AIGA Chicago presents an event which brings designers to work together in a collaborative environment. Because we know working remotely can be lonely and office settings can be redundant. So bring your best thinking cap and get ready to be extra productive. You and other professionals will get a chance to share feedback and ideas on your projects.

Cool, right? Well, don’t miss this opportunity (limited spots available) to break your routine and work in a ultra cool space.

This month is at 2112 Inc., Chicago’s first creative industries incubator.

Ready to give your portfolio its main-character moment?

Polish up those pixels, gather your greatest hits, and VIRTUALLY strut your stuff at Test Flight 2026! Some of the industries sharpest creative pros will be there to dish out thoughtful feedback, help you fine-tune your presentation game, and get you feeling recruiter-ready for that dream job glow-up.

Here’s how it goes down:

The day before the eventYou’ll get an email from AIGA Chicago with:

• Your assigned session (morning or afternoon)
• The official Zoom link
• All the details you need to shine

Saturday, April 18th’s ItineraryLog into Zoom at your confirmed time (via the link sent the day before).

Morning Session: 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM

Afternoon Session: 12:15 PM – 2:00 PM

You’ll be placed in a Zoom breakout room with a professional reviewer. Reviews are one-on-one and 30 minutes each — short, sweet, and packed with insight.

What to Present

Use Zoom’s share screen feature to walk through up to four projects.

Suggested formats:

• PDF case studies
• Your website
• Behance

Pro tip: Keep everything in one place. One tidy link or document = minimal turbulence.

️ This is not a portfolio workshop. Your portfolio should be polished and interview-ready — think “ready to impress,” not “still figuring it out.”

Zoom Notes (a.k.a. Tech Made Easy)

• No need to download Zoom on desktop — the web client works fine.
• No account required.
• Internal mic? Totally fine.
• Webcam (built-in or external) required for face-to-face reviews.

The Details

• Registration: $15
• Open to all students & emerging designers
• Limited to 30 participants (based on reviewer availability)
• If registration fills up, keep checking back — spots may reopen!

Code of Conduct

By registering, you agree to abide by AIGA Chicago’s Code of Conduct:https://www.aiga.org/code-of-conduct

Special Accommodations

Need accommodations? Please reach out to Genesis Rios at Genesis@chicago.aiga.org at least two weeks prior to the event.

Your portfolio’s been working hard. Time to let it talk.

Join us for an exciting morning of coffee and critiques hosted by AIGA Chicago at Friendly’s Coffee! This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow creatives and get feedback on your work in a friendly and supportive environment. Bring your latest design project or portfolio and get ready to engage in lively discussions with fellow designers. Whether you’re looking to improve your skills, get feedback on a specific project, or simply connect with other designers, Coffee and Crits is the perfect event for you. Don’t miss this chance to connect with other designers and gain valuable insights into your work. We hope to see you there!

What To Expect

Brands today are living systems. They flex, adapt, react, and speak across an ever-expanding set of platforms. Motion is no longer an add-on. It is one of the primary ways a brand behaves.

In this talk, Alex Sheyn, Head of Motion at Study Hall, joined by co-founder and Head of Brand Jeremy Volk, explores what it means to design motion from the brand up. Not as decoration or eye candy, but as a strategic extension of identity that brings coherence, longevity, and clarity to modern brand systems.

Drawing from real-world work, including motion identity systems developed for brands like Google and Netflix, the talk breaks down how brand strategy and motion design intersect. Together, they will walk through how motion principles are defined, systematized, and scaled across platforms, teams, and contexts.

Code of Conduct

By registering to attend this event, you agree to abide by AIGA Chicago Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct may be found here. https://www.aiga.org/code-of-conduct

Instructor: Ellen Lupton, Graduate Faculty, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)

Typography is more than choosing fonts. The details—dashes, kerning, spacing, hierarchy—are what separate amateur work from professional and help readers understand your content clearly. Getting these details right is both satisfying and essential.

