Photo: Stephanie Bassos (BA '05)

By Liz Harmon Miller

When Linsey Burritt, above left, and Crystal Grover met as co-workers at now defunct Gourmand Coffee in the South Loop, it wasn’t more than coincidence that both were students at Columbia. Burritt was in the graphic design program, Grover in interior architecture. They might not have had much in common.

But they did. They both had an entrenched belief in the importance of living sustainably. It turned out to be a commonality that would become central to their lives and work.

Photo: Sam Rosen

Created for co-working office space the COOP in River North, this display uses salvaged egg crates from local restaurants, hot glue, fishing line, and string. It plays off the idea that a co-working environment produces connections that inspire “a hatching of ideas and rise of collaboration.”

Today, Burritt and Grover own and operate Chicago-based INDO, a window-design studio with an alter ego as an activist organization. Or is it the reverse?

Designs by INDO (the name, like the studio, showcases the interior of a window) are always attention grabbing and often mind expanding. Constructed entirely of used, discarded, or salvaged materials, the designs are both beautiful and challenging, urging viewers to think deeply about waste in our society.

“I consider INDO quiet activism,” said Grover, “because we say what we believe through our work, but not in a way that’s throwing it at people. It’s not saying, ‘You should recycle!’”

“I consider INDO quiet activism because we say what we believe through our work, but not in a way that’s throwing it at people.”

Take, for example, 2010’s Slow, a dreamlike piece comprising hundreds of white Styrofoam cups that the women collected from area dumpsters over the course of just one weekend. Or the 40-by-7-foot Script Wall at Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, which Ogilvy & Mather commissioned INDO to do; it’s constructed of 5,800 pounds of discarded paper, hand selected from 10,000 pounds donated by a recycling agency.

INDO is winning art awards while amassing clients throughout Chicago, from restaurants to boutiques to top-tier nonprofits. And they’re garnering even national media attention, including coverage in the March issue of Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine.

Both women credit faculty at their alma mater for teaching them by example how to be working artists.

“What was great about Columbia was having professors who were also working in the industry,” said Burritt, adding that one, Art + Design (A+D) instructor Isabelle McGuire, helped her even after graduation: “I stayed in touch with her. She made me more confident about being able to go out on my own.”

Grover agrees. “Columbia is great because the teachers are doing what they’re teaching,” she said. She remembers her favorite professor, A+D’s Tim Cozzens, as someone who “pushed really hard, and then told you when you were doing a good job—or that you could do better when you weren’t.”

Now, five years after launching the company, what do Burritt and Grover hope people will say about the job they’re doing?

“I want people to see something out of their ordinary day and feel that ‘Ooooh’,” said Grover. “If we get that, then maybe people will ... think about where we may have gotten those materials. If our work can spur a conversation, that’s a win. On a deeper level, if our work causes people to reflect on their consumption patterns, that’s a win too.”

Burritt hopes the reason INDO’s work is resonating is that, “People are starting to learn to live modestly,” she said. “I don’t think people saw [Slow] and felt badly if they used a disposable cup earlier that day. Instead, they’re inspired to buy a reusable cup. That right there is what it’s all about.”

Photo of Parlor 836: Julia Stotz (BFA '08)

Clockwise from top left: INDO repurposed cardboard to create this window display for home interior shop Post 27 on West Grand Avenue. The sign for Ukrainian Village salon Parlor 836 is made of high-density urethane (a substitute for wood) and repurposed nail polish bottle caps. The Script Wall at Steppenwolf Merle Reskin Garage Theatre consists of 5,800 pounds (142,000 sheets) of used paper that was collected by INDO, Steppenwolf staff, and Recycling Services. The installation, created in collaboration with Ogilvy & Mather, will be up for five years, making it INDO’s longest-standing display.