Hello, I‘m Alex she/they, a Chicago-based graphic designer with a multifaceted practice centered on storytelling.
I partner with clients to create meaningful visual narratives.
For over a decade, I’ve designed publications, identities, and imagery for clients who are passionate about what they do. I work most often with institutions, programs, and people in arts and culture, as well as fashion and lifestyle brands. Our projects share stories that amplify creative voices, strengthen communities, and invite introspection.
For over a decade, I’ve designed publications, identities, and imagery for clients who are passionate about what they do. I work most often with institutions, programs, and people in arts and culture, as well as fashion and lifestyle brands. Our projects share stories that amplify creative voices, strengthen communities, and invite introspection.
Research, experimentation, and conversation drive my work. Synthesizing ideas and insights, I craft design with intention imbued in every detail. My approach is informed by my MFA in Visual Communication Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BA in English literature from the University of Chicago.
I constantly investigate story as a multimodal experience that opens eyes and fosters connections, and I believe stories are critical steps in realizing vast possibilities, from whom we can become, to the world we can create.
My self-initiated projects intersect design, poetry, and print through comics.
Tenderly is the moniker of my self-publishing practice. Using poetic, adapted, and iterative text and image, visual structures of comics, and conceptually driven forms, I explore how knowledge forms in relation to imagination.
Through storytelling, I describe hazy moments in familiar experiences, creating space for perceptions of reality to shift and a sense of the unknowable to slip in. Themes in my work include the hidden parts and possibilities in the self; human connection across distances in time and space; and the interactivity of reading.
My work has been in such fairs as the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, LA Art Book Fair, and Chicago Art Book Fair, and is collected in the Joan Flasch Artist’s Book Collection, zine and comics collections at the University of Chicago, MassArt, and MICA, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others.
Tenderly is the moniker of my self-publishing practice. Using poetic, adapted, and iterative text and image, visual structures of comics, and conceptually driven forms, I explore how knowledge forms in relation to imagination.
Through storytelling, I describe hazy moments in familiar experiences, creating space for perceptions of reality to shift and a sense of the unknowable to slip in. Themes in my work include the hidden parts and possibilities in the self; human connection across distances in time and space; and the interactivity of reading.
My work has been in such fairs as the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, LA Art Book Fair, and Chicago Art Book Fair, and is collected in the Joan Flasch Artist’s Book Collection, zine and comics collections at the University of Chicago, MassArt, and MICA, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others.
My teaching centers conceptual work and the role of storytelling in design.
I teach courses on design fundamentals and visual narrative at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I also teach printmaking at Spudnik Press and comics workshops in community-based and professional settings.
In my classes, I emphasize narrative aspects of design and design thinking; varied modes of research and critical thinking as paths to new ideas; and iterating on visual elements, configurations, and structures to explore how an audience perceives and interacts with design.
My areas of interest include creativity through constraints, design as poetry, and the special relationship of materiality, form, and content in artist’s books. I’m fascinated, too, by design in comics, immersive narratives, and participatory reading experiences.
I’m happy to lead workshops or give talks. You’re welcome to write to me and share your ideas.
I teach courses on design fundamentals and visual narrative at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I also teach printmaking at Spudnik Press and comics workshops in community-based and professional settings.
In my classes, I emphasize narrative aspects of design and design thinking; varied modes of research and critical thinking as paths to new ideas; and iterating on visual elements, configurations, and structures to explore how an audience perceives and interacts with design.
My areas of interest include creativity through constraints, design as poetry, and the special relationship of materiality, form, and content in artist’s books. I’m fascinated, too, by design in comics, immersive narratives, and participatory reading experiences.
I’m happy to lead workshops or give talks. You’re welcome to write to me and share your ideas.
Good things begin with a message.
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Contact
For all inquiries and opportunities, please tell me about yourself and what you have in mind, including a rough timeline, if there is one.
I’ll get back to you soon.
For all inquiries and opportunities, please tell me about yourself and what you have in mind, including a rough timeline, if there is one.
I’ll get back to you soon.
Output
Publications
Print
Brand Identity
Illustration
Website Design
Advertising
Placemaking & Signage
Photo Editing
Publications
Brand Identity
Illustration
Website Design
Advertising
Placemaking & Signage
Photo Editing
Experience
Atlanta University Center-wide Symphony Orchestra
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum
Flaten Art Museum
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane
Zuckerman Museum of Art
Iceberg Projects
Filter Photo Festival
Varca, a Bridal Atelier
Chicago Tribune
Quiltfolk
Atlanta University Center-wide Symphony Orchestra
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum
Flaten Art Museum
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane
Zuckerman Museum of Art
Iceberg Projects
Filter Photo Festival
Varca, a Bridal Atelier
Chicago Tribune
Quiltfolk
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