Underscore

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...

Our guest is JJ Salgado , a recent Columbia College Chicago graduate, designer, and the newest member of the Chicago Graphic Design Club team. In this episode, JJ speaks with host Christian Solorzano about his journey through design education and into Chicago's creative community. JJ discusses the pivotal role mentorship has played in his development, particularly his relationships with design...

Our guest is Blaze Smith , a web designer and content creator who has built an audience of 80,000 followers by making web design education accessible through short-form video content. In this episode, Blaze speaks with host Christian Solorzano about going from a small town to becoming a recognizable voice in web design education on social media. He shares insights about his creative process—how he...

In this episode of Underscore, host Christian Solorzano speaks with Dave Pabellon , a designer, educator, and core organizer of the Design As Protest Collective , about his journey leading up to his current role as Assistant Professor of Design at Notre Dame. He reflects on his father's paradoxical advice to "be good, but not very good"—a philosophy that has shaped his humble approac...

Our guest is Matt Avery , founder of Monograph, a Chicago-based design studio specializing in publishing and typography. After 14 years as Principal Designer at the University of Chicago Press, where he designed The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, Matt launched his independent practice in 2018. Matt joins host Christian Solorzano to discuss his journey from engineering dropout to book desig...

Our guest is José Rosa , a Chicago-based graphic designer, DJ, and artist. They join host ⁠ Christian Solorzano⁠ to talk about their journey from Milwaukee and Puerto Rico to Chicago’s creative scene, and how magazines like The Source and Vogue sparked their path into design. José shares how their Caribbean upbringing shaped their vibrant aesthetic, why they push back against minimalism, and how t...

Our guest is Ashley Bedore , a graphic designer and illustrator working at Lincoln Park Zoo. In this episode, Ashley speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her journey from studying illustration at Columbia College Chicago to discovering graphic design through album cover artwork and concert posters. She shares insights about her creative process and her evolution from production designer to l...

Our guest is Sun Segura , Managing Director of design studio Segura and the digital type foundry T26 . She is also the founder and curator of AHA Time , a nonprofit organization focused on promoting essential core values. In this episode, Sun speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her journey from growing up in South Korea to leading two companies that helped shape the digital design landscape...

Our guest is ⁠ Suzie Shin⁠, a designer, educator, and artist who moved to Chicago after studying at RISD, drawn by the city's community of small design studios and creative collaboration. In this episode, Suzie speaks with host ⁠Christian Solorzano⁠ about her journey from aspiring illustrator to discovering her voice through collage and color. She shares insights about her analog-to-digital design...