Nick Adam Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, United States

As an Associate Partner and Design Director, I assume a pivotal role within the Partners team, contributing to the shaping of the studio. This encompasses various aspects, ranging from the organizational culture to strategic business direction and development. Concurrently, I collaborate with clients to lead multiple cross-disciplinary, cross-sector projects and provide mentorship to the studio's talent.

Greater Chicago Area

As part of the founding team and Design Principal, was honored to play a formative role alongside the Partners, in shaping the studio — from organizational culture to strategic direction and business development; while also leading multiple cross-disciplinary, cross-sector projects.+ co-leading the studio’s ongoing internal ethos awareness, efforts, and actions; committed to the co-creation of equity, this work results in how the studio and we as individuals grow in the short and long-term+ led the creation of the studio’s social impact volunteering with alt_Chicago, Boarderless, and Design Museum of Chicago + attracted and lead the strategy and design to name and re-introduce a fish to the public with IDNR for one the largest and most impactful environmental efforts in history+ attracted, secured, leaded design and strategy projects with The Arts Lawn, City of Chicago, Discovery Partners Institute, Design Museum of Chicago, Design Trust Chicago, IDNR, Illinois Humanities, Latent Design, Ọkpara House, The Silverroom, Slow & Low, South Side Home Movie Project, Taste of Chicago, Tetra Tech, UChicago and others+ strategize, conceive, direct, critique, and create design for cross-disciplinary projects; and present design ideas to a wide range of clients; manage client’s expectations and attend all presentations to present and promote the work and ethos of the studio+ mentor designers, provide project guidance and professional growth through direction, critique, collaboration, and camaraderie+ manage overall workflows, resource allocation, budget, and schedule — defining project team members roles, responsibilities, and expectations+ annually exceeded all new business development goals by 150% – 180%+ co-led the Span.Studio website design with Partner John Pobojewski; collaborated on the design of a proprietary, variable typeface for Span with Partner Bud Rodecker

Greater Chicago Area

Technically I never left Thirst, the studio evolved into Span. Thirst (3st) was one of the world’s most acclaimed design practices. As Associate Principal, my work of leading and shaping projects was directly with the Founder — National Design Award-winner, Rick Valicenti. Our work was in collaboration with the design, cultural, civic and social justice communities with in a process that celebrated discovery and experimentation while being focused on concept and craft. + led and designed the identity of Silveroom’s block party The Greater Good — a community celebration that features Black-creatives and Black-owned businesses with nearly 40,000 attendees and a one-day economic impact of $2 million + co-led the redesign of Noodles & Company — a publicly-traded, fast-casual, national restaurant chain — delivering an identity system that spanned 10 years of evolution+ mentored and collaborated through the studio’s paid-internship program that focused young BIPOC designers + worked directly with Loeb Fellow Eric Williams to redesign the visual identity of Silverroom, a Black-owned retail community space that Harvard GSD described as “The intersection of the worlds of fashion, music and visual art … committed to creating spaces and curating events that strengthen the community and fuel positive economic impact.”+ co-led the visual, digital, spatial identity design of Full Eclipse — a character creation studio — for Hollywood’s leading special effects makeup artist, Mario Torres+ represented the studio in client presentations, studio tours, public speaking events, and exhibitions + across Thirst’s final year, assisted the three Partners in transitioning the studio to evolve and rename as SPAN+ design work I created while at Thirst has been acquired by the permanent collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper Hewitt, Cooper Union Lubalin Center, Design Museum of Chicago, Letterforms Archive, Newberry Library

Providence, Rhode Island Area

After 14 years of practicing graphic design, from the Fall of 2016 to the Summer of 2018, I took a sabbatical from professional practice to dive deeper into the field. This time was invested in earning a Master's investigating the social function and social opportunities of graphic designers. As a fellowship awarded student my studies included teaching Graduate and Undergraduate courses while designing projects for the school.InstructorCourse: Typography and Its Public, Winter 2018+ Develop syllabus and curriculum, Taught 15 Graduate and Undergraduate studentsGraduate Teaching AssistantCourse: History of Graphic Design, Fall 2017+ Instructor / Section Leader of Sophomores: Teaching Assistant to Senior Critic Doug ScottCourse: Design Studio 4 (DS4), Spring 2017+ Teaching Assistant to Critic Diane Lee, core curriculum for JuniorsCourse: Design Studio 3 (DS3), Fall 2016+ Teaching Assistant to Assistant Professor Paul Soulellis, core curriculum for Juniors

Greater Chicago Area

Firebelly Design is a strategic brand creation studio in Chicago focused on good design for good reason. As a designed based Strategic Director my role was critical in performing strategy, design direction, and design execution of systems-based branding while managing the expectations of clients, the project budgets and workflow, and the growth of the team. Our studio and clients aligned with the idea of furthering the development of equality, community, culture, and civics—operating across a range of industries.+ shaped the process and studio direction with the Founder resulting in greater client buy-in, quicker delivery, larger scopes and budgets, and significant growth in awards and press+ led and designed 50+ projects ($250k–$5k) in an expansive capacity: strategy to direction to hands-on design for a range of clients like: Berwyn, Blue Cross Blue Shield Chicago Women’s Health Center, City of Chicago, IDEO, Lightbank, Rebuilding Exchange, Sask Jazz, Veritiv, Vocalo, et al. + was the Firebelly lead in IDEO’s first cross studio venture—designing the identity system of the United States largest bike-share program that has 3.8 million annual riders+ led and mentored 2–4 teams of 2–8 designers, developers, strategist, and contract teammates simultaneously across projects of various disciplines, sectors, and clients+ provided creative leadership by expanding the boundaries of our work and project scopes by understanding and embracing each team member’s background, interest, and ambitions+ represented the studio in 100s of client presentations, workshops, and speaking events always crediting our work to the collaboration of culturally diverse teams and partners+ developed new business by effectively communicating our process, capabilities, and needs resulting in potential clients becoming ongoing partners

Greater Chicago Area

Independent design and direction of work for clients and studios like Cards Against Humanity, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Design Museum, Classic Color, Firebelly Design, Great Lakes Yard, Land and Sea Dept., Leo Burnett, RISD, Thirst (3st), You Are Beautiful, and others.+ increased exhibition attendance of the Chicago Design Museum through environmental branding that reconsidered the public experience+ helped grow the public art movement You Are Beautiful’s international audience through the planning and design of the 10-year anniversary exhibition and campaign which landed a 3-minute segment with Oprah, the sale of 500k stickers, and funded a $30k Kickstarter

Greater Chicago Area

Visual brand creation in one of America’s leading publishers. My role included concept development, design and production of identities, packaging, catalogues, point-of-purchase displays and signage for children’s books, cookbooks, and stationery products.+ designed and engineered packaging for Disney, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, and point-of-purchase signage / planograms for Target, WalMart, and Costco+ developed packaging concept for back-stock product resulting in the return of tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue+ redesigned the identity and materials of an under-performing licensing award system that was meet with a 900% increase, bringing in a $350k return

Greater Chicago Area

Design + production across 30+ concepts from mega-club Excalibur, to Magnum steakhouse, to suburban dive-bar Famous Freddies. My role was producing visual identities, menus, and collateral.

Greater Chicago Area

Concept, design and production of recruitment materials for the department of Admissions throughout my senior year of undergraduate.

Master’S Degree (Mfa)

Bachelor'S Of Fine Arts (Bfa)