November brought the conclusion of fall to Chicago, but IDSA Chicago brought a bit of California to the midwest. We specially imported Brett Lovelady-- founder of the infamous Astro Studios in San Francisco-- for a lecture and social event. The event was held in the gorgeous second floor loft space at Adobo Grill in Wicker Park, where we were able to have a room to ourselves where we could partake in some margaritas, cervesas, and lots of tasty bocatillos. (Your author is still craving the corn masa pastries stuffed with marinated braised shredded beef, tomatillo-guacamole, and ancho salsa...)

The room began to fill up during the social hour, as over 80 members poured into the room to transform the quiet Monday night lecture into a standing-room only event! After ample time to see and be seen (or is it scene?) the salsa music was lowered and Brett let us take a peek into the world of Astro Studios.

Brett began his informal talk by framing out the three "arms" of Astro's business: Astro Studios, Astro Ventures, and their latest entrepreneurial venture, Astro Gaming. Astro Studios is the original industrial design studio that Brett founded in 1994 and has produced their most well known work for clients such as Nike, HP, and Alienware. Astro Ventures is a newer group that builds it's business on design-driven ventures formed from equity-based partnerships. Astro Gaming is the latest venture that is leveraging Astro's deep knowledge and experience in the gaming industry to create a line of professional-gaming accessories-- in fact their first product launch of gaming headphones and mixers hit the streets just in time for the holidays.

Brett introduced Astro as "pathfinders to what's next"-- they help companies identify, visualize, develop, and execute new product & brand opportunities. He also gave us an interesting view into their philosophy via seven mini mantras that included, "People are our ultimate clients", "Design is a point of view", "Culture is the key to soulful work", and "Design is not a democracy".

Brett also discussed Astro's design process, showing lots of great examples of the unique ways in which they approach common design methods. One striking example was the way they create personas to design towards. What might typically be a stock photo of an ideal "user" with a list of attributes and use cases, was interpreted as a rich illustration that collaged activity imagery in a graphic manner and captured the energy and emotion behind the imaginary user. Not only were these powerful snippets of inspiration for designers, but they were also interesting graphics in their own right!

Lastly Brett walked us through some case studies of Astro's work (including the infamous Xbox360 redesign), full of great anecdotal bits that gave us all a view behind the scenes, as well as a good laugh. After a solid hour and a half, Brett wrapped up with some questions from the crowd, and we wound down the night with one more for the road (or more specifically, the L). IDSA members left that night with a good positive Californian design-buzz, fresh perspectives, and hopefully a dose of inspiration!

Thanks to all for coming out and packing the house at the Adobo Grill. A very special thanks to Brett Lovelady who flew out to Chicago specially for this presentation, and was back at the studio the next day!

-Craig Berman