Hello, I’m Alex she/they, a Chicago-based graphic designer with a multifaceted practice centered on sharing stories.
My focus is publications, identity systems , and imagery for print, digital, and built spaces. Over the past decade, I’ve partnered with clients ranging from cultural institutions and programs, to growing businesses, to independent professionals. Currently, I also lead the publishing imprint of a contemporary art gallery.
For me, design is a process of discovery. Research and collaborative dialogues drive my exploration. Synthesizing ideas and insights, I craft expressive design, imbuing every detail with intention. 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’m drawn to projects that tell meaningful stories and that amplify creative voices. I constantly investigate story as a multimodal experience that opens eyes and fosters connections, and I believe stories are critical steps in realizing our capabilities, from whom we can become to the world we can create.
My self-initiated projects explore intersections of design and poetry 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 interrogate the lines between perceiving, imagining, and conjuring.
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. I’m most interested in how knowledge takes shape within and relates to imagination. 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 interrogate the lines between perceiving, imagining, and conjuring.
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. I’m most interested in how knowledge takes shape within and relates to imagination. 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, visual narrative, 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’ve also taught risography, screenprinting, and relief printmaking, as well as workshops on comics, in community-based and professional settings.
In my classes, I often emphasize narrative aspects of design and design thinking; varied modes of research, experimentation, and critical thinking as paths to new ideas; and iterating on visual elements, configurations, and structures to explore the ways 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 immersive narratives and participatory reading experiences.
I’m happy to lead workshops or give talks if you would like 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’ve also taught risography, screenprinting, and relief printmaking, as well as workshops on comics, in community-based and professional settings.
In my classes, I often emphasize narrative aspects of design and design thinking; varied modes of research, experimentation, and critical thinking as paths to new ideas; and iterating on visual elements, configurations, and structures to explore the ways 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 immersive narratives and participatory reading experiences.
I’m happy to lead workshops or give talks if you would like 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 a bit 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 a bit 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
Branding & Identity
Illustration
Website Design
Information Structure
Advertising
Placemaking & Signage
Editing
Publications
Branding & Identity
Illustration
Website Design
Information Structure
Advertising
Placemaking & Signage
Editing
Experience
Atlanta University Center-wide Symphony Orchestra
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum
Flaten Art Museum
Zuckerman Museum of Art
Iceberg Projects
Filter Photo Festival
Third Coast International Festival
Varca, a Bridal Atelier
Chicago Tribune
Quiltfolk
Atlanta University Center-wide Symphony Orchestra
Clark Atlanta University Art Museum
Flaten Art Museum
Zuckerman Museum of Art
Iceberg Projects
Filter Photo Festival
Third Coast International Festival
Varca, a Bridal Atelier
Chicago Tribune
Quiltfolk
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