Bud Rodecker

Design is rarely one thing. Sometimes it has to welcome people into a museum. Sometimes it has to help a village speak clearly. Sometimes it has to protect, remember, organize, celebrate, or make a newspaper feel newly necessary. Seven Span projects that work in those very different ways were selected for this year’s STA100 from the @typographic_arts . The recognized projects were: @intuitartmuseum — rebrand, website, campaign @chidesarc — brand, campaign LaGrange Park — brand, streetscape toolkit Help Stop Hate — rebrand, website, campaign @chicago_reader — rebrand, campaign @slowandlowfest — exhibition design @firstladycruises (Judge’s Choice) — rebrand, campaign Together, they say something about us at Span. We are interested in design that has to guide, welcome, persuade, clarify, celebrate, protect, remember, and hold up under actual use. The The Society of Typographic Arts (STA) has been around for 99 years, and STA100 honors 100 examples of typographic excellence from around the world each year. To have seven projects included is a real honor. Thank you to STA, the judges Dan Cederholm, Lisa McCormick, Damian Orellana, Lauren Hom, and Simon Walker. Every member of the Span team was recognized by the STA through these projects. Congratulations John Pobojewski, Valeria Bernal, Bud Rodecker, Alec Hudson, Nick Adam, Kevin Moreland, Zach Minnich, Nick Butcher, Wes Meador, Donna Speigel. And thank you to our clients, collaborators, printers, developers, and partners who helped make the work possible.

Identity doesn’t just live on the surface. It operates across culture, education, and civic life—shaping how institutions are encountered, understood, and trusted over time. On February 24, Span partners @johnpobojewski , @budrodecker , and @nickadam will speak at @mascontext Spring Talks 2026 on Identity as Infrastructure. Limited seating · RSVP required

Some institutions help make a city known to itself. For more than fifty years, the Reader has done that work with fearless reporting, curiosity, and a point of view you can spot across the street. Span was honored to have @chicago_reader and @noisycreeknews trust us with the evolution of the identity for the Reader’s next chapter. For this work, we started where the Reader started. In the archives. We studied decades of mastheads, retypes, and small typographic decisions that shaped one of Chicago’s most recognizable marks, which has enlivened the city’s landscape for generations. The centerpiece of our work is a careful redraw of the original Reader wordmark. Letter by letter. Optically refined. Corrected for balance. Rebuilt to live everywhere the Reader lives now, across print, digital, social, street boxes, and merch, while staying true to its history. Thank you to the Chicago Reader for the years that built this legacy. Special thanks to @corianton for the collaboration, and to @kwizmasterkirk for the behind-the-scenes photos. More soon. A full case study is on the way.

Join us on February 24 for a lecture by @johnpobojewski , @budrodecker , and @nickadam , partners at @span_studio , a Chicago-based studio crossing the boundaries of communication design in all mediums. The event will take place at the MAS Context Reading Room. • • • At the heart of contemporary design is a fundamental question: How do visual systems shape the institutions and collective life that define a place? During this talk, partners John Pobojewski, Bud Rodecker, and Nick Adam of Span will examine design not as surface expression, but as a structural force that informs civic belief, cultural meaning, and institutional practice. Through a conversation grounded in recent work, the talk explores how identity systems operate as infrastructural frameworks, connecting audiences to ideas, anchoring organizations within their communities, and extending design’s impact beyond discrete objects into the shared fabric of public life. Case studies spanning cultural platforms, educational environments, and civic collaborations reveal how typographic systems, editorial structures, and visual languages shape perceptions of authority, belonging, and purpose. Rather than framing identity as a logo or brand asset, Span positions it as identity as a public system operating across cultural, institutional, and civic contexts. The talk invites designers, architects, and civic leaders to reconsider identity as a form of cultural construction—scaffolding shared meaning, institutional resilience, and participation over time. • • • Image: © Span. • • • #mascontext #span #johnpobojewski #budrodecker #nickadam

