c|change – what's on our mind?

We were lucky enough to get a peek at the artist’s studio!

Last week c|change stopped by the wonderful Mars Gallery, HQ of avant-pop artist Peter Mars.

If the four-white-walls gallery aesthetic of other neighborhood art destinations isn’t your cup of tea, Mars is not to miss. It’s a cavernous loft space that still manages to feel cozy, with twists, turns, and little sitting rooms popping up where you least expect them. All throughout, it houses a vibrant mix of work from Mars and other local artists, currently including Krista Hoefle and Jennifer Yorke.

Art + cozy = win

Mars’s own work takes on larger-than-life superheroes from Wonder Woman to Bowie in bold lines, high contrast, and saturated color. It also delves into more abstract symbology, iconography, and -- this writer’s favorite -- layered pieces centered around Lewis Carroll’s original Alice in Wonderland illustrations.

If you love the space, you’re in luck. It’s available for events, and even features a bar built into a working freight elevator.

The Mars bar, just waiting for your next event

The West Loop neighborhood identity has undergone a few metamorphoses since its days as a strictly industrial district. It’s still got plenty of warehouses and meat-packing plants, but galleries, foodie destinations, and condos have sprouted up in between them over the years.

And most recently, more and more of the area’s old industrial buildings have given way to startups, agencies, and multinational corporations.

But there’s still a common thread across the changing face of the neighborhood -- its street art.

The Hubbard Street Murals along the Union Pacific tracks have been a neighborhood mainstay since the 1970s, thanks to the attention and dedication of the Hubbard Street Mural Project organization.

As time has gone by and street art has been somewhat elevated in public view, more and more notable pieces have appeared in the West Loop. The whimsical Lauren Asta mural pictured above is now almost inextricably linked with the Morgan Green Line CTA stop in the minds of West Loop commuters. And walls throughout the neighborhood sport commissioned pieces from EN MASSE, JC Riviera, Mosher Show, and more. We even had a Banksy, for a while.

Street art is ephemeral by definition. Asta’s mural was demoed with the building just a few weeks ago to make way for new construction, but not before the artist and the neighborhood gave it a proper send-off with a community coloring party.

Even the Banksy has faded away over time. It’s been gated off inside a construction zone for a couple years now, but if you peek between a gap in the fence you can still make out what’s left of it, not more than a smudge on the wall.

Murals may erode, but the neighborhood’s creative spirit hasn’t -- and great street art is still waiting to be discovered around every corner. c|change recently snapped some pictures of our favorites, from professional pieces to scrappy stickers.

This past Wednesday the 21st, c|change had the privilege to spend an afternoon volunteering with Friends of the Chicago River at the Riverbank Neighbors’ McBride Prairie in the North Center neighborhood.

Garden gloves: Who wore them better? Erin, Cassie, Teagan, and Ashley hard at work.

Looking at the riverbank prairie now, it’s hard to believe that 20 years ago it was nothing more than an overgrown garbage heap. Since then, the neighborhood has transformed it into a living swath of indigenous prairie along the riverbank -- and a beautiful public space with trails, great views of the river and Horner Park, and the occasional “fairy house” sighting, if you know where to look.

We found a few fairy houses, but no fairies at home. They must all be nine-to-fivers.

It was a little drizzly, but we were still able to put down new mulch along the trails and saw down a few eight-foot clumps of elderberry trees taking over the parking area.

Jacqueline and Carla making that trail 100. 

All that’s left of the unfortunate elderberry tree that got in Mark’s way.

We even made a new friend!

This snake was so internet-famous after all these pictures went up we heard he already has a book deal.

And, of course, we took advantage of the opportunity to test out our 360 camera.

Time flies between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and before we know it, summer is over and sweater weather is on the way. 

Luckily, we at c|change found plenty of ways to make the most of it this year -- in between stints on the couch binge-watching Stranger Things, of course.

Original illustration by c|change graphic designer, Sierra Salvione.

What do Mary Lou Retton, Usain Bolt, and "Rugby" by artist Jean Jacoby all have in common?

They’ve all taken home an Olympic gold medal.

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro are set to kick off tonight amid global fanfare and excitement. It’s the one time when even the least sports-minded among us catch the wave -- if nothing else, we all know who Simone Biles is, and we’ve all seen plenty of #RioProblems making the rounds.

