Best Color Grading Studios in Chicago (2026)

Introduction

Chicago has a compact but capable colour scene, built mostly around advertising. The 10 studios below range from dedicated grading boutiques to full-service post houses with a colour department, and every one has a Chicago base in 2026.

Most of the city’s colour work comes from its agencies. Publicis’s Leo is headquartered here, and independents such as Highdive, ranked third on Ad Age’s 2026 A-List, commission a steady flow of national spots. Harbor opened a full-service Chicago studio in River North in October 2023 with a senior colourist who has graded Super Bowl work for Jeep and Rocket Mortgage. Company 3, which arrived in 2012, now runs Chicago as a satellite linked to colourists across its network. Smaller specialists such as Nolo Digital Film, open since 2007, handle features and commercials from their own suites.

The list was chosen for current colour capability, recent credits and the strength of each studio’s client roster. It is a smaller market than New York or Los Angeles, so we have listed 10 studios we could verify rather than padding the count. The order carries no ranking.

The best color grading studios in Chicago

1. Harbor Chicago

Founder-led · River North · harborpicturecompany.com

Harbor was founded in New York by Zak Tucker in 2012 to bring production and post-production under one roof. It launched its Chicago studio at 358 W Ontario St in October 2023, one of five studios alongside New York, Los Angeles, London and Atlanta. Senior colourist Oisín O’Driscoll, formerly head of colour at The Mill Chicago, leads colour there. Across the company, Harbor worked on four Super Bowl campaigns in 2025 and earned seven AICP Post Awards nominations.

O’Driscoll’s credits include Super Bowl spots for Jeep, Rocket Mortgage, Crown Royal and Downy, Samsung “UnCrush” and Sephora “Identify as We”. He has graded for Highdive, Leo Burnett, Energy BBDO and Droga5. The Chicago studio also runs editorial, sound, VFX and design, which helps when a job needs a full finish in one building.

2. Company 3 Chicago

Part of Company 3 · West Loop · company3.com

Company 3 was founded by colourists Stefan Sonnenfeld and Mike Pethel and is one of the best-known grading brands in film and advertising. Its Chicago office opened in 2012 under colourist Tyler Roth, who built the studio before moving to Los Angeles in 2018. Company 3 now lists Chicago as a satellite location at 820 W Jackson Blvd.

The satellite gives Chicago agencies a local room connected to Company 3 colourists in Los Angeles, New York, London and elsewhere. Parker Jarvie, who joined the Chicago facility in 2015, has since coloured features including F1 and Superman. Ask which colourist will grade your job and whether they will be in the room or working remotely.

3. Optimus

Partner-owned · Chicago · optimus.com

Optimus is a Chicago post and production company with more than 70 full-time staff at its home base and a second office in New York. Editing, colour correction, VFX, design, audio mixing and finishing all sit in-house, and its production arm, ONE at Optimus, makes commercial and branded content.

Recent news includes three Midwest Film Festival nominations in August 2026 for the short “Cake”, edited by Hugo Escobar, and Best Short at the Chicago Latino Film Festival in April 2025 for “Paper Flower”. Keeping colour, edit and Flame finishing in one place makes conform and delivery simpler on agency spots.

4. Carbon Chicago

Part of Carbon · West Loop · heycarbon.com

Carbon is a creative studio with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, covering design, live action, character animation, CGI, VFX and colour grading. The Chicago office is at 111 N Canal St. Senior colourist Julien Biard joined it in 2018 from London, where he graded Volvo “Life Paint”, a Cannes double Grand Prix winner in 2015.

Recent work across the studio includes Super Bowl LVIII spots for Poppi and Discover, Miller Lite’s NFL “Canimations” and Xbox “This Is an Xbox Yup!”. Confirm who is grading in Chicago before booking, since the studio does not publish its current colour roster.

5. Utopic

Independent · River North · utopic.net

Utopic is a River North post house that has specialised in high-end advertising since 2009. Its services cover creative editorial, motion graphics, audio, VFX, colour grading and AI work, with grading offered for film, television and web advertising.

The studio has also trained Chicago colour talent: Jennifer Gaida, now The Colonie’s colourist, spent three years at Utopic building both her grading and editing skills. It suits agency jobs where the offline edit and the grade benefit from staying in one building.

6. Nolo Digital Film

Independent · River North · nolodigitalfilm.com

Nolo was founded in 2007 and describes itself as Chicago’s first digital intermediate colour grading studio. Founding colourist Mike Matusek and colourist Elliot Rudmann grade commercials and features from 343 W Erie St, and the studio also offers 4K film scanning, restoration and DCP creation.

Commercial credits include State Farm, Aldi, Corona, Mr. Clean and Cottonelle, and feature credits include Let’s Start a Cult (2024) and Departing Seniors (2023). Sessions run in person or remotely, for agencies and independent filmmakers alike.

7. Quicksilver Color

Part of Journeywork Entertainment · North Side · quicksilvercolor.com

Quicksilver Color is a grading boutique run by owner and colourist C. Ryan Stemple from 1700 W Irving Park Rd. It is a Journeywork Entertainment LLC company and works with local clients in person and with others through remote sessions, using several colourists.

Alongside grading, it handles online editing and relinks, editorial dailies and master delivery in DCP, IMF, DPX and DCDM formats. That deliverables work makes it a practical choice for independent features, such as Will Schneider’s Goodbye Janet, that need finishing as well as a grade.

