hilary short

is a graphic designer and writer.

work history

UIC vice chancellor for DIVERSITY

visiting design director | 2022–2023

↳integrated a product design approach to three e-learning projects to bolster collaboration and further program sustainability after observing a need to strengthen design excellence
↳collaborated closely as a thought partner with subject matter experts and stakeholders to establish shared vision, strategy, and goals through storyboarding and prototyping
↳identified user problems, needs, and ideated creative ways to resolve them
[Style Guide project #1] 

UIC college of architecture, design, and the arts

adjunct instructor | 2022–2023

↳prepared students for college-level design courses through short lectures and interactive, widening exercises on composition to reorient students as “design thinkers,” culminated in a student exhibition

UIC vice chancellor for DIVERSITY

senior graphic designer | 2020–2022

↳planned and executed five e-learning project timelines leveraging product design strategies
↳identified road blocks and needs of junior designers, much of which was bridging the gap between graphic design and uiux; conducted user and usability testing
↳provided style guides following branding guidelines for both projects to lay the foundation for consistent tone, look, and feel while simultaneously allowing for flexibility to respond to innovative opportunities
↳incorporated a holistic approach towards universal design by tending to accessibility needs such as it relates to type, color, image, and interaction
[style guide project #2 [style guide project #3]

graphic designer for diversity education | 2015–2020

↳revamped unit website under branding guidelines and created social media accounts
↳began strategic thinking conversations with office leadership about communication goals and efforts
↳created visual assets for all programs across multiple platforms (web and print)
↳collaborated with quantitative researchers on high-level reports including data visuals and copy
↳launched a campus-wide print campaign including social media, and a workshop
[marketing and brandiing samples]


dr. nadine naber

personal branding | sept 2019–may 2022

created branding for print and web assets [01]
dr. maria krysan 

slide deck | spring 2018 + spring 2023

designed slides visually depicting sociological concepts [01]
dr. deborah napolitano 

political campaign | spring 2020

developed branding assets for signage and mailer [01]

education

university of illinois chicago

master of arts in design criticism | may 2022

thesis: wrote a collection of essays, in different styles and voices, on the history of information dissemination and technology as it relates to ideas of societal progress. 
university of illinois chicago

master of design in graphic design | may 2020

thesis: analyzed form and content of obituaries in newspaper archives; created a color-coded system in order to revisualize the individual life as societal expectations; designed a 12-booklet series on how the form of information is deeply intertwined with the content.
temple university 

bachelor of arts in sociology | may 2009



scholarship

schiff writing fellowship | nominee 2022

news-on-papers after newspapers

news-on-papers after newspapers is a review of another graphic designer’s work of painted gradients atop the nytimes. the review connects this work to a longer lineage of artists and designers incorporating the newspaper as either a symbolic or indexical element. 
belladonna* matters of feminist practive v.2 | summer 2022

eyebrow archive

eyebrow archive is an autoethnographic essay based in textual representations of plucked eyebrows. a close reading of each brow is theoretically connected to larger social norms and trends. [01]

refract journal | winter 2020/2021 | $100 honorarium | click here to go to refract

bloodlines, kinship

bloodlines + kinship are part of a series exploring family traces through the archive and heteropatiarchal lineages. bloodlines is a 228-inch long installation depicting the fantasy of ancestry and kinship is a poster depicting ‘spheres of memories.’ both are accompanied by short, theoretical essays. participated in artist symposium. [01]
schiff writing fellowship | nominee 2020

erasing erasure

erasing erasure is a reading of a journalistic image of the removal of a confederate statue. both hanging from an industrial apparatus and floating above a plinth, this essay addresses the in-between aesthetics of a captured image.

dutch design week | selected by jury 2020 | CLICK HERE TO GO TO DDW ARCHIVE

pre-occupied

pre-occupied is a series of 12 rematerialized obituaries. a content analysis drives the color-coding and experimental text. conditional logics force the obituaries to react to invisible structures. [01]
uic library archive award for graduate research | first prize winner 2019 | $300 award | CLICK HERE TO GO TO ANNOUNCEMENT

desk as a stage

desk as a stage is an installation recontextualizing common mid-century office objects through a feminist lens. all modernist paper archives contain the invisible labor of secretaries. each object—rolodex, inbox, outbox, memos, calendar, globe—is recentered on the office worker. there is something one must “do” in order to complete the installation.
chicago art book fair | 2019 | copies sold

flight of fantasy

flight of fantasy is a risograph publication. grounded in a contract between a bank and university, each spread re-connects the self-referential document. the bold green lines draw connections between the reference and referent and begin to create a symbolic language of their own. the accompanying collection of dragons and currency glyphs are playful juxtapositions of the university currency ‘dragon dollars.’