Partner & Design Director
John Pobojewski
John Pobojewski is a partner and design director at Span. Pobojewski focuses on intermedia and the blending of brand, interactive, sound, motion, and environments.
In 2022 and in 2024, John was named one of Newcity Magazine’s Design 50 in recognition of those who shape Chicago’s design community. He was also featured as one of five designers profiled by Communication Arts in their 2016 feature “New Currents in Chicago Design.” In 2007, he was named one of Print Magazine’s ”New Visual Artists: 20 under 30.” John has also received professional recognition from the Type Directors Club, the Society of Typographic Arts, the Chicago Design Archive, AIGA, and SEGD.
From 2003–2019, he was a designer and later partner at Thirst, and his work with the studio has appeared in many design publications including Graphis, ID Magazine, IdN Magazine, and is currently part of the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Letterform Archive, and others.
John has presented at numerous conferences including SALT Istanbul, the SEGD Conference, the Mas Context Analog Conference, AIGA National Convention, Processing Conference Chicago, and TEDx. He also lectures at colleges and universities around the U.S.
As an intermedia artist, John has been part of several group exhibitions including Mark Applebaum’s Metaphysics of Notation project at Stanford University, All Together Now at the Design Museum of Chicago, as well as six annual Typeforce exhibitions. His digital projections for Chicago Repertory Ballet’s production of Macbeth brought “a contemporary look” and were “especially potent” according the Chicago Tribune.
John is a graduate of Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication and a Bachelor of Music in Performance. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife and daughter.
Lectures/Workshops
Confronting Design: AI, 2023
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2023
Rhode Island School of Design, 2022, 2021
San Francisco State University, 2021
Shillington School of Graphic Design, 2020
HalfRez 7 Conference, 2018
School of Art Institute of Chicago, 2017, 2016
MAS CONTEXT: ANALOG Conference, 2017, 2012
Iowa State University, 2017
College for Creative Studies, 2022, 2016, 2009
SEGD Experience, 2015
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013
SALT Istanbul, 2012
Columbia College Chicago, 2012
Processing Conference, 2011
TEDxBGSU, 2011
SEEK Conference, 2011, 2008
University of Illinois at Chicago, 2011
Judson University, 2011
Florida Atlantic University, 2010
Northern Illinois University, 2009
Exhibitions
All Together Now at Design Museum of Chicago, 2021
Typeforce 11, 2020
Typeforce 10, 2019
Typeforce 9, 2018
CHGO DSGN WHEREVER at LVL3 Gallery, 2015
Typeforce 6, 2015
Typeforce 5, 2014
CHGO DSGN: Recent Object and Graphic Design, 2014
Typeforce 3, 2012
Write Now: Artists and Letterforms, 2011
Graphic Design: Now in Production, 2011
Architecture & Design Film Festival, 2011
Printervention, 2010
Typeforce 1, 2010