Season Poster Design Competition

2025 Winner

The Ravinia Women’s Board congratulates this year’s Ravinia Season Poster designer, Kaia Rytel.

The season poster’s concept and design are guided by Ravinia’s vision—the power of shared, live-music moments to inspire ourselves and the world—and the harmony between music and Ravinia’s lush surroundings. Rytel’s design brings contemporary interpretation to mid-century modern styles, a mix of transformation and tradition at the heart of the current rejuvenation of the crown-jewel Pavilion at Ravinia, which was built over 1949–50. In the artwork, music rises brightly from a gentle expanse of trees to fill the starlit sky.

Rytel will receive a $1,000 cash prize, and her design will be featured in the promotion of the upcoming 2025 Ravinia season, distributed among hundreds of Chicagoland stores and public spaces, and sold exclusively at the Ravinia Festival Shop.

About Kaia Rytel

Kaia Rytel is a senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, studying Sustainable Design with minors in Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Her passion for art and design began in childhood, earning her over 15 national and regional awards in photography and design during high school, with work exhibited at Carnegie Hall and New York galleries, as well as featured in the permanent collection at Lake Zurich High School.

Consistently named to the Dean’s List at UIUC, Kaia has continued to excel in design competitions such as Buildner’s architecture challenges. Her capstone project focuses on creating sustainable home-office solutions that integrate natural surroundings, enhancing productivity and well-being in suburban neighborhoods.

Kaia plans to continue studies at the U of I and in Europe toward a master’s degree in architecture, inspired by Northern European design principles to develop innovative and sustainable design solutions.