Bud Rodecker #typecon #typecon25 📷 @tipocracia_

Recently at the studio we were asked by @designmuseumchi to submit work to the Great Ideas of Humanity exhibition. Here, our @budrodecker responded to an Octavia Butler quote. John Massey, former Container Corporation of America (CCA) head of design, encouraged the Design Museum of Chicago (DMoC) to reimagine the Great Ideas of Western Man campaign. DMoC happily obliged. DMoC reprise, Great Ideas of Humanity, embraces the increasing globalization of our world and celebrates the resulting cross-pollination of ideas, philosophies, societies, and cultures. @budrodecker ’s Artist Statement Octavia Butler’s quote powerfully reflects the recurring cycles of civilization: “The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.” This poster responds with bold typography shifting in and out of focus with time. These dualities are presented side by side, linked by a looping ampersand that suggests continuity and tension. The composition and color palette draw inspiration from Corita Kent, pairing a vibrant orange with its complementary blue. “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes. To study history is to study humanity. And to try to foretell the future without studying history is like trying to learn to read without bothering to learn the alphabet.” Octavia E. Butler Great Ideas of Humanity From 1950–1975, Chicago-based Container Corporation of America ran a campaign heralded as one of the best in advertising history, Great Ideas of Western Man. The world has changed since 1975, but great ideas are timeless. This response is organized by the Design Museum of Chicago, celebrating the enduring power of ideas through design. #typeSTAr

Portland, here I come! Excited to be heading to @typecon to share @span_studio ’s work rebranding and designing the website for @iitarchitecture . Can’t wait to see you there.

I’m incredibly proud of the work our team at @span_studio did with @intuitartmuseum . Over the past year, we’ve been deeply engaged in reimagining their entire brand presence—from the name itself to the object labels in the galleries, we designed it all. Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing this vision to life. @span_studio team: @budrodecker , Design Direction @speigeldonna , Strategy, Writing @marisa.crz , Design @alecbarryhudson , Design

So proud to finally share the work we @span_studio have been doing with @intuitartmuseum this past year. Full case study coming soon! @speigeldonna @marisa.crz @alecbarryhudson @alyssaarnesen

So proud to finally share the work we @span_studio have been doing with @intuitartmuseum this past year. Full case study coming soon! Bird sculpture in collaboration with @heyitsmatthew @speigeldonna @marisa.crz @alecbarryhudson @alyssaarnesen @zminnich

So proud to finally share the work we @span_studio have been doing with @intuitartmuseum this past year. Full case study coming soon! @speigeldonna @marisa.crz @alecbarryhudson @alyssaarnesen @zminnich

“EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF: ESCAPING THE COMPASSION EPIDEMIC by NOAH MERCEY” BY BUD RODECKER “Every Man for Himself” is a satirical take on a future outlawing empathy, exposing hyper-individualistic values in stark contrast to Matriarchal Design Futures’ caregiving ethos. By magnifying themes of isolation, resource hoarding, and emotional barricades, it underscores the necessity of collective care and imaginative collaboration, reinforcing Matriarchal Design Futures as a transformative alternative to oppressive norms. “With kindness running amok, we risk stagnation and mediocrity. Every Man for Himself addresses this crisis head-on, providing the intellectual framework and gritty real-life tacties for those who refuse to be shackled by communal demands. Morrow’s vision is a timely wake-up call to anyone who values persona freedom over feel-good collectivism.” — Dr Gregory Farnsworth, Senior Analyst at the Neo-Libertarian Policy Institute “In this era where people give away their talents and resources like candy, Morrow’s manifesto is a breath of fresh, unshared air: The meticulous advice on monetizing every interaction and erecting emotional barriers resonates deeply with those of us who believe in self-reliance as the ultimate virtue. Every Man for Himself is the definitive handbook for preserving what’s rightfully yours.” — Asha Valkyrie, Host of ‘Self-Made & Sovereign’ HoloCast Bud Rodecker is a founder and design director at Span. His work explores the space between constraints and play, balancing form with meaning. He strives to cut to the core, simply and with a playful spirit. @budrodecker #bookstand2125