Span

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.

Heading into the weekend with a good one for you: our @johnpobojewski is the latest guest on The Design Of Podcast from @rule29 . The conversation touches something we believe deeply at Span: design is not just what you make for clients. The practice itself is a design assignment—shaped, refined, and rethought over time. As John puts it: “The business is also a design assignment. You’re constantly improving it and thinking about ways in which you can revise it. It’s not precious; it is in and of itself a living thing.” A thoughtful listen on creativity, leadership, and building work that can adapt, endure, and matter.

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.

At @span_studio , we believe communication design can transcend a specific industry niche — it can inform an infinite spectrum of expressions, even those on stage. With The Capulets, we stretched those boundaries: our projection art became a character, space became narrative, visuals became voices. It’s been a privilege to partner with @Chicago Repertory Ballet and to push what stage design can be. Here’s to more projects where we don’t just design for print or screen, but to create moments that linger. Span design team: @johnpobojewski Zach Minnich #DesignStudio #SpanTeam #CreativeStudio #MotionDesign #SetDesign #StageArt #Ballet #Dance #ArtsInChicago #TheCapulets

Motion. Light. Emotion. For The Capulets, Span’s @johnpobojewski Pobojewski and Zach Minnich collaborated with choreographer and artistic director @wadeschaaf_official , costume designer Nathan Rohrer, lighting designer David Goodman-Edberg, and composer Matty Mattsson — weaving together a unified vision where projection, choreography, and costume exist as a single storytelling instrument. The projections respond, amplify, and elevate the dancers. They become the background, the mood, the unspoken truths between characters. And the press agrees! ”John Pobojewski and Zach Minnich’s designs help create the atmosphere of “The Capulets” and enrich the dancers’ storytelling movement itself.” @seechicagodance ”John Pobojewski and Zach Minnich fashioned ingenious digital sets that drew us in without sacrificing an inch of the dancers’ floor space.” — @buzznews #SpanStudio #BalletDesign #PerformanceDesign #TheCapulets #ChicagoDance #SetDesign #MotionGraphics #StageDesign #DanceVisuals

Where drama meets digital dreamscape We’re proud to unveil our projection design for The Capulets — a reimagined take on Romeo & Juliet by artistic director and choreographer @WadeSchaaf , brought to life by the @chicagorepertoryballet Led by @span ’s @johnpobojewski and Zach Minnich, this project was much more than just scenery. The visuals became a critical member of the cast — shaping mood, deepening relationships, and carrying the audience into an immersive world. From fractured interiors to dreamlike streets of “out-of-time” Verona — every image, shape, and motion was crafted with care, to reflect Lady Capulet’s perspective and the family’s unraveling. #SpanStudio #TheCapulets #ChicagoRepertoryBallet #ProjectionDesign #SetDesign #Dance #Ballet #DigitalArt #ImmersiveDesign

@span_studio gives Chicago Lowrider Festival Slow & Low a Reverent Brand Identity During Hispanic Heritage Month this past September, the Chicago lowrider festival, @slowandlowfest turned Navy Pier into a civic space for a living culture. The festival is a public exhibition authored by the community it serves, taking on intensified significance this year amid increasing threats against the Latino community across the US. Words by: @scarlettepeach Read more on printmag.com

Sunlight on chrome, prayer in paint. @slowandlowfest 2025 was the kind of project that reminds me why I design at all. Not to decorate, but to build the vessels that move culture. To make identity behave like civic infrastructure — something people can step into, add their stories to, and recognize themselves inside. This year, the system wasn’t “graphics.” It was custom work engineered to behave like memory architecture. The type carried voice. The chain carried lineage. The roses carried devotion, family, and the quiet strength that lives between generations. We built it all from scratch so it could belong entirely to this community — authored with them and for them. And what happened on @navypierchicago felt bigger than design. The walls, the colors, the gestures became a play button that unlocked family histories, club origins, jokes, grief, pride. Proof-of-existence in public. Deep gratitude to Slow & Low’s curators who trusted us with this responsibility: @pacheco_chicago_gary , @detourstudio @magicoviejitos . Your clarity and courage make this festival feel like Chicago at its best. And to my @span_studio teammates — @kevin_moreland_ and @alecbarryhudson — thank you for pouring ridiculous craft and heart into every inch of this. Custom lettering, environmental work, flourishes, textures, sculpted details… you two turned ambition into something people could actually stand inside of. Props to @sharp_type for more great cuts Chicago, thank you for showing up. Culture doesn’t need permission — it just needs room to shine. See you next year. Sunlight ready.

@slowandlowfest turned @navypierchicago into a half-mile civic stage for one of America’s most powerful cultural art forms: lowriding. Guided by @pacheco_chicago_gary , @detourstudio , and @magicoviejitos , we design a 2025 identity rooted in lineage, celebration, and community voice. Led by our @nickadam with @kevin_moreland_ and @alecbarryhudson , our goal was clear: design should carry the culture that created it. So the system returned to the traditions that shaped Chicano style: Blackletter softened with marker warmth @sharp_type scripts echoing handstyle lineage Blue-to-yellow fillins like sunset on chrome Chains reclaimed by climbing vines Roses from bud to bloom — the generations who stand together Across Navy Pier, design became civic infrastructure: supergraphics, wayfinding, banners, and artifacts people carried home because they felt like pieces of family history. Memory. Belonging. Preservation in public. Slow & Low is a living culture — authored by the community it serves. Chicago showed what design can do when it stands with people, not above them. Design Nick Adam — Direction & Design Kevin Moreland — Design & Animation Alec Hudson — Illustration Curators Lauren M. Pacheco, Peter Kepha, Magic Calderon Photography @ferny_773 , @elfonz89 , @ordonez.foto , @_mel_rey_ , @katrinanelken_photography , Magic Calderon, @maxhermanphoto , @nicklipton #lowrider #chicago #branding #typography

Design is the system that makes transformation possible. That idea anchors @amma.projects , architect @michaelpmurphyjr ’s new design and development studio—and guided @span_studio ’s creation of the practice's website. As @forbes writes, “For Murphy, architecture is a tool to make the world a healthier, happier, more beautiful place.” @amma.projects extends that conviction, reframing architecture not as service but as system. Not as artifact, but as action. The studio rethinks how architecture is financed, shared, and owned. The architect becomes producer, developer, advocate— a partner in reshaping how the built world is made and sustained. Span translated this philosophy into digital form: large imagery, open structure, minimal interface. Design as a frame. The site gathers two decades of work—from hospitals and memorials to new models for civic and economic collaboration. A digital platform for a practice redefining what it means to build— where design itself becomes the infrastructure of change. Span Design Team: @budrodecker Design Direction, Design Alec Hudson Design @daniellecodesthings Programming Client: @amma.projects @michaelpmurphyjr @RichFridy

Each year, the @somfoundation challenges the next generation of designers to confront urgent global questions through research and exploration. Their 2025–26 Awards topic explores the potential of mobility corridors. Span continued our collaboration with the Foundation, designing this year’s campaign identity by channeling light and shadow as metaphors for movement, connection, and transformation. The graphic system suggests the shifting perspectives experienced along a journey—whether across landscapes, infrastructures, or communities. Through digital platforms and social campaigns, the identity communicates clarity and momentum, while leaving space for interpretation by fellows and jurors alike. As with previous years, the system is designed to adapt seamlessly across formats, amplifying the Foundation’s mission to support and inspire emerging voices in architecture, design, urbanism, and beyond. Client: @somfoundation Span team: @johnpobojewski (Design Direction, Strategy), @bernal_valeria (Concept, Design, 3D)