Decentering Whiteness
in Design History Resources
Contents
Hashtag authority list (for searching)
Scripts, xylography and typography, by script and/or region
The global textile, colorant, and garment trade
Color theory (prescriptions and proscriptions about choosing and using color)
Abolitionism and Resistance to Racial Oppression before 1945
Design during U.S. Segregation & Migration
The Civil Rights Movement/Black Power
Global modernism/modernism around the world
Contemporary design practice and social justice
Interrogating the White Canon of Design (historiography)
Demographics of the design professions, past & present
Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other designers of color
Individual Designers, by date of birth
Compelling assignments/student projects
Introduction
Hello! This is a bibliography meant to help instructors of design history decenter whiteness in their classes. It’s a Google Doc and anyone is welcome to use it for non-commercial purposes: i.e., to share it, download it, contribute to it, participate in editing it, copy it, or repurpose it.
This is the second version of this document. The first version is archived here. The original editors were a group of white,[1] US-based design history instructors who began working together to assemble this bibliography for themselves in June 2020, in response to their students’ demands for design history courses that accurately represent the contributions of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other designers and scholars of color on their syllabuses.
When we shared the bibliography in August 2020, our presentation of it centered ourselves and our process rather than the authors and designers included in the bibliography, which is exactly the opposite of decentering whiteness. We recognize that the launch of the bibliography didn't clearly call for participation and did not explicitly seek colleagues of color to join as editors and contributors. Further, we acknowledge that the formality of the document gave the impression that it was not open for change or contribution. We apologize.
We commit to inviting scholars and designers of color to further shape this collection of design history resources and to promoting their involvement in the project. We also wish to thank those who have already sent us comments, provided critical feedback, and contributed to the bibliography. We hope this document will continue to grow and change. It will always be in process.
There are many other resources addressing race and racism in the field of design that inspired our work on this one; these include, among others, AIGA DEC’s Anti-Racism, Equity, and Inclusion Resources Archive, Ramón Tejada’s collaborative project The decolonizing, or puncturing, or de-Westernizing design Reader V4, Kimberly Jenkins’s The Fashion and Race Database, and Rikki Byrd’s The Fashion and Race Syllabus. We support and have benefited from all these resources.
How to participate
This document is open for contributions from anyone interested in sharing resources that they have consulted or assigned in teaching design history. Many of the initial contributors added works which reflected their fields in U.S. and European design history, and there is a significant need for geographic expansion.
Contributors may share resources and may also join the team who manage the document. Please use this four-question Google Form to suggest new entries, provide feedback, or correct your own attributions/hashtags if you are an author or designer of any of the works cited.
Our goals for this bibliography are to:
- Focus on race and ethnicity, specifically, in teaching design history. Gender, sexuality, class, nationality, (dis)ability, age, size, and religion all have profound implications for the study of design history. But, at this historical moment in mid-2020, we feel that design history instructors’ single most urgent need is for resources about race and ethnicity. We have therefore confined this document to sources that explicitly address racial/ethnic identities and/or the intersections of race/ethnicity with other aspects of identity.
- Address the field of design history as a whole, rather than a single subfield. Increasingly many design history courses are being taught as inclusive of multiple fields—among them graphic/interaction, craft/industrial, textiles/fashion, and interiors/architecture—so we’ve made an effort to ensure that all of them are well represented in this document.
- Maintain a flexible, expansive definition of design. White men have historically policed the boundaries of the design professions quite vigorously, and as a result, “design” has, almost by definition, excluded the activities of people of color, among others. In contrast, we understand design to occur within a network of producers, laborers, intermediaries/mediators, consumers, and users, so the entries in this bibliography span the gamut from high-status, “professional,” public-facing, and innovation- and profit-seeking design activities to informal, everyday, “amateur,” private, self-fashioning, and convention-following design activities.
- Use a thematic rather than stylistic or chronological organization. We propose that decentering whiteness entails (among other things) organizing courses around themes other than canonical Western styles, movements, and designers. The bibliography avoids stylistic groupings, and is open to new themes.
- Include complete bibliographic information. We hope that providing a complete bibliographic entry for each item—rather than merely a link that may go dead in a few years—will ensure this resource has enduring value not only for faculty assembling syllabuses, but also for students writing papers and scholars conducting research.
- Annotate. We encourage annotation to enable readers to discern at a glance what each source is about and how it might be useful in their teaching.
- Use hashtags to facilitate searching. We’re still in the throes of systematically tagging each entry to make it easy for readers to locate entries on specific themes, regions, time periods, and groups of people.[2] Notably, there are no hashtags for Western style names or movements, which is intentional. Readers can of course hit Command+F/Ctrl+F and perform a natural-language search for the words Art Nouveau (for example), but we suggest instead that they consider searching for the hashtags #1850-1900 and #1900-1940, which will reveal a wealth of other themes they could fruitfully explore alongside or even instead of a particular style.
Contributors
*Matthew Bird (#MB), RISD
Erika Boeckeler, PhD (#EA) Northeastern University
PJ Carlino (#PJC), California State University, Sacramento
Priscila L. Farias (#PLF), University of São Paulo (Brazil)
Michelle Everidge, PhD (#MCE), Witte Museum
Richard Fadok (#RAF), PhD candidate, MIT HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society)
Carma Gorman (#CRG), The University of Texas at Austin
Elizabeth Guffey (#EG), Purchase College
*Brockett Horne (#BH), Maryland Institute College of Art
Ellen Huang (#EH), ArtCenter College of Design, Assistant Professor (of Material Culture), Humanities & Sciences
*Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler (#JKB), Purdue University
Manas Karambelkar (#MDK)
Elizabeth M Keslacy (#EMK), Miami University, Oxford, OH
Anca I. Lasc (#AL), Pratt Institute
Berel Lutsky (#BL), Professor of Art, UW - Green Bay
Jamie Mahoney, (#JBM) Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts
Erin Malone, MFA (#EKM), Chair BFA Interaction Design program at California College of the Arts
Yelena McLane (#YM), Florida State University
Lauren McQuistion, (#McQ) PhD Student, UVA School of Architecture
Erica Morawski (#EM), Pratt Institute
*Gretchen Von Koenig (#GVK), Parsons/NJIT/Michael Graves School of Design
*Bess Williamson (#BW), School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Kristina Wilson (#KW), Clark University
*Victoria Rose Pass (#VRP), Maryland Institute College of Art
Phyllis Ross (#PR)
*Sara Reed (#SDR), Virginia Commonwealth University
Shelley Selim (#SMS), Curator of Design and Decorative Arts at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
Paul Stirton (#PS), Bard Graduate Center and Editor of West 86th, A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture
Peiran Tan (#PT), Editor at The Type, a Chinese typography and design media collective
*Bonne Zabolotney (#BZ), Emily Carr University of Art and Design
*Indicates current managers of the document
Hashtag Authority List
We suggest using both plain-language searches and the hashtags listed below to locate relevant sources. (Note: contributor hashtags are listed at the end of the introduction, rather than here.)
Dates/eras
#BCE
#1-750CE
#750-1200
#1200-1400
#1400-1600
#1600-1800
#1800-1850
#1850-1900
#1900-1940
#1940-1980
#1980-2020
Regions/Nations
#Africa
#Asia
#Australasia
#Canada
#China
#Europe
#India
#Japan
#Korea
#LatinAmerica
#USA
Identities
#AsianAmAuthor
#AsianAmDesigner
#AsianAmPeople
#AsianAuthor
#AsianDesigner
#AsianPeople
#BiracialAuthor
#BiracialDesigner
#BiracialPeople
#BlackAuthor
#BlackArchitect
#BlackDesigner
#BlackPeople
#IndigenousAuthor
#IndigenousDesigner
#IndigenousPeople
#LatinAmericanAuthor
#LatinAmericanDesigner
#LatinAmericanPeople
#LatinxAuthor
#LatinxDesigner
#LatinxPeople
#LGBTQIAAuthor
#LGBTQIADesigner
#LGBTQIAPeople
#ManAuthor
#ManDesigner
#MultiracialAuthor
#MultiracialDesigner
#NonBinaryAuthor
#NonBinaryDesigner
#WhiteAuthor
#WhiteDesigner
#WhitePeople
#WomanAuthor
#WomanDesigner
Categories of design
#Architecture
#Branding
#Craft
#Data
#ExhibitionDes (cf exhibition)
#Fashion
#Furniture
#Graphic
#Image (= illus., photog, etc..)
#Industrial
#Interact [-ion, -ive]
#Interior
#Script
#SocialJustice
#Speculative
#Textile
#Type
#Typography
#Urban
#Xylography
Themes/Topics
#Abol [-ish, -itionism, -itionist]
#Access [-ibility, -ible]
#Antirac [-ism, -ist]
#Appropriat [-e, -ion]
#Assimilat [-e, -ion]
#Autobio [-graphy, -~ical, -~er]
#Bio [-graphy, -~ical, -~er]
#Canon [-icity, -ical]
#Capital [-ism, -ist]
#Class [-ism, -ist]
#Colon [-ize{r}/-ise{r}, -~ation]
#Consum [-er{s}, -ption]
#Disab [-ility, -led]
#Ethno [-centrism, -~ist, -~ic]
#Feminin [-e, -ity]
#Feminis [-m, -t]
#Image [-ry, -s]
#Immigra -nt, [-te, -tion]
#Imperial [-ism, -ist]
#Intersection [-al, -ality]
#Japon [-esque, -isme]
#Law
#Labor
#Masculin [-ity, -ism, -ist]
#Mediat [-e, -ion]
#Modern [-ism, -ist]
#Oriental [-ism, -ist]
#Pedagogy
#Position [-al, -ality]
#Primitiv [-e, -ism, -ist]
#Race
#Racis [-m, -t]
#Reapprop [-riate, -riation]
#Represent [-ation]
#Sex [-ism, -ist]
#Slavery
#Suprem [-acism, -acy]
#Trans [-gender, -phobia]
#WorldsFair
#Xeno [-phobia, -phobic]
Media
#Archive
#Audio
#Exhibition
#Video
Scripts, Xylography,
and Typography, by Script and/or Region
#Non-Latin scripts, xylography, and typography, collectively/generally
Ross, Fiona. ‘An approach to non-Latin type design’. In Berry, J. (Ed), Language Culture Type: International type design in the age of Unicode. New York: Association Typographique Internationale and Graphis, 2002: 65–75.
#Type #typography #script #printing #graphic #digital
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
Mullaney, Thomas S. “Facing the World: Towards a Global History of Non-Latin Type Design,” Philological Encounters 3, no. 4 (27 Nov 2018): 399–411, https://doi.org/10.1163/24519197-12340050 #Type #1500-1600 #1600-1700 #1700-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940
Mullaney questions the term non-Latin, links non-Latin type to orientalism and imperialism, and describes the efforts Western typewriter and hot-metal machine manufacturers made to adapt their machines to non-Latin script, and vice versa. Useful bibliography.
#CRG
Mullaney, Thomas S. “Hot Metal Empire: Script, Media, and Colonialism in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.” ATypI Annual Conference. São Paulo, Brazil: October 15, 2015.
[Does not seem to be available as a recording on ATypI site.]
#CRG
Ross, Fiona (ed.) Non-Latin Scripts from Metal to Digital Type (St. Bride Foundation, 2012) https://stbridelibrary.bigcartel.com/product/non-latin-scripts-from-metal-to-digital-type.
#Type
Available only as a hard copy book (so I haven’t seen it yet).
#CRG
Hanebutt-Benz, Eva, Dagmar Glass, and Geoffrey Roper, eds., Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution: A Cross-Cultural Encounter. Westhofen: WVA-Verlag Skulima, 2002.
#type #typography #script #graphic #digital #world #global #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
Hendricks, Donald. “Profitless Printing: Publication of the Polyglots.” The Journal of Library History (1966–1972) 2, no. 2 (1967): 98–116.
#type #typography #script #graphic #world
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
Papazian, Hrant. “Latinization: Prevention and Cure,” Spatium Magazin für Typografie 4 (2004). #type #typography #script #graphic #1980-2020 #colonialism #imperialism
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
Thompson, John. History of Composing Machines (Chicago: The Inland Printer Company, 1904).
#type #typography #script #graphic #digital #world #global #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #primary
Is supposed to be pretty comprehensive, and—I believe—includes some discussion of non-Latin type (but I haven’t read it yet, so can’t say for sure yet).
#CRG
“The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0 – Core Specification.” Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, March 2020. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/ch02.pdf
#type #typography #script #graphic #digital #world #global #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Chapter two of the brand-new version of the Unicode standard shows how greatly the Unicode Consortium’s vision has expanded since its beginnings, but also reveals some of the Latin biases that were baked into the early versions of the standard, which now cannot easily be changed or fixed (because changing the coding would make the millions of texts coded with previous versions of the standard undisplayable/unreadable on screen).
#CRG
Berry, John D. (ed.). Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the age of Unicode. New York: Association Typographique Internationale and Graphis, 2002.
#type #typography #script #graphic #digital #world #global #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
Sandhu, Priti and Christina Higgins. “Identity in post-colonial contexts.” The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity, edited by Siân Preece. New York: Routledge, 2016: pp. 179–194.
#type #typography #script #graphic #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #colonialism #imperialism
This is an interesting discussion of how the tension between local and (former) colonizers’ languages is still active, and how and why different cultures choose to keep or reject colonial languages. It’s not about writing per se, but has implications for writing, because in most of the examples in this essay, the script changes along with the spoken language.
#CRG
Unseth, Peter. “Sociolinguistic Parallels Between Choosing Scripts and Languages.” Written Language & Literacy, 8 no. 1 (Jan 2005): 19–42. https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.8.1.02uns
#type #typography #script #graphic #1980-2020 #colonialism #imperialism
(haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses)
#CRG
#China: 漢字 (hanzi), pinyin, Uyghur script, Phags-pa script, Mongolian script, etc.
Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions, 2e (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
#Asia #China #AsianAuthor #Script #Xylography #BCE #1-750CE #750-1200CE #1200-1400CE #CRG
Ledderose, Lothar. Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
#Asia #China #Script #BCE #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #typography #industrial
I like to assign chapter one, which is a great introduction to the Chinese writing system for students who have no idea how it works, e.g., that there are a finite number of different strokes from which characters are built; that each character has a prescribed stroke order; and that many characters are modular enough in construction that readers of Chinese who come across an unfamiliar one can often make an educated guess about what it might mean (just as English readers versed in Latin and Greek roots can make reasonably accurate guesses about the meanings of unfamiliar English words derived from those languages).
#CRG
Useful for examples of antecedents to mass production/mass production thinking disguised as craft production
#MB
Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Paper and Printing, ed. Joseph Needham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
#Asia #China #AsianAuthor #ManAuthor #Script #Xylography #Typography #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400
This book traces the history of papermaking and xylographic and typographic printing in China. It’s a great rejoinder to the standard “Gutenberg invented printing with movable type” claim. However, in the decades since its publication, researchers have uncovered quite a few more examples of early typographic printing in China, so it is worth reading what Wikipedia has to say about the subject (and the references it points to) to catch up with recent discoveries .
#CRG
Tsai, Mu-Ming (dir.). Hanzi (video). https://www.hanzithemovie.com/watch
#video #Asia #China #AsianAuthor #Script #Xylography #Typography
I have not (yet) seen it, but the blurb for the movie reads “Hanzi is a feature-length documentary exploring international design, visual culture and identity through the lens of modern Chinese typography.”
#CRG
Pan, Jixing. “On the Origin of Printing in the Light of New Archaeological Discoveries.” Chinese Science Bulletin 42, no. 12 (June 1997): 976-981.
#Asia #China #type #typography #printing #graphic #750-1200 #1200-1400 #AsianAuthor
#CRG
Pan, Jixing. “A Comparative Research of Early Movable Metal-type Printing Technique in China, Korea and Europe.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 73 (1998): 36-41.
#Asia #China #type #typography #printing #graphic #750-1200 #1200-1400 #AsianAuthor
#CRG
Pratt, Aaron and Devin Fitzgerald. Collection Connections: What Did Gutenberg Invent? Harry Ransom Center video (41:08), 10 December 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNVjIFsABg.
#Asia #China #paper #printing #graphic #type #typography #750-1200 #1200-1400
“Join Aaron T. Pratt, the Ransom Center's Pforzheimer Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts, and Devin Fitzgerald, UCLA’s Curator of Rare Books and History of Printing, as they contextualize Gutenberg’s innovation within the long and vibrant history of woodblock printing in Asia.” I.e., they explain why all the textbooks that still position Gutenberg’s Bible as the first book printed with movable metal type (or something similar) are simply not accurate. Along the way, they discuss how Chinese bamboo- and bark-based paper differs in heft/texture/flexibility from Western rag-based paper; how costs of paper differed in Asia and Europe (it was much cheaper in Asia, because the materials it was made of were more abundant), how the printing press made printing possible on both sides of the paper (which was not the case with Asian or European block-book printing), etc. Pratt points out that one of the things Gutenberg’s techniques did is consolidate black-only texts...printing normalized colorless books in the west. In China, there was basically a print-on-demand culture: you had the woodblocks, and could print them when needed. Also, Pratt says around 32:00 or 33:00 that it’s unclear if Gutenberg actually invented the type mold (an article of faith in Meggs), which is the first time I’d heard that “fact” challenged!
#CRG
Mullaney, Thomas S. The Chinese Typewriter. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017.
#Asia #China #Typography #industrial #type #1940-1980 #1980–2020
This book is really fantastic—I think there are some really good sections in here that would translate well to a design history class in industrial design OR graphic design, for example there is a chapter that unravels the ways in which most typewriters were converted mechanically to work with other languages and the unique challenges presented by the Chinese character system.
#JKB
Mullaney, Thomas S. “QWERTY in China: Chinese Computing and the Radical Alphabet,” Technology and Culture vol. 59, no. 4 Supplement (October 2018): S34-S65,
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/712113.
#Asia #China #Typography #type #script #colon #imperial #1940-1980 #1980–2020
An eye-opening essay about Europeans’ and North Americans’ many attempts to find a way to (i.e., to pressure the Chinese economically to) write, type, and telegraph the Chinese language using the Latin alphabet and numerals rather than hanzi, so that said Westerners could sell the Chinese telegraphy equipment, typewriters, hot-metal compositing machines, etc., that were designed to accommodate the much more limited character set of an alphabetic system. It is a great instance of what I can only call typographic-technological-economic imperialism...but it’s also wrapped up in religious imperialism, too, since missionaries played a role in all this, too. However, the Chinese weren’t having it, and devised workarounds that allowed them to take advantage of these technologies without having to abandon their writing system.
#CRG
Mullaney, Thomas S. “The Moveable Typewriter: How Chinese Typists Developed Predictive Text during the Height of Maoism.” Technology and Culture 53, No. 4 (October 2012), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/490728#b12.
#Asia #China #Typography #1900–1940 #1940-1980
I really love this one: it’s about how Chinese typewriters worked, and how typewriter operators organized the characters predictively (versus in stroke order, like Chinese dictionaries did) to speed up typing. As Mullaney notes at the end, female typewritists essentially invented predictive typing (like the kind used today in texting), but in the pre-computer era.
#CRG
Mullaney, Thomas S. “The Font that Never Was: Linotype and the “Phonetic Chinese Alphabet” of 1921,” Philological Encounters 3 (2018): 555–566.
#Asia #China #printing #typography #graphic #1900-1940
This article describes Linotype’s attempts to create a hot-metal typesetting machine for the Chinese-language market. They were stymied until the Chinese devised a phonetic Chinese alphabet in the early twentieth century so they could phonetically gloss hanzi characters to regularize their pronunciations. The Linotype people assumed these phonetic characters would ultimately supplant hanzi...because they believed that alphabets were intrinsically superior, and that ideographic writing systems were historical relics totally unsuited to modern communication technologies. But—spoiler alert!—the Chinese never gave up hanzi. This article is useful because it reveals some of the racist/imperialist attitudes Americans had toward the Chinese and their writing system, and explains that the Linotype matrices for most “exotics” were drawn by women in the Brooklyn office who did not read or speak those languages.
#CRG
Sheffield, Devello Z. The Chinese type-writer, its practicability and value. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1897.
#Asia #China #Typography #type #1850–1900 #primary
I haven’t looked at this one, but it seems like a potentially interesting primary source.
#CRG
Biggar, Joanna. “Scrutible Chinese. Thanks to an American Psychiatrist, the World’s Most Populous Nation Can Enter the Computer Age.” Washington Post, 10 November 1985, 18.
#Asia #China #Typography #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Describes the invention by a Chinese-American psychiatrist of a way of using a western-style keyboard to type Chinese characters. (I.e., one of a few different/competing systems for doing this.)
#CRG
Brokaw, Cynthia, and Christopher Reed, eds. From Woodblocks to the Internet: Chinese Publishing and Print Culture in Transition, circa 1800 to 2008. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
#Asia #China #Typography #1800-1850, #1850-1900, #1900–1940, #1940-1980, #1980-2020
(haven’t looked at this one yet, so hashtags are best guesses).
#CRG
Brokaw, Cynthia Joanne, and Kai-wing Chow, editors. Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900
(I haven’t read this yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Brokaw, Cynthia J. “Book History in Premodern China: The State of the Discipline.” Book History 10 (2007): 253–90.
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400–1600
I haven’t read this yet, but it’s supposed to talk about the use of moveable ceramic, wood, and metal type in China, among other things...putting the lie to the myth that moveable type never really caught on in China. (Post-2007 discoveries in the material record corroborate the thesis that typography was more common in China than people once thought. Wikipedia’s nicely illustrated “Movable type” entry—which has links that sprawl outward in many fruitful directions—is a useful entry point to some of these more recent discoveries.)
#CRG
“Movable Type,” Wikipedia.
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400–1600
This Wikipedia article is, to me, emblematic of how/why a crowdsourced reference can be so valuable: this article challenges received wisdom about the history of printing with movable type in at least four ways. It suggests that 1) by pretty much any definition of printing you care to use, printing has been around for millennia longer than the standard textbooks suggest (e.g., cylinder seals, metal coinage), 2) that printing with movable type has been around hundreds of years longer than the standard history of graphic design texts suggest (e.g., the Phaistos disk and Mongolian and Chinese paper money printed with copper blocks with holes for inserting two movable types that served anti-counterfeiting purposes); 3) that despite mid-twentieth scholarship that dismissively suggested that Chinese ceramic and wood type (in use by the 1040s) and metal type (in use by the 1200s) was not widely used, there is plentiful material and textual evidence that wood type was being used regularly in China and the Western Xia/Uyghur regions by the late 1000s–mid-1100s, and that metal type was being used regularly in Mongolia and Korea by the 1200s; and 4) that there is a good chance that rumors of printing with movable type made it far enough westward (thanks to medieval travelers’ narratives and extensive commerce back and forth along the silk routes during the Pax Mongolica of the 1200s, for example) that Gutenberg could have heard rumors of it in Germany.
As this Wikipedia entry shows via footnotes to credible scholarship, most of the innovations with which Gutenberg is credited were centuries old by the time he supposedly “invented” them. This entry isn’t perfect—there’s a lot there, and I would find it a lot easier to follow if it were organized chronologically, rather than by region, and if more of the things that are currently linked to were actually summarized more clearly in the text of the article—but reading it nonetheless makes me feel somewhat hopeful about the future of humankind, and humans’ ability (and desire to work freely together) to create knowledge.
#CRG [note: revised & updated this text 2023-07-20]
Carter, Thomas Francis. The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward. New York: Ronald Press Co., 1955 [1st ed. was 1925]. Available at archive.org, https://archive.org/details/inventionofprint00cart/page/n5/mode/2up
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400–1600
The first edition of this text, published in 1925, blew open
#CRG
Reed, Christopher A. Gutenberg in Shanghai : Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2014.
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1800-1850 #1840-1900 #1900-1940
(I haven’t looked at this one yet, so hashtags are best guesses).
