“Chicago artist Steve Shanabruch is illustrating and documenting the city — one neighborhood print and font at a time.
“Since 2012, when Shanabruch launched his Chicago Neighborhoods series, he’s been creating vintage-style posters commemorating different parts of Chicago. For each piece, he’ll pick a landmark to highlight a neighborhood — like a hot-dog stand in Norwood Park, the Yale Building in Englewood, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Foster House in West Pullman and the Mars candy factory in Galewood.
“Shanabruch’s posters are inspired by Works Progress Administration posters from the 1930s promoting national parks, he told Block Club. He hopes his work encourages people to get out and explore the city, especially neighborhoods they might have never been to before.
“‘Also, I just know people have so much pride where they’re at,” Shanabruch said. “A lot of people are pretty pumped when they can get art for neighborhoods where they live or grew up.”
“He’s drawn nearly 80 posters for the Neighborhood Series so far, with his first being Logan Square and the most recent being Wicker Park, he said.
“When he’s not working on the Neighborhood Series or other freelance work, Shanabruch spends his time creating his own fonts inspired by lettering on Chicago signs. In the summer of 2018, Shanabruch saw a Block Club article about the reappearance of the Starsiack Clothing sign along Milwaukee Avenue — and he was inspired to take those 13 letters and expand that into an ‘awesome Art Deco’ font.
“I slowly worked on it and made 26 letters and 10 numbers and built a font file and put it on my website,” Shanabruch said. “Then I just started seeing signs all over and saying, ‘You know, it might be fun to make a font out of these really old signs.’
“‘Some of the signs that I made fonts from are no longer existing, which is depressing. But luckily there’s a font now that you can recreate them if you wanted to,” he said. ‘It’s a nice way to preserve what was there, or commemorate the signs that are still standing.’
“He most recently released a free font file inspired by the South Side’s Pride Cleaners sign after hearing it was closing.
“Shanabruch’s been working as an independent illustrator full-time for about a year, creating neighborhood prints and working with various other freelance clients and companies, but he got his start as a designer about 20 years ago.
“‘My favorite part is it does not feel like a job,’ he said. ‘I’m just sitting there drawing pictures for a living. It’s just so wild for me that I can actually do that and support the family on drawing pictures and selling my artwork. And I just feel fortunate that people like my art.”
“Neighbors can hear Shanabruch talk about his work as a Chicago illustrator at a Block Club event 1-2 p.m. April 18 at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. Learn more here. The event is free, but registration is required; only a few seats are remaining. Block Club Arts & Culture Editor Gwen Ihnat will moderate the discussion. (Yassine, Block Club Chicago, 4/6/26)
Read the full story at Block Club Chicago
- Meet Chicago Poster Artist Steve Shanabruch At This Block Club Event; The celebrated artist will discuss his process for creating neighborhood posters and vintage fonts at an April 18 program at the Harold Washington Library, Leen Yassine, Block Club Chicago, 4/6/26
- Visit Norwood Park! Or Englewood! A Chicago artist creates and sells tourism posters for the city’s neighborhood, Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 4/6/26
- Registration for The Chicago Neighborhoods with Steve Shanabruch Guest Host: Block Club Chicago
- Steve Shanabruch Poster Website