Tanagram Partners

Joseph Juhnke, President & CEO

Joseph Juhnke, President & CEO, has been working in interaction design since 1994. As a consultant to executive leadership for firms including The Nielsen Company, and Microsoft, Joseph’s vision of the future of Digital has shaped the way big business thinks about data, people, and the relationships surrounding this evolving and powerful dyad.

Upon his arrival in Chicago, he quickly became involved in large-scale Internet initiatives as senior designer at Andersen Worldwide, and later art director at USWeb/CKS and marchFIRST. Joseph spent five years deploying enterprise scale sites, including Walgreens.com and Cummins.com on content management systems, including ATG/Interwoven, Broadvision, and Microsoft CMS. In 1999, Joseph joined forces with Marielle Schmidt, now Tanagram Partners’ Managing Director, to form brilliant-id, a boutique design and information architecture consultancy. In October of 2003, brilliant-id merged with Tanagram to become Tanagram Partners, offering an optimal mix of traditional graphic design and emerging interactive technologies.

Joseph also supports the Office of Naval Research and DARPA doing advance research in fields including “Knowledge Flow in Command and Control,” “,Shared Awareness,” and “The Future of Augmented Reality.”

Joseph received his BFA in Art (emphasis in Graphic Design) from Western Michigan University. Joseph also holds concurrent BAs in Communications and Art.

Adam Kallish, Delivery Director

Adam Kallish, Delivery Director, ensures space for design in everything that Tanagram Partners does for its clients. His experience has included creative, business, and technology solutions for several market verticals. Known as a valued leader, he has facilitated multi-disciplinary teams with entrepreneurial drive to make connections and create new value. Adam dedicates his career to the intersection of applied imagination and measurable change, his skills link graphic design, brand strategy, and organizational design.

An interest in merging graphic technologies with digital workflows led Adam to the position of Design Director at Andersen Worldwide. With the rise of digital consultancies, he became an Associate Partner at USWeb/CKS (marchFIRST) leading a design group focused on the integration of design, business processes, research, and technology. As Director of Innovation (Midwest Region) for ZEFER Corporation, Adam led rapid acceleration workshops to define new opportunities for digital technology. He ran his own consultancy, Trope, which focused on a diverse range of design, digital development, and organizational strategy.

Adam actively lectures on design and technology at such institutions as the Indian Institute of Management, the National Institute of Design, and Swire Polytechnic. His published work has appeared in the Design Management Journal, inForm (AIGA), and Design Issues. He has held teaching positions at several design institutions, and is currently teaching a graduate level course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has maintained past associations with the American Institute of Graphic Arts, The American Center for Design, The Design Management Institute, and The Institute for the Future.

Adam received his BA in Visual Communications from University of Illinois at Chicago; a MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design; and a Fulbright to India.

Marielle Schmidt, Managing Director

Marielle Schmidt, partner and Managing Director, offers extensive global experience, spending 13 of her formative years in Europe: five in Switzerland, seven in Germany, and a year in The Hague, The Netherlands. Over the course of her design career, she has transitioned from traditional graphic design to project and account management to business management, spanning all areas of marketing communications. She is pursuing a secondary career track in individual and family counseling which has already deeply informed her role at Tanagram Partners.

Marielle began her career working for the design firm Ontwerpwerk in The Hague. As a Senior Designer at Andersen Worldwide, she had the opportunity to expand her knowledge into interactive media, business processes, and client management. As a Brand Analyst at USWeb/CKS, she was involved in the development of brand strategies for companies such as Allied Van Lines, Norwest/Wells Fargo Bank, and Grupo Televisa in Mexico. During her years partnering with Joseph Juhnke at brilliant-id, she designed projects of all sizes, providing anything from visual design to programming to project management, and acted as the company’s business manager. Now as Managing Director of Tanagram Partners, Marielle is responsible for all aspects of Tanagram Partners’ business management.

Marielle received a BFA in Visual Communications from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Master of Education in Community Counseling from Loyola University Chicago. She is bilingual in German and English and proficient in French, Spanish, and Dutch. She is currently pursuing Illinois state licensure as a professional counselor (LPC).

Jackie Ropski, PMP, Project Management Director

Jackie Ropski, Director of Project Management, has managed print and online communication projects for the last 18 years. She believes that the magic of electronic media lies in the unique relationship that can be developed between technology and visual design. Her combined background in art education, graphic design, multimedia, and educational publishing is the frame of reference for her current role at Tanagram Partners.

Fine arts and graphic design were her initial pursuits, teaching art in secondary school and designing educational media at the Medical Center at UIC. Transitioning into the management of corporate communications, she developed electronic media solutions at hup! multi-media, Arthur Andersen, marchFIRST, brilliant–id, and Harcourt Achieve. Her project management experience spans media and environments, ranging from interactive CD-ROM projects for boutique consultancies to large-scale Internet initiatives for dot-coms.

Jackie received a BFA from Mundelein College, and an MFA in graphic design from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her post-graduate achievements included participating in the Yale Summer Program in Graphic Design in Brissago, Switzerland and receiving a Polk Brothers Fellowship and Faculty Prize for Graduate Study in Graphic Design. In 2004 Jackie became a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and maintains her certification actively through continued education and training.