At the September Chicago CreativeMornings gathering The Leo Burnett Dept. of Design ( LBDoD ) was gracious enough to brew up some coffee, bring in some bagels, and loan out it’s spacious meeting space so we could all hear Will Miller speak about Connect. 

It’s Official: Department of Design from Leo Burnett Worldwide on Vimeo.

We all think of the Mad Men offices when we think of Advertising Agencies, but what LBDoD does it a tad differently. They are producing award winning design in somewhere you may not expect; a whopping seven pieces recently added to the STA Chicago Design Archive!

Just like the creative places we all hail from, they search for inspiration and frequently look to the local Chicago community for the spark. Chicago is, as they say, a beautiful city with rich design roots and the perfect backdrop for collaboration. 

“There is [ in Chicago ] a serious passion for craft that we all deeply respect.” - Alisa Wolfson, LBDoD

One of their original goals was to give an opportunity to designers to work for an iconic Chicago advertising agency. There is a spirit and drive from the LBDoD team to create sustainable, purposeful and beautiful work for the world and being big can be really, really fun. Now about 25 creatives strong, they aim to produce top quality design work and put themselves back into the community whenever possible.

They are deeply rooted in our community. For the first six months of 2013, they were the agency of record for the AIGA. They helped them shape the AIGA’s presence within the city and create their “year in review”. Individual members of the LBDoD also take type workshops, host gallery events through Chicago Art Department, The Post Family and LAMPO. They have even had a few folks participate in Typeforce 4 ( A project Will talked about ).  The LBDoD also sponsors the Chicago Design Museum. 

We can’t wait to have Leo Burnett Department of Design host another CreativeMornings. Until then, socialize with them on Facebook and bug them to start a LBDoD twitter.