The Architect's Newspaper, who recently started a Midwest edition to join their East Coast and West Coast papers, wrote a nice article about the growing design scene in Chicago. Samantha Topol, the author of the piece, highlights the different players—individuals, schools, galleries, firms and museums—working to make the city a better home for designers.

An excerpt follows; you can read the entire article here.

Braving the lightning bolts of an early summer storm, Chicago's intrepid designers and design aficionados came out in force to attend last year's Guerrilla Furniture and Art Truck Show outside Morlen Sinoway Atelier. This year, the event promises to be even more robust, with more than 30 U-Haul trucks registered to showcase wares, and enough coordinated events--14 to be precise--scheduled to warrant making a map for the first time in the six-year history of the event.

This expansion is one of many signs that Chicago is primed to support the ambitions of a growing community of designers now calling the city home. With ample space for affordable studios, industrial manufacturing within close range of the city center, three design schools, and a variety of new forums to show design work, Chicago provides all the crucial ingredients for a vital design scene. Not to mention that the Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Wing, now one year old, dedicates the most square footage of exhibition space to design in the country. From that perch, curator Zoe Ryan is spearheading an effort to build a definitive collection by making acquisitions in reverse chronological order. "At the Art Institute," Ryan said, "we're hoping to tell a broader story, including younger designers who are Chicago-based but are very much working in a global arena.

If you want to experience some of this firsthand, it just so happens that a pair of local designers are giving a lecture in Chicagoland tonight. Giffin'Termeer will talk about the process behind their drip-dry dishes (pictured above) at DWR Evanston, presented by the Object Design League. Starts with cocktails at 6:30 pm.