Collections
The Black experience in design: identity, expression & reflection / Anne H. Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo Laker, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner, Kelly Walters
Books
REF.TY.2767
595 pages : illustrations, maps, plans ; 23 cm
2022
African American artists, Graphic arts, Design
"The Black Experience in Design, an anthology centering a range of perspectives, spotlights teaching practices, research, stories, and conversations from a Black/African diasporic lens. Through the voices represented, this text exemplifies the inherently collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of design, providing access to ideas and topics for a variety of audiences, meeting people as they are and wherever they are in their knowledge about design. Ultimately, The Black Experience in Design serves as both inspiration and a catalyst for the next generation of creative minds tasked with imagining, shaping, and designing our future"--Publisher's website, accessed 2/23/24
ABOUT THE AUTHORS (From Sky Horse Publishing website)
Anne H. Berry is a writer and educator whose research focuses on race/representation in the field of design. Her writing has been published in AIGA’s Eye on Design, Communication Arts, and the inaugural issue of the anthology Recognize featuring essays and commentary from indigenous people and people of color.
Kareem Collie is a designer, strategist, and educator specializing in collaborative and human-centered design approaches to capture, reveal, and produce visual and experiential narratives. He holds a master’s degree from NYU in culture and communication studies and a bachelor’s in fine arts from Pratt Institute in communication design.
Penina Acayo Laker is a designer and educator whose practice and research is centered around topics that utilize a human-centered approach to solving social problems, locally and internationally. She is currently broadening the scope and access of design education to young people in Uganda through her DesignEd workshops.
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel focuses on equity, social justice, and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design education, research and practice. She promotes greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel.
Jennifer Rittner is a writer and educator. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. Her work has been published in the New York Times, DMI: Journal, AIGA Eye on Design, and Core77; and in 2021 served as guest editor for a special issue on Design & Policing for Design Museum magazine. Jennifer earned her B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies at New York University and her M.Ed. in Communication and Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Kelly Walters is a designer, educator and founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Bright Polka Dot. Her ongoing design research interrogates the complexities of identity formation, systems of value, and the shared vernacular in and around Black visual culture. She is the author of Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race published by Princeton Architectural Press. Kelly is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the BFA Communication Design Program at Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword / Emory Douglas -- Foreword / Ruha Benjamin -- Introduction. Why is this book needed? / Anne H. Berry -- Searching for a Black aesthetic in American graphic design / Sylvia Harris -- On Sylvia Harris: the contributions of Black designers / Anne H. Berry & Steven Heller -- Designing with complexity: An intersectional view / Jennifer Rittner -- Design practices. Chapter introduction / Kareem Collie -- An exhibition by Black designers / Dorothy Hayes -- In conversation: Darhil Crooks, Ian Spalter & Dantley Davis on practicing design while Black, with Kareem Collie -- Another brick in the wall / R. Vann Graves -- The four pillars / Jon Key -- To be just ... steward: Some life lyrics / Quinlin B. Messenger -- In conversation: Annika Hansteen-Izora on identity, community & authenticity, with Jennifer Rittner -- Design education. Chapter introduction / Anne H. Berry -- In conversation: Maurice Woods & Anne H. Berry on meeting the demands of the future -- The new visual abnormal / Colette Gaiter -- Unvisible (What's the scenario?) / Steve Jones -- The strong Black woman / Terresa Moses -- A reading list for the politics of design / Chris Rudd -- Beyond the universal: Positionality & promise in a HBCU classroom / Kaleena Sales -- Design scholarship. Chapter introduction / Lesley-Ann Noel -- Follow