Advanced Design (AD) supports designers at all levels, from students to seasoned pros. Through free initiatives, AD explores topics like making, media, culture, and mental health. Based in Chicago, AD also operates in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

AD is built on community. We welcome anyone with a passion for design and are committed to being inclusive and accessible. We're here to connect with you.

Creativity is at the core of every designer. AD champions human expression by producing forward-thinking content that blends the old with the new.

AD celebrates the power of design and its impact on people’s lives. We highlight leading designers, showcase their work, and amplify diverse voices with a positive and uplifting spirit.

Advanced Design was founded by Hector Silva in 2016. As a young educator and designer himself, Hector quickly saw many opportunities for improving education. There was a disconnect between the way design was taught in school and what was demanded of industry, however, against the behemoth of traditional academia, there is little power at the individual level. So, he took matters into his own hands, and Hector built a small team to begin to work to fill those gaps through practical hands-on workshops bringing together students and professionals.

Fast forward five years, and AD has become a mainstay of design education—offering content that highlights excellence in industry, building diversity in the field, connecting designers through events and workshops, and through its most ambitious task to date, creating our own design school. Today, AD has over 30 members, advisors, and instructors across the US and continues to build its community base globally.

Commitment to Diversity

AD is committed to building diversity in design within its organization and through supporting those underrepresented excluded from design through systemic barriers. There are serious gaps in representation in the American design community. For example, Black designers make up only 1.5% of the industrial design community (Zippia.com) while representing 13.4% of the total population (US Census Bureau) or women who make up 18.6% of industrial designers (Zippia.com) while making up 50.8% of the population! (US Census Bureau). The core of our mission is to highlight these designers as role models to inspire young students, but also support students typically excluded from design conversations.

At Offsite, we’ve built a BIPOC scholarship fund to totally fund the tuition of students with expressed financial need, and ensure our student body consists of a healthy mix across the race (65-72% BIPOC students) and gender spectrum (38-45% female or gender non-conforming). Our commitment to diversity runs deep within our own team, with a 100% minority-staffed Board of Directors and an even wider multicultural, multi-gendered team. Design is more inclusive for users when the industry is more inclusive for designers.

Founder & Director
Hector Silva

Board of Directors
Bethany Chan
Betuel Benitez
Dominic Montante

Active Members
Tiffany Do
Fiba Kelani
Chris Ference
Andi Osana
Julie Groh
Hoang Nguyen
Carlos Terminel
Marcos Schneider

Tyler Anderson
Kelly Custer
Michael DiTullo
Rebecca Goesling
Jack Marple

Dominic Montante
Spencer Nugent
Kat Reiser
Reid Schlegel

Advanced Design is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and runs on charitable donations and support from the design community and industry. Your support allows us to offer design resources and workshops to the community at little to no cost to attendees who range from students to experienced design leaders. This aid also allows us to continue to provide scholarships to BIPOC students pursuing a continued or additional education through Offsite. 

We would like to thank our sponsors, past and present, for your unwavering support and investment in our growing community!

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