I had lunch with a friend named Derek Taylor yesterday. I met Derek in 1998 when I was running for Illinois State Senate as a candidate in the Republican Party. Derek was a recent design graduate from U of I, and he offered to help us with web design on the local Republican party OakParkGOP.org website. He built a really cool “Voters Guide” section that enabled Oak Park Republicans to understand how to vote in the November 1998 general election.

His web design career took him to Morningstar, freelancing and work at a few other places, and eventually he landed at CARS.COM and became a Senior Designer there. More recently, he left CARS to branch out on his own. You can view his current portfolio of work and get more biographical info at the Taylor Design Studios website.

Derek has come up with a great website idea that he has been developing on his own. You can visit the fruits of his labors at OakParkDining.com. This site is full of great information on the restaurants and dining options in and around Oak Park, Illinois. If you live around Oak Park, you should bookmark this site and refer to it often!