Chicago’s Silverroom founder and 2018 Loeb Fellow, Eric Williams, approached Rick Valicenti and Nick Adam of Thirst to reimagine the visual identity of his retail community space. Harvard GSD describes Silverroom as “The intersection of the worlds of fashion, music and visual art. Williams is committed to creating spaces and curating events that strengthen the community and fuel positive economic impact.”
Williams innovates the traditional models of Urban Planning through intentionally evolving the space to be a people-centered art and community enterprise. Our collaboration brought vision and a new comprehensive identity for the Silverroom. Adam’s type design unified formal ideas such as openness and structure while paying respect to the pulse of Reid Miles’ Blue Note album covers.
The work is dope.”
eric williams, founder of the silverroom
Design Direction
Rick Valicenti
Design
Nick Adam
Music
John Pobojewski
Eric pointed our attention to the Blue Note albums designed by Reid Miles now in MoMA’s permanent collection. Miles typesetting expressed sonic rhythm.
Thirst riffs on Miles’ work.
Quincey Jones’s Back on the Block album designed by Rick Valicenti in 1989 topped Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
The grid informs the construction of every letterform. The spacing is carefully designed to yield integral rhythmic relationships
Dramatic contrast of flat and round forms pulse a rhythm through the repetition of ’r’s, ‘o’s, as in the ‘m’.
A lively connection between postcard fronts and backs.
The Wicker Park Pop-Up opening night. Images by Sebastian Hagan and Christopher Dylan Andre.