Join us for the 26th Annual STA Design Inspiration Weekend!
In contrast to a conference, the Weekend is an intimate event. It’s a great way to meet new people or reconnect, to get invigorated, and to live it up or enjoy downtime.

All Saturday and Sunday presentations are given by attendees, because all attendees are given the opportunity to speak, and most do! Join us and contribute your view on this year’s theme:

Extending the Narrative:
At the beginning of a project, designers may start with anything from a scant brief to a whole manuscript. Whatever the length or depth of the given information, the main function of design is to represent the content and give it life. How do designers visualize and extend a narrative? Let’s share our design narration experiences in illumination of the creative process.

The Weekend keynote speaker is Iker Gil. Iker is an architect, urban designer, and director of MAS Studio. Some of the recent projects of the office include the MC01, MC02, and MC03 projects in Marina City with Ellipsis Architecture, the bLUMEN pavilion in Chicago with Luftwerk, the signage standards for the Oneida with JNL Graphic Design, the documentation of the residents and units of Marina City with photographer Andreas E.G. Larsson, a prototype for a single-family home in New Orleans, an urban proposal for the area surrounding Lambeau Field in Green Bay, and Cut. Join. Play., the first prize in the 2010 Architecture for Humanity Chicago Street furniture competition and exhibited as part of the U.S. Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale.

Iker is also the editor in chief of the quarterly design journal MAS Context and the editor of the book Shanghai Transforming (ACTAR, 2008). He curated the exhibition BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago included in the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, a gallery as part of the exhibition Chatter Architecture Talks Balk at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the exhibitions Shanghai Transforming at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Virginia Tech, and Synchronizing Geometry held at S.R. Crown Hall (IIT). He is the Associate Curator of the U.S. Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, 2018.

In addition, he teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he was the co-director of the Chicago Expander program, and has taught studios at the School of Architecture at University of Illinois at Chicago and Masters Project Preparation at the College of Architecture at IIT.

Iker has received several grants and awards for his work, including the 2010 Emerging Visions Award from the Chicago Architectural Club, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation grants and Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts grants in support of MAS Context. He has been selected as one of “Fifty Under Fifty: Innovators of the 21st Century” by a jury composed by Stanley Tigerman, Jeanne Gang, Qingyun Ma, and Marion Weiss. He has been included four times in Newcity’s annual Design 50 as well as in i4design Magazine‘s 5th annual Suite Sixteen that recognizes “the Midwest’s most innovative design pros who are pushing old boundaries, exploring new concepts and making a difference in design with the work that
they do.”

Member
Full Weekend (includes all scheduled meals and bowling): $260
Saturday Only (includes the day’s scheduled meals and bowling): $210
Friday Evening Only (includes dinner): $90

Non-Member
Full Weekend (includes all scheduled meals and bowling): $285
Saturday Only (includes the day’s scheduled meals and bowling): $235
Friday Evening Only (includes dinner): $115

Student Member
Saturday Only (includes continental breakfast, lunch, and bowling): $65

Student Non-Member
Saturday Only (includes continental breakfast, lunch, and bowling): $80

Schedule:

Friday, January 18
5:00 to 6:15 pm Reception + check-in
6:30 pm Keynote presentation by Iker Gil followed by dinner
9:00 pm Conversations continue in hotel lounge

Saturday, January 19
8:00 am Continental breakfast kiosk
9:00 to 5:00 pm Presentations
12:30 pm Lunch
6:00 pm Dinner and bowling

Sunday, January 20
8:00 am Continental breakfast kiosk
9:00 to 12:00 pm Presentations

There will be 10 and 20 minute presentation slots (unless otherwise arranged). To be included in the printed program, email the following to weekend@sta-chicago.org by Jan 3:
• your headshot/portrait
• the title and brief description of your presentation
• an image from your presentation.

Location:

Eaglewood Resort & Spa
1401 Nordic Road
Itasca, IL 60143

Room rate $99 per room, per night, if reserved by January 3rd. All rooms are subject to availability.

The Weekend will take place at the beautiful Eaglewood Resort and Spa in Itasca, Illinois, located 26 miles from Chicago Loop and 8 miles from Woodfield Mall. It is accessible via public transportation, and a resort shuttle can pick up attendees at the Metra station in Itasca. Eaglewood’s special discount rate is $99 per night for Design Inspiration Weekend attendees. Reserve your room early; the number of discounted rooms are limited and are available on a first come, first served basis.

Design Inspiration Weekend Committee:

Guy Villa Jr, Sharon Oiga
Questions? Contact us at weekend@sta-chicago.org

Official Website

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Tags: 26th Annual STA Design Inspiration Weekend, Eaglewood Resort and Spa, Iker Gil, Itasca, The Society of Typographic Arts