#CRG
Jin, Jian (aka Chin, Chien). A Chinese Printing Manual (1776), translated by Richard C. Rudolph. Reprint; Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1954.
#Asia #China #Xylography #Typography #1700-1800 #primary
I haven’t looked at this one, but it seems like a potentially interesting primary source.
#CRG
McDermott, Joseph P. A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 200.6)
Chow, Kai-wing. Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China. (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004)
Newman, M. Sophia. "So, Gutenberg Didn’t Actually Invent the Printing Press: On the Unsung Chinese and Korean History of Movable Type" (2019), Lithub, https://lithub.com/so-gutenberg-didnt-actually-invent-the-printing-press/
This is, on the whole, a good counter-narrative to the standard story told in textbooks like Meggs. My one reservation about it is that she repeats the oft-stated claim that "Later efforts [in China] would create early movable type—including the successful but inefficient use of ideograms chiseled in wood and a brief, abortive effort to create ceramic characters." In fact, recent evidence suggests that both wooden and ceramic types were used more widely and for much longer both in and outside of China than historians formerly thought, which (imo) exponentially increases the chance that rumors of the technology of printing with movable type moved westward over the silk roads. There is also a fair amount of evidence of proto-typographic activity in medieval Europe: there are instances of stamped lettering on metalwork and "printed" lettering stamped into ceramic tiles, for example. (See the Wikipedia entry called “Movable type.”)
#CRG
Qian Xuantong (inline graphic). “China’s Script Problem from Now On” (Zhongguo jinhou de wenzi wenti, inline graphic]). New Youth (Xin qingnian, inline graphic) 4, no. 4 (1918).
#CRG
Huters, Theodore. Bringing the World Home: Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.
Jacobsen, Kurt. “A Danish Watchmaker Created the Chinese Morse System.” NIASnytt (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies) Nordic Newsletter 2 (July 2001): 17–21.
#CRG
“Design with a difference: Chinese versus Roman fonts.” IdN 19, no. 4 (2012): 53–60.
“Reports on the work of Hong Kong-based graphic designer Julius Hui, a seasoned practitioner of both Roman and Chinese forms who currently works as an independent designer of Chinese typefaces. In an interview, Hui discusses the differences between designing Chinese and Roman fonts - most notably the number of characters but also considerations such as vertical settings and letter spacing - and offers his tips to designers wanting to enter the world of typography.”
#CRG
Zhao, Shouhui and Richard B. Baldauf, Jr., Planning Chinese characters: Reaction, evolution or revolution? (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008)
According to a review I read, this book discusses the PRC’s attempts to (re)design Chinese characters for the modern world.
#CRG
Tam, Keith. “Designing with the Hanzi Script,” http://keithtam.net/designing-with-the-hanzi-script/
(“An introductory article to designing with the Hanzi (Chinese) script, discussing the characteristics of the script and typographic issues.” Explains how hanzi are set typographically, and what some of the challenges are of designing multiscript Hanzi/Latin typefaces.) Might be a reprint of Tam, K (2018) ‘Hanzi’, in Wittner, B; Thoma, S; Hartmann, T, eds. Bi-scriptual: typography and graphic design with multiple script systems. Salenstein, Switzerland: Niggli, 204–211?
#CRG
Tam, Keith (2017). ‘Trust in Chinese–English Bilingual Documents: a Heuristic for Typographic Decision-Making’. Typography Day Sri Lanka 2017 conference proceedings. Katubedda, Sri Lanka: University of Moratuwa. http://keithtam.net/trust-in-chinese-english-bilingual-documents-a-heuristic-for-typographic-decision-making/.
Discusses the problems of multiscript typesetting, especially when the scripts have very different layout and typographic conventions: it’s hard not to privilege one text or the other. This essay has great examples of both good and not-so-good examples of bilingual signage, page layouts, etc., that really illustrate the complexities of doing bilingual typesetting well and respectfully.
#CRG
Tam, Keith C H (2012). ‘A descriptive framework for Chinese–English Bilingual Typography’ in Typographische Monatsblätter, 4 | 5 | 2012, 38–46. http://keithtam.net/bilingual-framework/.
This is, imo, an AMAZING short essay comparing the affordances of Chinese and Latin type, and explaining what is and is not possible in each, pointing out to readers of Latin alphabets that expressive options like italics and all caps are Not Things in hanzi. I.e., it’s a useful essay and table/chart for helping students who only know Latin alphabets understand that working cross-culturally is going to require some learning and adjustment on their part. In theory, one could create charts like the one Tam includes in this essay for other languages, too, which might be a great project for a student who is a fluent user of another script to take on.
#CRG
Minick, Scott, and Ping Jiao. Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.
#Asia #China #Typography #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
The Type (Rex Chen, Eric Q. Liu, Mira Ying, Peiran Tan, Li Zhiqian, Richor Wang), Collection of Research on Chinese Typography (3 Vols.) https://www.thetype.com/shop/collection/
3-Volume booklet set on The Type’s ongoing research and dialogues about typography and design in China, including its history and development (Vol.1, Shanghai Type: a Slice of Modern Chinese Type History), its conventions and contemporary practice (Vol.2, Kǒngquè: Restoring the Mindset of Chinese Typesetting), and working in transcultural contexts (Vol.3, Transcultural Type Design: a Dialogue from China). First sold at ATypI Montreal as an English-only edition, later expanded to Chinese-English bilingual and sold on The Type’s web shop.
#PT
Synoptic Office, Chinese Type Archive https://www.chinesetypearchive.com/#/
This volunteer-run, open data resource about Chinese typography has many historic references.
#BH
The project’s goal is to catalogue (all!) Chinese typefaces (by date, founder, location, etc.) and assign them unique identifying numbers, since few of them have distinctive names in the way that Western typefaces do. They link to historic examples of the typefaces in use, when possible, or to WorldCat records of works that use them.
#CRG
Lam, Caspar, YuJune Park, Mac Wang and Stephanie Winarto. The Chinese Type Archive. Letterform Archive lecture, 21 July 2020. https://letterformarchive.org/events/the-chinese-type-archive #BH
#Asia #China #type #Typography #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #video
This approximately 1:15 COVID-era remote lecture (0:55 talk + 0:20 Q&A) is packed with information about the characteristics of Chinese type, the challenges of identifying/naming and classifying Chinese type, the history of Chinese type, and analysis of what even counts as “type” or as a distinct “typeface.” The lecture has great slides, and I found it endlessly fascinating. The Q&A was great, too. (Around 37:30 there is an especially interesting instance of a book in which Japan and Korea are consistently marked typographically as less important than China.)
#CRG
Harbaugh, Rick. Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition). New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1999.
(haven’t read yet)
#CRG
“Uyghur.” Omniglot, https://www.omniglot.com/writing/uyghur.htm.
#colonialism #imperalism #script #Asia #China #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Explains the many different ways Uyghur has been written, and the split today between Uyghur written in Arabic, Cyrillic, and hanzi (it used to be written with the Latin alphabet, too, but not so much anymore.)
#CRG
“Phags-pa script.” Omniglot, https://www.omniglot.com/writing/phagspa.htm.
#colonialism #imperalism #script #Asia #China #1200–1400
Describes the national script of the Mongolian empire, 1260–1368, which was modeled on Tibetan script: “In 1260 Kublai Khan commissioned Drogön Chögyal Phagpa (འགྲོ་མགོན་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་), a Tibetan monk and State Preceptor of the Yuan Dynasty, to create a new national script to replace the Uighur-based script. An edict was issued in 1269 requiring the use of the new script in all official documents, along with the local scripts as appropriate.” However, “The Phags-pa script did not prove popular with Mongolian and Chinese officials, who used the new script only to a limited extent and reluctantly,” despite the many edicts requiring it and the schools that were created to teach it. Even so, there are many examples of medieval Italian art that show pseudo-Phags-pa script on the hems of the Virgin’s mantle, or on the trim of angels’ robes, etc.!
#CRG
“Mongolian.” Omniglot, https://www.omniglot.com/writing/mongolian.htm.
#colonialism #imperalism #script #Asia #China #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Traces the many different ways that Mongolian has been written, i.e., with the Old Uyghur alphabet; Phags-pa script, Soyombo script, Mongolian Square script, Galik script, the Latin alphabet, and now (mostly) the Cyrillic alphabet. Unusually, it is written left to right in vertical columns. Like Arabic, the letters/syllables change in form depending on their position in the word.
#CRG
#Japan: 漢字 (kanji), hiragana, katakana
Habein, Y.S. The History of the Japanese Written Language. (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1984) [haven’t read]
#CRG
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
#CRG
Grigg, Hugh. “Hanzi and kanji: differences in the Chinese and Japanese character sets today,” EastAsiaStudent.net, 30 June 2013 https://eastasiastudent.net/regional/hanzi-and-kanji/#:~:text=Hanzi%20and%20kanji%20are%20the,heavy%20use%20of%20Chinese%20characters.
This is a brief, easy-to-read explanation of the differences (and similarities!) among traditional hanzi, simplified hanzi, and Japanese kanji. I can’t vouch for its accuracy in every respect, but I don’t see anything obviously wrong in it, and it would maybe be helpful in orienting students who have no idea how these two written languages work, or how they are related.
#CRG
#Korea: hanzi, 한글 (hangeul)
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key (ed.). The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997. https://books.google.com/books?id=nonRl2cerIgC
#Asia #Korea #AsianDesigner (=Sejong the Great!) #script #writing #type #graphic #1400-1600
The editorial description on Amazon reads, in part, “This volume, the first book-length work on han'gul in English by Korean-language specialists, is comprised of ten essays by the most active scholars of the Korean writing system. An instructive commentary by eminent linguist Samuel Martin follows, offering perceptive comments on the essays as well as a discussion on Martin's own research findings on the script.”
The introduction (chapter one) by Young-Key Kim-Renaud and chapter two, “The Inventor of the Korean Alphabet” by Ki-Moon Lee, discuss King Sejong’s invention of hangeul in 1443-44, and some of its distinctive features.
#CRG
Ledyard, Gari. The Korean Language Reform of 1446: The Origin, Background, and Early History of the Korean Alphabet. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1966.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #1400-1600
This dissertation is almost universally cited by Anglophone scholars of hangeul, because it provides translations of key passages (or maybe all?) of King Sejong’s Hunminjeongum of 1446.
#CRG
Robinson, Kenneth R. “Science: Printing.” Korean History: A Bibliography. Available at http://www.hawaii.edu/korea/biblio/sci_printing.html.
#Asia #Korea #AsianDesigner (=Sejong the Great!) #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
I am indebted to Robinson’s online bibliography for many of the entries in this section.
#CRG
“Chronological list of Korean metal types” (in Korean), JikjiWorld.net, http://jikjiworld.cheongju.go.kr/app3/jikjiworld/content/english/metal/index.jsp?top=09&sub=0&left=09&url=mn090/mn090_010.jsp
#Asia #Korea #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
Exactly what it sounds like: a list of known castings of Korean movable metal type.
#CRG
King, Ross. “Korean Writing.” In The World’s Writing Systems, ed. Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 218–227.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet).
#CRG
Sejong the Great. 훈민 정음 (Hunminjeongum). 1446.
#Asia #Korea #AsianDesigner #AsianAuthor #script #writing #type #1400-1600 #primary #nationalism
This is the book in which Sejong the Great reveals the writing system he has invented, and explains its logic and his rationale for inventing it. I desperately want to read it, but the only (partial?) translation I am aware of is Gari Ledyard’s UC Berkeley dissertation “The Korean Language Reform of 1446,” elsewhere in this section.
#CRG
훈민 정음 표준 해설서 / Hunmin chŏngŭm p'yojun haesŏlsŏ / A guide to Hunminjeongeum. Chopan: Kungnip Han’gŭl Pangmulgwan, 2017.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Kim, Doo-jong. "History of Korean Printing." Korea Journal 3, no. 7 (July 1963): 22–26.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Marcou, David J. "Korea: The Cradle of Movable Metal Type." Korean Culture 13, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 4-7.
#Asia #Korea #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #WhiteAuthor? #ManAuthor?
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
McGovern, Melvin P. "Early Western Presses in Korea." Korea Journal 7, no. 7 (July 1967): 21–23.
#Asia #Korea #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #WhiteAuthor? #ManAuthor?
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Park, Byeng-Sen Minje. Korean Printing: From Its Origins to 1910. Seoul: Jimoondang, 2003.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Park, Hak Soo, and Eui Pak Yoon. “Early Movable Metal Types Produced by Lost-Wax Casting.” Metals and Materials International 15, no. 1 (2009): 155-158.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Sohn, Pow-key. "King Sejong's Innovations in Printing." In Young-Key Kim-Renaud, ed., King Sejong the Great: The Light of 15th Century Korea. Washington, D.C.: International Circle of Korean Linguistics, 1992.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor? #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Sohn, Pow-key. Early Korean Typography. Seoul: Po Chin Chai, 1982.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor? #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Stevens, John. "Early Printing in Korea." Korean Culture 3, no. 1 (March 1982): 10-13.
#Asia #Korea #WhiteAuthor? #ManAuthor? #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400 #1400-1600
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
Sutton, Albert A. "Korean Invention of Metal Movable Type." Korean Culture 1, no. 1 (Winter 1980): 12-14.
#Asia #Korea #WhiteAuthor? #ManAuthor? #script #writing #type #typography #printing #graphic #1200-1400
(Haven’t read yet, so hashtags are best guesses.)
#CRG
#Laos: Hmong, Khmu
“Pahawh Hmong.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahawh_Hmong. #Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Explains how Pahawh script works.
#CRG
“Shong Lue Yang.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shong_Lue_Yang.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Describes Shong Lue Yang’s messianic, semi-syllabic 1959 Pahawh script for writing Hmong and Khmu.
#CRG
Smalley, William A., Chia Koua Vang, and Gnia Yee Yang, Mother of Writing: The Origin and Development of a Hmong Messianic Script, trans. Mitt Moua. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #AsianAmDesigner #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1900-1920 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #colonialism #resistance
This looks to be the authoritative source on the Pahawh script.
#CRG
“Hmong writing.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_writing#Sayaboury_script.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #AsianAmDesigner #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1900-1920 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #colonialism #resistance
This entry surveys the dozen or more different scripts that have been used over the last few centuries for writing Hmong languages. The subheading in this entry for Pahawh Hmong (and Pahawh Khmu) provides a very succinct description: “Pahawh Hmong is one of the most successful indigenous scripts to have ever been created by illiterates. It was created by Shong Lue Yang, who was born in 1930 to a farmer. He was seen by the Hmong people as a "Chao Fa," or "Lord of the Sky," which makes him akin to the son of God in Hmong culture. He has a long history that began with the receipt of a divine mandate from the deity "Va", of whom he proclaimed he was the son. He apparently was visited in an isolated round house by two men from God, who taught him the script over the course of 60 days. When he came out and taught people the script, it gained a widespread following. However, two political problems emerged. First, both the French government and the Lao government began to view him with enmity as a result of his influence. Second, due to the military success of Pa Chai's followers, these governments began to associate him with a military agenda, even though none is known to have existed. Thus, he was assassinated in 1971. His script survived through his followers, however, and he even created a script called Pahawh Khmu for the Khmu language.” The subentries on Ntawv Thoob Teb (RPA), Nyiaken Puachue Hmong, Sayaboury script, Pa Chai script, and especially “Working experimental scripts” are all really interesting: there’s an incredibly complex history here of twentieth-century messianic scripts invented by Hmong people, missionary-invented/imposed scripts and Latin-based writing systems, and “experimental scripts” invented and/or promoted by Hmong refugees now in the USA that says a lot, I think, about how people deploy scripts as tools of colonization and national/ethnic identity and resistance.
#CRG
“Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyiakeng_Puachue_Hmong.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #AsianAmDesigner #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1900-1920 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #colonialism #resistance
Briefly describes the alphabetic script Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong (aka the “Chervang script”), which the Reverend Chervang Kong invented for use in the United Christian Liberty Evangelical Church in the USA.
#CRG
James, Ian and Mattias Persson. “New Flower Script for Mong by Cher Vang Kong,” Skyknowledge.com, http://skyknowledge.com/mong-ntaub3.htm.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #AsianAmDesigner #WhiteAuthor? #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1900-1920 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #colonialism #resistance
Describes, illustrates, and explains the orthography of the alphabetic script Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong (aka the “Chervang script”), which the Reverend Chervang Kong invented in the 1980s, and which has been used in the United Christian Liberty Evangelical Church in the USA for more than 25 years.
#CRG
Hmong Archives. hmongarchives.org.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #AsianAmDesigner #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1900-1920 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
From the “About” page: “Hmong Archives is a repository for collecting and preserving Hmong materials, reflecting the history of our people. Our Collections, with over 171,000 items, document the story of the Hmong community in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, as well as Hmong communities around the world. The materials are varied and significant, including documents, books, photographs, videos, sound recordings, brochures, newspapers, periodicals, cards, maps, and cultural objects such as musical instruments and paj ntaub. Together they create a representation and record of Hmong history and culture.”
#CRG
Smalley, William A., & Nina Wimuttikosol. “Another Hmong Messianic Script and its Texts.” In Written language and literacy, Vol. 1, No. 1. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin, 1998: pp. 103–128.
#Asia #AsianDesigner #script #writing #type #typography #graphic #1940-1980 #1980-2020
The title of this entry made me laugh out loud, because the authors make it sound like it’s a really ordinary, ho-hum sort of thing for someone to invent a messianic script. But their point is well taken: there are surprisingly many Hmong messianic scripts. This essay is about the Eebee Hmong script, which Mee Noo invented in 1978 in Nan province, Thailand. It has 66 consonant characters, 5 vowel characters, and 8 tone characters.
#CRG
#India: Devanagari, Bengali, Kannada, etc.
Ramanathan, Rathna. A Typography for India. ATypI 2016. https://www.atypi.org/type-typography/a-typography-for-india
#Asia #AsianAuthor #type #typography #graphic #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #India #video
This is a #video I haven’t watched yet, but it is apparently about the challenges of multiscript and multilingual typesetting, focusing specifically on Indic languages.
#CRG
Kesavan, B. S., History of Printing and Publishing in India: A Story of Cultural Re-awakening (New Delhi: National Book Trust, 1997).
#Asia #AsianAuthor? #type #typography #graphic #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Haven’t read yet, so tags are guesses.
#CRG
Ross, Fiona. The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1999. (Revised and extended, Kolkata: Sishu Sahitya Samsad, 2009).
#Asia #AsianAuthor #type #typography #graphic #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Haven’t read yet, so tags are guesses.
#CRG
Ross, Fiona. “Historical Technological Impacts on the Visual Representation of Language with Reference to South-Asian Typeforms,” Philological Encounters 3, no. 4 (27 Nov 2018): 441–468. https://doi.org/10.1163/24519197-12340054.
#Asia #India #type #typography #graphic #1850–1900 #1900–1940
Ross outlines the challenges of setting Devanagari in metal and hot metal type, and discusses the ongoing legacies of subpar hot metal type design on phototype and digital type. Good diagram showing nomenclature of Indian scripts/type on p. 465.
#CRG
Priolkar, Anant K. The Printing Press in India: Its Beginnings and Early Development. Bombay: Marathi Samshodhana Mandala, 1958.
#India #Asia #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #script #type #typography #graphic #printing
Haven’t read yet, so tags are guesses.
#CRG
Naik, Bapurao S. Typography of Devanagari (Bombay: Directorate of Languages, 1971)
#India #Asia #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #script #type #typography #graphic
Haven’t read yet, so tags are guesses.
#CRG
Khandwala, Anoushka. “In the ’90s, Rajeev Prakash Reimagined Indic Scripts for the Digital Age,” (AIGA) Eye on Design, 16 June 2020, https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/in-the-90s-rajeev-prakash-reimagined-indic-scripts-for-the-digital-age/.
#India #Asia #1980-2020 #script #type #typography #graphic
Haven’t read yet, so tags are guesses.
#CRG
Khare, Rajeev Prakash and Shubhra Prakash. “Fontwala: Stone to mobile, what remains?” Digital art exhibition, 2019. https://sprakash.github.io/portfolio/fontwala.html
#India #Asia #BCE #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #script #type #typography #graphic
This online digital art exhibition surveys the development of Devanagari letterforms from stone carvings to digitizing.
#BH
Trevelyan, Charles. The Application of the Roman Alphabet to All the Oriental Languages. Serampore: Serampore Press, 1834.
#India #1800-1850 #Asia #typography #type #printing #script #graphic #colonialism #imperialism
I haven’t read this yet, but apparently it’s a signal example of Western cultural imperialism in the realm of script and type.
#CRG
Singh, Vaibhav. “The Machine in the Colony: Technology, Politics, and the Typography of Devanagari in the Early Years of Mechanization.” Philological Encounters 3 (2018): 469–495.
#Asia #India #1900-1940 #typography #printing #graphic
Singh describes Linotype’s missteps in creating and marketing a Linotype machine and Linotype typeface for India (most amusingly, by sending a Devanagari machine to Calcutta, where Bengali was the dominant script!). Is in a similar vein as Mullaney’s essay in the same special issue of Philological Encounters about Linotype’s imperialistic impulses and missteps in China.
#CRG
“Printing in Goa,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_in_Goa#:~:text=The%20art%20of%20printing%20first,helping%20missionary%20work%20in%20Abyssinia..
#Asia #India #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #typography #printing #colon
Overview of printing in India, generally, and Goa, specifically, beginning with the (inadvertent/unintended) delivery of the first European printing press to Goa in 1556. The entry also makes the tantalizing claim that “There is evidence that the use of the concept of mass duplication in India dates back to the time of the Indus Valley Civilization,” but no reference is provided for this claim. Maybe they are referring to Indus Valley seals?
#CRG
#Pakistan: Harappa/Indus script
Whitehouse, David. “‘Earliest writing’ found,” BBC News, 4 May 1999 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm.
#Asia #Pakistan #BCE #script #writing
Suggests that the first writing (ever!) was produced in Harappa 5500 years ago. Archaeologists found “primitive writing” incised into jars before and after firing in what is now Pakistan. The essay concludes by stating, ungrammatically, that “It probably suggests that writing developed independently in at least three places - Egypt, Mesopotamia and Harappa between 3500 BC and 3100 BC.”
#CRG
Parpola, Asko. “Study of the Indus Script.” Transactions of the International Conference of Eastern Studies 50: 28-66. Tokyo: The Tôhô Gakkai, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20060306111112/http://www.harappa.com/script/indusscript.pdf
#Asia #Pakistan #BCE #script #writing
Describes the corpus of Harappan writing, surveys recent theories about it, and proposes possible decipherments of a few elements of it.
#CRG
#Philippines: Baybayin, Suyat
“Suyat.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suyat.
#Asia #Philippines #IndigenousPeople #graphic #script #writing #typography #type #BCE #1-750 #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Suyat is a (modern) collective term that refers to indigenous (pre-Spanish colonization) scripts Filipinos used to write indigenous languages. These include the Kawi abugida (of Javanese origin), Baybayin (an umbrella term for many Indic abugidas; it means “to write” or “to spell” in Tagalog), and the Arabic abjad.
#CRG
#Africa
Lemaire, André. “The Spread of Alphabetic Scripts (c. 1700–500 BCE).” Diogenes 218 (2008): 45–58. #Africa #Script #writing #BCE
Gives a run-down of the five most plausible working theories about where and when alphabets originated. Points to Egypt or the Sinai as the most likely points of origin, and to speakers of Semitic languages who were at least passingly familiar with the acrophonic aspects of Egyptian hieroglyphics as its inventors.
#CRG
Wilford, John Noble. “Discovery of Egyptian Inscriptions Indicates an Earlier Date for Origin of the Alphabet,” New York Times, 13 November 1999, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/111499sci-alphabet-origin.html
Reports the 1999 discovery of the Wadi el-Hol alphabetic inscriptions—the earliest alphabetic writing yet discovered—by a team of Yale Egyptologists in an area just west of a bend in the Nile near Thebes.