8. 11 Dollar Bill

Independent · Chicago · 11dollarbill.com

11 Dollar Bill is a Chicago post and design team offering editing, VFX, colour grading and finishing, with more than ten editors on its roster. Creative director Dave Mehrman, a Columbia College Chicago graduate with 25 years in post, handles grading, VFX compositing, on-set supervision and finishing, and has been with the company for over a decade.

Mehrman’s credits include Red Bull, Toyota, Dyson, Zoom, BP and HP, with recent work for Regal Cinemas, Salesforce and Sonic. The studio’s client list also includes Netflix and Kraft. It now builds tools such as RunwayML and ComfyUI into its workflow, which is worth asking about if a job mixes live action with generated material.

9. The Colonie

Owner-run · Chicago · thecolonie.com

The Colonie has worked in Chicago since October 2008 as a full-service post house covering editorial, motion graphics, colour, VFX and finishing. Editor and co-founder Bob Ackerman and Susan Okimoto took full ownership in February 2025. It added a colour department in 2020 when colourist Jennifer Gaida joined from Energy BBDO’s Flare division.

Gaida’s grading credits include Toyota, La Mer, Rare Beauty, Perrier, Walmart and HP, plus music videos for director Rhyan LaMarr. Most of the published coverage of the colour team dates from 2020 and 2021, so ask for a current reel.

10. Ajax Creative

Multi-city studio · Fulton Market · ajaxcreative.com

Ajax Creative is a production and post company with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Its Chicago studio is at 159 N Sangamon St. Colour grading runs in DaVinci Resolve, alongside VFX in Houdini, Nuke, After Effects and Unreal Engine.

Clients include Air Canada, Coors, Microsoft, TikTok, WWF, Virgin and International Trucks. The studio frames grading around brand consistency across a campaign, which suits clients producing many versions of the same spot.

What to look for in a Chicago color grading studio

Book the colourist as much as the facility. In Chicago a single senior colourist often defines a studio’s look, and people move between houses. Ask who will sit in the chair, look at their recent reel, and check that their strengths (automotive, beauty, food, long-form) match the job.

Decide early whether you need the colourist in the room. Several Chicago studios work as satellites or offer remote sessions, connecting a local suite to colourists in Los Angeles or New York. Remote grading works well when the monitoring is calibrated at both ends, but some directors and agencies still prefer to sit in for the final pass.

Check how the grade connects to finishing. A colour boutique may hand back graded files for someone else to conform and deliver, while a full-service house can take the job through Flame, versioning and broadcast or DCP masters. Knowing who owns the conform and the deliverables avoids surprises in the last week.

Finally, agree how references, LUTs and review files will move. A grade depends on the right camera originals, show LUTs and reference stills reaching the colourist, and on clear feedback coming back on each version. Studios with a tidy file handover and a single place for review links tend to finish on time.

How Fabric helps color grading teams

Fabric gives post teams one workspace for footage, references, LUTs and client feedback, with AI search across all of it. A colour job pulls together camera originals, show LUTs, reference stills, grade exports and notes from several people, and Fabric keeps them in one shared space per project.

Heavy media sits in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and large video files open without a full download. Shared team folders always show the latest version. If the team cuts from proxies before the grade, there is a short explainer on what a proxy workflow is, and another on what a LUT is for clients new to the process.

Finding the right reference is often the slow part of a grade. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and colour search finds stills by shade. Similar search takes a frame and surfaces visually similar images, weighing composition, colour and subject, which helps when building a look from past work.

For review, any graded export or folder can be published as a web page, protected with a password and sent with link analytics that show when each named recipient opened it. Clients and agency producers can leave threaded comments through a shared link without signing up. Timestamped comments and drawing on video are coming soon, so frame-accurate notes still belong in a dedicated review tool for now. Our comparison of cloud storage for video editors covers the wider set-up.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best colour grading studio in Chicago?

It depends on the job. For national advertising with a full finish, Harbor Chicago and Optimus offer colour alongside edit, sound and VFX. For a specialist grade on a feature or commercial, Nolo Digital Film and Quicksilver Color focus on colour and deliverables.

Can I work with a Chicago colourist remotely?

Yes. Company 3 runs its Chicago office as a satellite connected to colourists across its network, and Nolo Digital Film and Quicksilver Color both offer remote sessions. Ask about monitor calibration at your end before relying on a remote review.

Should I use a colour boutique or a full-service post house?

A boutique suits projects where editorial and VFX are handled elsewhere and the grade is a defined stage. A full-service house makes sense when the conform, finishing and versioning should stay in one building. Our list of the best post-production companies in Chicago covers the full-service side.

What should I send a colourist before a session?

Send the locked edit with an EDL or XML, access to camera originals, any show or camera LUTs, and a small set of reference stills for the look. Agree the delivery specs (broadcast, web, DCP) at the same time.

Which Chicago studios grade features as well as commercials?

Nolo Digital Film has feature credits including Let’s Start a Cult (2024), Quicksilver Color handles feature grading and masters, and Harbor’s O’Driscoll has graded feature and episodic work including Mean Girls the Musical.

Related lists

Color grading studios in other cities: New York · Los Angeles · London · Atlanta · Toronto

More in Chicago: Creative agencies · Post-production · Editing · VFX · Sound design · Video production

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for video editors · Fabric for creative teams · Best creative proofing tools