Chicago Art Locker
Chicago Art Locker
2026
2026
Overview
The Chicago Art Locker, located at Kildare and Roscoe in the Avondale neighborhood, is a community-driven, free art exchange initiative. Created by Shea the maker and her father, this interactive street-side installation invites visitors to take, leave, or trade art, and supplies. It has since grown to six lockers across the city, each one a small act of community dropped into the middle of ordinary life. There is a food pantry next to the original. There is a fairy world painted inside one of the doors, and kids come specifically to find it.
The Details
The smiley from the original logo became a motif. Variations of it appear throughout the site in different color combinations, a recurring reference to the original mark, making sure the logo's personality isn't confined to the header. The logo itself has a sticker-esque treatment: a white border that reads like something you'd peel off a sheet and press onto a locker door.
The smiley from the original logo became a motif. Variations of it appear throughout the site in different color combinations, a recurring reference to the original mark, making sure the logo's personality isn't confined to the header. The logo itself has a sticker-esque treatment: a white border that reads like something you'd peel off a sheet and press onto a locker door.
Typography came next. The original logo's weight was bold, the goal was to match that energy while making it livable for the web. The solution was a single font family with enough variation to function like several typefaces: narrow, standard, condensed. Headers use the narrow cut. Buttons use the standard. Manrope handles body text for better legibility.
Typography came next. The original logo's weight was bold, the goal was to match that energy while making it livable for the web. The solution was a single font family with enough variation to function like several typefaces: narrow, standard, condensed. Headers use the narrow cut. Buttons use the standard. Manrope handles body text for better legibility.
The color palette stayed rooted in the original CMYK values, with adjusted hues and tones to solve for contrast. White body text over the original cerulean wasn't working. Calibrated versions of the same palette kept the spirit of the brand intact while making every combination actually readable.
The color palette stayed rooted in the original CMYK values, with adjusted hues and tones to solve for contrast. White body text over the original cerulean wasn't working. Calibrated versions of the same palette kept the spirit of the brand intact while making every combination actually readable.
Visual style guide
Visual style guide
Then came the hero section. This is where most of the time went and where the site's central idea was found.
Then came the hero section. This is where most of the time went and where the site's central idea was found.
Then came the hero section. This is where most of the time went and where the site's central idea was found.
A spanning hero image felt wrong. Too passive. Too generic for a project about community-made art and the people who make it. The solution: cards. Art submitted to the locker, arranged as large, hoverable panels across the hero. Hover over one, it expands. The artist's name surfaces. The site becomes a gallery the moment you land on it.
A spanning hero image felt wrong. Too passive. Too generic for a project about community-made art and the people who make it. The solution: cards. Art submitted to the locker, arranged as large, hoverable panels across the hero. Hover over one, it expands. The artist's name surfaces. The site becomes a gallery the moment you land on it.
01
Sticker Easter eggs are hidden throughout the site. Easy to miss if you're moving fast.
Sticker Easter eggs are hidden throughout the site. Easy to miss if you're moving fast.
02
The stroke elements pulled from the client's reference sites connected everything together — outline buttons, outlined components, a graphic linework quality that makes the site feel handmade, just like the art inside the lockers. Every interactive element has a little life in it.
The stroke elements pulled from the client's reference sites connected everything together — outline buttons, outlined components, a graphic linework quality that makes the site feel handmade, just like the art inside the lockers. Every interactive element has a little life in it.
03
The freebie section lets visitors download a coloring page. Only seen if they've explored all parts of the landing page, a reward for learning more about the Chicago Art Locker and the community.
The freebie section lets visitors download a coloring page. Only seen if they've explored all parts of the landing page, a reward for learning more about the Chicago Art Locker and the community.
The Result
A website that looks like what it's about, handmade and community-built that takes itself seriously without losing any of its warmth. The brief was simple: build something that feels like Chicago Art Locker. The answer turned out to be honoring the logo that already existed, tuning it until it worked at every scale, and finding the one idea, art as the hero, that let the community speak for the brand.
A website that looks like what it's about, handmade and community-built that takes itself seriously without losing any of its warmth. The brief was simple: build something that feels like Chicago Art Locker. The answer turned out to be honoring the logo that already existed, tuning it until it worked at every scale, and finding the one idea, art as the hero, that let the community speak for the brand.
Services: Brand Identity · Website Design
Services: Brand Identity · Website Design
2026 Twin Realms LLC ᵀᴹ, All Rights Reserved
2026 Twin Realms LLC ᵀᴹ, All Rights Reserved
2026 Twin Realms LLC ᵀᴹ, All Rights Reserved
2026 Twin Realms LLC ᵀᴹ, All Rights Reserved