While lots of creatives can throw like a pro, those of us who have always been afraid of the ball may be interested to know that, for about 40-ish years in the early 20th century, artists competed alongside athletes in the Olympic Games.

In fact, Pierre de Coubertin -- the engineer of the modern Olympics -- envisioned arts competitions as part of the Games from the start. A devotee of Ancient Greek thought, he believed athleticism and intellectualism should go hand-in-hand. In the 1912 Stockholm Games, he took home the literary gold himself for his prose poem Ode to Sport, submitted under a pseudonym. It may be a little overwrought for modern tastes, but in true Olympic spirit, it’s a brave effort by an amateur in the same year that works from literary titans like Willa Cather, D. H. Lawrence, and George Bernard Shaw were published.

Here’s an excerpt (full text is available here, if you’re inclined):

O Sport, you are Audacity! The meaning of all muscular effort can be summed up in the word “dare.” What good are muscles, what is the point of feeling strong and agile, and why work to improve one’s agility and strength, unless it is in order to dare? But the daring you inspire has nothing in common with the adventurer’s recklessness in staking everything on chance. Yours is a prudent, well-considered audacity.

Today, the arts competitions have been replaced by the Cultural Olympiad, an event that better befits an age of ever-increasing global awareness, even if, ironically, not a lot of people know it exists. Rio’s Olympiad is set to include “artistic interventions” throughout the city -- open-air performances, urban installations, culinary festivals, and so on.

"I believe that if life gives you lemons you should make lemonade... And then you should find someone whose life has given them vodka and have a party." 

                                                - Ron White, comedian

Depending on who you ask, 8 out of 10 small businesses fail in the first 18 months (Forbes). Some disagree with a number that high.

 But most people would probably agree that 15 years in business is a big reason to celebrate.

 And celebrate is what c|change did at a rooftop venue in Fulton Market, just two blocks from our offices.

 Growing our small business to nearly 30 people took hard work from some exceptional people -- that includes clients and trusted collaborators like printers, video editors, tech specialists and many more. 

 The other great thing about exceptional people? They know how to have fun -- and everyone had fun with the videos, VR experiences and live performances playing out our 2016 theme of Art + Science.

 We're already thinking about our 20th anniversary party and hope you'll be there.

Our creatives Jacqueline and Jen are attending HOW Design Live in Atlanta. Friday was day two of their immersion into the creative conference, along with lunch with a fellow c|changer Jonna at the fantastic Ponce City Market! Let’s hear what they had to say.

Jacqueline - HOW Attendee

Day one was a ton of fun. I'm surrounded by so many creative thinkers who are eager to welcome others into the HOW community.

The TypeCamp workshop with Shelley Gruendler was by far my favorite of the day. She walked us through exercises that gave us new and creative ways to look at type—something I'm really looking forward to bringing back to the office. One exercise asked us to describe our personalities in typographical terms, and have someone else design it in two minutes. A fellow designer from Washington created this:

To wrap up the day, Tiffany Schlain gave an amazing presentation on adapting creativity in the twenty first century. Amongst other things, she weighed in on the importance of embracing technology as well as distancing from it in order to reconnect to daydreaming as our most natural form of creative thinking. I will be trying to keep this in mind the next time I'm tempted to scroll through Pinterest on the train.

 Jen - HOW Champion

Thursday was a busy day soaking up design knowledge from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. You take in a lot of information, and I don't know about anyone else... but I laid in bed tossing and turning excited with everything I walked away with. My biggest takeaway was admitting I can be a softie after I shed a few tears during two of the talks. While I pride myself on empathy, I sometimes hide behind a wall instead of admitting my own level of sentimentality. There were two talks that really spoke to me. Both talks had the same underlying theme: Be part of projects bigger than yourself. 

Justin Ahrens, a Chicago designer I had the privilege to work with through SheSays, gave a talk on brand passion and how to create a project for social change. His footage of the outcome of Wheels for Water—an organization he created fighting the global water crisis—brought a tear to my eye and an appreciation for those who use their skills to make an impact on the world. 

Our Creative Director, Jen Lemerand, and our Graphic Designer, Jacqueline Justice, are attending the HOW Design Conference in Atlanta this week—five days packed with multi-disciplinary creative speakers offering their take on inspiration. For Jen, this is her seventh time attending. For Jacqueline, it is her first! There is no doubt fun will be had—both showed up with the same reading material for their flight to Atlanta (the first Game of Thrones book)! 

