Underscore

Our guest is Craighton Berman , a designer, illustrator, and founder of Manual, a company that makes objects for slow living. He has been based in Chicago since 2002. In this episode, Craighton speaks with host Christian Solorzano from his new studio at Workshop 4200 in Belmont Cragin, a space he laid out as a map of how he thinks. He traces his path from the Virginia suburbs of DC to Chicago: stu...

Our guest is Elaine Lopez , a designer and educator who teaches at Parsons and spent the formative years of her design career in Chicago. In this episode, Elaine speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her first typography class at the University of Florida, a class so overwhelming she had to take a long walk around campus afterward, and how that challenge drew her into design. She shares the s...

Our guest is Jonathan Nesci , a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, furniture, and fine art. He grew up in Oak Lawn, spent eleven years in Columbus, Indiana, and now works out of a studio on his brother's farm about an hour outside Chicago, in collaboration with a guild of high-craft makers throughout the Midwest. In this episode, Jonathan speaks with host Christian Solorzano ab...

Our guest is Alisa Wolfson , EVP and Head of Design at Leo Chicago, where she built the agency's design department. Alisa grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and found design sideways. Her dad was in the wine import-export business, and she kept asking if she could design the labels — she didn't yet know that what she wanted to do had a name. She taught herself design history and layout, mad...

Our next guest is Anne H. Berry — designer, writer, educator, and Director of the School of Design at the University of Illinois Chicago. In this episode, Anne speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her path into design — how a middle school visit to a publishing house sparked something in her, and how that spark took years to find its footing. She's candid about the periods of doubt, a to...

Our guest is Coby Regehr, son of Carl Regehr (1919–1983)— a graphic designer, educator, and community builder who helped shape Chicago's visual identity. In this episode, Coby speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his father's life, work, and philosophy — from a Mennonite upbringing in Kansas to building a design practice in Chicago rooted in ethics, relationships, and an unrelenting...

Our guest is Dana Arnett, Co-Founder and Chairman of VSA Partners — one of Chicago's most celebrated and enduring design firms. In this episode, Dana speaks with host Christian Solorzano about a career that began in the cornfields of Morton, Illinois and grew into four decades of work with some of the world's most iconic brands. He reflects on the sophomore portfolio rejection that redirec...

Our guest is Jarrett Fuller , a designer, writer, educator, and host of the long-running podcast Scratching the Surface, based in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this episode, Jarrett speaks with host Christian Solorzano about how conversation became the organizing principle of his creative life — from growing up surrounded by a large, talkative extended family, to a journalist grandfather who taught...

Our guest is Jo-Nell Sieren , a photographer, designer, and educator who spent fifteen years at Columbia College Chicago before moving into her current role at Northwestern, where she focuses on industry strategy and connecting design and engineering students to employers. In this episode, Jo-Nell speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her path from studying photography at the School of Visual...

Our guest is ⁠ Daniel Swartz⁠ — a letterpress designer, printer, and writer based in rural northern Indiana, where he runs Hoosier Type Company out of the back of his garage using antique wood type, vintage presses, and hand-mixed inks. This episode, Daniel sits down with host ⁠ Christian Solorzano⁠ for a conversation that moves between his winding path from aspiring illustrator to graphic design...

Our guest is Cass Pokora — a photographer, artist, and designer who has been a familiar face in our community for years. Cass recently exhibited at Typeforce in Bridgeport, currently has work showing at New Wave Coffee in Logan Square, is featured in our upcoming issue of Faculty 3, and recently co-designed a poster for the Chicago Paper Show at the Chicago Cultural Center. This episode is a littl...

Our guest is Matthew Hoffman , the artist and custodian behind You Are Beautiful — the Chicago-born project that has placed over 10 million stickers and more than 100 public installations around the world since 2002. In this episode, Matthew speaks with host Christian Solorzano about the long, unplanned path that led him here. He traces his story from taking apart radios in the basement as a kid a...

Our guest is Derek Desormeaux , president of AIGA Chicago, who moved to Chicago from a small town in Northern Michigan after studying graphic design at Kendall College of Art and Design. In this episode, Derek speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his path into design — from wanting to be a concept artist and comic book artist to discovering graphic design through a typography class. He share...

Our guest is Sarah Adler , a multidisciplinary designer and artist originally from Sanibel Island, Florida, who moved to Chicago in 2016 to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently works as Brand Designer at Thatch and is the creative director of Gab Magazine, an independent Chicago publication now on its third issue. In this episode, Sarah speaks with host Christian Solorz...

Our guest is Liam Guiritan , a Chicago-based designer and creative coder who grew up being told there were only two career paths worth taking, and chose neither. In this episode, Liam speaks with host Christian Solorzano about how curiosity became his education — from taking apart his sister's Hello Kitty radio as a kid to teaching himself creative coding tools like p5.js and Processing after...

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 envir...

Our guest is ⁠Eric Hotchkiss⁠ , an interdisciplinary designer, engineer, and educator based in Chicago, and the founder of ⁠Made in Englewood⁠ — a design-build practice grounded in the belief that communities should shape their own spaces and tell their own stories. In this episode, Eric speaks with host ⁠Christian Solorzano⁠ about growing up in Englewood, where he and his friends made go-karts fr...

Our guest is Nika Simovich Fisher, a writer, designer, and educator based in New York City. A tenure-track Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design, Nika directs the AAS program and researches how design shapes what people believe — politically, spiritually, culturally, and about themselves. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, WIRED...

Our guest is Christian Solorzano , founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club and host of Underscore podcast. In this milestone 100th episode, the roles reverse as Rick Valicenti interviews Christian about his journey from discovering design through a Sony computer at age 11 to building Chicago's design community infrastructure. Christian shares the origin story of the Chicago Graphic Design Club—...

Our guest is Rod Hunting , a Chicago-based designer and artist who creates intricate compositions built entirely from floppy discs. In this episode, Rod speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his creative process—the hours spent in Illustrator moving shapes, testing ideas, and exploring what happens when you try different approaches. He shares insights about cultivating deep focus, learning to...

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 respect...

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 storytel...

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 collaborativ...

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 partn...

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 interna...