#CRG
Mafundikwa, Saki. Afrikan Alphabets: the Story of Writing in Afrika. West New York, N.J. : Mark Batty, c2004.
#Africa #Script #writing
Here’s a scan from chapter 3
#BH
Mafundikwa, Saki. “Saki Mafundikwa: Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets.” TED talk, 7 August 2013, https://youtu.be/gIbIewxHQrk.
#Africa #script #writing #BCE #1-750 #1600-1700 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #graphic
A short overview of African alphabets, including the earliest alphabetic writing ever discovered—from Wadi el-Hol on the Nile—which seems to be the predecessor of all other alphabetic writing systems. A good intro for undergrads, and a good challenge to the narratives the major graphic design history textbooks tell.
#CRG
“A Typophile’s Twenty-Year Adventures in Zimbabwe with Saki Mafundikwa,” online Lecture, 1:28:14, posted by The Letterform Archive and co-presented by San Francisco Public Library, April 28, 2020, https://vimeo.com/413703126 #Africa #Type #BH
Martinez Ruiz, Barbaro. Kongo Graphic Writing and Other Narratives of the Sign. Temple University Press, 2013.
#Africa #type
This heavily illustrated book is about Kongo visual symbols and writing systems in Africa and Cuba.
#BH
“Solomana Kanté.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomana_Kante.
#Africa #script #writing #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #graphic
A Wikipedia stub about the inventor of the N’ko alphabet (1949).
#CRG
Davydov, Artem. “On Souleymane Kantè’s Translation of the Quran into the Maninka language.” Mandenkan 48 (2012): 3–20, http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/PDF/Mandenkan48/48Davydov.pdf. #Africa #script #writing #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #graphic
Pages 3–5 are perhaps the clearest explanation of the context of Kantè’s translation of the Koran/Q’uran that I’ve seen yet. I can easily imagine assigning them to students, if I wanted them to read something about why it’s a big deal to do such a translation.
#CRG
Donaldson, Coleman. “The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè’s N’ko.” African Studies Review, published online by Cambridge University Press, 28 January 2020, https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2019.59.
#typ #script #Africa #BlackDesigner #WhiteAuthor
Discusses how West African languages were written prior to 1949 (i.e., either as Ajami, i.e., in Arabic script, or with Latin script, following French), none of which Kantè found acceptable. Discusses the controversy involved in translating the Koran/Q’uran into local languages.
#CRG
Brenner, Louis, and Murray Last. “The Role of Language in West African Islam.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 55, no. 4, Popular Islam (1985), pp. 432-446, Jstor.org, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1160176.
#Africa #script #writing #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #graphic
Discusses the (then-)recent “official” translation of the Koran/Q’uran into Hausa in Nigeria, and how that potentially controversial edition came to be.
#CRG
Unseth, Peter. “Invention of Scripts in West Africa for Ethnic Revitalization.” In The Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity. Vol 2, The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts, edited by Joshua A. Fishman and Ofelia García. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011: 23–32.
#Africa #Script #Writing #Type #colon #imperialism #decolon
Argues that “By writing their language using a script that is uniquely theirs and instantly identifiable as distinct from those around them, a number of ethnic communities have created scripts as part of an effort to strengthen their ethnic identities.” Observes that “West Africa is unique, in that over a dozen scripts have been invented there in a relatively short time [i.e., “almost all of these scripts were invented during the period of time between World War I and independence for much of West Africa”], all with some degree of ethnic revitalization as part of their impetus” (p. 23). Discusses Vai, N’ko, Bassa, Bamun
#CRG
“Mandombe script.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandombe_script.
#Africa #script #writing #typography #type #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #graphic
From the entry: “Mandombe or Mandombé is a script proposed in 1978 in Mbanza-Ngungu in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Wabeladio Payi, who related that it was revealed to him in a dream by Simon Kimbangu, the prophet of the Kimbanguist Church.”
#CRG
Pasch, Helma. “Mandombe.” Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie, 2010, https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2010/2724
#Africa #script #writing #typography #type #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #graphic
Pasch provides an overview of Mandombe script, arguing that “its creation is not a reaction to colonialism but rather to the economic, political and educational development after Independence in DR Congo.” She concludes that “There are a number of features which Mandombe shares with other modern African scripts. To begin with, the author was motivated by a divine order. This command did, however, not come from God, but from Simon Kimbangu (*1887, †1951), founder of the Kimbanguist church. Second, the script was explicitly designed to become a marker of African identity. This function is most ostensibly demonstrated by the very name Mandombe, which means ‘for the Black people.’ Third, it was initiated as a personal project on a local level without any public support.” However, she notes, “the use of the script is very much restricted to a religious community, i.e. the members of the Kimbanguist church. This is true despite the fact that it was designed as a medium neutral to religion and nationality.”
#CRG
“Vai syllabary.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai_syllabary.
#Africa #script #writing #typography #type #1800-1850 #graphic
From the entry: “The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the syllabary's inventor and chief promoter when it was first documented in the 1830s. It is one of the two most successful indigenous scripts in West Africa in terms of the number of current users and the availability of literature written in the script, the other being N'Ko.” It is also entirely likely that Vai was inspired by the Cherokee syllabary of Sequoyah, because Vai arose about four years after a Cherokee man, Austin Curtis, emigrated to Liberia.
#CRG
“Momolu Duwalu Bukele.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momolu_Duwalu_Bukele
#Africa #script #writing #typography #type #1800-1850 #graphic
Entry about Bukele (30 September 1788 - October 1 1888), the Liberian inventor of the Vai syllabary.
Tuchscherer, Konrad, and P.E.H. Hair. "Cherokee and West Africa: Examining the Origins of the Vai Script," History in Africa, 29 (2002): 427–486.
#Africa #script #writing #typography #type #1800-1850 #graphic
Explores the possibility of a link between Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary (1821) and the emergence of the Vai syllabary in Liberia (1832/33), four years after a Cherokee man, Austin Curtis, emigrated to Liberia and became a chief there. This is a very thorough and quite interesting story, and though it is a bit long, undergraduates would have no troubles with it, as it is written in very plain language.
#CRG
#WestAsia: Perso-Arabic
Arabic Calligraphy (exhibition), Museum With No Frontiers. http://islamicart.museumwnf.org/exhibitions/ISL/arabic_calligraphy/introduction.php.
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
Intro page contains a couple of good quotations from the Surahs about the desirability of clear script.
#CRG
Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg, Kasia, “Western Font Design Meets Persian Calligraphy in the Work of Reza Abedini,” The Atlantic (October 1, 2012), http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2012/10/western-font-design-meets-persian-calligraphy-in-the-work-of-reza-abedini/263105/
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
Green, Nile. "Persian Print and the Stanhope Revolution: Industrialization, Evangelicalism and the Birth of Printing in Early Qajar Iran." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30, no. 3 (2010): 473–90.
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
Haven’t read yet.
#CRG
Karimifar, Mohamed (“Em”). “Marfa : a culturally respectful Perso-Arabic and Latin multi-script typeface.” MFA report, University of Texas at Austin, 2017. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/62450.
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
Presents a good overview of the challenges of designing multi-script Persian/Latin typefaces.
#CRG
Osborn, J. R. Letters of Light: Arabic Script in Calligraphy, Print, and Digital Design (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674971127.
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
#CRG
Smitshuijzen Abifares, Huda. Arabic Typography, rev. ed. (Saqi Books, 2000).
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
From publisher’s description: “Arabic Typography takes the reader through a comprehensive study of Arabic letterforms, starting with a concise historical overview of their development and styles, and proceeding to the latest design and technological advances. It attempts to establish the foundations for Arabic type-design by drawing lessons from past practices and aesthetic conventions, in order to retain the enduring traits that are of relevance for improvement and innovation in future type-design creations.”
#CRG
Aman, Mohammed M. “Use of Arabic in Computerized Information Interchange.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science 374 (1984): 204–210
#CRG
Becker, Joseph D. “Arabic Word Processing.” Communications of the ACM 30, no. 7 (July 1987): 600–610.
#Perso-Arabic #script #WestAsia
Mirza, Sarah. “Shoes, Writing: Unspeaking Writing in the Material Culture of Pre-Islamic Arabia and Early Islam,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 24, No. 2, Fall/Winter, 2017: 159–176 ff.
This is a study of the early uses of writing in the Arab world on both religious and secular objects.
#PS
#NorthAmerica
Brannon, Frank. “Metal Type from the Print Shop of the Historical Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper.” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 103, no. 3 (2009), pp. 319–335.
#NorthAmerica #USA #indigenousPeople #1800-1850 #Type #Cherokee #ManAuthor #type #typography
Discusses the “advent and production of the first Native American newspaper” and metal type specimens excavated in the 1950s. This newspaper was abruptly stopped when the Cherokee were forcibly removed from the area and forced to participate in the “Trail of Tears”
#BZ
Cushman, Ellen. "We're Taking the Genius of Sequoyah into This Century: The Cherokee Syllabary, Peoplehood, and Perseverance." Wicazo Sa Review 26, no. 1 (2011): 67–83.
#NorthAmerica #USA #indigenousPeople #Type #Cherokee #type #typography
This essay describes a “tradition of activism” and the “longstanding tradition of language perseverance” evident in Sequoyah’s development of the Cherokee syllabary and his “own political maneuverings.”
#BZ
Klassen, Michael A., et al. “Bird Rattle's Petroglyphs at Writing-On-Stone: Continuity in the Biographic Rock Art Tradition.” Plains Anthropologist, vol. 45, no. 172, 2000, pp. 189–201.
#NorthAmerica #Canada #USA #indigenousPeople #BCE #1900-1940 #ManAuthor #type
While this article refers to “Rock Art” from an anthropological perspective, it is a useful reference to understand indigenous traditions as they relate to a visual language such as petroglyphs. This article also focuses on the “continuity in traditional use” of petroglyph writing stretching from prehistory to the 20th century.
#BZ
“Sequoyah.” Wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah.
#NorthAmerica #IndigenousDesigner #script #writing #TypeDesign #Cherokee
Characterizes Sequoyah as one of only two recorded individuals known to have invented writing systems for formerly oral languages (which I do not think is accurate—see the sections on African and Hmong scripts!—but it’s certainly unusual). Good discussion of the impact of his invention internationally.
#CRG
Stevenson, Winona. “Calling Badger and the Symbols of the Spirit Language: The Cree Origins of the Syllabic System.” Oral History Forum, vol. 19–20 (1999–2000), pp. 19–24
#NorthAmerica #Canada #1800-1850 #Script #Type #Typography #IndigenousAuthor #indigenousPeople
Challenges the historical notions that an English-speaking missionary created a syllabary for the Cree people, and asserts the authority of traditional storytelling in establishing Indigenous histories.
#BZ
Tuchscherer, Konrad, and P. E. H. Hair. “Cherokee and West Africa: Examining the Origins of the Vai Script.” History in Africa, vol. 29, 2002, pp. 427–486.
#NorthAmerica #Africa #USA #indigenousPeople #1800-1850 #Type #Cherokee #ManAuthor #type #typography
(I am still reading this article) Explains and demonstrates the connections between the Cherokee syllabary and the Vai script from sub-saharan Africa.
#BZ
Unseth, Peter. "The international impact of Sequoyah’s Cherokee syllabary." Written Language and Literacy 19, no. 1 (2016): 75–93.
#NorthAmerica #IndigenousDesigner #script #writing #TypeDesign #Cherokee
This article apparently (I have not yet read it) traces 21 scripts used for over 65 languages that can be credited to Sequoyah’s invention.
#CRG
Redwing, Sadie. “Learning the Traditional Lakota Visual Language through Shape Play,” masters thesis, NCState University. 2016, https://issuu.com/sadieredwing/docs/srw_thesis_2016
#NorthAmerica @IndigenousDesigner #Lakota
#BH
#CentralAmerica
“Amate.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amate.
#substrate #paper #writing #script #CentralAmerica #IndigenousDesign #Maya #1-750CE #750-1200 #1200-1400 #1400-1600
A pretty thorough description of how this Mayan paper or paper-like substrate was made, later banned by the Spanish (though they used it in emergencies when they ran out of European paper!), and created furtively underground in opposition to Spanish laws until there was a big resurgence/celebration of it as a folk art in the twentieth century.
#CRG
NOVA: Cracking the Maya Code, 2008. Available via https://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/mar/19/nova-cracking-maya-code/.
#CentralAmerica #Maya #IndigenousDesign #script #writing #video
This video is nearly two hours long, but I have assigned it in the past to undergraduates when I was going to be out of town for a conference. It’s easy, fun viewing, and does a good job of explaining what the challenges of deciphering Maya pictographs were, and how they work.
#CRG
The Global Textile, Colorant, and Garment Trade
Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
#BCE #textile #Europe #Africa #Asia #China
Perhaps some readers will object to my inclusion of this book in this bibliography, because it tells the story of the development of thread and textiles using primarily European archaeological examples. But I am including it here because a) it’s a wonderful feminist corrective to the standard narratives of prehistory that focus on cave paintings and stone/bone/wood/shell/metal artifacts, and b) because the archaeological record she consults centers on the eastern half of the Mediterranean basin, including not only the expected focus on sites in Greece and Crete, but also examples from Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, et al., as well as a few mentions of Iraq, Persia/Iran (and a very occasional mention of India or China). Though I really enjoyed this book and its implied argument (that textiles, though overlooked, are perhaps the single most sophisticated, significant, and persevering technology invented during prehistoric times), I am disappointed that the origins of silk production in China in the third millennium BCE are relegated to a footnote on pp. 103–104, rather than made the focus of an entire chapter, as they surely merit. Nor are there any mentions whatsoever of textiles in the Americas or Oceania, so perhaps I am convincing myself that this book does not really belong on this list. I will stew on it a bit.
#CRG
Gordon, Jennifer Farley, and Colleen Hill. Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present, and Future. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.
Presents a historical perspective on many contemporary issues in textile and fashion production including labor, materials, etc. #VRP
Peck, Amelia, ed. Interwoven Globe : the Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013.
#fashion #textile #graphic #color #capital #1400-1600 #1600-1800 #Europe #SouthAmerica #Africa #Asia #China #Brazil #Mexico #India #Japan
This exhibition catalogue traces global interchanges in the early modern textile and colorant trade/industry. People today like to say we’re in the “age of globalization,” but books like this one demonstrate that we’ve been living in that age for centuries. There are fascinating stories in this book about individual garments and textiles whose origins span many continents.
#CRG
Phipps, Elena. “Global Colors: Dyes and the Dye Trade.” In Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800, edited by Amelia Peck. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013: pp. 120–135. #fashion #textile #graphic #color #rac #capital #1500-1600 #1600-1700 #1700-1800 #Europe #SouthAmerica #Africa #Asia #China #Brazil #Mexico #India #Japan
Phipps traces the incredibly valuable global trade in colorants in the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s, arguing that “the worldwide trade in dyes and dyestuffs can be said to have forever altered the course and evolution of global human relations,” and noting on p. 123 that slavery “was in part a direct response to the labor-intensive dye industry,” most notably in Brazil.
#CRG
Square, Jonathan Michael. “A Stain on an All-American Brand: How Brooks Brothers Once Clothed Slaves.” Vestoj.com (n.d.) last accessed 7/25/2020. http://vestoj.com/how-brooks-brothers-once-clothed-slaves/
#slavery #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #fashion
Square shows how this company made its name as a producer of readymade clothing for enslaved people, this adds an important element to the origins of readymade clothing which is often tied to uniforms in the Civil War rather than uniforms for enslaved people, also raises questions about corporate histories and archives that are intentionally hidden.
#VRP
Callihan, April and Zachary, Cassidy. “Fashioning the Enslaved Servant, an interview with Dr. Jonathan Michael Square,” Produced by iHeartRadio. Dressed. August 4, 2020. Podcast, MP3 audio, 41:45. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-dressed-the-history-of-fas-29000690/episode/fashioning-the-enslaved-servant-an-interview-69442209/
This interview with Jonathan Michael Square on the Podcast Dressed covers Brooks Brothers’ history of producing liveries for enslaved people, as well as the dress of enslaved people more broadly.
#VRP
Moore, Leonard. “History of the Black Experience,” University of Texas at Austin, 2 July 2020 (lecture 1 in a series of 6). Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPIT7Jd74CM.
#slavery #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #fashion
Moore discusses between about 29:00 and 31:30 how no one ever drew the connection for him when he was a student between an enslaved Black person picking cotton in Mississippi and the wealth generated by the industrial revolution, i.e., that the textile mills in New England that sold cotton goods to Europe were utterly dependent on enslaved labor. (He also throws in the fact that there's some dispute about whether Eli Whitney or an enslaved person invented the cotton gin.) Later in the same lecture, he points out that many of the USA’s stupidest laws today (e.g., vagrancy and loitering laws, which literally criminalize people for doing nothing!) were designed to put emancipated Blacks in jail and thus back into work crews in the fields, picking cotton.
#CRG
Pham, Minh-Ha T. “As Fashion Lines Are Praised for Making Face Masks, Don’t Ignore Garment Workers,” Truthout (March 31, 2020). #Labor #Fashion #Rac
For other contemporary discussions about exploited labor and the fashion industry, see the work of Minh-Ha T. Pham in the popular press.
#VRP
Pham, Minh-Ha T. “How to Fix the Fashion Industry's Racism,” The New Republic (April 18, 2019).
#Labor #Fashion #Rac
Pham, Minh-Ha T. “Stories the Fashion Media Won’t Tell,” The Nation (January 18, 2019).
#Labor #Fashion #Rac
Pham, Minh-Ha T. “Visualizing ‘The Misfit’: Virtual Fitting Rooms and the Politics of Technology,” American Quarterly 67, no. 1 (March 2015), pp. 165–188, https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/f6b07525-670c-4117-a45b-27c728120884/AQ_VirtualFitting.pdf
#Fashion #Rac #1980-2020 #USA #Capital
This chilling essay describes how companies bake racist assumptions and super-creepy forms of surveillance into the body-scanning devices they market as means of helping consumers find clothes that are the “perfect fit.” Pham argues that these scanners are surveillance technologies akin to the ones in airports, that they are hooked in to all the same networks of information that airport scanners and Facebook and everything else is, and that the biometric data they gather can be used to further discriminate against people who are already being discriminated against. She also makes the point that achieving “the perfect fit” is a very white idea: many people of color will never have a perfect fit—assuming they wanted one in the first place—precisely because almost everything on the market is designed for “ideal” white bodies.
#CRG
Jackson, Anna, ed. Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk. London: V&A Publishing, 2020.
#Asia #Japan #Fashion #Europe #USA #NorthAmerica #Imagery #Imperial #Oriental #Appropriate #Reapprop #Consum #Japon
This catalog is lavishly illustrated and has essays which cover the history of kimonos in Japanese fashion and also as an export commodity and appropriated garment.
#VRP
Gordon, Andrew. Fabricating Consumers (Berkeley: University of California press, 2011).
#Fashion #Japan #1850-1900, #1900-1940
This is about the adoption of sewing machines in Japan and the creation of a nation of seamstresses from the Meiji Period through the mid-20th century. I often teach the chapter called “Meiji Machines” in which Gordon analyzes the ways in which the tight stitching of Western sewing machines was ill-suited to traditional Japanese garments (kimonos) with their looser stitching. He situates Japan’s adoption of sewing machines alongside their adoption of Westernized clothing through the Meiji period.
#JKB
Karl, Barbara. “From Loot to Import Substitution: How India Changed Early Modern European Material Culture, Part 1,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2019 and “From Loot to Import Substitution: How India Changed Early Modern European Material Culture, Part 2,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 26, No. 2, Fall/Winter, 2019
#Fashion #Asia #1500-1700
They provide a good overview of what Europeans discovered in South Asia during the early period of navigation (c. 1500-1700) and how this was imported to Europe thus influencing a range of European designed goods.
#PS
Sok Vision, “Bisa Butler: Quilting for Culture,” 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCkNMK2QtUY
MFA Boston, “Harriet Powers: A Story of Art and Faith,” 2021. https://www.mfa.org/video/harriet-powers-a-story-of-art-and-faith
#textiles #USA #Africa #1850-1900 #1940-1980 #1980-2021 #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #Graphic #Feminin #Race #Slavery #Exhibition #Video
These two brief videos relate African American needlework traditions in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The videos were posted on the web page of the MFA Boston’s Exhibition “Fabric of a Nation American Quilt Stories,” which ran 10/10/2021-01/17/2022. The videos may be an accessbile resource for introducing undergraduate students to the history of needlework as a form of political speech.
#PJC
Color Theory
(Prescriptions and Proscriptions
about Choosing and Using Color)
Itten, Johannes. The Elements of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970.
#color #graphic #1940-1980 #rac #Europe #USA #NorthAmerica
In this book, Itten, an outspoken racist bigot during his time at the Bauhaus, provides an unexpected twist on the usual sorts of racist color theory by claiming on pages 24–25 that “The blond type should be assigned such subjects as Springtime, Kindergarten, Baptism, Festival of Bright Flowers, Garden at Morning,” while “Good assignments for a dark type would be Night, Light in a Dark Room, Autumn Storm, Burial, Grief, The Blues, etc.”
#CRG
Blanc, Charles. The Grammar of Painting and Engraving, translated by Kate Doggett. New York: Hurd and Houghton; Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1874, https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/grammarpainting00blan.
#color #graphic #1850-1900 #rac #Europe #USA #NorthAmerica
Blanc, like many of his predecessors, associates drawing with men and intellect, and color with women, “savages,” “primitives,” “Orientals,” sensuality, and so on. The unexpected racist twist in his argument is that he claims—despite what everyone says—that color OBVIOUSLY isn’t that hard to master, because how difficult can it be if the Chinese can do it?
#CRG
Batchelor, David. Chromophobia. London: Reaktion Books, 2001, http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781861890740.
#color #graphic #1980-2020 #rac #Europe #NorthAmerica
As the editorial description states, “The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse—a fear of corruption or contamination through colour—lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge colour, either by making it the property of some ‘foreign body’—the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological—or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.” Well put!
#CRG
Goldstein, Harriet and Vetta. Art in Every Day Life. New York: Macmillan, 1925.
#color #graphic #industrial #interior #architec #1900-1940 #rac #USA #NorthAmerica
In this book, two earnest, well-meaning white women exhort their readers to comply with some truly classic white supremacist cop-shit rules about using color, such as the “Law of Areas” (which says that the brightest colors must be used in the smallest amounts, and that large areas should tend toward drab, neutral greige-ish colors that kill all joy...I mean, that don’t “tire the eyes.” They don’t say it outright, but, like so much of Western color theory, the point seems to be to draw a distinction between people who use color in restrained, “civilized” ways, vs. those who use it in “unruly,” pleasurable, “primitive,” dangerous ways.
#CRG
Przybyszewski, Linda. “Art Principles for Beauty.” The Lost Art of Dress. New York: Basic Books, 2014.
#1900-1940 #Fashion #race #racis
This chapter covers the aesthetics promoted by US manuals that taught home sewers how to make clothes in the first half of the twentieth century. Przybyszewski talks about color prescriptions and notes the racist ideas embedded in these manuals written by white women, as well as their lack of advice for women with dark skin. She also covers African American women who wrote their own manuals to remedy this exclusion.
#VRP
Washington, Ella Mae. Color in Dress (For Dark Skinned People). Langston, OK: Ella Mae Washington, 1949.
#BlackAuthor #Fashion #PrimarySource #1900-1940
A full scan is available through the NMAAHC here.
#VRP
Mary Gartside, An Essay on a New Theory of Colours, 1808.
#1800-1850 #WomanAuthor #WomanDesigner #Europe
Gartside was an English watercolorist who wrote a treatise early in the early 19th century.
#https://archive.org/details/gri_33125015119437/page/n35/mode/2up
#BH
Loos, Adolf. “Ornament and Crime” (1908/1910), reprinted in The Industrial Design Reader, edited by Carma Gorman. New York: Allworth, 2003.