Here are their initial thoughts heading into the first day:

Jacqueline—First time HOWie!

I'm most excited to be surrounded by thousands of creative people from all over with different backgrounds, theories, styles, approaches. I'm looking forward to soaking up as much knowledge as possible over the next five days and leaving with answers to questions I didn't even know I had. I'm also super excited to explore Atlanta's art community—street art, the design museum, and the man currently playing a trumpet outside my hotel room.

Jen—The HOW Champion

With six HOW Conferences under my belt, this is my second serving as a HOW Champion. My official role is to help attendees overcome the nerves of meeting one another by helping them break the ice—introducing them to this fantastic community of creatives. My unofficial role is to scavenge every ounce of inspiration and head home a better designer. While I am always excited to hear from the world's best creative minds, I am particularly pumped about meeting the attendees and learning what makes them tick. By the end of the fourth day, everyone's true colors start to shine—and I like to be there to help make that happen. Even if that means approaching strangers like a crazy person, asking them to turn me into a Human Doodle... (stay tuned for what that means).

By Jen Lemerand

Recently I was doing research on a sleek travel camera (I have a wonderful Canon DSLR, but it is large and a bit nerve-wracking to travel abroad with.) Having two life-altering trips under my belt in the past few years to Italy and France, I found myself instead using my iPhone 5 for ALL of my photography—due to the burden of the hefty camera (and sticking out as a tourist). And since I was only traveling with my best friend, we admittedly took a lot of selfies that are easier with a phone when traveling in twos. Yet quality is always sacrificed in the end, a big no-no in a creative’s eyes.  

As I researched a potential camera to add to my collection of gadgets, I remembered a delightful ad campaign I have always admired for the Samsung NX Mini, a small camera with a flip-up display and interchangeable lenses (seen here on Ads of the World.) The three ads feature famous painters known for their iconic self-portraits: Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and Albrecht Dürer. In the ads, we see the artists’ backs as they use the flip style camera to create a modern day masterpiece. It is only on the small camera screen that you see the artists’ faces, of which we are accustomed to filling a canvas. And because of its higher quality capabilities (suitable for the greats), the campaign anchors itself on NOT being a selfie, rather a piece of art. A selfie can be misconstrued as obnoxious in our ever-so-social world. And Vincent, Frida and Albrecht are anything but.

EXERCISE #9: For this exercise, we really had to push out of our comfort zones and embrace our storytelling capabilities. Which means public speaking. Even though we are a tight creative team, that aspect of the exercise still can scare the pants off us. To keep us on our toes, the assignment was to bring a photo of anything (object, person, place) that makes you happy. Little did the team know they were not going to be using their own photo in the exercise. The person to their right had to speak about the image, tell a story about it, without knowing anything personal of the chooser… all in 60 seconds. This is the true art of B.S.-ing. Here are some highlights from these fictional stories:

Hang In There Cat Poster

Photo provided by Jen (because it was the perfect mantra to help the team get through this exercise!), as told by our designer Mark:

A family art collaboration, Harry, Harriet and Henrietta Hankenstein created this poster. First they tried to use a snake, but it was not believable that the snake was holding on for dear life—truly “hanging in there, baby.” So they incorporated their dear tabby cat, Hank. Harry sewed his paws to the branch so that he stayed put for the photo. And decades later, this infamous piece of art is on walls everywhere, keeping us going.

EXERCISE #8: For this creative game, our team arrived at our boot camp session with a favorite photo in hand via our phones. It could have been a recent Instagram post, a #ThrowbackThursday, or even something from a quick search for a favorite childhood toy that holds a place in our heart. I left it up to the designer to choose, without giving them details on what the exercise would be.

Next, each creative had to write as many captions for that image without calling out the name of who or whatever was in the photo within 8 minutes. We were to imagine that the photo would be in tomorrow’s newspaper, along with an article that can’t be read. We only had the caption to tell the story. Here are some of the results:

You knew some family pet pics were going to make it in, right?

THE MORALE: As with many of these exercises, iteration is the name of the game. The samples we chose were our favorites from a list of many. The goal was to move past the expected ideas, A.K.A. the “low-hanging fruit.” But in order to get to the better ideas, you need to document those predictable ones to make room in your mind for something more profound. Then you can push those easy access ideas out of your mind and work on something new.

Here at the end of Women’s History Month, we thought it appropriate to share some insights from the women designers at c|change.

