Asia’s Leading Design, Innovation and Brand Showcase Features ChicagoMade Talent

Chicago was recently the first American partner city at the Hong Kong Business of Design Week (BODW). As the partner city, World Business Chicago (WBC) and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) had the unique opportunity to showcase ChicagoMade, the effort highlighting Chicago’s unmatched creative industries.

 Asia’s leading annual design conference and expo brings together pioneering designers and creative executives from around the world within different disciplines to share their insights and stories, and to explore new ideas and trends in design, business, technology and branding. More than 100,000 people attended this year.

“Chicago has always been a center of creativity and innovation, and recognizes the power of design and ideas as the highest form of currency,” said World Business Chicago President & CEO Jeff Malehorn. “From the invention of the steel plow, the assembly line, and commodities trading to Chicago’s iconic architecture and contributions to jazz and blues music, Chicago’s place in design history is fundamental.”

Chicago talent showcased throughout the conference and expo included:

• Charles Adler, Kickstarter co-founder
• Carol Ross-Barney, Design Principal of Ross Barney Architects (head design firm for The Chicago Riverwalk)
• Jeanne Gang, Founding Principal of Studio Gang (The Architectural Review 2016 Architect of the Year)
• Matthew Hoffman – Founder of You Are Beautiful
• Mark Kelly – Commissioner of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (discussing the making of Millennium Park)
• Kevin McElroy, Vice President, Group Creative Director of Razorfish
• Raaja Nemani, Co-founder and CEO of Bucketfeet (Chicago label specializing in artist-designed casual footwear)
• Katie Olson, Director of Program Design for UI Labs
• Emmanuel Pratt, Co-founder & Executive Director of the Sweet Water Foundation
• Zoë Ryan, John H. Bryan Chair & Curator of Architecture and Design of The Art Institute of Chicago
• Max Temkin, Cards Against Humanity Co-founder
• Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871
• Scott Wilson, Founder & Chief Creative Officer of MINIMAL

Chicago’s contributions to the design world were also showcased at the exhibition ChicagoMade: Great Ideas of Humanity. The exhibition honors and builds on a project that the founder of Chicago’s Container Corporation of America (CCA) Walter Paepcke began in the 1950s as an unprecedented advertising campaign called, “Great Ideas of Western Man.” For 25 years, he commissioned renowned artists and designers to create artwork that responded to quotes by celebrated thinkers that would engage the public in cultural discourse.

The Chicago Design Museum renewed this historic series, and brought it to BODW in Hong Kong. The reprise is an acknowledgment of the increasing globalization of our world, connecting contemporary artists with important thinkers to create new a new series of advertisements displayed in public areas throughout the city and internationally. A glimpse of the campaign can be found at GreatIdeasOfHumanity.com.

ChicagoMade is a collaboration between WBC and DCASE to highlight the city as an innovation center, global business destination, cultural hub, and a place where diverse and unique creative entrepreneurs thrive. For more information on ChicagoMade visit: www.ChicagoMade.us.

For more information on BODW, visit www.bodw.com.