Modern tinkerers and makers
Be Free Studios is a Chicago-area design studio that also builds. We start with the design, whether that's a logo, a brand kit, a website or a custom piece, and then we make the thing: in code, in wood, in print. Design, fabrication and technology live under one roof, so a project doesn't get handed between three vendors and lose its point of view along the way.
How we got here
The studio grew out of art. We started in print design, then graphic design, then the web, back when "website designer" was a job of its own, and somewhere along the way we got curious about how the things we were designing actually worked. That curiosity pulled us into building, in code and in wood, with painting, printmaking and antique restoration never far from the bench. The medium changes. The instinct doesn't: figure out how something is built, then build it better.
Next on the bench: custom picture frames, made to fit your art and your wall.
Design, then the thing itself, then the finish: we'd rather carry a project through every step than hand it off at the halfway mark. We like a project best when we can see it all the way through.
Values
Curious first
We want to know how something works before we decide how it should look, whether it's a website, a brand or a custom piece.
One point of view
Design and making happen together, so the idea you approve is the one that gets built.
Tinker, then refine
We try things, test them and adjust until they work, in code, in wood and on paper.
Gallery
Design, fabrication and technology from a studio near Chicago, working with clients nationwide.