#color #graphic #industrial #interior #architec #1900-1940 #rac #Europe
Another prime example of how Westerners argued that bright colors, or really any colors at all other than black and white, were symptoms of savagery, degeneracy, and/or effeminacy.
#CRG
Breward, Christopher. “Unpacking the Wardrobe: The Grammar of Male Clothing.” In The Hidden Consumer: Masculinities, Fashion and City Life 1860–1914. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.
#fashion #whiteness #1850-1900
This chapter outlines a more nuanced take on the beginnings of men’s ready-to-wear fashion and the so-called “great masculine renunciation” coined by fashion theorist J.C. Flugel in 1930 to describe Western men’s shift away from bright colors, lace, velvet, etc… in fashion. Breward shows that men didn’t give up fashion (or color) for rational uniformity as Flugel suggests, but rather that their fashions were defined more by appropriateness and authority as part of a construction of masculinity. #VRP
Jackson, Carole. Color Me Beautiful. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981 (first edition by Acropolis Books, 1980).
#color #fashion #textile #bias #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
Jackson argues that all women, of all races, will look best in one of four different color palettes that correspond to the four seasons. (Note: not everyone thinks there are four seasons, so from the get-go this is a really Western idea.) Moreover, she illustrates mostly white women in the book. As a later critic observed (see “Curated Closet/My Color Style Palette”), Jackson characterized all people with dark skin tones as either Autumn or Winter, and didn’t show enough examples of people with dark skin, or seem to acknowledge the variety of skin, hair, and eye colors they had/have.
#CRG
Jackson, Carole. Color For Men. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984.
#color #fashion #textile #bias #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
This companion to Jackson’s Color Me Beautiful has the same flaws when it comes to race, and—as a bonus!—really throws the sexist assumptions behind the first book into sharp relief.
#CRG
“Curated Closet/My Color Style Palette,” Miss Celie’s Pants blog, 30 January 2020, https://missceliespants.com/2020/01/30/curated-closet-my-color-style-palette/.
#color #fashion #textile #bias #rac #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackAuthor
A Black sewist’s take on how and why Color Me Beautiful didn’t work for her as a Black person—i.e., it put all Black people into one of two categories, and didn’t show enough examples of people with dark skin tones—and the system she found that worked better.
#VRP #CRG
Williams, Amanda. “Why I turned Chicago’s abandoned homes into art,” TEDWomen 2018, https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_williams_why_i_turned_chicago_s_abandoned_homes_into_art/transcript.
#color #bias #rac #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner
In this 13:11 TEDWomen talk, Williams discusses her struggle as a Black person to connect her lived experiences as a person of color to the color theory of white men such as Josef Albers that she learned in school. Ultimately, she states, "I decided that I'd create my own color palette and speak to the people who live where I do and alter the way that color had been defined for us [in the color palettes of redlined mortgage-lending maps]. It was a palette that I didn't have to search far for and look for in a treatise, because I already knew it. What kind of painter emerges from this reality? What color is urban? What color is ghetto? What color is privilege? What color is gang-related? What color is gentrification? What color is Freddie Gray? What color is Mike Brown? Finally, I'd found a way to connect my racialized understanding of color with my theoretical understanding of color." I am definitely going to assign this talk to students in a future course.
#CRG
Hamada, Nobyoshi. The Traditional Colors of Japan. PIE International, 2013.
#Japan #Asia #color #theory #1980-2020 #CRG
Sano, Takahiko. Nihon no haishoku (Traditional Japanese Color Palette). PIE International, 2011.
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2006.
#race #racism #BlackAuthor #1900-1940
Originally published in 1928, Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel follows Helga Crane, a young mixed race woman, from a position as a teacher in a conservative school in the rural South, to Chicago, Harlem, and Copenhagen, Denmark to live with her father’s family, and ultimately back to the US. Color plays a vivid role in Larsen’s descriptions and Helga’s own aesthetic, and the novel reveals the ways that Black women’s bodies were policed, particularly around fashion and color, in this period.
#VRP
David, Alison Matthews. “Poisonous Pigments: Arsenical Greens,” and “Dangerous Dyes: A Pretty, Deadly Rainbow.” Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.
#Europe #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #Fashion #colr #class #consumers #labor
In these chapters David talks about the dangers of dyes and pigments in fashion as well as the ways they signified wealth and status. David also suggests the ways that white and undyed cloth in the 19th century signified health and cleanliness because of hazardous dyes and emerging germ theories. She also covers issues of labor and the environment. Very readable for undergrads and well illustrated.
#VRP
Hara, Kenya, White. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Muller Publishers, 2019.
Simplicity and subtlety are central concepts in this short book about Japanese aesthetics written by the creative director of Muji. Hara explores emptiness and design as a void that opens up communication structures rather than impress an opinion.
#BH
Huang, Ellen. “An Art of Transformation: Reproducing Yaobian Glazes in Qing-Dynasty Porcelain.” Archives of Asian Art 68, no. 2 (October 2018): pp. 133–56.
#1600-1800 #1800-1850 #color #Asia #China #industrial #Europe #Colon #Imperial #craft #AsianAmAuthor #AsianPeople
The Slave Trade and Slavery
Upton, Dell. “White and Black Landscapes in Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” Places: A Quarterly Journal of Environmental Design 2, no. 2 (1984): 59–72.
#arch #slavery #1700-1800 #Architecture
Classic study published after 1970s/80s archaeological work on slave dwellings. Describes the access that enslaved people had to the plantation house. (opening pages are a bit dry—encourage students to stick with it). Can pair with Monticello’s extensive web resources on enslaved people’s lives and design/furniture.
#BW
Nelson, Louis P. “The Architectures of Black Identity,” Winterthur Portfolio 45, no. 2/3 (June 1, 2011): 177–94, https://doi.org/10.1086/660810.
#arch #slavery #1800-#1850 #1850-1900
#BW
Barringer, Tim, and Wayne Modest, eds. Victorian Jamaica. Duke University Press, 2018.
#slavery #1800-1850 #1850-1900
Includes numerous short “object lesson” essays about a wide range of visual and material culture objects, as well as larger thematic and historical studies [*it’s not specifically US slavery oriented, but addresses the broader transatlantic slave trade]
#KW
Vlach, John Michael. “The Plantation Landscape,” in American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader, edited by Keith Eggener. Taylor & Francis, 2004.
#arch #slavery #1800-#1850 #1850-1900
I like this essay because it considers the plantation landscape not only as it was planned for the intentions of the white owners, but also the way it was used by enslaved people living and working on the land. It explores the agency of enslaved people by examining their patterns of movement and modes of inhabiting/using space.
#JKB
Emory Center for Digital Scholarship, “Slave Ship, ‘L’Aurore’, a 3D Video” 2019 available at https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/ship
#arch #slavery #1800-#1850 #1850-1900
This site shows an excellent 3D rendering and detailed description of the design of a slave ship and the enslaved experience on the middle passage. It has strong imagery and a compelling description of the slave trade in human terms. I have used it in my classes to emphasize the ways in which slavery as a system was designed. Also the full website (slavevoyages.org) has some other great resources related to the slave trade.
#JKB
Mabel O. Wilson, “Home of the Oppressed: Slavery and American Civic Architecture,” keynote talk at the SAH virtual conference in 2020: https://vimeo.com/413127567.
#arch #slavery #1800-#1850 #1850-1900
A fantastic keynote on the use of slaves in the construction of the White House. I think this is a powerful and engaging talk and is one I think that could be assigned to students.
#JKB
Martin, Ann Smart. Buying into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
#1600-1800CE #Slavery #USA #Consumers #Consumption
This has an interesting and useful chapter about enslaved consumers in 18th century rural Virginia.
#JKB
Frye, Brian L. “Invention of a Slave.” Syracuse Law Review 68 (2018): 118–. https://lawreview.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Q-Frye-w-change.pdf.
#BlackDesigner [see names of Black designers/inventors listed in essay] #IndustrialDesign #Law #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900
This is a very long legal essay, but the writing is clear. Frye’s short two-page introduction to the case Invention of a Slave—which dealt with the question of whether enslaved Black people (and ultimately free Blacks, too) could secure patents—is really clear and to the point. He also discusses the rumors that maybe an enslaved man, rather than Eli Whitney, invented the cotton gin (citing Portia P. James’s book on this point). He cites lots of pertinent legal and humanistic scholarship that could be useful for someone who wants to delve deep into Black invention and patenting.
#CRG
Crouch, Dennis. “Invention of a Slave and the Ongoing Movement for Equal Justice,” Patently-O Blog, 20 June 2020. https://patentlyo.com/patent/2020/06/invention-ongoing-movement.html.
#BlackDesigner [see names of Black designers/inventors listed in essay] #IndustrialDesign #Law #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900
This post gives a short plain-language overview of nineteenth-century changes in law that denied Black Americans (both enslaved and free) the ability to secure patents. It points to other essays on this subject, including Frye’s and Kara Swanson’s. I think the other sources in this list are richer, but Crouch’s is the shortest essay on this question that I’ve found.
#CRG
Swanson, Kara W. “Race and Selective Legal Memory: Reflections on Invention of a Slave,” Columbia Law Review 120 (2020): 1077–1118.
#BlackDesigner [see names of Black designers/inventors listed in essay] #IndustrialDesign #Law #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900
I haven’t read every word of this yet, but I think the conclusion—”The costs of forgetting,” starting on p. 1110—is really powerful. #CRG.
Johnson, Shontavia Jackson. “The Colorblind Patent System and Black Inventors,” Landslide 11, no. 4 (2019), reprinted at American Bar Association, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2018-19/march-april/colorblind-patent-system-black-inventors/.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner [see names of Black designers/inventors listed in essay] #IndustrialDesign #Law #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900
This plain-language essay seems possibly the most feasible of the four on this list to assign to undergraduates: it’s shorter than Frye and Swanson, and though longer than Crouch, provides many more specifics about Black inventors. She mentions, too, the rumors that Black people were responsible for inventing the cotton gin and the McCormick reaper, citing Frye (above) and Aoki (I haven’t looked into this latter source yet).
#CRG
Lakwete, Angela. Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America. Baltimore: JHU Press, 2005.
#BlackAuthor #IndustrialDesign #Law #USA #1800-1850 #1850-1900
Part history of agriculture, part history of technology, the book traces the pre-trans-Atlantic-slave-trade history of cotton as a textile fiber to Asia and Africa, and explains how white colonists/Americans relied on the knowledge of enslaved Africans to grow cotton and industrialize its production in the U.S. Of interest is the angle on “invention”: she undermines the notion of a single inventor (either Eli Whitney or an enslaved man named Sam, as other sources claim) and discusses how these myths have influenced historical interpretations of slavery and the cotton industry. Notably, she points out that people had been ginning cotton for millennia in Africa and Asia before Whitney came along, albeit through different, slower, and less damaging methods.
#BW #CRG
Slave House Database. Savingslavehouses.org
#Primary #Archive #architecture #slavery
This database will soon be publicly accessible; started by Jobie Hill, preservation architect. The site also collects slave narratives.
#SDR
Abolitionism and Resistance
to Racial Oppression before 1945
Freedom on the Move Project, Cornell University, https://freedomonthemove.org/#about.
#Archive #Primary #slavery #fashion
“A database of fugitives from American Slavery,” according to the website, but more accurately, an archive maintained by Cornell of fugitive slave ads, which is particularly interesting in terms of the garments and objects these people took with them that are often described in the ads.
#VRP #CRG
The Colored Conventions Project is an archive of the proceedings from conventions organized by Black men and women in the US and Canada from the 1830s–1890s. https://coloredconventions.org/
#Archive #Primary #Abolition
There is material, particularly in the exhibits sections that includes coverage of the role of milliners of dressmakers in these movements, domestic spaces and boarding houses, and the whole archive is related to graphic design.
#VRP
Wells-Barnett, Ida B, The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American’s Contribution to Columbian Literature. Reprint of the 1893 edition, Robert W. Rydell, ed., Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Full Text on UPENN Digital Library
#BlackAuthor #Racis #1850-1900 #USA #WorldsFair
Pamphlet including writings by Wells as well as Frederick Douglass and others on the inequalities underlying the national project of the Exposition.
#BW #GVK
Posters in Protest: Black Lives Matter (online exhibition). Poster House, https://posterhouse.org/special-project/posters-in-protest/
#archive #primary #SocialJustice #resistance #USA #North American #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This online exhibition features posters from five US protest movements: the Negro Silent Protest Parade of 1917; the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–56; the March on Washington of 1963; the marches from Selma to Montgomery of 1965; the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968; and Black Lives Matter, 2013–present.
Toppins, Aggie, “Beyond the Bauhaus: ‘I Am A Man’ placard from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike” AIGA DEC blog, August 18, 2020
https://educators.aiga.org/beyond-the-bauhaus-i-am-a-man/
#BH
Guyatt, Mary. “The Wedgwood Slave Medallion,” Journal of Design History 13, no 2 (2000).
#1600-1800 #USA #NorthAmerica #Europe #England #WhiteDesigner #Branding #SocialJustice #Graphic #Imagery #Industrial #Abol #Represent #Masculin
I like this because it provides a strong critical reading of the Wedgwood medallion and is a good one for teaching about the intentions vs impact of political speech and performative politics.
#JKB
Sandage, Scott, and Jonathan W. White. “What Frederick Douglass Had to Say About Monuments,” Smithsonian magazine, June 30, 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-frederick-douglass-had-say-about-monuments-180975225/.
#Slavery #1850-1900 #USA #Urban
A primary source by Frederick Douglas that has recently been uncovered where he talks about the Emancipation Group or Lincoln Emancipation Monument in DC (There is also a copy in Boston) which has been the subject of much debate recently. Given the similarity of the black figure I think this would be a great source to put in conversation with the medallion.
#VRP
Hatt, Michael. “‘Making a Man of Him’: Masculinity and the Black Body in Mid-Ninteenth-Century American Sculpture.” In Race-Ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History, edited by Kymberly N. Pinder. 69–85. New York: Routledge, 2002.
#Race #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #USA
This essay talks about the Emancipation Group, but is useful in terms of thinking about the representation of black masculinity and the issue of nudity.
#VRP
Margolin, Sam. “‘And Freedom to the Slave’: Antislavery Ceramics, 1787–1865,” Ceramics in America (2002). http://www.chipstone.org/images.php/39/Ceramics-in-America-2002/%E2%80%9CAnd-Freedom-to-the-Slave%E2%80%9D:-Antislavery-Ceramics,-1787%E2%80%931865
#1800-1850 #1850-1900 #Slavery
Chipstone has a terrific archive of anti-slavery objects (many easily considered design, lots of transferware) and an essay accompanying them.
#VRP
Clytus, Radiclani. “‘Keep It Before the People’: The Pictorialization of American Abolitionism.” In Laura Langer Cohen & Jordan Alexander Stein (eds.), Early African American Print Culture. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012: 290–317ff.
#graphic #image #printing #USA #NorthAmerica #1700-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900
In this essay, Clytus describes abolitionists’ “ocularcentric ethos” in the publications of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) after 1833. The article has quite a few black-and-white illustrations by Black artists/designers and about Black people. #CRG
Nieves, Angel David. An Architecture of Education: African American Women Design the New South. Gender and Race in American History. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2018.
#USA #WomenDesigner #1850-1900 #1900-1950 #Architecture
Describes the role of Black women in founding vocational schools, including designing their campuses, in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow South. Nieves argues that these women, while not trained as architects, performed the work of mediators and expressed clear architectural ideas in their schools. Focus is on Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, founder of SC’s Vorhees College and a close acolyte of Booker T Washington, and Jennie Dean founder of Manassas Industrial School, VA.
#BW
Colonization and Colonialism
Rydell, Robert W, All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876–1916 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
#Racism #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #Imperial #Colon
The chapter on the 1893 Columbian Exposition incorporates both the “White City” and Midway, and addresses racial stereotyping that lumped Black Americans with Pacific Island and African peoples and cultures on view
#BW
Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Harvard University Press, 1988.
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #Art #ExhibitionDesign #WhiteAuthor
A critical history of anthropological (and anthro-influenced) views of indigenous and non-Western cultures. The section on Collections describes how “modern” and “primitive” became categories of art and collections, with one chapter on MoMA’s Primitivism show & one that addresses conflicts over looting/collecting indigenous artifacts.
#BW
Pokagon, Simon, The Red Man’s Greeting, 1492–1892 (Chicago, 1893).
#1850-1900 #IndigenousAuthor #USA #Graphic
A rare primary document of indigenous perspective on the Columbian Exposition; Pokagon presented this pamphlet printed on birch bark and distributed at the Fair. Full scan is available through the Newberry Library: http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/ref/collection/nby_eeayer/id/5659
#BW
Witchard, Anne Veronica. British Modernism and Chinoiserie. Edinburgh: University Press, 2017.
#China #Europ #AsianAuthor #AsianDesigner #Architecture #Fashion #Graphic
Several chapters argue that Modernism was an extension of, not a departure from Chinoiserie and other orientalist styles of the 18th/19th c.
Tythacott, Louise, The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism and Display, Berghahn Books, 2011.
#1850-1900 #China #Europe #Colon #Imperial
This has a chapter on China’s display (or really lack thereof) at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition. It is useful because it contextualizes the political and trade relationship of China to Great Britain at the time, and explains China’s refusal to participate while also providing a compelling analysis of the 1851 exhibition as a whole.
#JKB
Arnold, David. Everyday Technology: Machines and the Making of India’s Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
#India #Asia #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #colon #modern #industrial #technolog
From the editorial description: “Everyday Technology is a pioneering account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than investigate “big” technologies such as railways and irrigation projects, Arnold examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India, and follows their impact on the ways in which people worked and traveled, the clothes they wore, and the kind of food they ate. But the effects of these machines were not limited to the daily rituals of Indian society, and Arnold demonstrates how such small-scale technologies became integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, and gender, as well as about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood.”
#CRG
Settler Colonial City Project, Mapping Chicago/Chicagou (& other downloadable material from SCCP). https://settlercolonialcityproject.org/Mapping-Chicagou-Chicago
#USA #NorthAmerica #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #data #graphic #colon
This is an architect-led research and data visualization project from the Chicago Architectural Biennial of 2019 that tracks the indigenous history of Chicago, as well as the ongoing remnants of both contested lands and other racial conflicts (e.g. Civil War monuments) in the city. This series of short, visually engaging publications was presented with architecture/signage interventions at the Chicago Cultural Center that called attention to aspects of extraction and colonization in that 19th century building (for example, overlaying “You Are Looking At Unceded Land” on the large picture windows of the exhibition space).
#BW
Herscher, Andrew, and Ana Maria Léon. “At the Border of Decolonization.” eflux, 2019. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/at-the-border/325762/at-the-border-of-decolonization/
#USA #NorthAmerica #1600-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #architecture
By contributors to the Settler Colonial Cities Project, shortish piece that lays out ways that European settlers used architecture/planning (grids, fences) in colonization in the Americas. Explains decolonization.
#BW
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “An Indian Basket.” The Age of Homespun : Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
#USA #1600-1800 #textiles #crafts #indigenous
A close material culture read on a basket that was collected by white settlers as a window into the interchange of goods among settlers and the Wampanoag in New England, and how these goods have been interpreted since. Not from a critical race studies perspective.
Brody, David. Visualizing American Empire: Orientalism and Imperialism in the Philippines. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
#USA #Asia #1850-1900 #1900-1950 #Interior #image
A look at the material and visual culture of the American colonization of the Philippines. Chapters on the “orient” in interior design and on the racist visual culture of U.S. soldiers vs Filipino resistance fighters illustrate cultural appropriation and scientific racism.
#BW
Cain, Victoria E. M. “The Craftsmanship Aesthetic: Showing Making at the American Museum of Natural History, 1910–45.” The Journal of Modern Craft 5, no. 1 (March 1, 2012): 25–50.
#Appropriat #Colon #Indigenous #USA #ExhibitionDesign
Describes how museums—especially AMNH—produced images of people making things by hand as a curiosity in modern times. Not solely focused on Indigenous production, but compares how medieval/preindustrial Western craft and Indigenous craft were subsumed into a single category (& usually pictured with white people demonstrating or preserving them). I haven’t taught this but it creates a satisfying connection between Arts & Crafts and colonizing exhibition techniques of this period that I otherwise haven’t seen much.
#BW
Simonsen, Jane E. Making Home Work: Domesticity and Native American Assimilation in the American West, 1860–1919. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
#Colon #Indigenous #USA #ExhibitionDesign #Interiors #1850-1900
History of home economics as a form of cultural assimilation and appropriation. Chapters include displays of “assimilated” Native homes and depictions in photography and media.
#BW
Silverman, Debora L. “Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part I,” West 86th 18, no. 2 (Fall-Winter 2011) :139–181.
-----. “Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part II,” West 86th 19: 2 (Fall-Winter 2012) 175-195.
------. “Art Nouveau, Art of Darkness: African Lineages of Belgian Modernism, Part III,” West 86th 19: 2 (Spring-Summer 2013) 3-61.
#Appropriat #Colon #WhiteDesigner #Architecture #Interior #WomanAuthor #Canon #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #ProfBackgroundReading #Africa #Modern #Primitiv #ArtNouveau #WhiteAuthor
This trio of articles powerfully links the whiplash curls and the favored materials of designers associated with Art Nouveau to the Belgian colonization of the Congo—one of the most brutal histories of colonization in this period. In addition to identifying Congolese design sources for Art nouveau designs, Silverman also argues that Belgian Art nouveau (exemplified by designers like Henri Van De Velde) is “imperial modernism,” a vital part of the country's colonial project. This is a complex and lengthy series that would be tough for students to plow through, but provides essential background for instructors—a great pendant case study to Cubism and Picasso as well.
#VRP
Though the whole series is a lot to assign a class, I’ve assigned Part I to grad courses and it works well.
#EM
I “third” that, for both graduate and undergraduate groups.
#AL
Mathur, Saloni. India by Design: Colonial History and Cultural Display. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
#India #Asia #Interior #AsianAuthor #1850-1900 #1900-1950 #colon #approp #museum #ExhibitionDes #WorldsFair #graphic #image
Covers the adulation, appropriation, and diminishment of Indian visual culture. Design/decorative arts at world’s fairs and in popular culture (postcards) feature prominently, and more recent debates over museum collecting/display come to the present.
#BW #AL
Morison, Stanley. Politics and Script: Aspects of Authority and Freedom in the Development of Graeco-Latin Script from the Sixth Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. 1957; reprint; Clarendon Press, 1972.
#colon #type #typography
(Haven’t read yet, but am hoping it’s about what I think of as “typographic imperialism”)
#CRG
Dipti Bhagat. “Designs on/in Africa.” Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Kjetil Fallan and Grace Lees-Maffei, eds. New York: Berghahn, 2018.
#colon #Africa
This article critiques the framing of Africa as a single geographic entity rather than recognizing the individual countries and nations within Africa. It includes a discussion of how African nations were represented at the world’s fairs as well as a discussion about the circulation of second-hand clothing from America to Africa. This text is available open access.
#JKB
Livia Rezende. “Of Coffee, Nature, and Exclusion: Designing Brazilian National Identity at International Exhibitions (1867 and 1904).” Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization. Kjetil Fallan and Grace Lees-Maffei, eds. New York: Berghahn, 2018.
#colon #LatinAmerica #WorldsFair
This article offers a rich analysis of the Brazilian displays at the 1867 and 1904 world’s fairs. Rezende describes the ways in which the Brazilian exhibits sought to promote a national identity for Brail first as a “virgin forest” and then as a “republic of coffee.” This text is available open access.
#JKB
Raizman, David and Ethan Robey, eds. Expanding Nationalisms at World’s Fairs: Identity, Diversity, and Exchange, 1851-1915. New York and London: Routledge, 2017.
