The Firm That Helped Build Chicago: An Award-Winning Brochure

Some companies have a history. Parsons Corporation has a skyline. For four years, Luciana Hickman, founder of Lu Hickman Creative Co., worked as a design contractor at the Chicago office of Parsons Corporation, and the brochure telling the story of the firm's roots in the city earned a 2017 GDUSA American Graphic Design Award in the In-House category.

The challenge was a familiar one in the AEC industry. With more than 80 years in the market, Parsons Corporation has shaped the places people live and the systems they rely on, spanning infrastructure and national security work across transportation, urban development, energy, environmental and water, cyber and intelligence, and defense. A record that broad usually sits buried in project lists and dates. The job was to make that legacy land emotionally, not just factually, and to do it for an audience that knows the difference.

The answer was an infographic that became the heart of the piece. It mapped the Chicago landmarks Parsons Corporation helped build, gathered into a single view so the firm's history and the city's history read as one and the same. Instead of a list of projects, you saw a place you recognized, and the realization that the company had a hand in building it. That move turned a corporate timeline into something a Chicagoan could feel a connection to, which is exactly what good information design is supposed to do.

This is where the Lu Hickman Creative Co. thesis comes from. Luciana Hickman founded the studio on the conviction that the AEC industry deserves design made by people who actually understand it, who know how engineering firms talk about their work and how to translate technical credibility into a story people want to read. The Parsons Corporation brochure was an early, award-winning proof of that, made on the inside, recognized nationally, and still the kind of work we build today.

FAQ

What award did the Parsons Chicago brochure win?

A 2017 GDUSA American Graphic Design Award in the In-House category.

Who designed it?

Luciana Hickman, founder of Lu Hickman Creative Co., during a four-year contract at the Chicago office of Parsons Corporation.

What made the brochure distinctive?

A custom infographic mapping the Chicago landmarks Parsons Corporation helped build, framing the firm's history alongside the city's own.

Who is Parsons Corporation?

Parsons Corporation is a global engineering and technology firm with more than 80 years in the market, serving infrastructure and national security markets including transportation, urban development, energy, environmental and water, cyber and intelligence, and defense.

Lu Hickman Creative Co. is a certified MBE/WBE boutique design and marketing agency headquartered in Houston, TX, with presence in Chicago and São Paulo, serving clients across the United States. The firm holds WBE, MBE, Hire Houston First (HHF), HUB, and SBE designations and has earned six GDUSA awards in addition to two 2025 HBMA Lantern Awards.

Services include brand identity and guidelines, capabilities brochures and sales materials, proposals and RFP design, interactive presentations, and full marketing collateral systems, all built for firms that compete in technical industries.

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