John Lewis died on July 17, 2020. Within days, Chicago wanted to honor him at two of its most prominent buildings: the Chicago Cultural Center and City Hall.

The banners were designed quickly, under the kind of deadline that doesn't allow for much deliberation. The design used Big Shoulders, Chicago's own typeface, the letterforms the city puts on its street signs, its official documents, its public face. Six by ten feet each, hung where the whole Loop could see them.

Lewis served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 until his death, and spent his life in pursuit of what he called good trouble. Instead of trying to summarize that, the banners simply put his name and likeness on the buildings, and let the city do the rest