Design unleashed: A recap of the 2024 TEDxChicago Design Salon

Tedxchi Paola
Paola Aguirre Serrano takes the stage to inspire others to rethink the potential of closed school buildings at the 2024 TEDxChicago Design Salon (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)

May 16, 2024

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We were honored to be the lead sponsor of the recent TEDxChicago 2024 Spring Design Salon on Friday, May 10.

As part of our partnership, we also hosted the TEDxChicago team, this year's speakers, past speakers and dignitaries from organizations across Chicago at our office for a celebratory reception. Separately, we made our office space available for the TEDxMidwest workshop.

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Our partnership with TEDxChicago proved synergistic, inspiring and exciting on numerous fronts. We were thrilled to help make their Design Salon a success. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
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Speakers including Ernie Wong, Maria Pinto, Doug Farr, Sally Augustin and Paola Aguirre Serrano took center stage. Our team helped design the theater in partnership with TEDxChicago and The Mart. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
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Speakers including Ernie Wong, Maria Pinto, Doug Farr, Sally Augustin and Paola Aguirre Serrano took center stage. Our team helped design the theater in partnership with TEDxChicago and The Mart. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
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Speakers including Ernie Wong, Maria Pinto, Doug Farr, Sally Augustin and Paola Aguirre Serrano took center stage. Our team helped design the theater in partnership with TEDxChicago and The Mart. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)

The event brought designers, creatives, artists and visionaries from across the City of Chicago and beyond to share ideas about how design could be ignited for even greater impact. Our partnership with TEDxChicago was a perfect extension of our Living-Centered Design ethos and our Ambitions.

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Our team contributed in numerous ways to the TEDxChicago Design Salon. We helped with planning, hosted the speaker reception, a workshop, had volunteers on hand for day of registration and more.

Here is a list of the five featured speakers from the Design Salon with a snapshot of the topics they covered: 

  • Sally Augustin, PhD is a design neuroscientist who spoke on how individuals can curate their environments to be more productive, healthy and achieve more desired outcomes. 
  • Maria Pinto, a trailblazing fashion futurist, shared inspiring guidance on fashion, sustainability and female empowerment. She spoke passionately and highlighted her work to shape and reshape the fashion landscape. 
  • Douglas Farr, FAIA, is the president of Farr Associates, a stand-out architecture and urban design firm. His talk focused on the need to better talk about and act on climate change and sustainable design. 
  • Paola Aguirre Serrano, a native of the US-Mexico border region, urban designer and partner at Borderless Studio, leads innovative projects focused on spatial and equitable design. She shared evocative examples of how her teams have helped reimagine closed schools across the country. 
  • Ernie Wong, founder and principal of site design group, addressed his personal background and the power of landscape architecture.

Testimonials

  • This was a stunning celebration of the power of design and the great city of Chicago. We look forward to carrying the energy, optimism and ideas forward to push Chicago toward an even brighter future.

    Charles Smith Chicago Office Leader

Surrounding these sessions during the design salon were presentations from numerous artists, dancers, spoken-word poets and musicians. Our team was able to host an interactive workshop focused on designing the future of Chicago and offer a Deja the Dynamo children's book exhibit.

Tedxchi Deja
Deja the Dynamo, the lead character in our firm's first ever children's book, was on hand at both the reception we hosted in our office and the main Design Salon. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
We were excited to have people from TEDxChicago, our clients, partners and leaders from across the city join us for a speakers' reception a week before the main stage event. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
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We were excited to have people from TEDxChicago, our clients, partners and leaders from across the city join us for a speakers' reception a week before the main stage event. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)
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We were excited to have people from TEDxChicago, our clients, partners and leaders from across the city join us for a speakers' reception a week before the main stage event. (Photo: Michele Marie Photography)

Our TEDxChicago partnership has been a powerful success to date. We have aligned around our shared passion for design, breakthrough ideas, social impact and the everyone can and should be allowed to flourish.