Several chapters are of interest here, see especially: Debra Hanson’s “East Meets West: Representing the Arab-Islamic World at the Nineteenth-Century World’s Fairs;” Christian A. Hedrick, “From London to Paris (via Cairo): The World Expositions and the Making of the Modern Architect, 1862-1867;” Susan R. Fernsebner, “When the Local is Global: Case Studies in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Exposition Projects;” and M. Elizabeth Boone, “The 1910 Centenary Exhibition in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay: Manufacturing Fine Art and Cultural Diplomacy in South America.”
#AL
Edoh, M. Amah. “Redrawing Power? Dutch Wax Cloth and the Politics of ‘Good Design.’” Journal Of Design History 29, no. 3 (September 2016): 258–272.
#colon #Africa #WestAfrica #textile #Netherlands #Europe #Anthropology #Appropriation #ReAppropriation #WhiteDesigners #BlackConsumers
“Known as ‘African print,‘ Dutch Wax cloth is both a marker of West African cultural identity and a European import to West Africa from the 19th century. For some observers, the designs embody a legacy of colonial domination, as products of colonial trade routes that are still created in Europe by non-African designers. Based on ethnographic research conducted in the studio where Dutch Wax prints are designed, this article considers designers‘ conceptualization of their practice alongside their critics‘ perspectives. I argue that the designers’ practice is guided by a `Good Design’ ethos, anchored in the technical and creative process of bringing expert skill, experience, and personal handwriting to bear on designs, a process that designers envision as divorced from place and politics. For designers, `Good design’ offers the potential for connection with users around a shared love for beautiful designs. Though they expressly consider their work apolitical, I read the designers‘ conceptualization of their practice as a political stance enlisting design practice and objects in a project to redraw power relations between Europeans and Africans. By laying out competing visions of the politics of Dutch Wax print design, this article contributes a critical approach to studies of place and/in design.” -The author's own abstract
#EC
Van Kessell, Ineke. “Wax Prints in West Africa: Unravelling the Myth of Dutch Colonial Soldiers as Cultural Brokers.” Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa: Ghana and Benin, 1450 - 1960. Boston: BRILL, 2018.
#colon #Africa #WestAfrica #Ghana #Asia #Indonesia #textile #Netherlands #Britain #Europe #Anthropology #Appropriation #ReAppropriation #WhiteDesigners #AsianDesigners #BlackConsumers
#VRP
Hicks, Dan. The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. Book talk. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. (123 minute video).
https://youtu.be/Zc-5BnHD8aM
#colon #Africa #WestAFrica #Britain #Benin #Anthropology #Reparations
In this video book talk, Hicks, curator at the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford, discusses the politics surrounding looted objects from West Africa. His twenty-minute talk is followed up by a fascinating discussion among curators about reparations and how to interpret these objects in ways that do note elide the violence of British corporate colonialism and the culpability of museums in retaining objects with questionable provenance.
#PJC
Prestholdt, Jeremy. “On the Global Repercussions of East African Consumerism.” The American Historical Review, 109, no. 3 (June 2004): 755–781.
#1850-1900, #Africa, #India, #Textile, #Craft, #Mediat [-e, -ion]
Recovers the ways that East African consumers shaped the global economy during the nineteenth century. Has a thorough historiography on trade and consumption patterns linking Africa to the world. Includes case studies of the way local tastes in textiles among Central African tribes were communicated through intermediaries to Salem, Massachusetts and Bombay, India, influencing the design of textiles. The essay describes East African artisans altering imported designs to suit local tastes.
#PJC
Lagae, Johan. “Nomadic furniture in the “heart of darkness” Colonial and Postcolonial Trajectories of Modern Design Artifacts to and from Tropical Africa.” In The Politics of Furniture: Identity, Diplomacy and Persuasion in Post-War Interiors, edited by Fredie Floré and Cammie D. McAtee, 15-32. London: Routledge, 2018.
#1900-1940, #1940-1980, #Africa, #Europe, #Furniture, #Appropriation, #Consumption, #Imperialism, #Modernism
Lagae analyzes the installation of the BKF Chair (The Butterfly Chair) in colonial interiors in the 1940s and 1950s. He situates the design of the chair within an emergent consumer economy in Central Africa. The BKF chair was inspired by French and Belgian traditions and ideas of comfort, exported to Europe and re-imported as a symbol of “modern living.” The essay combines visual analysis of photographs with an analysis of construction techniques and materials.
#PJC
Brandt, Lisbeth K. Kingdom of Beauty: Mingei and the Politics of Folk Art in Imperial Japan
#China, #Korea, #Imperialism, #Oriental [-ism], #Colon [-ize{r}/-ise{r}, -~ation]
Kingdom of Beauty shows that the discovery of mingei (folk art) by Japanese intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s was central to the complex process by which Japan became both a modern nation and an imperial world power. Kim Brandt’s account of the mingei movement locates its origins in colonial Korea, where middle-class Japanese artists and collectors discovered that imperialism offered them special opportunities to amass art objects and gain social, cultural, and even political influence.
#PJC
LaCouture, Elizabeth. “Inventing the ‘Foreignized’ Chinese Carpet in Treaty-port Tianjin, China.” Journal of Design History 30, no. 3 (September 2017): 300–314.
#1900-1940, #China, #AsianDesigner, #AsianPeople, #Industrial, #Textile, #Assimilat [-e, -ion], #Capital [-ism, -ist], #Modern [-ism, -ist], #Oriental [-ism, -ist], #Reapprop [-riate, -riation]
A study of the creation of the carpet industry in Tinanjin China. The essay traces the history of Chinese export carpets from the turn of the twentieth century, when they were first imagined and created to suit European orientalist aesthetics, to the 1920s and the rise of distinct national styles. LaCouture shows how industrial design was used to manufacture an idea of Chineseness, foreignness and modernity as means to mediate shifting global power. The essay uses some visual analysis of carpets to support her argument.
#PJC
Siddhartha V. Shah, “Romancing the Stone: Victoria, Albert, and the Koh-i-Noor Diamond,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 24, No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2017: 29–46 ff
A discussion of the looting of Indian treasure houses to create the jewel cabinets and crown jewels of Great Britain in the 19th century.
#PS
Anna McSweeney, “Versions and Visions of the Alhambra in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman World,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2015: 44–69 ff
It was not only Europeans who were fascinated by the Alhambra in the 19th and 20th centuries. The palace in Granada had an impact on modern design in Islamic countries as well.
#PS
Yiyu Xu, “The Knowledge System of the Traditional Chinese Craftsman,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 20, No. 2, Fall/Winter, 2013: 155–172 ff
Many of the values and meanings in Chinese craftsmanship were not written down but communicated through experience and training. This article explains some of these meanings, often inherent to the objects created.
#PS
Lina Bo Bardi, “Three Essays on Design and the Folk Arts of Brazil,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2013: 110–124 ff
Lina Bo Bardi was a campaigner for the preservation and continuing value of indigenous crafts in Brazil, especially those of the Bahia region. Here she explains some of her aims.
#PS
Miruna Achim, “The Art of the Deal, 1828: How Isidro Icaza Traded Pre-Columbian Antiquities to Henri Baradère for Mounted Birds and Built a National Museum in Mexico City in the Process,” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Vol. 18, No. 2, Fall/Winter, 2011: 214–231 ff
A study of the scales of value associated with different media, and how this informed the creation of a national museum in Mexico.
#PS
Danzker, Jo-Anne Birnie. “Am I Authentic?” In Dreamings = Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal art of the Western Desert: the Donald Kahn Collection. New York : Prestel, 1994; reprinted (in part) in Art and its Histories: A Reader, ed. Steve Edwards (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pp. 257–260.
#1940-1980, #1980–2020, #Australia, #IndigenousDesign, #colonization, #identity #authenticity #appropriation
This essay is about the “authenticity debate” surrounding the art of First Australians. I assigned it many times in the early 2000s in undergraduate art history courses I used to teach, with great success. The question it poses in the title and first paragraph, and the points it makes in the second, have really stuck with me over the years. To wit: “Reception of Aboriginal art by Europeans, and its classification into authentic, contemporary, art and craft is an extension of colonialist nineteenth-century debates as to whether First Australians are people. It is based on a form of cultural apartheid whose justifications have become so entrenched in our vocabulary and institutions that they have almost become invisible. The terminology of control is authentic, native, ethnic, and quality. Aborginal artists produce ethnographic artefacts, white artists make art; Picasso, for example, is not considered ‘inauthentic’ because he adopted techniques and forms from non-European cultures. Nor is a time limit set on the legitimacy of his work, suggesting, for example, that only those works produced before he viewed African art are genuine. Gauguin, who worked in cultural exile, is not considered alienated from his artistic heritage. When European artists adopt and adapt non-western art to revitalize their own traditions, they are regarded as innovative. Borrowing of ‘white means’ by Aboriginal artists, on the other hand, is often considered highly questionable.”
#CRG
Racist/Stereotyped design
In general: i.e., works about racist designs; works about stereotyping of multiple groups, works that theorize stereotyping
Weinmann, Karlee, and Kim Bhasin. “12 Uncomfortably Racist Vintage Brand Mascots,” Business Insider, 8 September 2011, https://www.businessinsider.com/racist-company-mascots-2011-9. #racist #stereotypes #brand #capital #USA #Europe #primitivism #orientalism #image #graphic
A rundown of a dozen representative examples of brands that racially stereotyped (and in some cases continue to racially stereotype) people. Until I read this, I’d forgotten all about Sambo’s and Frito Bandito...which I now remember seeing when I was a kid in the 1970s.
#CRG
Johnson, Alastair. Alphabets to Order: The Literature of Nineteenth-century Typefounders' Specimens. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2000. #racist #represent #typography
#GraphicDesign #1800-1850 #1850-1900
Chapter 10, "Most Artistic Printers…," is about racialized nineteenth-century typefaces and type samples. Most of the examples skew anti-Black and anti-Asian.
#CRG
Salen, Katie. “Surrogate Multiplicities,” in Graphic Design & Reading, edited by Gunnar Swanson (NY: Allworth, 2000): 77–89. Also published as an article in Visible Language 35, no. 2 (2001).
#1850-1900 #1900-1950 #USA #typography #script #image #rac #branding #represent
This essay is about what Salen calls “visual voiceovers”: the racially, sexually, nationally, and otherwise charged typographic “voices” used to talk to or about different groups of people (usually non-white, non-male people). Her point is that just as there are stereotyped voices/dialects/pronunciations that people associate with different groups of people, there are typefaces that also stereotype people (e.g., Chinese Wong, Society Script, Crackhouse, and the like).
#CRG
Glauber, Barbara, Jeffery Keedy, et al. Lift and Separate: Graphic Design and the Quote Vernacular Unquote. Writing/Culture Monograph. New York: Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography/Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 1993.
#GraphicDesign #type #typography #1940-1980 #1980-2000
Has an article by a graphic designer about ethnic restaurant signs and typography (sorry cannot find the name/author).
#BW
Mannix, Jason. “Rediscovering an Old Typeface.” HumboldtKosmos [no date], https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/kosmos-view-onto-germany-95-2.html.
#type #typography #Europe #Germany #WhiteAuthor
Mannix astutely observes that “Blackletter has come to represent two rather contradictory extremes: traditional values and rebellious individuality. Our interactions with it come in the form of beer labels, newspaper mastheads, congratulatory certificates, sports teams or anything trying to convey a sense of being rustic. But in recent years, Blackletter has re-emerged in marketing departments to bring new life to struggling, youth targeted brands. The fashion label Juicy Couture and the sportswear producer Reebok, for example, have both launched ad campaigns set in Blackletter. It has played prominently in the music industry with genre-defying success: from Heavy Metal to Gangsta Rap. It has become the default script of outsider subcultures including African-American and Latino gangs as well as neo-Nazi youth. Compared with Roman type, Blackletter has become oddly ownable as a powerful form of self-expression and as a fashionable alternative to the mainstream.”
#CRG
Bain, Peter and Paul Shaw, eds. Blackletter: Type and National Identity. New York: The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 1998. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1husUZdjrCNKr6rUCpowcqgShdVRzoaz1/view
This small collection of essays has a few gems. I’ve assigned “Fraktur and Nationalism” as a reading but often workshop the Nazi edict banning blackletter as “Juddenlettern” (see page 48)
#BH
Wilson, Kristina. 2015. “Like a ‘Girl in a Bikini Suit’ and Other Stories: The Herman Miller Furniture Company, Gender and Race at Mid-Century,” Journal of Design History 28 (2): 161–181.
#Interior #Furniture #industrial #WhiteDesigner #Feminis #Modern #Racis #Appropriat #1940-1980
Excellent investigation of gender and race implications of Modernist furniture - also a model for analyzing ads. Students love the naked ladies in chairs, and it introduces the issue of “folk” art used around/in modernist interiors well
Wilson, Kristina. 2020. Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design. Princeton University Press, Feb. 2021.
#Interior #Furniture #industrial #WhiteDesigner #BlackArchitect #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #Feminis #Modern #Racis #Appropriat #1940-1980
Expansion of the 2015 article to include extensive discussion of Modernism in Life and Ebony magazines in the 1950s, gender and race in decorating advice manuals, empathy in design and bodily control, and how mid-century modernism has become the “colonial revival” interior decorating style of the twenty-first century.
Hamraie, Aimi. Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability. Minneapolis: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2017.
#USA #1950-2000 #Disability #Architecture
Analysis of normative tendencies of modern architecture and planning, with a focus on disability. Throughout (but especially in chapter “The Normate Template”), Hamraie demonstrates how design builds on notions of a neutral, standard body that is assumed white and masculine. Even the inclusive approaches of universal design continued to encode a white, neutral “citizen” as included.
#BW
Harris, Dianne Suzette. Little White Houses: How the Postwar Home Constructed Race in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.
#1940-1980 #Interior #Architecture #WhiteArchitect #Modern #Racis
This book examines the postwar American suburban house as a site for the construction of whiteness. Harris shows how the ordinary aspects of American homes were tools for reinforcing and reproducing whiteness from the graphical representations of homes to their interior design and usage. The text is rich with images and very accessible for undergraduates.
#JKB #KW
Leary, Erin. “‘The Total Absence of Foreign Subjects’: The Racial Politics of US Interwar Exhibitions of Scandinavian Design,” Design and Culture 7, no. 3 (July 3, 2015): 283–312.
Loos, Adolf. “Ornament and Crime” (1908/1910). Reprinted in The Industrial Design Reader, edited by Carma Gorman. New York: Allworth, 2003: 74–81.
Cheng, Irene. “Structural Racialism in Modern Architectural Theory,” pp. 134–152 of Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present, edited by Irene Cheng, Charles Davis II, and Mabel Wilson. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
#1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #USA #Europe #primitivism #architecture
Discusses the racist underpinnings of western architectural theory from Quatremère de Quincy to Loos (approximately).
#CRG
Cheng, Irene, Charles Davis II, and Mabel Wilson (eds.), Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History from the Enlightenment to the Present. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
#Architecture #theory #race #1600-1700 #1700-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Berger, Martin A. “Museum Architecture and the Imperialism of Whiteness,” Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2005.
Dyer, Richard. White: Essays on Race and Culture. London: Routledge, 1997.
#race #WhiteAuthor
This is a foundational text in thinking about the construction of whiteness and whiteness as a racial identity rather than the default. Dyer is a film scholar and has also published key texts in Queer Theory.
#VRP
Acuff, J. B., Kraehe, A. M. (2020) “Visuality of Race in Popular Culture: Teaching Racial Histories and Iconography in Media,” Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, 7(3), 2020.
#Orientalism/design that stereotypes Asian people
Nochlin, Linda. "The Imaginary Orient." In Race-Ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art History, edited by Kymberly N. Pinder. 69–85. New York: Routledge, 2002.
This essay is primarily about French Orientalist paintings, but I think it provides a great framework for applying that idea within design. Most importantly Nochlin ties the production of these paintings explicitly to the ideological system that undergirds colonialism (ie they act as propaganda to support colonialism). She also defines key characteristics in Orientalism which I think carry over well to design—mystery, absence of history, idleness, eroticism, a “thirst for accuracy,” polygamy and harems, tyrannical rulers, the picturesque, etc.
#VRP
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
This text is the original source of the term Orientalism and a key text in postcolonial theory.
#VRP
Tchen, John Kuo Wei. New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture, 1776–1882. Baltimore, Md: JHU Press, 2001.
#USA #China #Stereotyp #Ceramics #Interiors #1800-1850
Discusses U.S. based orientalism, with an interest in porcelain as a key element of cultural and trade conflicts. An interesting counterpoint to US history works that focus on ceramics as a carrier of US and British political messaging.
#BW
Yoshihara, Mari. Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism. Oxford University Press, 2002.
#USA #China #Japan #Stereotyp #Fashion #Interiors #1850-1900 #1900-1950
Primarily a literary study, but the first section “Materializing Asia” focuses on white women as consumers and makers of Asian and pseudo-Asian-styled objects, clothing, and art, 1870s–1920s.
#BW
Parkins, Ilya. “Figurative Mobility: Veiling, Orientalism, and Unknowing Women in US Vogue, 1917–25,” Fashion Studies 1:1 (2018).
This is a great study about how fashion magazines constructed veils and an Orientalist accessory that allowed white women what they author calls a “figurative mobility.” It thinks about how modern white femininity is constructed through rhetorics like Orientalism within fashion and fashion magazines.
#VRP
Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda. Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Orientalism_Visions_of_the_East_in_Western_Dress
A Met Catalogue which does not tackle colonialism or race in substantive ways, but provides good object examples and has a useful historical scope. It is available in full on the Met’s website.
#VRP
Wollen, Peter. "Fashion/Orientalism/the Body." New Formations, no. 1 (Spring 1987): 5–33.
Contextualizes Poiret’s 1002nd Night Party in the context of early 20th century European avant garde including the Ballet Russe and Matisse. I wouldn’t assign this to students, I think Pham’s work is better, but if you come from an Art History background it might help make a connection with fashion and it helps to provide some cultural context.
#VRP
Pham, Minh-ha T. “Paul Poiret’s Magical Techno-Oriental Fashions (1911): Race, Clothing, and Virtuality in the Machine Age.” Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology 21, no. 1 (2013). https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/f6b07525-670c-4117-a45b-27c728120884/Configurations_Poiret.pdf
Pham thinks about clothing as a technology that allows white women to virtually take on the body of a racialized other through the example of Poiret’s 1002nd night part and his harem trousers. It’s a tough read for students, but worth it if you have the time to really work through it.
#VRP
Potvin, John (ed.). Oriental Interiors: Design, Identity, Space. Bloomsbury, 2015.
As the title suggests, the essays in this volume deal with orientalizing tendencies primarily in the West. I have used the volume with graduate students, attempting to “de-centralize” the canon; however, the result was that we seemed to merely reinforce it. The book also helped us understand how difficult it was to achieve what we had set out to do. Really good for opening up a conversation on the above issues.
#AL
Jackson, Anna. “Imagining Japan: The Victorian Perception and Acquisition of Japanese Culture,” Journal of Design History 5, no. 4 (1992): 245–256.
#Japan #Japonisme #Orientalism #1850-1900 #England #USA
A great essay to assign to undergrads. It really gets into the role of nationalism in how Americans and Europeans consumed and framed Japanese design and culture in the 19th century.
#VRP #JKB
Vors, Frederic. “House Japanese Decoration,” The Art Amateur 1:3 (August 1876): 53–55.
#1850-1900 #England #USA #primary #Japan #Japonisme #Orientalism
This is a great short primary source to pair with Anna Jackson’s “Imagining Japan.” It gives suggestions for incorporating inexpensive Japanese objects into the American home.
#VRP
Chu, Petra and Jennifer Milam (eds.). Beyond Chinoiserie: Artistic Encounters between China and the West during the Late Qing Dynasty (1796–1911). Leiden: Brill, 2018.
#China #Chinoiserie #Orientalism #1700-1800 #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #Europe #NorthAmerica
Cheang, Sarah. Sinophilia: Fashion, Western Modernity and Things Chinese after 1900. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.
#China #Chinoiserie #Orientalism #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #Europe #NorthAmerica
I have not read the book but was inspired by the author’s attempt to open up her design history classes and themes to include more global contexts at the V&A/RCA, especially the new courses developed there.
#AL
Sloboda, Stacey. Chinoiserie: Commerce and Critical Ornament in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Studies in Design). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2014.
#China #Chinoiserie #Orientalism #1700-1800 #1800-1850 #Europe #England
Beautifully illustrated, and an account of the early fashion for Chinoiseries in England, rather than France (which is usually the focus for such studies).
#UK #AL
Dresser, Christopher. Japan, Its Architecture, Art, and Art Manufactures. London; New York: Kagan Paul, 2001 (Original work published 1882). Available online also. https://issuu.com/thebombilla/docs/japan_its_architecture__art__and_art_manufactures_
#1850-1900 #Japan #WhiteAuthor #WhiteDesigner #Craft #Industrial #Interior #Appropriat #Autobio #Canon #Japon
Although written by one of the most canonical dead white men, Dresser’s first-hand account of travel in Japan in 1877 not only captures in real time Japan’s struggle to reconcile craft and industry, it does so with a sensitivity and honest curiosity that surprise. Descriptions of craft processes and traditions are especially vivid and useful in discussing the collision between Western ideas of Japan and its (disappearing) reality at the time. Dresser was far more aware of his “otherness” than most at the time (or even now). Also LOTS of nifty suggestions for appropriation in industrialized goods if you want that material too…
#MB
Cheng, Anne Anlin. Ornamentalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
#Fashion #Orientalism #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“Focusing on the cultural and philosophic conflation between the ‘oriental’ and the ‘ornamental,’ Ornamentalism offers an original and sustained theory about Asiatic femininity in western culture.” The book includes accounts of the law, film, fashion, and art.
Shaw, Paul. “Stereo Types.” Print (August 2008), archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20100116212853/http://www.printmag.com/article/stereo_types/.
#Orientalism #Japonisme #type #typography #graphic #appropriation #reappropriation #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #WhiteAuthor? #ManAuthor?
In this short, readable essay, Shaw focuses on typefaces that stereotype Asians and Asian-Americans—i.e., so-called Mikado and Chop Suey typefaces—arguing that even though white Americans invented them, just as they invented the faux-Chinese dish called chop suey, it was Chinese-American restaurant owners, especially, who adopted both the dish and the typefaces and used them to attract customers. Shaw argues that because the typefaces stereotype anything they are applied to as “Chinese,” they can be helpful for rapidly conveying to car-driving customers what kind of restaurant one operates. Shaw doesn’t quite say it this way, I don’t think, but these typefaces are an example of cultural appropriation and then subsequent reappropriation. I.e., Western typefounders appropriated and stereotyped the look of Chinese and/or Japanese calligraphic strokes, and then—in an interesting twist—Chinese-Americans, especially, adopted those stereotyped typefaces because they apparently felt they served useful communicative and economic purposes.
#CRG
#Design that stereotypes Black people
Nederveen Pieterse, Jan. White on Black : Images of Africa and Blacks in Western Popular Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
#Branding #Imagery #Graphic #Fashion #Colon #Consum #Ethno #Imperial #Primitiv #Racist #White #Supremacist
This book provides an excellent overview of stereotypical images. A really helpful resource for tackling this topic in design, especially graphic design, but these images pop up everywhere.
#VRP
Werlin, Katy. “Art Deco Textiles in America Part I: Africana Prints and Non-Western Influences,” The Fashion Historian (blog), 7:12am [no date], http://www.thefashionhistorian.com/2015/07/art-deco-textiles-in-america-part-1.html.
#Imagery #Graphic #Fashion #Colon #Consum #Ethno #Imperial #Primitiv #Racist #White #Supremacist #Textile #1900-1940 #USA #NorthAmerica #WomanAuthor
This blog post provides great illustrations and primary-source documents showing how white Art Deco textile designers appropriated “primitive”/”savage” motifs from African and Central American graphic traditions in their work.
#CRG
Willis, Deborah, and Carla Williams. The Black Female Body: A Photographic History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002.
