Silhouette Design Architecture Celebrates 20 Years of Design
Chicago, IL – December 18, 2025 – Chicago-based Silhouette Design Architecture is closing out its 20th anniversary year, celebrating two decades in pursuit of a simple mission: create spaces that move people. Over the past 20 years, the firm has become a quiet powerhouse within the airport hospitality world, helping clients bring concepts to life with design that is visually striking, operationally efficient, scalable, and achievable. What began as a boutique studio in 2005 has grown into a leading partner for concessionaires, restaurateurs, and developers with a portfolio of work stretching from Singapore to Punta Gorda. As Silhouette closes this milestone year, the firm reflects on its growth, its clients, and the spaces its created — while looking ahead to what the next chapter will bring.
Over the past 20 years, Silhouette has designed more than 800 environments in 75 airports, collaborating with clients to bring immersive retail, food & beverage, and hospitality concepts and brands to life. Known for creating spaces that are visually striking, operationally efficient, scalable, and achievable, the firm has long served as one of the airport hospitality industry’s best-kept secrets — a sought-after partner behind winning RFP responses, award-recognized concepts, and seamless build-outs. In just the last two years, Silhouette’s work has been shortlisted 14 times for AX and FAB Awards, reflecting the firm’s evolution and growing visibility within the airport concessions sphere, and the greater architecture and design world.
Today, Silhouette’s services extend far beyond spatial and interior design. The firm now provides full RFP preparation, environmental graphics, branding, packaging, and digital design — bringing the same integrated creative firepower to streetside restaurants and commercial real estate clients in Chicago, the city it calls home.
“Twenty years is a milestone we’re proud to celebrate. Looking back on our body of work brings a sense of gratitude and pride — not just in what we’ve designed, but in who we’ve designed it with,” said Founding Partner and Architecture Principal Scott Costello.
Founding Partner and Design Principal Tara Carmichael added, “We’re deeply grateful to our clients, partners, and the travelers who welcome our work into their journeys. That sense of connection is what drives us forward.”
Silhouette enters 2026 with renewed momentum, an growing menu of services including branding and interactive design, and an expanding footprint in Chicago’s restaurant and commercial real estate industries, but most of all — the same commitment to creating one-of-a-kind environments that bring brands to life.