Exhibition Design & Branding Chicago Design Archive (CDA) Archeworks, 2019
In the first public event hosted by the CDA, this exhibit showcases highlights of the collection in Chicago Design Milestones. Developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Columbia College Chicago, the Chicago Design Milestones installation visualizes the evolution of Chicago design by its examination and accentuation of historic characteristics of design works in the CDA collection over the last 10 decades.
Physical + Virtual Exhibition Design Tonika Lewis Johnson / Chicago Justice Gallery September 2020
Tonika Johnson chronicles the ways in which nine young people have been made to feel they don’t belong in their own city in a series of portraits and interviews. While Johnson’s portraits of young peoples’ experiences paint a grim picture of hierarchy, surveillance, entitlement and narrow mindedness, it is not a tale of defeat.
Through their own creative agency, young people push back against the politics of racism, exclusion and containment by creating their own “free spaces” and organizations that contest the commons.
In addition to the artwork, the exhibition features a mural by Joe “Cujodah” Nelson, scholarly research and an interactive map encouraging visitors to explore their own experiences with belonging and exclusion.
Due to COVID-19, both Johnson and Chicago Justice Gallery wanted to put out a virtual exhibition that made the content available to all. We developed an interactive parallax website, where visitors can scroll through portraits, listen to interviews, add content to the interactive map, and experience “alternative spaces” through a change in scrolling direction.
Adventure Learning Center and Camp (ALC Bahamas) is a place for students and families in Nassau, Bahamas, to come and engage in a camp experience. The camp and center have a petting zoo and other attractions appealing to young children and families. They offer after school programming as well as traditional sleep away camp experiences.
ALC Bahamas wanted to refresh an outdated logo for new materials while still being able to use old signage while transitioning. The logo has been simplified and is usable for a larger variety of materials, from donor outreach to event branding for children.
In addition to the revised logo, ALC Bahamas needed a new website that worked for both their camp functions as well a space for their community events run through the center. The new website features both aspects of the organization and has a blog function running on WordPress CMS, so the staff can easily add content to without prior web editing experience.
Print, Web, Collateral, and Site Design Open Engagement, A Socially Engaged Art Practice Conference Chicago, 2017
Open Engagement (OE) is an annual artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around and creating a site of care for the field of socially engaged art. The conference highlights the work of transdisciplinary artists, activists, students, scholars, community members, and organizations working within the complex social issues and struggles of our time.
The design for 2017’s design, the theme of JUSTICE was explored through the phrase, “No Justice, No Peace” and imagery from Chicago’s Torture Justice Memorial. Using a two color printing process, all print materials were printed locally and with sustainable materials.
Design assistance from Ricardo Garcia, Amanda Sanchez, JJay Eden, Hannah Kyle, and Andrés Chavez Select images taken by Jaclyn Rivas, Mollie Nye, and JJay Eden
Approx. 15’x20’ Projected Prose on Smoke from Fog Machines, 2015
To/Through explores the relationship between visual and written storytelling, memory, and history via letterforms, words, and phrases projected onto smoke. Words and phrases only become readable as light catches the smoke—a reference to the ephemeral nature of recollection and memories.
This was the intro video for Folk Nite:WunderKammer. Folk Nite is a community arts event in the suburbs of Chicago where accessibility to the arts is minimal and finding creative spaces to participate is quite difficult. Events are themed and include community-generated artwork and short-set performances.
Video was announced a Judge’s Choice for the 2014 Chicago Design Archives.
The introduction video was projected on an entire wall to signal to attendees that the event was starting. The video began playing while guests were mingling in the main event space. The sounds are comforting, evoking the memory of a lullaby. Type is manipulated in water similarly to how a scientist would mix chemicals in a beaker, referencing the scientific and exploratory notions of historic WunderKammen without literally visually presenting them.
Other event materials, such as the poster, wayfinding, and event set-lists were created from the same process as the video.
Attendees were encouraged to bring an item to contribute to a growing WunderKammer installation.
