagrammatic forms," and why he identifies as a capital-D Designer whose Mexican and queer identities inform but don't define his practice.The conversation explores Oscar's current work at Chicago Art Department, his exhibition "Diagrams and Systems," and why Chicago's sense of community keeps him rooted here. Oscar shares his thoughts on fear and passivity among young designers, the importance of being weird, and why joy might be a political act.Music by the band Eighties Slang.

Our guest is Mary Foyder, a designer working on trauma-responsive and healing-centered projects, including Braver Collective, an online healing community for survivors of sexual trauma.In this episode, Mary speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her journey from Western Michigan University's professional pilot program to discovering graphic design, and how she developed her collaborative, human-centered approach to design. She shares insights about co-designing platforms with the communities they serve—particularly young people navigating sexual health, reproductive justice, and bodily autonomy.Mary discusses her evolution as a designer, from her early curiosity about why design decisions get made to developing trauma-informed practices that center survivor voices. She talks about what it means to design healing-centered platforms, including her five-year collaboration building Braver Collective alongside survivors who co-designed every aspect of the organization.The conversation explores the complexities of doing social impact work in politically volatile times—navigating the financial precarity of values-driven practice and the challenges of running an independent design practice. Mary opens up about projects like Bedsider for Power to Decide and the CHAT Program for the Chicago Department of Public Health, and discusses finding ways to sustain meaningful work while raising a family in Chicago.She shares candid perspectives on co-design as genuine partnership rather than extraction, and why designers working with vulnerable communities must understand how trauma shapes human experience and behavior.Music by the band Eighties Slang.

Today, we share a conversation between Christian Solorzano and Cheryl Bever as they celebrate five years of the Chicago Graphic Design Club and reflect on 2025.In this year-end episode, Christian and Cheryl discuss personal milestones, the club's growth, and what success really means—the friendships formed and genuine connections made within Chicago's design community. They reflect on their partnership and share their vision for 2026: expanding the team, hosting more studio tours, and continuing to highlight voices across the city.Enjoy the conversation, and if you enjoy this show, please rate it, share it with your friends, and subscribe to it wherever you listen.Learn more at:www.chicagograhicdesign.club

Our guest is ⁠Pedro Neves⁠, a designer, educator, and researcher at the University of Illinois Chicago whose work explores the intersection of modular systems, typography, and emerging technologies.In this episode, Pedro speaks with host ⁠Christian Solorzano⁠ about his ambitious research project "A to Z: Learning Through Lego and Letter Forms"—a collaborative endeavor with 36 international designers that investigates modular letter form design through accessible systems. He shares the journey that began as a classroom assignment and culminated in an unexpected visit to Lego's headquarters in Denmark, where the project now resides in their permanent archives.Pedro discusses his path from Portugal to Basel's prestigious design programs, where he spent nearly two years working on the Wolfgang Weingart design archive. He reflects on the mythology of Swiss design, the warmth and human-centered approach he experienced in Basel that contrasts with rigid perceptions of Swiss methodology, and how those formative experiences shape his teaching philosophy at UIC.The conversation explores what "experimental design" truly means—whether it's an aesthetic, attitude, or process—and why Pedro believes experimentation requires intention and structure rather than random exploration. He opens up about his evolution as a designer who once hated drawing classes but found his calling in design's blend of scientific methods and creative problem-solving. Pedro shares insights about teaching typography through constraints, his philosophy on learning to code as another form of craft, and why Chicago's vibrant printmaking community at venues like Public Works, Sputnik, and through organizations like the Chicago Printers Guild has become central to his creative practice.Throughout the episode, Pedro offers candid perspectives on navigating the challenges of balancing teaching, research, and personal work, finding community in a city he's called home since 2019, and building meaningful creative projects in academia.The exhibition "A to Z: Learning Through Lego and Letter Forms" is on display at the Design Museum of Chicago through January 11th.More informationPedro's WebsitePedro's InstagramLearn about the Chicago Graphic Design Club