We asked about the women designers who had influenced their careers and received a wide range of answers including the up-close-and-personal: for Jolene, it was “My high school art teacher”; for Jacqueline, “my first creative director, Jelina”; and our own Creative Director, Jennifer, described a lunch in 2011 with Debbie Millman, CMO of Sterling Brands. But there was also influence from a greater distance: Allison recalled an important talk by Dawn Hancock of Firebelly Design. “Dawn placed a lot of importance on giving back to the community through good design, and I find that very inspirational.” Sierra spoke of the work of designer, Jessica Hische: “She reminds me that passion will always rise to the top.”

No one seemed surprised at the figure that showed 54% of those in graphic design are women. But the statistic that only 11% of those women are Creative Directors was met with both surprise and bemusement (a slow rise from the 3% reported in 2008). Jessica called the number “shocking” and talked of several female Creative Directors she has known. Sierra brought it a little closer to home: “Every Creative Director I’ve worked with thus far has been a man – until now, with the two I’ve worked with at c|change!” She added: “c|change is the only agency I’ve worked at that is filled with creative women.”

Jacqueline, on the other hand, related that “Of the six Creative Directors I’ve worked with, four have been female.” She was surprised enough by the statistic to track down a Fast Company article that put that 3% figure in even more shocking contrast to the the percentage of women who control consumer spending: 80%.

Jen described the disparity that extends beyond the role of Creative Director: “Even at a popular design conference, which I am personally invested in, there are many fantastic women speaking. But there is a distinct lack of balance across the topics. In ‘Design and Creativity’ only three of 23 speakers are women. And in the category of ‘Interactive Design’ all 13 speakers are men. The lack of diversity across the entire list of speakers is just as disappointing. If we don’t speak up on the issue, who will?”

In the area of Interactive Design, Allison described the lack of support for women in this area. “In the past, women have not been encouraged to learn more ‘technical’ skills like development. So encouraging more young women to learn these skills could help in bridging the gender gap and helping to encourage more women in digital design and development.”

Digital may also be shifting the balance of what “influence” and “mentorship” mean. Half of the designers we spoke to referred to influential podcasts and bloggers, such as Debbie Millman’s Design Matters and Jessica Walsh’s work (with 134,835 followers at last count) on Bēhance.

EXERCISE #7: In continuing our focus of inspiration this week, our challenge was to write a haiku. I am sure you remember this assignment from third grade. The twist here is that we had to choose an object around us, and write a poem about how this item could be used as a weapon. For those who need a crash course reminder: A haiku is typically based on a 5-7-5 syllable structure. Here goes!

This tea is not good because we're out of sugar I'll just use ricin By Jacqueline Justice (Who doesn’t love a Breaking Bad throwback?)

Backpack straps A silent knot around your neck You breath no more By Tomas Bulva

The start of a new day. Our creative team has moved up in the “Creative Boot Camp” ranks, from Private to Sergeant, after a successful first week that focused on “starting from scratch”. Our focus in week 2 was “inspiration.” The goal was to see everyday objects differently—a throwback to the way in which we saw the world as a child. Long ago were the days that a laundry basket became a spaceship; and a pot and pan allowed us to become a one man band. For this week, we opened our eyes to the everyday experience—leaving routine and habit in the dust.

EXERCISE #6: Our assignment was to channel our inner Dr. Frankenstein and create a monster from whatever was in our reach in under ten minutes. Being in an office, that warranted the usual post-its, mugs, tape, binder clips, etc. Since we are an office of creatives…some random desk toys made their way into the exercise, adding their own personalities to the monsters.

THE MORALE: Well, that was a fun one! The most difficult part was getting things to stick or adhere. In my case (along with a roll of Scotch tape), I used some gooey Rosebud Salve lip balm that also acted as “monster slime.” For this project, there was no limit to what shape our lil’ guys took. (But we all definitely shaped faces or body parts like horns or teeth to help create our alter ego.) This challenge related to our everyday problem solving because we often arrive  close to the solution, but need that extra 10% of super glue (or problem solving) in order to bring it home. As the author of our guide says, “It’s at these times that your creativity is most evident—when you are able to find solutions in your everyday that finish the job.”

For the remainder of the boot camp, these monsters will act as our desk mascots—cheering us on from the sidelines. (At least for those of us who didn’t use our own specs or winter gear to make it happen.)