Colophon

A colophon describes the methods, tools, and materials used to make a creative work. Traditionally, colophons were included as the ending flourish of making a book. This is our colophon for how we produce The Chicago Design System.

History

This version of the site was produced in May 2019, beginning as a reference implementation of the Chicago Design System. Highlights include a new brand and visual language and a more accessible experience for Chicagoans. It was produced to support a consistent and predictable user experience across all our applications and services.

Technology

This site is hosted on GitHub Pages. It is produced using Jekyll, a blog-aware static site generator written in Ruby. Jekyll can generate a static web site from text content stored in markdown files and a theme, in this case the Chicago Design System.

The Chicago Design System code is forked, or built upon, the U.S. Web Design System (View the USDS code on GitHub).

Learn more about the City of Chicago’s source code for the Chicago Design System and other projects at our GitHub profile.

Design & imagery

The Chicago Design System theme was developed in pro bono partnership with Ogilvy, and type designer Patric King of House of Pretty. Typefaces Big Shoulders (coming soon!), Saira, Roboto, and Lora are hosted on Google fonts

Many of the images appearing on City of Chicago websites are a product of the Department of Fleet and Facility Management’s Bureau of Asset Management.

Prints are available to buy online at the Chicago Image Gallery.