ROLE
In The Design Group I create process, train young designers and direct the vision of projects toward strategic solutions that build on the client’s needs.
Between my current and previous role I helped grow the group in it’s strategic design thinking and headcount.
Additionally, I work with my now Head of Design to create in-office culture that resulted in return to office for the group, and brought forward new methods of making like AI-based workflows that now permeate FCB.
ABOUT ME
I’m a designer born in Illinois, trained in Kansas City, & currently living in Chicago. Being a second generation creative I was always exposed to art as an outlet—winning a ‘best flame drawing contest’ remains the peak of my middle school experience. Having that exceptional base to start from, I searched anything that could continue to inspire me to make. I took that desire on the road to the Kansas City Art Institute and a professional career where I’ve cultivated brands both big and small.
EXPERIENCE
FCB Chicago: The Design Group
VSA Partners
Falk Harrison
New Honor Society
Work
Briquette is a handcrafted typeface drawn from charcoal for Kingsford, a true heritage brand that’s been igniting memories around the grill since 1920. Its variable letterforms emerge from bold strokes with irregular, grainy edges that capture the crumbly texture of its source material. Each character bears unique imperfections – subtle ashy smudges, broken segments, and varied opacities that transition from deep black to lighter grays – giving the typeface its distinct appearance. With comprehensive international glyph support, Briquette functions across all Latin-based languages.
While maintaining its handmade qualities, the typeface retains enough structural integrity to function as a powerful display font with each letter feeling physically assembled rather than digitally rendered. The overall effect is both brazen and intimate, as if each character carries traces of the hands that formed it.
Despite being the leader in oral care accessories, DenTek's packaging looked like every other brand on the shelf— rendering them effectively invisible to shoppers. When one-third of purchasing decisions are made at shelf, the challenge was clear: Make DenTek visible and desirable again.
GoRVing is the marketing arm of the broader RV industry, which includes dealers, manufacturers, and campgrounds. Historically, GoRVing has been laser-focused on recruiting the next generation of would-be RV owners. But what happens when that well of potential RV owners starts to dry up dramatically? You pivot.
Talks
KCAI: Roadshow
Sharing key insights for young designers preparing to enter the workforce, and dispelling myths about how to get your first gig.
Talk 3
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Books Open: Speaking
Hosting a speaker series, building design community, or finding a space to question the why? Let's talk about how we can partner.
Born and raised in Illinois and schooled at the Kansas City Art Institute, Ian O’Saben is a champion of all things midwest and design. After cutting his teeth with STL’s best, he now lives in Chicago as a Design Director at The Design Group within FCB where creates process and vision to impact change not only within his team, but in the field of design as whole.
Ian believes in the collective conscious that comes from collaboration and the ability for design to react to the future—both near and far. In an endless pursuit of new creation he has crafted ethics based solutions to AI problems, evolved how design is produced in process, and created a studio culture that functions as its own full-service ecosystem, defying the limits of a traditional design studio.
He believes in the free-flow of information and ideas for unexpected results, championing the development of those in his group and those around him as a conduit for inspiration.
© Ian O'Saben 2025