the golden ratio from Africa to the Bauhaus for a cross-cultural aesthetic for images / Audrey G. Bennett -- The pause: Reflecting on a righteous consciousness that informs our design as Afrikans / Nii Kommey Botchway -- Finding Anthony: Establishing a research trajectory / Cheryl D. Miller -- Bondage by paper: Devices of slaveholding ingenuity / Alicia Olushola Ajayi -- At the Jim Crow Museum, we use racist objects to engage hearts & heads in social justice / David Pilgrim-- Activism, advocacy & community-engaged design. Chapter introduction / Kareem Collie & Penina Laker -- Participatory & emanicipatory aspirations in Afrika / Mugendi K. M'Rithaa -- From the Black anti-Abelist diary: A tribute to my Black disabled son from a Black disabled mother / Jennifer White-Johnson -- The infrastructure of care: community design, healing & organizational post-traumatic growth / Sloan Leo -- The center in the margins: locating intimacy in multi-communities / June A. Grant -- Biophilia patterns in Black & Brown spaces / Michele Y. Washington -- In conversation: Amos Kennedy & Kareem Collie on advocating for humanity -- The preconditions to healing / Liz Ogbu -- In conversation: Raja Schaar & Jennifer Rittner on sustainability as a historically Black practice -- Afrofuturism in design. Chapter introduction / Lesly-Ann Noel -- From algorithms to Afro-rithms in Afrofuturism / Lonny Avi Brooks -- A Black-centered design ethos: engaging Afrofuturism in catalyzing more inclusive technological futures / Woodrow W. Winchester III -- What type of ancestor do you want to be? / Adah Parris -- Black secret technologies / John Jennings -- Dark matter's magic in design / Folayemi Wilson -- Journeys in design. Chapter introduction / Kelly Walters -- The Black designer's journey: Theory of change / Vocasta Lachapelle -- In pursuit of a prismatic profession/ Forest Young -- &&&: Provoking type / Schessa Garbutt -- 1 word / 1 object / Former and current design students -- Curating my way into design: A work in progress / Michell Joan Wilkinson -- My journey to design / Sabine Maxine Lopez -- Moving on: Interview with white male academic / Aisha Richards -- Design = Art ≠ Design. Chapter introduction / Kelly Walters -- In conversation: Nontsikelelo Mutiti & Kelly Walters on image making, conceptual process, and the tools of design -- In conversation: Cey Adams & Kelly Walters on design detours & artistic possibilities -- Design (is) art. If you want it to be. / Rick Griffith -- In conversation: Mimi Ọnụọha & Romi Morrison on unsettling the equivalents -- In conversation: Rhea L. Combs & Anne H. Berry on representing everyday Black lives through film & photography -- Collective, radical & liberatory spaces in design. Chapter introduction / Lesley-Ann Noel -- for colored girls who feel trapped in white institutions / Lauren Williams -- The Black student union / Terrence Moline -- Make the path by talking / Maurice Cherry -- Building BADG: The guild as a model for liberatory space / Malene Barnett -- Designer profile: Ari Melenciano / Lesley-Ann Noel & Anne H. Berry -- This is our time! adrienne maree brown on design, liberation, and transformation as told to Lesley-Ann Noel -- Guiding questions -- Glossary -- Letter to future designers / Penina Laker -- On writing & editing this book / Jennifer Rittner & Anne H. Berry -- Afterword / Eddie Opara -- Bios
ABOUT THE AUTHORS (From Sky Horse Publishing website)
Anne H. Berry is a writer and educator whose research focuses on race/representation in the field of design. Her writing has been published in AIGA’s Eye on Design, Communication Arts, and the inaugural issue of the anthology Recognize featuring essays and commentary from indigenous people and people of color.
Kareem Collie is a designer, strategist, and educator specializing in collaborative and human-centered design approaches to capture, reveal, and produce visual and experiential narratives. He holds a master’s degree from NYU in culture and communication studies and a bachelor’s in fine arts from Pratt Institute in communication design.
Penina Acayo Laker is a designer and educator whose practice and research is centered around topics that utilize a human-centered approach to solving social problems, locally and internationally. She is currently broadening the scope and access of design education to young people in Uganda through her DesignEd workshops.
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel focuses on equity, social justice, and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design education, research and practice. She promotes greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel.
