Team
Kathy Fredrickson
Strategist, Partner
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MA, arts administration
Middlebury College, BA, English and studio art, cum laude
As a child, Kathy aspired to be a veterinarian, until she learned that vets, just like people doctors, need to study chemistry. She opted for a liberal arts education, preferring to spend her college years reading and making art. Her career is really just an attempt to extend that experience. She is a partner at Studio Blue, where her primary responsibilities include strategic planning for projects; research, writing, and concept development (reading and making art); and new business development. Kathy is able to draw on her personal and professional experiences to allow for risk-taking while balancing the strategic needs of clients. Her conceptual voice, sense of humor and strategic leadership is heard in nearly all the studio's work. Kathy's non-profit management experience includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she worked on developing and producing the museum's in-house branded product line. Prior to joining the company in March 1994, she was the associate director of publications at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the former president of Chicago chapter of the AIGA, the professional association for design, and currently serves on the national board as chapter presidents’ liaison.
Contact Kathy at kathy@studioblue.us
Cheryl Towler Weese
Creative Director, Partner
Yale University, MFA, graphic design
Wesleyan University, BA, studio art and art history, cum laude
Cheryl began her design discipleship at age nine, when she learned to proofread galleys at her parents’ weekly newspaper. She completed college in fits and starts, preferring to study or work in a new country each year. This love of culture and language is integral to her design sensibility, and she strives to develop a new visual language with each new engagement. She is a partner at Studio Blue, which she founded in 1993. Her primary responsibilities include serving as creative director, designing and mentoring other designers; long-range fiscal and operational planning; and presenting the studio's design to the public. Cheryl's influence on the studio's work shows in her contextual approach as well as her intrepid demand for craft and innovation. She has served on the national board of the AIGA, the professional association for design; taught and lectured on design at numerous universities, at local and national conferences, and for the College Art Association; and juried a number of design competitions, including AIGA’s 50 Books/50 Covers competition, which she chaired in 2004 and 2005.
Contact Cheryl at cheryl@studioblue.us
Maggie Lewis
Strategist, Partner
Iowa State University, BA, journalism and mass communication
Northwestern University, MS, learning and organizational change (December 2007)
In design Maggie has found a way to embrace her curiosity for learning and fostering understanding. Currently a Masters of Science candidate in Learning & Organizational Change at Northwestern University, she employs principles of learning and strategic change to help leverage the leadership role design plays in organizations. Combining theory and practice, Maggie helps organizations think differently about who they are and where they are going. At Studio Blue she leads design teams in definition of strategic opportunity and works with all levels of client organizations to ensure that design is a strategic component in pursuit of mission. For fifteen years she has led integrated teams to develop and implement brand strategies, identity systems and corporate communication programs. Maggie began her career as the marketing and public relations manager at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She has led brand identity and marketing efforts for Steppenwolf, The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, The Chicago History Museum (2006 new visual and verbal voice), Augustana College, Target, and Bosch Tools. She has served on the board of AIGA Chicago.
Contact Maggie at maggie@studioblue.us
Siobhan Drummond
Production Manager
University of Illinois, BM, MM, music theory
Siobhan Drummond has been making books of all kinds since the late 1980s, handling editorial and production and dabbling in permissions and marketing for large and small professional, trade, and custom publishers. Alongside freelancing, she has been managing editor or production manager at Chiron Publications, Triumph Books, the University of Chicago Press, and Northwestern University Press. At Studio Blue, she brings her organizational skills into play managing projects of every stripe, tracking progress, collaborating with vendors, and keeping an eye on quality. As an artist, Siobhan is able to embrace the perceived chaos of the creative process and provide the grounding, when necessary to allow superlative design to flourish while meeting schedules and budgets. She lives in Evanston with a cello and a garden and devotes her free time to playing music, cooking, and reading.
Contact Siobhan at siobhan@studioblue.us
Claire Williams
Senior Designer
Parsons College of Design, AAS, graphic design
Vassar College, BA, art history and French
Raised by parents who worked for the United Nations, Claire’s humanitarian interests were formed early in life. She loves to design for clients who have community and educational interests at heart, and the search for work with this focus led her to Studio Blue. Her career experience began with five years in New York book publishing, where she designed covers for the trade paperback imprint Vintage Books. During that time she also ran a freelance business that focused on local branding projects and music packaging. Love and marriage then took her to Chicago, where she spent her first three years working on large-scale corporate communications campaigns and annual reports for VSA Partners. At Studio Blue Claire’s role is to manage junior staff, and to create design that solves strategic problems with beautiful visual solutions.
Contact Claire at claire@studioblue.us
Esther Chak
Senior Designer
Rhode Island School of Design, MFA, Graphic Design, honors
Columbia College, Columbia University in the City of New York, BA, Anthropology with a Visual Arts minor, cum laude
Esther arrived in the Midwest this summer by way of the nation's littlest state. Though she has lived in the New York metropolitan area for practically her entire life, she embraces this opportunity to acquaint herself with Chicago, the American version of her favorite city. After entertaining notions of becoming an architect or a product designer, she finally committed to graphic design, a practice that allows her to work visually and tell stories. Esther's range of professional experience as a communication designer ranges from marketing and strategic planning for architectural services, to styling and product articulation for fashion brands, and identity development for non-profit arts organizations and start-ups. At Studio Blue she contributes as a designer who embraces the challenges that come along with complex narratives, human behavior, and big ideas. A generalist at heart, she looks forward to working with clients and teams who uphold similar ideals of professional cross-pollination.
Contact Esther at esther@studioblue.us
Rob Mach
Junior Designer
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, BA, graphic design
Rob has two life-long passions: making art and skiing. When it came time to choose a college, it was either Boulder University in Colorado or a state school in Illinois. Disgusted with the idea of paying out-of-state tuition just to see her son flunk out for skiing instead of going to class, Rob´s mother was appeased when he headed to the flat lands of Southern Illinois where he pursued his passion for art. At the University of Illinois, Rob discovered graphic design. And, since there was no snow to ski on, he worked hard. As a student, Rob was able to merge his two passions when he entered an international design competition to create ski graphics. He won a trip to the French Alps and his winning design was produced by Rossignol. He is also the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Chicago student enrichment scholarship. His mother would be proud. As a junior designer at Studio Blue, Rob is responsible for implementing designs as well as contributing conceptually on projects at the studio.
Contact Rob at rob@studioblue.us
Lauren Boegen
Administrative Assistant
The George Washington University, MA, Museum Studies
Illinois Wesleyan University, BA, History and American Studies, magna cum laude
When Lauren changed her undergraduate major from biology to history, her parents-both teachers-made her promise she would never become a teacher. This was fine with Lauren, but she didn't give much thought to what she actually would do. Eventually, she realized that in museums, she could combine her passion for the arts and her desire to focus on new ideas every day. After working for the Smithsonian and the National Park Service, Lauren relocated to Chicago and decided to focus her attention on design. She is taking classes at Columbia College and learning by osmosis at Studio Blue. Lauren's responsibilities at the studio include interacting closely with the project teams and assisting in everyday operations.
Contact Lauren at lauren@studioblue.us