They reminded me of the importance of the profession I had committed myself to: though negative caricatures and stereotypes do not define the profession as a whole or invalidate all of the good that design is and does, they remain a testament to the ways in which a full, inclusive design history has yet to become the new standard for design education. However, no matter how much they upset me, I could not bring myself to look away from the dehumanizing images. Throughout the research process, I found myself posting favorite photographs of my Black relatives in my graduate studio space to combat the ugliness of grotesque imagery I was confronting daily.Ī photo of the author’s mother and father that hangs in her workspace. I experience an ongoing need to understand my experience, as well as the experiences of other designers of color.ĭuring graduate school, my independent pursuit of learning, understanding, and discovering how and where African Americans fit into the history of design and advertising led me to a distressingly eye-opening examination of negative Black lack caricatures. To be a Black designer who knows relatively little about the work of other Black designers is an embarrassing admission, but it also reflects the limitations I encountered: a path to design punctuated by frustration. I learned about this only a few years into my tenure-track teaching position in higher education. Du Bois was developing “Hand-drawn Infographics of African-American Life” (Miller). The phenomenon of simultaneously feeling like an insider and outsider among the circles/worlds I inhabit has stayed with me.ĭespite everything I have gained through formal education and professional connections, I am aware of how much I have to discover about the history, stories, and work of non-European designers whose contributions have been systematically eclipsed in favor of the European greats.Ĭheck out the rest of the Recognize anthology.Ī few decades before Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus, for example, noted sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, and author W.E.B. “Despite everything I have gained through formal education…I am aware of how much I have to discover about the history, stories, and work of non-European designers.”Īs much as I appreciate the myriad ways in which my design education has served me, however, pursuing a career in the field has been a strange and lonely odyssey. And my aesthetic preferences are indelibly linked to a Swiss Style tradition. As a result of the Bauhaus’ broad influence on design curriculum in the US-the model of “abstraction and experimentation” for learning universal design principles became the standard for design curriculum (McCoy, 5–7)-I know that what I absorbed and subsequently embodied in my work ties me to an entire community of designers across the design universe. Like many other designers in the United States, my identity as a creative professional has been primarily shaped by the Swiss Style/International Typographic Style tradition. I may or may not choose to speak my sentiments aloud in a given moment, but those words-or some variation of them-hover on the tip of my tongue: “Why am I the only brown/black one?” Forming my identities Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was already beginning to navigate the complexities of cultural and ethnic identity in America, existing as both insider and outsider, moving in and out of black and white worlds.ĭecades later, as both a designer and an educator, I continually find myself asking the same question. According to my mother, my four-year-old self asked her this question one day after coming home from nursery school.
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