Ashley Klockenga says she was drawn to the “number of trees and character of Elmhurst’s neighborhoods so close to Chicago,” an inspiration that led her to design The Elmhurst Mug, now available at Brewpoint Coffee locations on York Road and Park Avenue (brewpointcoffee.com).
The DuPage County resident said she has been designing hometown mugs since 2019, adding that it started, in her words, “by accident.”
“My first mug was a gift for friends in the fly-in-only First Nations community where we were living in northwestern Ontario,” Klockenga said, adding, “I wanted to capture the details that made such a unique place home.”
The second mug, she explained, “came while we were anxiously awaiting the birth of our overdue fourth daughter. To keep busy, I started drawing the town where we were staying and brought the design to the local coffee shop.
“What we thought would be a year’s worth of mug inventory sold out in 24 hours! That unexpected response was the beginning of the business.”
Since then, she has illustrated communities in both the United States and Canada, including Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Oak Brook, La Grange, Naperville, Brookfield, Geneva, Batavia and St. Charles.
“I’ve also created mugs for communities in Texas and northern Ontario. Each design brings together the landmarks, local businesses and little details that make a place recognizable to the people who call it home,” Klockenga noted.
She said she reached out to Melissa Villanueva of Brewpoint Coffee because “I like to partner with an independent local business so the mug has a home within the community it celebrates.
“That was the idea behind reaching out to Melissa at Brewpoint with the Elmhurst artwork. Melissa liked the concept, and working with her team led to incorporating Brewpoint’s logo into the design.”
“I’ve seen her work at other coffee shops in other towns,” Villanueva, Brewpoint Coffee owner for 12 years, said of the artist’s coffee mugs, so when Klockenga approached her with the proposition to feature Brewpoint Coffee on the mugs, “It was an easy ‘yes.’”
Villanueva said she liked the idea of the illustrations representing Elmhurst because “Community is a huge part of what we do,” adding that “I was excited to bring it to Elmhurst.”
“We’ve sold hundreds of them at this point,” she mentioned.
The artist grew up in Brookfield and later Plainfield, and studied visual communications at Northern Illinois University. Besides living in Ontario for about 10 years and for a time in Texas, she has lived in Illinois since the end of 2024 with her husband and four daughters.
As for choosing Elmhurst, “It’s a story about looking closely at the place you know, and finding something worth sharing in its everyday details.”
“My work today combines illustration with storytelling. I enjoy looking closely at a community and finding the details that help tell the story, from a historic building to a favorite neighborhood coffee shop,” Klockenga described, adding that she was familiar with the area due to family activities in Elmhurst, where “[I] love that trees outnumber people.”
“Living far from where I grew up deepened my appreciation for home, but it also taught me to notice the unique features of each place. That’s still at the heart of every mug I draw,” Klockenga summed up.
For more information about her business, Artist Ashley Ann, visit artistashleyann.com.