#Branding #Imagery #Graphic #Fashion #Colon #Consum #Ethno #Imperial #Primitiv #Racist #White #Supremacist
This book provides a historical context for understanding stereotypical images of Black women, useful backgrounds for discussions of much of the design in this section.
#VRP
KIRBY. “How To Make a Non-Racist Breakfast.” TikTok, 15 June 2020. https://www.tiktok.com/@singkirbysing/video/6838642500052274438.
#video #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #BlackWoman #1980-2020 #brand #image #racist #advert #stereotype
Many news sources pointed to this TikTok video as the catalyst for the unprecedented decision of at least four different companies to announce on the same day (17 June 2020) that they would be canceling, reviewing, reassessing, etc., their racist brand imagery (e.g., Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s,Mrs. Butterworth’s, and Cream of Wheat.
#CRG
Manring, M. M. Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998.
#racist #stereotype #brand #capital #advert #graphic #image #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor #BlackWoman
This book traces the history of the Mammy Stereotype in American culture as well as the development of the Aunt Jemima branding, and the reasons for her appeal. One of the definitive works on this topic.
#EC #BH
Foxworth, Marilyn Kern. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.
#racist #stereotype #brand #capital #advert #graphic #image #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor #BlackWoman
The blurb reads, in part, “Kern-Foxworth chronicles the stereotypical portrayals of Blacks in advertising from the turn of the century to the present. Beginning with slave advertisements, she discusses how slavery led naturally to the stereotypes found in early advertisements,” and notes that she “explores the psychological impact of these portrayals.”
#CRG
“B&G Foods Statement on Cream of Wheat” (press release). BusinessWire, 17 June 2020, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200617005854/en/.
#racis #stereotyp #brand #capital #advert #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #primary
In which Cream of Wheat announces that it is “initiating an immediate review of the Cream of Wheat brand packaging,” because it understands “there are concerns regarding the Chef image.”
#CRG
Sherman, Caroline. “Uncle Ben’s Brand Evolution” (press release), Mars, 17 June 2020,
https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases/uncle-bens-brand-evolution
#racist #stereotypes #brand #capital #advert #1980-2020 #USA #image #graphic #NorthAmerica #1980-2020 #WomanAuthor #primary
In this press release, Mars, the parent company of Uncle Ben’s, declares that “we recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do. We don’t yet know what the exact changes or timing will be, but we are evaluating all possibilities.”
#CRG
Anderson, Dan. “Cream of Wheat (1),” Food Tells a Story: History Revealed in the Food We Eat blog, 10 February 2017, https://foodtellsastory.wordpress.com/2017/02/10/cream-of-wheat-1/.
#racist #stereotypes #brand #capital #USA #NorthAmerica #image #graphic #advert #ManAuthor
A good overview—more thorough and better-illustrated than most others available online—of the history of Cream of Wheat’s packaging and advertising. Anderson actually looks at the imagery, and points out some of the weird contradictions and inconsistencies in individual images and in the imagery over time. I think this essay models one useful way to go about analyzing/critiquing brand images.
#CRG
The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University, https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/index.htm.
#racist #stereotypes #brand #capital #USA #NorthAmerica #image #graphic #advert #archive
Provides hundreds, maybe thousands of examples of racist imagery.
#CRG
Valinksky, Ben. “The Aunt Jemima Brand, Acknowledging its Racist Past, Will Be Retired.” CNN.com, https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/business/aunt-jemima-logo-change/index.html #racist #stereotypes #brand #capital #USA #NorthAmerica #image #graphic #advert #ManAuthor
Provides a brief but fairly comprehensive overview of the Aunt jemima brand’s 130-year history, placing the announcement of the brand’s retirement in the context of the protests after the murder of George Floyd, and notes at the end of the story that ‘Aunt Jemima brand will donate $5 million over the next five years to "create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community.’”
#CRG
Conagra Brands. “Conagra Brands Announces Mrs. Butterworth's Brand Review,” 17 June 2020, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conagra-brands-announces-mrs-butterworths-brand-review-301079007.html
#racist #stereotype #brand #image #capital #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020 #advert #primary
In which Conagra announces it will be conducting a thorough review of its Mrs. Butterworth’s brand.
#CRG
Giampietro, Rob. “New Blackface: Neuland and Lithos as Stereotypography.” Letterspace. New York:Type Directors Club, 2004, https://linedandunlined.com/archive/new-black-face/.
#racist #stereotype #typography #type #graphic #WhiteAuthor #ManAuthor
Analyzes two typefaces that have routinely been used to “other” work by and/or about African Americans.
#CRG #BH
Crouch, Dennis. “One More on Aunt Jemima,” Patently-O Blog, 3 July 2020, https://patentlyo.com/patent/2020/07/more-aunt-jemima.html.
#stereotype #law #IP #image #graphic #racist #brand #capital #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #WhiteAuthor #ManAuthor
In this essay, Crouch discusses “a handful of court decisions regarding the [Aunt Jemima] mark….[that] offer an important look at how judges saw race & commerce in the mid-20th century. The courts here effectively concluded that only one company could sell flour (or syrup) branded with the caricature of a black-skinned person.” [Yikes!]
#CRG
“Washington Announces Franchise Will Be Called ‘Washington Football Team’ Pending Adoption of New Name,” Washington Football Team, 23 July 2020.
#racist #stereotype #brand #image #typography #type #graphic #primary #1980-2020
In which the Washington Football Team, fka the Washington Redskins, announces that “For updated brand clarity and consistency purposes, we will call ourselves the "Washington Football Team" pending adoption of our new name. The Redskins name and logo will officially be retired by the start of the 2020 season.”
#CRG
Katyal, Sonia K, “Trademark Intersectionality,” UCLA Law Review 57 (2010): 1601–1699, https://www.uclalawreview.org/pdf/57-6-2.pdf.
#law #IP #intersectional #image #graphic
This nearly hundred-page article is probably too long and too legalistic for most undergrads, but it’s useful reading for instructors who want to understand the legal arguments for and against trademarks such as “Washington Redskins” and “Dykes on Bikes,” and/or how the USPTO and the courts have interpreted the provision in section 2(a) of the Lanham Act that says that “disparaging,” “immoral,” or “scandalous” marks can be canceled. Katyal acknowledges that “most scholars classify trademarks as private goods,” but she argues that “they operate much more like public goods.” Her point is that it’s hard for trademark owners, the USPTO, and the courts to strike the right balance between two potentially conflicting demands: trademark owners’ legal/economic imperativeness for distinctiveness, and the public’s desire not to be shocked or offended. Aunt Jemima and the Washington Redskins marks are fantastic trademarks in the (legal/economic) sense that they’re distinctive and universally known....but they’re terrible trademarks in the (moral) sense that they are “disparaging.” This article is about those tensions.
#CRG
Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. “‘What’s De Use Talking ’Bout Dem ’Mendments?’: Trade Cards and Consumer Citizenship at the End of the Nineteenth Century.” In Racial Indigestion : Eating Bodies in the Nineteenth Century. New York: New York University Press, 2012.
#1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #WhiteDesigner #Racis
Maness Mehaff, Marilyn, “Race/Raceing Advertising: The Feminine Consumer (-Nation), 1876–1900” Signs 23, no. 1 (Autumn 1997): 131–174.
#1850-1900 #Racism #stereotyp #USA #NorthAmerica #graphic #image
This article looks at the uses of racial stereotypes in 19th century trade cards and argues that the use of racialized figures serves to define the white female consumer.
#JKB
#Primitivism
Archer Straw, Petrine. Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
#Colonialism #Fashion #GraphicDesign #PopularCulture #1900-1940 #France #InteriorDesign #FurnitureDesign
Straw’s essential study of the fashion for “African” and African American culture in Paris in the 1920s delves into the complexities of this cultural moment. She shows the ways that Paris and Europe more broadly offered certain freedoms to Black creatives such as Josephine Baker and Henry Crowder, but also how Negrophilia reified stereotypes and supported imperialism. The book includes the work of several canonical Art Deco designers such as Paul Colin, Pierre Legrain, and Émile-Jaques Ruhlmann.
#VRP
Hannel, Susan L. “Africana’ Textiles: Imitation, Adaptation, and Transformation during the Jazz Age” Textile 4:1 (2006) 68-103.
#1900-1940 #Fashion #Textiles #Primitivism #WhiteDesigners #WhiteConsumers
This article looks at the ways textile designers in the US and Europe were both inspired by and straight-up copied Aftican textiles in the 1920s and 1930s. Hannel details the sources and relation to the “Jazz Moderne” aesthetic of the Art Deco period.
#VRP
Hannel, Susan L. "The Influence of American Jazz on Fashion." In Twentieth-Century American Fashion, edited by Linda Welters and Patricia A. Cunningham. 56-77. New York: Berg, 2005.
#1900-1940 #Fashion #Primitivism #Orientalism #WhiteDesigners #WhiteConsumers
Hannel explores the influence of Jazz music and culture on fashion, looking particularly at the kinds of clothing that was made popular though new dances like the charleston (fringe, noisy bangle bracelets). She also examines how stereotypes about Africans and African Americans informed the work of white designers creating fashions worn on the dance floor.
#VRP
Carter, Karen. “Confronting Racial Stereotypes in Graphic Design History,” in Design History Beyond the Canon, Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, Victoria Rose Pass, and Christopher S. Wilson, eds. (London: Bloomsbury, 2019).
#1900-1940 #USA #Graphic #Racis #Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriat #Primitiv
This essay offers a case study for using posters featuring Josephine Baker to discuss racism and racial stereotypes in graphic design history.
#JKB
Pass, Victoria. “The Mangbetu Coiffure: A Story of Cars, Hats, Branding, and Appropriation,” in Design History Beyond the Canon, Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, Victoria Rose Pass, and Christopher S. Wilson, eds. (London: Bloomsbury, 2019).
#Africa #Fashion #Appropriat #Colon #Ethno #Primitiv
Chapter introduces an ethnographic photograph from 1920s colonial Belgian Congo expedition, investigates the sensation the image created, and traces its influence on European and American fashion since, continuing today. Great tool for discussing appropriation in fashion, as well as the allure for white women of "putting on" primitive signifiers (that they could easily then take back off at will).
#MB
Rovine, Victoria L.. “Nubia in Paris: African Style in French Fashion.” In African Fashion, Global Style : Histories, Innovations, and Ideas You Can Wear. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015.
#Colonialism #Primitivism #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #France #Europe
In this chapter Rovine argues for a key connection between the development of the modern French fashion industry and French colonialism. She looks at references to North and West African in French fashion throughout the twentieth century, including the use of materials produced in Africa.
#VRP
#Josephine Baker
Baker is a fascinating figure for many reasons. She was an influential presence in fashion, but could also be explored in terms of how graphic designers like Paul Colin represented her, and as a producer of cosmetics. Baker is a key figure in terms of thinking about Art Deco aesthetics and “Jazz Moderne.”
#VRP
#Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriat #Primitiv
Anlin Cheng, Anne. "Skin Fashion: Josephine Baker and Dressing Race." Nka: Journal Of Contemporary African Art 2015, no. 37 (November 2015): 6–15.
#Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriat #Primitiv
Martin, Wendy. "'Remembering the Jungle': Josephine Baker and Modernist Parody." In Prehistories of the Future: The Primitivist Project and the Culture of Modernism, edited by Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush. 310–25. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995
#Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriat #Primitiv
Jules-Rosette, Bennetta. Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image [in English]. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.
#Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriat #Primitiv
Cheng, Anne Anlin. “Housing Baker, Dressing Loos.” Second Skin: Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Cheng thinks about the idea of “race as surface” and beautifully weaves together fashion, celebrity, and architecture. Might be a challenge for students, but a shorter take on this appears in Nka as “Skin Fashion” and is a bit easier for students, especially if you pair with a screening of Princess Tam Tam (1935) which can be found on YouTube.
#VRP
Cheng, Anne Anlin. “Skin Fashion: Josephine Baker and Dressing Race,” Nka (2015).
#VRP
#Bustle
While there isn’t yet extensive writing on the subject of the bustle’s relationship to stereotypical images of Africans in Europe in the 19th Century (most especially the Hottentot Venus, Sara Baartman), this is a crucial case study in the ways that fashion allows fashionable white women to “wear” the bodies of racialized Others temporarily through the technology of fashion. The sources cited here can be used to build this argument.
#VRP
Berliner, Brett A. Ambivalent Desire: The Exotic Black Other in Jazz-Age France. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002.
#Advertising #1900-1940 #Racis #Primitivism #Fashion #Graphic #France #Europe #Branding #Imagery #Appropriation
The bustle as an example of white consumers appropriating the “Other”
#VRP
hooks, bell. “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
#BlackAuthor #WomanAuthor #racis #fashion #1850-1900 #Europe #appropriation #consumers #femininity #whiteness
This essay interrogates the concept of the gaze from a Black perspective arguing that for Black men and women the gaze is a source of power and resistance. I have used this in graduate seminars alongside Mulvey and Foucault.
#JKB
Hobson, Janell. Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture. Milton: Routledge, 2018.
#BlackAuthor #racism #fashion #1850-1900 #Europe #appropriation #consumers #femininity #whiteness
Hobson’s brilliant work examines the history and legacy of Sara Baartman in art, dance, and popular culture including figures such as Josephine Baker, Grace Jones, Serena Williams, and Beyonce through a Black feminist lens.
#VRP
Hobson, Janell. "The "Batty" Politic: Toward an Aesthetic of the Black Female Body." Hypatia 18: 4 (Autumn – Winter 2003): 87–105.
#racis #fashion #1850-1900 #Europe #appropriation #consumers #femininity #whiteness
This article covers similar territory to Hobson’s book Venus in the Dark but in a condensed version. This works well for undergrads.
#VRP
Wilson, Elizabeth. “Fashion and Eroticism,” in Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity, revised and updated edition. London: I.B. Taurus, 2003: 91–116.
#racis #fashion #1850-1900 #Europe #appropriation #consumers #femininity #whiteness
Good background on the history of undergarments and body shaping.
#VRP
Gilman, Sander. “The Hottentot and the Prostitute,” Race-ing Art History, edited by Kymberly N. Pinder. New York: Routledge, 2002.
#racis #fashion #1850-1900 #Europe #appropriation #consumers #femininity #whiteness
#Primitivism/design that stereotypes #IndigenousPeople
Deloria, Philip Joseph. Playing Indian. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
#IndigenousAuthor #approp #USA #NorthAmerica #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #image #stereotyp #primitiv #colon #bias #rac
Classic text on centrality of being “Indian” to US American identity, focusing on 18th-19th c. Not explicitly design focused but intro provides a lot of key cultural ideas/reference points.
#BW
Nicholas A. Brown and Sarah E. Kanouse, Re-Collecting Black Hawk: Landscape, Memory, and Power in the American Midwest (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). USA.
#NorthAmerica #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #image #stereotyp #Landscape #Architecture
Photo essay of the traces of Black Hawk, the Sauk Indian leader whose people populated large parts of the Midwest. Photos cover landmarks, businesses, and other sites (as well as the sports team) that use Black Hawk’s name in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, and pair them with excerpts from historical texts that illustrate key issues in the history of US and Indigenous histories. Good visual essay on the survival of indigenous culture/influence in the Midwest. Some excerpts also at recollectingblackhawk.net
#BW
Hauser, Christine. “Land O’ Lakes Removes Native American Woman From Its Products.” New York Times, 17 April 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/business/land-o-lakes-butter.html
#stereotyp #image #graphic #brand #capital #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA
Discusses Land O’Lakes’s decision to quietly remove the “butter maiden” from its packaging. The original image was from 1928, but the current version designed by #Chippewa #IndigenousDesigner Patrick DesJarlait (1921–1972) dates from about 30 years later. DesJarlait’s son says “She was never created as a stereotype.”
#CRG
#Design that stereotypes Latinx people
Londoño, Johana. “The Latino-ness of type: making design identities socially significant.” Social Semiotics 25(2):142-150, March 2015
#latinex #1980-2020 #Type #Typography
Abstract fragment: “examines the early 1990s, barrio-inspired typographic design of Pablo Medina, a Cuban-Colombian-American award-winning designer”
#CRG
Arlene M Dávila, Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
#LatinxAuthor
Contextualizes Latinx stereotypes within the emergence of a Latino market, including less-stereotypical imagery.
#BW
Design during U.S. Segregation & Migration
Brown, Adrienne, The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2017).
From a literary culture perspective, speaking to cultural perceptions of the skyscraper as representative of distinctive racial and spatial conditions, with emphasis on 20s–40s era. (possible accompaniment for teaching: the poem Chicago’s Congo by Frank Marshall Davis) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43438/chicagos-congo
#BW
Morrison, Amani. “On Limits and Possibilities: Black Spatial Affordance and Chicago’s Kitchenettes.”(under review: American Quarterly)
#BlackConsumer #arch #interior #gender #bias #rac #consum #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #BlackAuthor #WomanAuthor
I saw Dr. Morrison give a version of this paper in 2018 and it was incredibly insightful into both black identities in spaces and how that history is washed over in modern interior design history retellings of "kitchenettes". I follow her on Academia.edu and will update this entry once it’s published.
#GVK
Guffey, Elizabeth, “Knowing their Space: Jim Crow in the Segregated South,” Design Issues 28:2 (Spring 2012) 41–60. https://www.academia.edu/43406474/Knowing_Their_Space_Signs_of_Jim_Crow_in_the_Segregated_South_Elizabeth_Guffey
#Race #USA #Graphic #SocialJustice #Racis
Focuses on signage/wayfinding of the segregation era. See the bibliography for leads to more books from right around that moment that were about the visual/material culture of segregation. I also think this is a really good text for teaching--I have used it in both my history of design and history of interiors class in the past.
#JKB
Cohen, Lizabeth. Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Includes a chapter that deals with the segregation of shopping districts and cultural homogenization of radio.
Bernstein, Robin. Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood and Race from Slavery to Civil Rights (NYU Press, 2011).
See also Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. More dense, grad-level reading and focused on literary representations (incl racist illustration). Chapter on dolls is recommended for a material culture/performance studies read.
#BW
Chad Freidrichs, Jaime Freiderics, Paul Fehler, Brian Woodman, Benjamin Balcom, Pruitt-Igoe Myth (Columbia, MO: First Run Features, 2011).
http://www.pruitt-igoe.com
#race #racis #law #arch #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #USA
I have used this documentary many times in my history of design, history of interior, and graduate seminars (I pretty much work it into any class I can, whenever I can) and students always find it interesting and thought-provoking. It is particularly helpful for looking at the systemic aspects of racism and the ways in which those things are embedded in architecture and design.
#JKB
I have used this, too, in history of design and history of architecture courses and get a positive response from students.
#EM ditto!
#SDR
Pounder, C.C.H., Larry Adelman, Jean Cheng, Christine Hermes-Sommers, Tracy Heather Strain, Llewellyn Smith, and Claudio Ragazzi,“The House We Live In,” episode of Race: The Power of an Illusion (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 2003).
#race #racism #law #arch #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #USA
This is an episode of a PBS documentary (available streaming on Kanopy) that focuses on redlining and its impact on racial segregation and wealth. I always show a short clip in my lecture on postwar suburbia, and have even had students watch the whole episode before. It is rather old now, but I think it is still useful.
#JKB
Davarian L. Baldwin, Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, & Black Urban Life (Chapel Hill, N.C: University of North Carolina Press, 2007).
#USA #BlackAuthor #Adv #Image
Thorough social history of life in the city greatly changed by the Great Migration - including civic institutions, commerce (esp. Beauty industry), music, film, sports. An assertion that Chicago is as significant as Harlem as a Black cultural center of the period.
#BW
Moore, Natalie. The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. Picador USA, 2017 #segregation #architecture #USA
Rooks, Noliwe M. Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
#NorthAmerica #USA #BlackAuthor #WomanAuthor #Ethno #Racism #Fashion
#VRP
Lee Bey, Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side, Second to None: Chicago Stories (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2019).
#USA #1950-2000
Chicago’s foremost Black architecture critic’s photo book of modernist/late modernist works, including some by Black architects such as John Moutoussamy. Non-academic, readable, great photos including homes, churches, universities, commercial buildings.
#BW
#The Zoot Suit
The Zoot Suit is a great example of design as a form of resistance. Worn particularly by people of color, particularly Black and Mexican American, in the 1940s the look was inspired by jazz musicians like Cab Calloway. By resisting wartime rationing and taking up visual space in these flamboyant ensembles young people of color called out the calls for patriotic sacrifices in the fight for freedom when they were not really free. It is also an example of garments being used by White people to criminalize racialized bodies. I often pair this historical discussion with an exploration of the hoodie using Mimi Thi Nguyen’s excellent article.
#VRP
Cosgrove, Stuart. "The Zoot-Suit and Style Warfare." History Workshop Journal 18: 1 (Autumn 1984): 77–91.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Raci #Consum #Law #Immigra #Racis #Xeno
Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley), The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: One World, 1999).
#PrimarySource #BlackAuthor #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Raci #Consum #Law #Immigra #Racis #Xeno
Malcolm X describes buying his first zoot suit and wearing it to the Roseland Ballroom early on in the book, as well as the experience conking (chemically straightening) his hair. In the book he also reflects on how he sees his engagement with this style as he got older and developed his political philosophy.
#VRP
Tovares, Joseph, dir. Zoot Suit Riots. American Experience, PBS, 2002.
Often available on YouTube, but also on Amazon Prime.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Raci #Consum #Law #Immigra #Racis #Xeno
Peiss, Kathy. Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Raci #Consum #Law #Immigra #Racis #Xeno
Nguyen, Mimi Thi. "The Hoodie as Sign, Screen, Expectation, and Force." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 40: 4 (Summer 2015) 791–816.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Raci #Consum #Law #Racis
This is a challenging article for undergrads, but worth it. Examines the hoodie in the context of the death of Trayvon Martin, including the media coverage, the court case against George Zimmerman, and the protests.
#VRP
#The Green Book (digital versions, exhibition)
#Primary #Archive #1900-1940 #1940-1980
The Green Book was a guide for Black motorists to “friendly” restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, etc. Its opening pages are a window into both car culture and the strategies of survival under racial terror. There is also this great digital humanities version where you can map a route using the Green Book: http://publicdomain.nypl.org/greenbook-map/index.html). This is a great way to help students understand some of the logistical challenges of traveling while Black in this period.
#BW #JKB
Related:
Gilroy, Paul. “Driving While Black.” In Car Cultures, edited by Daniel Miller. Materializing Culture. Oxford: Berg, 2001.
#BlackAuthor #Primary #Archive #Image #1900-1940 #1940-1980.
The Black Experience in Children’s Literature, New York Public Library https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-black-experience-in-childrens-books-selections-from-augusta-bakers#/?tab=about&scroll=24
#Primary #Archive #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #NorthAmerica #USA #image #BlackConsumer
This collection features full scans of books for (and about) Black children from 1913-1963 many with illustrations.
#JKB
The Civil Rights Movement/Black Power
Tanisha Ford, Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
#Fashion #BlackAuthor
A history of Black Women celebrities and style from post-WWII to the late 20th century. Chapters on the influence of African music on U.S. Black style is great and musically rich (and can be taught with YouTube clips of Miriam Makeba, Nina Simone etc). A later chapter on the clothing worn by college-aged protesters in the 1960s is another highlight.
#BW #VKP
Ford, Tanisha. "The ‘Afro Look’ and Global Black Consciousness." Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 37 (November 2015): 28–36.
Lewis, Van Dyk. Afrocentric Fashion. London, England: 'The Berg Fashion Library'.
Brian D. Goldstein, The Roots of Urban Renaissance: Gentrification and the Struggle Over Harlem. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Alkalimat, Abdul, Romi Crawford, and Rebecca Zorach, eds., The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2017.
#BlackAuthor
A mix of primary and secondary source documents, including many photographs, of this painted monument to great Black figures (as well as controversy over who would be included). A good pairing with teaching on Postmodernism, urban crisis, Black power.
#BW
Donaldson, Jeff R. “AfriCOBRA Manifesto? ‘Ten in Search of a Nation,’” Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art 2012, no. 30 (May 1, 2012): 76–83.