Jennifer Rittner is a writer and educator. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. Her work has been published in the New York Times, DMI: Journal, AIGA Eye on Design, and Core77; and in 2021 served as guest editor for a special issue on Design & Policing for Design Museum magazine. Jennifer earned her B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Studies at New York University and her M.Ed. in Communication and Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Kelly Walters is a designer, educator and founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Bright Polka Dot. Her ongoing design research interrogates the complexities of identity formation, systems of value, and the shared vernacular in and around Black visual culture. She is the author of Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race published by Princeton Architectural Press. Kelly is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the BFA Communication Design Program at Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword / Emory Douglas -- Foreword / Ruha Benjamin -- Introduction. Why is this book needed? / Anne H. Berry -- Searching for a Black aesthetic in American graphic design / Sylvia Harris -- On Sylvia Harris: the contributions of Black designers / Anne H. Berry & Steven Heller -- Designing with complexity: An intersectional view / Jennifer Rittner -- Design practices. Chapter introduction / Kareem Collie -- An exhibition by Black designers / Dorothy Hayes -- In conversation: Darhil Crooks, Ian Spalter & Dantley Davis on practicing design while Black, with Kareem Collie -- Another brick in the wall / R. Vann Graves -- The four pillars / Jon Key -- To be just ... steward: Some life lyrics / Quinlin B. Messenger -- In conversation: Annika Hansteen-Izora on identity, community & authenticity, with Jennifer Rittner -- Design education. Chapter introduction / Anne H. Berry -- In conversation: Maurice Woods & Anne H. Berry on meeting the demands of the future -- The new visual abnormal / Colette Gaiter -- Unvisible (What's the scenario?) / Steve Jones -- The strong Black woman / Terresa Moses -- A reading list for the politics of design / Chris Rudd -- Beyond the universal: Positionality & promise in a HBCU classroom / Kaleena Sales -- Design scholarship. Chapter introduction / Lesley-Ann Noel -- Follow the golden ratio from Africa to the Bauhaus for a cross-cultural aesthetic for images / Audrey G. Bennett -- The pause: Reflecting on a righteous consciousness that informs our design as Afrikans / Nii Kommey Botchway -- Finding Anthony: Establishing a research trajectory / Cheryl D. Miller -- Bondage by paper: Devices of slaveholding ingenuity / Alicia Olushola Ajayi -- At the Jim Crow Museum, we use racist objects to engage hearts & heads in social justice / David Pilgrim-- Activism, advocacy & community-engaged design. Chapter introduction / Kareem Collie & Penina Laker -- Participatory & emanicipatory aspirations in Afrika / Mugendi K. M'Rithaa -- From the Black anti-Abelist diary: A tribute to my Black disabled son from a Black disabled mother / Jennifer White-Johnson -- The infrastructure of care: community design, healing & organizational post-traumatic growth / Sloan Leo -- The center in the margins: locating intimacy in multi-communities / June A. Grant -- Biophilia patterns in Black & Brown spaces / Michele Y. Washington -- In conversation: Amos Kennedy & Kareem Collie on advocating for humanity -- The preconditions to healing / Liz Ogbu -- In conversation: Raja Schaar & Jennifer Rittner on sustainability as a historically Black practice -- Afrofuturism in design. Chapter introduction / Lesly-Ann Noel -- From algorithms to Afro-rithms in Afrofuturism / Lonny Avi Brooks -- A Black-centered design ethos: engaging Afrofuturism in catalyzing more inclusive technological futures / Woodrow W. Winchester III -- What type of ancestor do you want to be? / Adah Parris -- Black secret technologies / John Jennings -- Dark matter's magic in design / Folayemi Wilson -- Journeys in design. Chapter introduction / Kelly Walters -- The Black designer's journey: Theory of change / Vocasta Lachapelle -- In pursuit of a prismatic profession/ Forest Young -- &&&: Provoking type / Schessa Garbutt -- 1 word / 1 object / Former and current design students -- Curating my way into design: A work in progress / Michell Joan Wilkinson -- My journey to design / Sabine Maxine Lopez -- Moving on: Interview with white male academic / Aisha Richards -- Design = Art ≠ Design. Chapter introduction / Kelly Walters -- In conversation: Nontsikelelo Mutiti & Kelly Walters on image making, conceptual process, and the tools of design -- In conversation: Cey Adams & Kelly Walters on design detours & artistic possibilities -- Design (is) art. If you want it to be. / Rick Griffith -- In conversation: Mimi Ọnụọha & Romi Morrison on unsettling the equivalents -- In conversation: Rhea L. Combs & Anne H. Berry on representing everyday Black lives through film & photography -- Collective, radical & liberatory spaces in design. Chapter introduction / Lesley-Ann Noel -- for colored girls who feel trapped in white institutions / Lauren Williams -- The Black student union / Terrence Moline -- Make the path by talking / Maurice Cherry -- Building BADG: The guild as a model for liberatory space / Malene Barnett -- Designer profile: Ari Melenciano / Lesley-Ann Noel & Anne H. Berry -- This is our time! adrienne maree brown on design, liberation, and transformation as told to Lesley-Ann Noel -- Guiding questions -- Glossary -- Letter to future designers / Penina Laker -- On writing & editing this book / Jennifer Rittner & Anne H. Berry -- Afterword / Eddie Opara -- Bios