Good typography lives in the details. If you learned typography basics but still feel uncertain about the finer points, this session covers what you need. Knowing when to use an em dash vs. an en dash, understanding metric vs. optical kerning, and mixing typefaces with confidence will bring joy and polish to your work.

AIGA Chicago is bringing paper shows back to the design community! With our paper show this spring, we’re offering the chance for designers to engage one-on-one with paper mills and printers, so that creatives can connect with their local reps and experience the best offerings and products. We’ll kick the night off with a VIP cocktail hour, followed by a featured panel who will discuss the power of print to open up general admission.

Cost + Schedule

$50 for VIP| $20 for General Admission

5:30-6:30pm VIP Cocktail Hour

6:30-9:30pm General Admission

Participating paper mills and printers:

Billerud, Domtar, French Paper, Legion Paper, Monadnock Paper Mills, Neenah, Sappi, Sustana, Sylvamo, Allied Printing Services Inc., Classic Color, Dreamworks Graphic Communications, and Paper Source.

VIP Tickets include:
Exclusive one-on-one engagement, as this ticketing is extremely limited
Branded limited-edition tote bags
VIP goodie bags, including a collection of materials from various mills

*All ages welcome! We will be checking IDs at the door.
*Tickets purchased at the door will be subject to an additional fee.

Panelists

Sean Rawley works in software usability and product strategy, but when the sun goes down he designs zines, crowdfunding campaigns and marketing assets for various tabletop roleplaying games, organizations, and publishers. You see, twenty-five years ago, in a basement far, far away, Sean discovered his passion for tabletop role-playing games when he took his first sip of the wicked elixir that is Dungeons & Dragons and has been hooked ever since.

Philip Pitluck is a print production and branding professional, currently working at Thysse, with 25+ years of experience helping organizations elevate their visual presence through facility branding, environmental graphics, and retail merchandising solutions. His career spans wide-format printing, direct mail, and digital and offset production, with a strong focus on complex, multi-channel execution.

Brad Sturm and Meredith Barone join us from Studio Blue, a Chicago-based firm that works with museums, universities, and other organizations that serve the public. The studio’s work spans identity, publications, environmental, and exhibition design, developed through a conceptual and collaborative process grounded in research, intuition, and making for institutions including the National Public Housing Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, Steppenwolf Theatre, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Disclaimer:
All ticket sales are final. Tickets are non-refundable and valid only for the May 13 event date and the selected ticket tier. Tickets are non-transferable unless otherwise stated. Admission is subject to venue capacity and event policies. The event schedule, programming, and speakers are subject to change without notice. By purchasing a ticket, attendees agree to comply with all event rules, venue regulations, and applicable health and safety guidelines.

Hashtags & Handles

@aigachicago

Code of Conduct

By registering to attend this event, you agree to abide by AIGA Chicago Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct may be found here. https://www.aiga.org/code-of-conduct

What To Expect

AIGA Chicago welcomes Christopher and Grace for a special fireside chat exploring the intersections of art, design, creativity, community and entrepeneurship, why it all matters as well as what the future might have in store for visual culture in Chicago and beyond.

About Our Guests

Christopher Jobson
Fascinated by visual culture across a wide range of disciplines and committed to making art engaging for everyone, Christopher launched Colossal in 2010. He has since written for Wired Magazine, Beautiful/Decay, Mental Floss, Slate, Designboom and Quartz. Jobson co-owns Joy Machine gallery and is writing a book about community art forthcoming from Artisan in 2027. He studied design, art, and writing at Columbia College and lives in Chicago.

Grace Ebert
Grace Ebert is a writer, editor, and curator. She is the editorial director of Colossal and co-founder of Joy Machine. Grace serves on the board of Chicago Books to Women in Prison and is a co-curator of Prism/Prison, an art magazine connecting artists outside and inside the U.S. carceral system. She and her partner are currently writing a book about community art (forthcoming from Artisan in 2027).

Instagram Accounts

• Colossal
• Joy Machine
• Chris Jobson
• Grace Ebert

Code of Conduct

By registering to attend this event, you agree to abide by AIGA Chicago Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct may be found here. https://www.aiga.org/code-of-conduct