Derek Nelson

Derek is a partner and co-founder at Clique Studios, a creative agency working to unlock potential through design. Now a team of ~50 people, with offices in Chicago, Denver, and Austin, the agency has won 90+ industry awards while working with organizations like Lincoln Park Zoo, Northwestern University, Red Rocks, and the City of Denver.

He cares a lot about creative collaboration, the art and science of partnership, and building an organization based on teaching and learning. As a writer, he’s been published by Entrepreneur Magazine, Smashing Magazine, Glassdoor, and more. He won a Student Choice Award as the top instructor on the marketing track at Startup Institute.

As a songwriter, he has four releases under his belt as a solo artist, as well as two albums with Martin Van Ruin. His recent solo album, Richer Soil, was named “one of the most emotionally resonant albums of 2019” (Columbia Daily Tribune) while Martin Van Ruin has been called a “folk rock supergroup … with inescapable Bob Dylan and Neil Young Comparisons” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Derek previously wrote a weekly civic action newsletter to 25,000 subscribers, was a field organizer on the ‘08 Obama campaign, and served as a designer for the University of Missouri. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two sons. Their dog is named Dolly Parton.