Primary source on Black Power-infused arts movement that included fashion and design elements. Look for Jae Jarrell’s Revolutionary Suit.
#BW
Duyst-Akpem, Denenge. “N’Vest-ing in the People: The Art of Jae Jarrell.” AFRICOBRA: Nation Time.” Chicago: Kavi Gupta Gallery, 2019.
#USA #Fashion #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner
Describes the clothing and textiles work of Jae Jarrell, member of AfriCOBRA and owner of a boutique in Hyde Park, Chicago in the 1970s. Tons of great images of otherwise little-published works.
#BW
Sally Ann-Ashton, “Radical Objects: The Black Fist Afro Comb,” History Workshop, February 2014: https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/radical-objects-the-black-fist-afro-comb/
#1940-1980 #BlackConsumer #Fashion
This short on-line article provides a close look at the black fist afro comb from the 1970s. It has some useful images and talks about the history of the afro comb as a form. It was connected to an exhibition on the comb at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge that is also documented online: http://www.originsoftheafrocomb.co.uk.
#JKB
Sugrue, Thomas J. “Jim Crow’s Last Stand: The Struggle to Integrate Levittown” in Second Suburb: Levittown, Pennsylvania ed. Dianne Harris (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010): pp. 175–199.
#USA #Racism #Architecture #1900-1950
Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans,” 13 June 2020 https://posterhouse.org/blog/a-century-of-posters-protesting-violence-against-black-americans/?mc_cid=9f0d9c4731&mc_eid=4bebea1aca
Clemente, Deirdre. Dress Casual : How College Students Redefined American Style. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
Susannah Walker, Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920–1975. University of Kentucky Press, 2007.
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #BlackConsumer #Fashion
This has a chapter titled “Black is Beautiful” that analyzes the changing marketing of beauty and hair products to black women in the 1960s and 1970s that I have used in class.
#JKB
Miller, Abbott. “White on Black on Grey,” in Design, Writing, Research: Writing on Graphic Design, ed. Ellen Lupton (New York: Kiosk, 1996), 102–19.
Teachable for (slightly dated) arguments about race in advertising 1960s–1990s, including ads in Ebony that spoke directly to white audiences about race/racism (“Some of our best friends are racist”).
#BW
Bivins, Joy L., and Rosemary K. Adams. Inspiring Beauty : 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair Second printing produced by International Arts & Artists. Chicago, Ill: Chicago Historical Society, 2013.
#BlackConsumer #Fashion #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Eunice Johnson was the founder and director of the Ebony Fashion Fair (1958-2009), a traveling fashion show that catered to Black audiences across the US (and internationally). Johnson bought haute couture back from Paris for the show and also highlighted Black designers and models.
#VRP
Zagaria, Elisa. “Fighting Racism from Office Interiors.” Elle Decor, Hearst, August 8, 2019, https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a28734938/office-decoration-70s-johnson-publishing-company-book/.
#BlackArchitect #WhiteDesigners #BlackConsumer #InteriorDesign #Architecture #1940-1980
The Johnson Publishing Corporation (publishers of Ebony and Jet Magazine) built the first high-rise by an African American architect, the first high-rise by an African American,in Chicago in the 1970s. Eunice Johnson was a key player in working with designers Arthur Elrod and William Raiser on the interiors.
#VRP
“Ebony Magazine’s New Home” Ebony (September 1972): 8–124. (link to Google Books edition) https://books.google.com/books?id=rd0DAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA92&dq=ebony%20office&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q=ebony%20office&f=false
#Primary
An excellent (and lengthy) primary source on the design of the Ebony offices.
#JKB
Cygelman, Adele. Arthur Elrod: Desert Modern Design. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2019.
#WhiteDesigner #BlackConsumer #InteriorDesign #1940-1980#
This monograph has more details on the Johnson Publishing office interiors and photographs.
#VRP
Joseph A. Labadie Collection, University of Michigan.
#Graphic #Archive #USA #1900-1940 #1940-1980
The Joseph A. Labadie Collection is one of the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive collections of its kind, with materials on anarchism, anti-colonialist movements, antiwar and pacifist movements, atheism and free thought, civil liberties and civil rights, ecology, labor and workers’ rights, feminism, LGBTQ movements, prisons and prisoners, the New Left, the Spanish Civil War, and youth and student protest. Digital & searchable, with a set that are also available in high-resolution.
#BW
Global modernism/modernism around the world
Morawski, Erica N. “Modernism on Vacation.” In The Politics of Furniture: Identity, Diplomacy and Persuasion in Post-War Interiors. Fredie Floré and Cammie McAtee, eds. London: Routledge, 2017: 33–46.
#1940-1980 #Cuba #PuertoRico #LatinAmerica #Architecture #FurnitureDesign #LatinAmericanDesigner #WhiteAuthor #LatinxAuthor
This article looks at the ways that hotels in Puerto Rico and Cuba used modernism as well as local artists, designers, and materials strategically to construct national identity at mid-century. Great reading for undergrads.
#VRP
Floré, Fredie and McAtee, Cammie, eds. The Politics of Furniture: Identity, Diplomacy and Persuasion in Post-War Interiors. London: Routledge, 2017.
#Canada #PuertoRico #Cuba #Belgium #UnitedStates #France #Japan #Brazil #Britain #Australasia #LatinAmerica #Europe #Asia #NorthAmerica #Architecture #FurnitureDesign #1940-1980 #VRP
Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
#WhiteAuthor #Brazil #Architecture #Cities
“Authoritarian High Modernism” is a critique of Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer’s design of Brasilia.
#BW
López-Durán, Fabiola. Eugenics in the Garden: Transatlantic Architecture and the Crafting of Modernity. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018. #LatinAmerica #Architecture #Racism
Traces environmental eugenics— the “science” of race and pathology linked to architecture and planning—from Le Corbusier to his influence in Brazil and Argentina.
#BW
Ramamurthy, Priti. "All Consuming Nationalism: The Indian Modern Girl in the 1920s and 1930s," in The Modern Girl Around the World (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) 147–173.
Sluis, Ageeth. Deco Body, Deco City: Female Spectacle and Modernity in Mexico City, 1900–1939, Mexican Experience. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2016).
Banerji, Shiben. “A Theosophical Garden City: Designing Household Life in Bombay, Circa 1924.” Planning Perspectives 34, no. 1 (January 2, 2019): 65–90. #Architecture #Cities #India
Traces the Garden City outside of the West, via the global religious movement of Theosophy and anti-colonial design in India.
#BW
Dadi, Muhammad Iftikhar. “Visual modernities in a comparative perspective: The West, and South Asian and Asian-American art.” Dissertation, Cornell University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003. http://ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/docview/305343729?accountid=7118
(I have only skimmed the beginning, but it looks promising as a discussion of modernism and colonization vs. preserving local craft traditions, esp. in India. Helpful references/bibliography, too.)
Kaplan, Wendy, Staci Steinberger, et al. Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985. Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2017.
#USA #Mexico #Furniture #Craft #Textiles #Adv #Architecture #Exhibition #LatinxDesigner #WhiteDesigner
Exhibition catalog of a large exhibition at LACMA. Argues for an ongoing influence between California and Mexico, rather than unidirectional or solely as revival or stereotype. Rich resource for images/examples.
#BW
Ryan, Zoë. In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury. Chicago, Illinois: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
#USA #Mexico #Furniture #Craft #Textiles #Architecture #Exhibition #LatinxDesigner #WhiteDesigner #AsianAmericanDesigner
Exhibition catalog of works by 6 women designers/artists who worked at least partly in Mexico. Only one was actually Mexican and the others range from most of a lifetime (Clara Porset) to shorter visits or workshops (Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa). Brought up lots of fruitful discussion of what is “Mexican” for my students.
#BW
Huppatz, D. J. Modern Asian Design (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018).
Huppatz, Daniel. “Visualizing Settler Colonialism: Australian Modernism and Indigenous Design.” RMIT Design Archives Journal 8, no. 2 (2018): 35–44.
#AL
Fujita, Haruhiko and Christine Guth, eds. Encyclopedia of East Asian Design. Bloomsbury, 2019.
#AL
Justice, Lorraine. China's Design Revolution. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2012.
#China #Asia #IndustrialDesign #WhiteAuthor #WomanAuthor
The publisher describes this as a book about “The evolution of Chinese design and the major shift in the culture of creativity in a post-Mao China,” in which “Justice describes and documents examples of Chinese design and innovation that range from ancient ceramics to communist propaganda posters” and “explores current award-winning projects in media, fashion, graphic, interior, and product design” as well as “examines the lifestyle and purchasing trends of the ‘fourth generation,’ now in their teens and twenties.” Publisher’s upshot? “China's Design Revolution offers an essential guide to the inextricably entwined stories of design, culture, and politics in China.”
#CRG
David Raizman, Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #Europe #USA #Graphic #Canon #Race
Publisher’s description: “David Raizman's book uses a series of key texts from the history of print culture to address issues of class, race, and gender. Raizman’s innovative approach intentionally challenges the canon of graphic design history and various traditional understandings of graphic design that have privileged certain schools or movements. He re-examines “icons” of graphic design in light of their local contexts, avoiding generalisation to explore underlying attitudes about various social issues.”
#PJC
Fashion and Consumption
Rado, Mei Mei. “The Qipao and the Female Body in 1930s China.” In Elegance in an Age of Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).
White, Shane, and Graham J. White. Stylin': African American Expressive Culture from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998.
#1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #NorthAmerica #USA #Fashion #Racis #Consum #Slavery
This book explores how African Americas have used fashion and style from the period of slavery through World War II.
#VRP
Gibson, Chantal N., and Monique Silverman. “Sur/Rendering Her Image: The Unknowable Harriet Tubman.” RACAR: Revue D'art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review 30, no. 1/2 (2005): 25–38.
#Fashion #Abolition #BlackConsumer
This article includes a discussion of Harriet Tubman’s dress and self presentation, including her adoption of bloomers in the context of both the feminist Dress Reform movement and the dress of enslaved women (which often included bloomers of pantalons).
#VRP
Square, Johnathan Michael, Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, a digital humanities project explores the intersection of slavery and fashion.
#Fashion #BlackAuthor #Slavery #Abolition #Racism #BlackConsumer #BlackDesigner
The project’s website, Tumblr, Facebook page, and Instagram all provide images, essays, and other media related to fashion and the African diaspora from the period of enslavement to the present.
#VRP
Miller, Monica L. Slaves to Fashion : Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.
#fashion #representation #BlackConsumers #slavery #racism #CivilRights
Miller’s book explored the ways Black men (and to a lesser extent women) used fashion to express and construct identity. The book includes an account of the black dandy Julius Soubise and theatrical representations of Black dandies, enslaved people’s fancy dress traditions in the US, W.E.B. Dubois style, early twentieth century protests, and contemporary Black artists who engage with fashion.
#VRP
Callihan, April and Zachary, Cassidy. “Re-Dressed: Black Dandyism: a Cultural History, an interview with Monica L. Miller, Part I” Produced by iHeartRadio. Dressed. June 2, 2020. Podcast, MP3 audio, 52:32.
Callihan, April and Zachary, Cassidy. “Re-Dressed: Black Dandyism: a Cultural History, an interview with Monica L. Miller, Part II” Produced by iHeartRadio. Dressed. June 9, 2020. Podcast, MP3 audio, 33:02.
Monica Miller was interviewed in depth about her book and research on Dressed.
#VRP
Jenkins, Sacha, dir. Fresh Dressed. 2015; New York: Samuel Goldwyn Films. Available on Amazon Prime 7/24/2020.
#BlackConsumer #BlackDesinger #LatinxDesigner #fashion #video #fashion #1980-2020
Useful for discussions of hip hop fashion. Includes interviews with scholars, designers, and wearers of hip hop fashion.
#VRP
Miller, Monica. “‘Fresh Dressed Like a Million Bucks’: Black Dandyism and Hip Hop.” In Artist/Rebel/Dandy: Men of Fashion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
#1980-2020 #UnitedStates #USA #Fashion #BlackConsumer #BlackDesigner
This short piece of hip hop fashion is a great one to assign to undergrads, Miller talks particularly about artist André Benjamin’s personal style.
#VRP
Tulloch, Carol. Black Style. London: V&A, 2004.
#Jamaica #WestAfrica #Britain
Useful for discussions of hip hop fashion.
#VRP
Strings, Sabrina. Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. New York: NYU Press, 2019.
#rac #fashion #supremacy #BlackAuthor #whiteness
This book by a professor of sociology covered a long history of the development of fatphobia in Europe and the US from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The book shows how standards of beauty as well as racial categorization developed over time in overlapping ways, and how the demonization of fatness is part of the mechanics of white Supremacy—with significant consequences for the medical, beauty, and fashion industries.
#VRP
Lieber, Chavie. The Reclaiming of Native American Fashion. Racked (21 January 2016) url: http://www.racked.com/2016/1/21/10763702/native-american-fashion.
#approp #fashion #IndigenousDesign #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This article talks about the exhibition Native Fashion Now at the Peabody Essex Museum speaking to the history of Native American Fashion designers, as well as contemporary designers.
#VRP
bell hooks, "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance," in Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston: South End Press, 1992), 21-39. Available at https://de.ryerson.ca/DE_courses/uploadedFiles/6052_Arts/CSOC202/Modules/Module_00/eating%20the%20other.pdf.
#approp #fashion #capitalism #colon #patriarchy #primitivism #BlackAuthor
hooks argues that under capitalist patriarchal white supremacy, the primary way that white people make contact with people of other races is by “consuming” them, i.e., appropriating the things they find fascinating about Others, but without much if any understanding of or respect for those styles and behaviors (much less the people who created them). In short, it’s not a genuine connection; it’s an exploitative, even abusive transaction.
#CRG
Hip hop party and event flyers (archive). Cornell Hip Hop Collection, Cornell University Library (2007– ), https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/hiphop/flyers.php.
#1980-2020 #Primary #Archive #BlackDesigner #graphic #image #typography
A great archival source for hip hop party flyers from 1976–1984. It includes examples of work by noted hip hop graphic artists Phase 2 and Buddy Esquire. Moreover, the web page claims that “the Cornell Hip Hop Collection preserves more than 250,000 items across dozens of archives documenting the origins of Hip Hop culture and its spread around the globe.” The Collection Highlights page describes many subcollections of recordings, ephemera, aerosol art, photographs, etc.
#JKB #CRG
Sifuentes, Aram Han, Lisa Vinebaum, Namita Gupta Wigger with Design by Ishita Dharap and presented by the Critical Craft Forum. “Unsettling Coloniality: A Critical and Radical Fiber / Textile Bibliography,” http://www.criticalcraftforum.com/unsettling-coloniality-a-critical-and-radical-fibertextile-bibliography
Petrulis, Jason. “A Country of Hair”: A Global Story of South Korean Wigs, Korean American Entrepreneurs, African American Hairstyles, and Cold War Industrialization.” Enterprise & Society 22, no. 2 (June 2021): pp. 368 - 408, https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2019.69.
#fashion #capitalism #colonization #Asia #USA #NorthAmerica #trade #Korea #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #consum #BlackConsumer
The abstract describes it well: “This article reinterprets Asian industrialization during the Cold War through the lens of a forgotten commodity: the South Korean wig. Wigs were critical to Asia’s “miraculous” economic growth—a US$1 billion industry in 1970, as well as the number two export in South Korea and number four in Hong Kong at the height of export-oriented industrialization. The article makes a methodological argument, suggesting that we see industrialization differently when we “follow” a commodity transnationally—from the heads of rural South Koreans to the hands of Seoul factory workers to the shoulder bags of Korean American peddlers to the heads of African American women—and when we integrate bottom-up and top-down views of the commodity’s “life.” Only by taking this global perspective can we see how U.S. imperialism shaped the ways people and things moved across borders and oceans and how Cold War commodities were haunted by the lives of the people who touched them.”
#CRG
1973 “Battle of Versailles” Fashion Show
Draper, Deborah Riley. “Versailles '73.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 37 (November 2015): 94-102.
Draper, Deborah Riley, dir. Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution. 2013; El Segundo, CA: Gravitas Ventures. Available on Amazon Prime 7/24/2020.
Givhan, Robin. The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. New York: Flatiron Books, 2015.
“Globalism” and Postmodernism in 1980s and 1990s fashion
Thomas de la Peña, Carolyn. “Ready‐to‐Wear Globalism: Mediating Materials and Prada’s GPS,” Winterthur Portfolio 38, no. 2/3 (June 1, 2003): 109–29, https://doi.org/10.1086/421423.
Tu, Thuy Linh Nguyen, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion (Duke University Press Books, 2010).
Adamson, Glenn and Jane Pavitt, et al. Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970–1990 (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2011)
Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Beyoncé. Lemonade. Album, Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records; video, HBO, both 23 April 2016.
#BlackDesinger #BlackConsumer #Fashion
There is much that could be explored through this film in a design history class, fashion but also the politics of space and architecture.
#VRP
Janell Hobson, “Lemonade: Beyoncé’s Redemption Song,” Ms. blog (29 April 2016). https://msmagazine.com/2016/04/29/lemonade-beyonces-redemption-song/
bell hooks, “Moving Beyond Pain” May 9, 2016 http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/blog/2016/5/9/moving-beyond-pain
Lori Adelman, “A Black Feminist Roundtable on bell hooks, Beyoncé, and ‘Moving Beyond Pain’,” Feministing (May 2016). http://feministing.com/2016/05/11/a-feminist-roundtable-on-bell-hooks-beyonce-and-moving-beyond-pain/
Melissa Harris-Perry, “A Call and Response with Melissa Harris-Perry: The Pain and the Power of ‘Lemonade'” April 26, 2016 https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a35903/lemonade-call-and-response/
Jessica Marie Johnson & Janell Hobson, “#Lemonade: A Black Feminist Resource List,” African American Intellectual History Society (12 May 2016).
Ferretti, Jenny. “Beyoncé's ‘Lemonade’ and Information Resources.” Lib Guides. Decker Library, Maryland Institute College of Art, 2016. https://libguides.mica.edu/lemonade.
Black Panther
Black Panther. Directed by Ryan Coogler, Marvel Studios, 2018.
#blackdesigner #1980-2020
There has been a great deal written about the set design (architectural and visual language, fashion, etc.) of this film that is fruitful for a design studies/history course. The set designer was Hannah Beachler, costumes by Ruth Carter.
#SDR
Robinson, Marsha R. and Caren Newman, “Introduction: On Coogler and Cole’s Black Panther Film (2018): Global Perspectives, Reflections, Contexts for Educators,” Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies v. 11, no. 9 (2018).
Yalcinkaya, Gunseli, “Black Panther’s Voluptuous Sets are inspired by Zaha Hadid” Dezeen (March 1, 2018) https://www.dezeen.com/2018/03/01/black-panther-film-designer-zaha-hadid/
Perry, Twila L., “Conscious and Strategic Representations of Race: Prince, Music, Black Lives, and Race Scholarship,” Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 27 (spring 2018): 549ff. Excerpted in Vernellia R. Randall, Race, Racism and the Law (website), https://racism.org/articles/race/62-defining-racial-groups/africans-and-african-descendents/2332-prince-music-black-lives-and-race-scholarship.
#represent #fashion #identi #consum #BlackAuthor #WomanAuthor #BlackWoman #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #self-fashioning
[Judging from the excerpts posted to Randall’s site, this essay is about how Prince negotiated and represented his Black identity within the music business, not least through his fashion choices.
#CRG
Ford, Tanisha C. Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl’s Love Letter to the Power of Fashion. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019.
#BlackAuthor #Fashion #BlackConsum #Consum #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Ford’s book interweaves memoir and history in powerful ways to explore key elements of Black style such as the Dashiki, the Jheri Curl, and Bamboo Earrings. Though it deals with rich questions about personal identity, politics, and style, because it is written as narrative and for a popular audience it would make a great read for undergrads and even high school students. #VRP #CRG
Frazier, Walt and Ira Berkow, Rockin’ Steady: A Guide to Basketball & Cool (1974).
#Race #Represent #Consum #Masculin #Autobio #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #Fashion #Branding #BlackAuthor In this book basketball star Walt “Clyde” Frazier explores his use of fashion on and off the court. A great case study for thinking through race, sexuality, and masculinity in the “Peacock Revolution” of the 1960s and 1970s. He was also one of the first to have a shoe deal so would be a great person to include in a discussion of sneaker culture.
#VRP
Cole, Daniel James and Deihl, Nancy. The History of Modern Fashion. New York: Laurence King Publishing, 2015.
Page 335 provides useful context on Walt Frazier.
#VRP
Miller, Monica L. "ALL HAIL THE Q.U.E.E.N." Nka: Journal Of Contemporary African Art 2015, no. 37 (November 2015): 62-69.
#Fashion #BlackDesigner #1980-2020
This article analyzes musician Janelle Monae’s use of the tuxedo including its connection to the uniforms worn by her parents.
#VRP
Dyson, Michael Eric. “Be Like Mike?: Michael Jordan and the Pedagogy of Desire.” In Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism, 64–77. University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Accessed June 25, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.cttts5tr.9.
#BlackAuthor #Race #IndustrialDesign
A good article on the signs & symbols held in black athleticism and how it translates to aesthetics, advertising & white profit. Also provides a variety of cultural examples- such as consumer products, jazz history, footwear, advertising etc - I’ve used it both for its content and as an example of “creative” academic writing to get students to think outside the box when thinking about what constitutes a source for examination in research.
#GVK
Livingston, Jennie, dir. Paris is Burning. New York, Miramax, 1990.
#1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #Racis #Represent #Consum #BlackDesigner #LatinxDesigner #LGBTQIAAuthor #LGBTQIADesigner #video #gender
Livingston’s film about the drag scene in New York in 1989 provides a case study for examining the ways drag performers critiqued mainstream fashion and culture as well as their own work as designers. bell hooks’s “Is Paris Burning?” and Judith Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution” (elsewhere in this bibliography) are useful alongside for context.
#VRP
hooks, bell. “Is Paris Burning?” in Black Looks. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
Useful to pair with Jennie Livingston’s film Paris is Burning.
#VRP
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." In The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, edited by Amelia Jones, 392-402. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Useful to pair with Jennie Livingston’s film Paris is Burning.
#VRP
McMillan, Michael and Stuart Hall. The Front Room: Migrant Aesthetics in the Home. London: Black Dog Press, 2009.
#InteriorDesign #BlackConsumers #UnitedKingdom #Britain #Immigration #Decolonizing #1940-1980 #1980-2020
#VRP
Weems, Robert E. Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
#BlackAuthor #USA #1900-1950 #1950-2000.
As the title suggests, Weems reads consumerism as core to the Civil Rights/citizenship cause, from public transit to shopping. Includes chapters on shopping under segregation as well as the emergence of a “liberated” Black market in the Civil Rights era and afterward.
#BW
González, Rachel Valentina. Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2019.
#Fashion #Consumption #LatinxConsumers #LatinxAuthor #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Editorial blurb reads: “A dynamic study of social negotiation and consumerism in the coming-of-age quinceañera celebration and the impact of normalizing spectacles of luxury.”
#CRG
Hurtado, Aída and Norma E. Cantú (eds.). MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2020.
#Fashion #Consumption #LatinxConsumers #LatinxAuthor #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Editorial blurb reads “Fifteen scholars examine the social identities, class hierarchies, regionalisms, and other codes of communication that are exhibited or perceived in meXicana clothing styles.”
#CRG
Ownby, Ted. American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty & Culture, 1830–1998. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
#BlackAuthor #USA #1850-1900 #1900-1950 #1950-2000.
Covers Black consumerism, including under enslavement when ownership of goods was often constrained by access as well as oppression (e.g. social shaming/stereotyping).
