hello @ alexkostiw.com ︎

913 543 20 35
Chicago, Illinois

Connecting characters with audiences through expressive design.

I have worked with clients in arts & culture, built environments, education, events, and publishing. Together, we give form to their stories through art and design.

Design is the call into the client’s world, a gesture toward a whole. Whether for visual identity, print publications, graphic art, or website branding—my approach combines research and craft to understand the client’s message and distill it into meaningful, strategic design.

I’m excited most by projects that connect audiences with creative voices and that push the bounds of narrative experiences in physical spaces and formats.

My practice touches the edges of communication by focusing on experiences that are common, but often difficult to express.

I’m interested in the intersections of empathy, imagination, and instinct in communication. I use design, sparse text and image, and print formats to gesture toward human interiority and raw feeling. My work draws readers into loose narratives about connecting with others or one’s self.

My comics have been in expos internationally and are collected in the Joan Flasch Artist’s Book Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Library of Congress.

I teach courses in graphic design and storytelling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I received an MFA in Visual Communication Design. My BA is in English literature from the University of Chicago.

I love talking with people about comics and offer a workshop in which we investigate design in the context of the medium. ︎