6PM social; 6:30PM speaker takes the stage.

Wisconsin Public Television Studios in Vilas Hall on the UW Madison campus.

Complimentary light refreshments will be served (no alcohol is allowed in the venue).

Space is limited to 60 people. Please RSVP to rsvp@designmadison.com to guarantee your spot.

About Chris
After receiving his BA in History from Princeton University in 1963, Chris enrolled in a three-year graduate program in Graphic Design at Yale. He earned his MFA in 1966 and the same year began teaching in the graduate and undergraduate programs at Yale, an affiliation he still maintains regularly as Senior Critic, teaching the fundamentals of time-based media.

From 1966 until 1973 he operated a freelance design practice in New Haven, and from 1968 to 1972 ran the graphic design studio in the office of George Nelson in New York. During this time he also served on the original design faculty at SUNY Purchase.

From 1973 until 2008, Chris served as Vice President for design and branding at WGBH, public broadcasting in Boston, which supplies about one third of the PBS prime time schedule. He and his staff were responsible for the visual personality of WGBH, as expressed through its on-air titles, credits and animation, promotional and sales support, classroom materials and interactive media. From 1982 to 1987 he had additional responsibility for the numerous trade books, publications and products the station produces in conjunction with its programming. In 1986, WGBH was awarded the Design Leadership Award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts recognizing the station’s contribution to “the advancement of design by application of the highest standards, as a matter of policy, to all its visual communications.”

From 2002-2006 Chris served as the design client for WGBH’s new 340,000 sq ft studio and headquarters facility, working with the architect, Polshek Partnership, to define the building’s character and functionality, and directing the architectural graphics, visitor experience features and audio-visual displays.

Chris has served on the boards of the Design Management Institute and the Corporate Design Foundation, reflecting his interest in the relationship between design and business. He has also been on the national board of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the American Center for Design (ACD). In 1993 he was included in the first list of the I.D. Forty, the forty most influential designers, published by International Design Magazine. In 2002 he received the AIGA Medal, the highest individual honor awarded to a designer by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, recognizing “individuals who have set standards of excellence over a lifetime of work or have made contributions to innovation within the practice of graphic design.”

Chris has lectured widely to schools and professional organizations and has published articles on design for television that have appeared in CA, Design Quarterly, Critique, various anthologies, and is a contributor to the website Design Observer.

In October of 2008, he decided in to leave WGBH to try out Life 2.0 where he continures to lecture and teach in a variety of settings and devotes more time to exploring his long private commitment to painting.