#BW
Tulloch, Carol. The Birth of Cool: Style Narratives of the African Diaspora. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
#BlackConsumers #BlackAuthor #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #fashion Tulloch uses case studies to explore the idea Black aesthetics in fashion: turn of the century images of women who were market traders in Jamaica, residents of Harlem in the 1930s, Billie Holiday, Malcolm X, a t-shirt from the South African Brand Stoned Cherrie, and archival fragments from Black Caribbean people in England. Her formulation of style-fashion-dress is a particularly useful way to understand fashion and her work shows the power of personal narratives and archives in creating a more inclusive design history. By focusing on how fashion is used by individual and groups, this book opens up discussions about style-fashion-dress in everyday life. The chapters work well for undergrads.
#VRP
Contemporary Design Practice
Smith, Cynthia E. By the People: Designing a Better America (Cooper-Hewitt 2016)
#Cities #Architecture #Exhibition #USA #Sustainability
Smith, Cynthia E. Design with the Other 90% (Cooper-Hewitt 2011)
#Cities #Architecture #Exhibition #Sustainability
Irani, Lilly. “‘Design Thinking’: Defending Silicon Valley at the Apex of Global Labor Hierarchies.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, vol. 4, no. 1, 2018: https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29638/html
On Design Thinking replicating the “how” of whiteness
Micossé-Aikins, Sandrine. "7 Things You Can Do to Make Your Art Less Racist — A Comprehensive How-To-Guide" (2013), MIC Movement, https://micmovement.com/2013/02/7-things-you-can-do-to-make-your-art-less-racist-a-comprehensive-how-to-guide/. #antirac
Some good rules of thumb for practitioners, focused on art-making, but also highly relevant to design.
#CRG
Rankin, Yolanda A., and Jakita O. Thomas. “Straighten up and fly right: rethinking intersectionality in HCI research.” Interactions 26, no. 6 (2019): 64–68.
#interact
(haven’t read yet)
#CRG
Crivellaro, Clara, Lizzie Coles-Kemp, Alan Dix, and Ann Light. 2019. “Not-Equal: Democratizing Research in Digital Innovation for Social Justice.” Interactions 26 (2): 70–73.
#interact
(haven’t read yet)
#CRG
Ogbonnaya-Ogburu, I. F., Smith, A. D., To, A., & Toyama, K. 2020. “Critical Race Theory for HCI.” CHI ’20, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA.
#interact
(haven’t read yet)
#CRG
Schlesinger, Ari, W. Keith Edwards, and Rebecca E. Grinter. 2017. “Intersectional HCI: Engaging identity through gender, race, and class.” Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
#CRG
Fox, Sarah, Jill Dimond, Lilly Irani, Tad Hirsch, Michael Muller, and Shaowen Bardzell. 2017. “Social Justice and Design: Power and Oppression in Collaborative Systems.” CSCW 2017 — Companion of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 117–22.
#CRG
Søndergaard, Marie Louise Juul, and Lone Koefoed Hansen. 2017. “Designing with Bias and Privilege.” Nordes 2017 7.
#CRG
Tunstall, Elizabeth. 2007. “In Design We Trust: Design, Governmentality, and the Tangibility of Governance.” IASDR07, no. 1: 1–16.
#CRG
Oliveira, Pedro and Luiza Prado. "A Cheat Sheet for a Non- (or Less-) Colonialist Speculative Design" (2014), Medium.com, https://medium.com/a-parede/cheat-sheet-for-a-non-or-less-colonialist-speculative-design-9a6b4ae3c465.
#SocialJustice #speculative #colon #decolon
This essay is an homage/follow-up to the Micossé-Aikins essay, but about speculative design, specifically.
#CRG
Tunstall, Dori, et al. "AIGA Respectful Design," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sESVWI5aAHA
#video #colon #decolon #rac #BlackAuthor #IndigenousAuthor #LatinxAuthor
A video montage by Dori Tunstall and about ten other people from different traditions, speaking about what decolonial design means, and what respectful design means.
#CRG
Second this for classroom use.
#BW
Costanza-Chock, Sasha. Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need (MIT Press, 2020).
#SocialJustice #participatory #TransAuthor #WhiteAuthor?
I have read the first chapter or so of this book, and it looks very promising. The blurb from the book’s page on the MIT website says it “explores the theory and practice of design justice, demonstrates how universalist design principles and practices erase certain groups of people—specifically, those who are intersectionally disadvantaged or multiply burdened under the matrix of domination (white supremacist heteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and settler colonialism)—and invites readers to “build a better world, a world where many worlds fit; linked worlds of collective liberation and ecological sustainability.” Along the way, the book documents a multitude of real-world community-led design practices, each grounded in a particular social movement. Design Justice goes beyond recent calls for design for good, user-centered design, and employment diversity in the technology and design professions; it connects design to larger struggles for collective liberation and ecological survival.”
#CRG
The full text of this book is currently freely available online at MIT Press (link).
#JKB
Miller, Kristine. Introduction to Design Equity (2019), open-source textbook at https://www.oercommons.org/courses/introduction-to-design-equity-open-textbook
An open-source U of Minnesota textbook about what socially just urban planning looks like. Overview reads “Why do affluent, liberal, and design-rich cities like Minneapolis have some of the biggest racial disparities in the country? How can designers help to create more equitable communities? Introduction to Design Equity, an open access book for students and professionals, maps design processes and products against equity research to highlight the pitfalls and potentials of design as a tool for building social justice.” I really liked this text. It’s focused on urban planning, so it doesn’t address my teaching needs directly, but it’s not hard to imagine how the points Miller makes could be adapted for other subfields of design. I would definitely recommend for anyone teaching urban design/planning.
#CRG
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA, aka “Mia”)
#museums #interior #exhibition #canon #ExhibitionDesign
MIA recently reconfigured its period room displays to cover the voices of those less often heard in history - enslaved people, Native Americans. They did a lot work on this and it is interesting to think about how they achieved this - not just the historical research that went into the project but also the design choices made to reflect the experience of those previously marginalized communities as well as the voices that were brought in to actually “voice” the presence of those communities. (See also the entry called “Living Rooms,” below)
#AL
“Living Rooms: The Period Room Initiative,” Minneapolis Institute of Art, https://new.artsmia.org/living-rooms/.
#museums #interior #exhibition #canon #ExhibitionDesign
The opening page of this section of the MIA website states that “In this multi-year initiative, Mia is reinvigorating its period rooms for today’s visitors, placing the past in dialogue with the present, while simultaneously broadening the conversation to include other histories—of marginalized people, of the senses, and even of time itself.” If you click on the “Past” or “Current” images at the bottom of the page, it’ll take you to discussions of the reinstallations.
#CRG
Newman, Amber. “Troll Palayan: Clara Balaguer on Design, Decolonization, and Trolling Duterte,” walkerart.org, 11 May 2018, https://walkerart.org/magazine/troll-palayan-clara-balaguer-on-design-decolonization-trolling-duterte
#resist #decolon #SocialJustice #digital
In this interview, Clara Balaguer talks about using design, especially memes, to mock President Duterte. In perhaps the best-known passage in this interview, she suggests that type snobbery might be incompatible with effective political commentary: “For the Comic Sans, design-educated haters looking for political relevance, an exercise: Use Comic Sans, Curlz, Brush Script, Papyrus. Understand why people respond to it. Accept that social constituencies (not clients but constituencies) have made a choice that should be respected instead of ridiculed. Show what can be done to harness prejudice into a different language altogether. Challenge yourself to dismantle what the (Ivy League?) man has told you is ugly, uncouth, primitive, savage. Finessing popular voice into a missive of power, an aesthetic of revolution, doesn’t mean you have to dumb your design education down. It means you get to throw out the notion that the populace is dumb, that popular concerns can only lead to (design) populism, and that the formally educated have all the answers.”
#CRG
Balaguer, Clara, and Kristian Henson. “Insights 2017: Clara Balaguer and Kristian Henson, Office of Culture & Design/Hardworking Goodlooking” (lecture), 21 March 2017. The Gradient, Walker Museum of Art, https://walkerart.org/magazine/insights-2017-clara-balaguer-and-kristian-henson-office-of-culture-designhardworking-goodlooking.
#modernism #vernacular #Philippines #FilipinoDesigners #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020 #graphic #typography #script #colon #decolon
In this nearly two-hour talk/conversation, Clara Balaguer (a Filipina writer/cultural worker) and Kristian Henson (a Yale-trained Filipino-American designer), principals of Hardworking Goodlooking, discuss their aims, their methods, their interests, and their ideas. At the risk of oversimplifying their argument, I would characterize their approach as rejecting Swiss modernism/“Zombie formalism” in graphic design/typography in favor of embracing the Filipino vernacular in lettering, typography, etc. They are interrogating and resisting “cultural cringe” (i.e., the phenomenon in which members of a colony believe their own culture is inferior to that of the colonizer). Balaguer often designs in Microsoft Word, and they both make a point of deploying the “bad design” that is common in Filipino vernacular design: e.g., extreme drop shadows, script fonts, borders, hand lettering, “bad” printing, and the like. As Henson states at one point (and I’m paraphrasing here, not quoting precisely, Modernism started off as something revolutionary, but it isn’t revolutionary anymore, because in fighting decadence, we’ve kind of left behind culture. As he says a minute or two later, “Our [their studio’s] whole thing is vernacular.” Balaguer also mentions their desire to learn about and create a history of Filipino design, because one does not currently exist.
#CRG
Schultz, Tristan, Danah Abdulla, Ahmed Ansari, Ece Canlı, Mahmoud Keshavarz, Matthew Kiem, Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Pedro J.S. Vieira de Oliveira. “Editors’ Introduction.” Design and Culture 10, no. 1: Decolonizing Design (2018): 1–6.
#canon #decolon #modernism #1980-2020
Outlines the guest editors’ intentions for this issue of the journal, and argues that “Decolonizing design involves more than just amplifying interests and concerns that have been marginalized within Design Studies’ dominant discourses. While this is important, decolonizing design also involves challenging the dominant forms, conventions, grammars, and language through which knowledge about design is expressed and enacted in ongoing research and design work. In other words, it is a radical rather than reformist project, organized less around a struggle for the inclusion and representation of difference and marginality within colonial forms, than around the unsettlement and destabilization of forms – diffused, naturalized, and habitual – that instill colonial relations of power.”
#CRG
Song, Lily, and Allentza Michel. “Design Studio First Aid Kit.” CoDesign at GSD. Accessed July 3, 2020. http://research.gsd.harvard.edu/codesign/files/2020/06/CoDesignFirstAidKit_Zine-3.pdf
#architecture #antiracist #pedagogy #1980-2020 #AsianAmAuthor #BlackAuthor #WomanAuthor
This document was created by an organization at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in response to protests across the US in support of black lives. Design education is in need of a pedagogical shift to take responsibility for how our professions and teaching contribute to issues of racial injustice. This first aid kit was created as a way to assess existing teaching practices, specifically how architectural studio projects are conceived, framed and engaged within design schools, in an effort to begin to change. While this document is specifically written to guide faculty through an assessment of a design studio, the questions asked can also be internalized and made helpful to students to position themselves in their projects, question their own biases in their understandings of space/design, and rethink how to approach design work that is more actively anti-racist.
#MCQ
Williams, Lauren. “The Co-Constitutive Nature of Neoliberalism, Design, and Racism,” Design and Culture 11:3 (2019): pp.301–21.
#canon #decolon #Race #Racis #1980-2020 #SocialJustice #Urban #WomanAuthor
“Shining a Light on Forgotten Designers: More than a dozen experts suggest candidates deserving new appreciation,” The New York Times, October 28, 2021 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/arts/forgotten-designers.html
#canon #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #Furniture #Fashion #Graphic #Industrial #Craft #LatinAmerica #textile #Africa #Architecture #BlackDesigner #LatinAmericanDesigner #WomanDesigner
13 brief biographies of designers, both historical and contemporary, that diversify the canon and warrant further study. These individuals would be interesting subjects for student research projects.
#PJC
Interrogating the white canon of design (historiography)
Buckley, Cheryl. “Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Feminist Analysis of Women and Design,” Design Issues 3, no. 2 (Autumn 1986): 3–14. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511480.
#Gender #Femin
Buckley points out that conventional definitions of design (and thus most histories of design) exclude the genres of work that women traditionally did (e.g., “craft”), and suggests that design historians might be wise to rethink how well those traditional definitions are serving them today. Many of her points apply to the work that people of color have traditionally done in the USA, specifically, and for similar reasons: they were often systematically excluded from “professional” design activities and organizations. (Moreover, though Buckley does not mention it, nineteenth-century US patent laws blatantly discriminated against Black people: see “Invention of a Slave,” elsewhere in this bibliography).
#CRG
Cook, Lisa. "Violence and Economic Growth: Evidence from African American Patents, 1870–1940," Journal of Economic Growth, June 2014, Volume 19, Issue 2, pp 221–257.
#law #IP #innovat #invent #industrial #gender #rac #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #BlackDesigner
This essay helps explain why Black people have lower rates of patent activity in the USA than, say, white-American and Asian-American people do. Cook analyzed over two million patents, cross-referencing the names/cities of the patentees with Census records, I believe, to determine the race of the patentees (because, notably, the USPO/USPTO doesn’t gather information about the race or sex of patentees). She was able to track Black patent activity over time. Her data suggested something huge happened after 1921 that caused the rate of Black patenting to tank after that date; it turned out to be the destruction of “Black Wall Street” during the Tulsa massacre.
#CRG
Merritt, Deborah J. “Hypatia in the Patent Office: Women Inventors and the Law, 1865–1900.” The American Journal of Legal History, 35, no. 3 (Jul., 1991), pp. 235–306. https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/stable/845974.
#law #IP #innovat #invent #industrial #gender #rac #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900 #BlackDesigner #BlackWoman
This is a really great (albeit very long) essay laying out ALL the many reasons why women did not patent at the same rates as men: it’s the closest thing I’ve found to a Linda Nochlin-esque “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”-style essay for the field of industrial design. On p. 259, she discusses Eleanor Demorest’s sewing pattern business, noting that “Their enterprise hired Black workers on an equal basis with Whites, and integrated the two races in the workplace.” On p. 272-3, she briefly discusses Miriam E. Benjamin and Sarah E. Goode, two nineteenth-century Black woman inventors. And in the last sections, she surveys the barriers to patenting that confronted all US women, which are crucial to understanding the intersectional challenges that Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian women faced in the US patent system.
#CRG
Miller, Susan A. “Native Historians Write Back: The Indigenous Paradigm in American Indian Historiography.” Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 24, no. 1, 2009, pp. 25–45.
#USA #NorthAmerica #USA #Canada #IndigenousPeople
This article describes Indigenous culture and Indigenous narratives as a way of knowing the world, and offers ways to reposition the narratives of history.
#BZ
Cook, Lisa and Chaleampong Kongcharoen, “The Idea Gap in Pink and Black,” NBER Working Paper No. 16331, Issued in September 2010. https://www.nber.org/papers/w16331.
#law #IP #innovat #invent #industrial #gender #rac #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020 #BlackDesigner
“[T]he first systematic analysis of recent African American patenting and patent-related commercialization behavior.”
#CRG
Rosenblatt, Elizabeth L. “Copyright’s One-way Racial Appropriation Ratchet,” 53 U.C. Davis Law Review 591 (December 2019) https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/issues/53/2/articles/files/53-2_Rosenblatt.pdf. #law #IP #innovat #invent #industrial #gender #rac #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #BlackDesigner #IndigenousDesigner #appropriat #colon
This article—even if you only read the excerpts of it on Vernellia Randall’s site at https://racism.org/articles/basic-needs/propertyland/218-intellectual-property/8238-copyright-s-one-way-racial—packs a serious wallop in terms of laying out exactly how copyright laws favor white, colonizing, wealthy, and/or privileged people over Black, Indigenous, poor, and/or disenfranchised people. Basically, it’s about how “cultural appropriation” is legally sanctioned.
#CRG
David H. Rice, "What Color Is Design?" Interior Design 63, no. 1 (January 1992): 34–35. (Reprinted in Gorman, The Industrial Design Reader, 2003).
Points out the dearth of #BlackDesigners in the design industries, and uses the example of the American music industry—which has basically been built on Black musicians’ creativity and innovations (which white people have then appropriated)—to suggest how much talent and value Black designers could be contributing to the design industries, if they could just get a foot in the door.
#CRG
Margolin, Victor. "Can History Be Corrected?" Inform 13 no. 3 (2001) https://chicagodesignarchive.org/resource/can-history-be-corrected.
#rac #BlackDesigner #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
A good essay about Margolin's efforts to recover the history of Black designers in Chicago, discussing why so little information has been gathered or preserved about them. Lists names of many of Chicago’s most prominent Black designers (e.g., Charles Harrison, LeRoy Winbush, et al.)
#CRG
Knupfer, Anne Meis. “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” Design Issues 16, no. 3 (Autumn, 2000), pp. 84–91, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511818.
#rac #canon #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
A review of the African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now symposium at the DuSable Museum of Art in Chicago on 5 February, 2000, organized by Victor Margolin. Knupfer notes the names of many Black designers who were mentioned in the talks and by the panelists, including some who I think have not yet been added to the list of designers at the end of this bibliography, e.g., .
#CRG
Samarskaya, Ksenya. "Nontsikelelo Mutiti on Interrogating the Euro-Centric Design Canon," AIGA Eye on Design (2019), https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/nontsikelelo-mutiti-on-the-specificity-of-locality-in-graphic-design.
#rac #bias #whiteAuthor #BlackDesigner #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Mutiti, a faculty member at VCU, observes of the canonical Meggs’ History of Graphic Design textbook (written by Phil Meggs, one of her predecessors on the faculty at VCU), that "It has one instance of an African work, by Africans, which is hieroglyphics." [I can’t help interjecting here that though that may well have been true of early editions of the textbook, there's certainly more than one illustration of hieroglyphics in the most recent 6th edition, and there are a few illustrations of works by twentieth-century Black designers, too. But not very many!] Her point is well taken: the text includes little, if anything, from modern/contemporary Africa. She also asks "What is the sister project to Jerome's [Jerome Harris's] exhibition? The cousin project? Is it your Vietnamese identity? Is it your Korean identity or Korean-American identity, related to your immigrant identity? Your white Southern identity? Why aren’t we talking about what graphic language frames the idea of the confederacy? Why don’t we create those lines of scholarship?" Asking students to explore the graphic history of some aspect of their identity (whether race/ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc.) does seem like a great idea for a student project.
#CRG
Cezzar, Juliette. “Let's Teach a History of Ideas, not a History of Individuals,” in “Design History Isn’t Repeating Itself—So Why is the Way we Teach It?” AIGA Eye on Design (2018). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TuYp9AKH-0bm3jrfrUhyeTB6Me8OWSxf/view
#rac #bias #gender #WhiteAuthor? #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Cezzar's essay is the last of the four essays in this group. As her title suggests, she is for a history shaped by ideas rather than one centered on biographies/hagiographies of “famous” or “genius” designers: i.e., she is challenging the White masculinist canon.
#CRG #GVK
Lichtman, Sarah. “Reconsidering the History of Design Survey,” Journal of Design History 22, no. 4 (2009): 341–350. Available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653136.
#racism #bias #gender #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020 #WhiteAuthor? #WomanAuthor?
Lichtman describes the challenges of teaching the Parsons course “History of Design, 1850–2000,” surveys and critiques available textbooks, and challenges design historians to do a better job of addressing issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc. in their own courses and in the textbooks they write. Lichtman also helpfully points to previous authors who have called for similar changes, including Clive Dilnot, John Walker, and Victor Margolin.
#CRG
Toppins, Aggie. “Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without Chronology?” AIGA's eyeondesign, Oct 19, 2020. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/can-we-teach-graphic-design-history-without-chronology/
#rac #canon #USA #NorthAmerica
Short essay arguing for graphic design histories organized in ways other than according to a timeline.
#BH
Toppins, Aggie. “Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without the Cult of Hero Worship?” Eye on Design (AIGA), 29 May 2020, https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/can-we-teach-graphic-design-history-without-the-cult-of-hero-worship/
Short essay arguing for graphic design histories that do not privilege the creator / designer / maker
#rac #bias #gender #WhiteAuthor? #canon #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
#BH
Jackson, Leon. “The Talking Book and the Talking Book Historian: African American Cultures of Print—The State of the Discipline.” Book History, vol. 13 (2010), pp. 251-308.
#rac #bias #canon #USA #print #graphic #NorthAmerica #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940
This novella-length essay about African-American cultures of print in the English North American colonies and (later) USA is useful to design historians for a few reasons. First, it casually drops useful facts like these: “It is well documented that, for example, Nat Turner developed his own techniques for making paper; that William Wells Brown, William Cooper Nell, and William Stanley Braithwaite were printers; that Frederick Douglass obsessed over typography as the editor of several newspapers; that Charles Chesnutt and Pauline Hopkins were stenographers; that Harriet Jacobs worked in an antislavery reading room and that Nella Larsen was a librarian; or that Toni Morrison worked for many years as an editor at Random House….” (HOLD ON: Nat Turner developed his own techniques for making paper?! Am I the only one who didn’t know that?) Second, he identifies many holes in the literature on book history that graphic design historians might be well positioned to help fill. E.g., “ Does an African American text printed by an African American company appear different than an African American text printed by a white one? We do not know. Is there a racial politics in the actual, physical format of a book? Beth McCoy has made just such an argument. Focusing on the shifting resonances of various typefaces, she suggests that the standardized fonts used in anthologies can deracinate, in problematic ways, the historically (and hence racially) specific meanings that inhered in the texts' original material formats” (pp. 271–2). Third, the footnotes are amazing. There are many, many leads to other works of scholarship on Black Americans who were involved in the book and printing trades, and most of that scholarship—as far as I am aware—is not being cited very frequently by historians of graphic design. But it probably should be. I feel like I could go through this essay again and pull out dozens of names, publications, and topics about print that would be very fruitful paper topics or Wikipedia entries for students in my history of graphic design survey to work on. I suspect it could serve as a point of departure for an entire graduate research seminar in design history, tbh.
#CRG
McCoy, Beth. "Perpetua(l) Notion: Typography, Economy, and Losing Nella Larsen." In Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation, ed. Paul C. Gutjahr and Megan L. Benton (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001), 97–114.
#rac #bias #canon #USA #print #graphic #NorthAmerica #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940
McCoy argues that Nella Larsen’s book Passing was set in Caslon to subtly make the point that her book was a response to Carl Van Vechten’s N****r Heaven, which had also been set in Caslon. (Larsen could not openly criticize a fellow Knopf author, nor would it have been judicious to anger someone who helped bring attention to Harlem Renaissance authors...but setting her book in the same typeface and using a similar layout was, McCoy contends, a way for Larsen to draw a connection between her book and Van Vechten’s.)
#CRG
Tragle, Henry Irving, ed. The Southampton Slave Revolt of 183 1: A Compilation of Source Material. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971 (p. 307).
#NorthAmerica #USA #print #graphic #paper #1700-1800
Following up from Leon Jackson’s article, above: in his confession, Nat Turner is reported to have said “when I got large enough to go to work, while employed, I was reflecting on many things that would present themselves to my imagination, and whenever an opportunity occurred of looking at a book, when the school children were getting their lessons, I would find many things that the fertility of my own imagination had depicted to me before; all my time, not devoted to my master’s service, was spent either in prayer, or in making experiments in casting different things in moulds made of earth, in attempting to make paper, gun-powder, and many other experiments, that although I could not perfect, yet convinced me of its practicability if I had the means.* [*When questioned as to the manner of manufacturing those different articles, he was found well informed on the subject.]" (p. 307).
#CRG
Shonibare, Yinka, Party Time: Re-imagine America (exhibition). Newark Museum’s Ballantine House, https://www.art-agenda.com/announcements/188784/newark-museum-unveils-installation-by-yinka-shonibare-mbe.
#ExhibitionDesign #exhibition #USA #museums #period rooms #interior #exhibition
As the museum’s website explains, “Shonibare’s work is informed by his dual roots in Europe [the UK] and Africa [Nigeria], and he has explored their intertwined histories through a range of media, including sculpture, painting, photography and film. He is best known for his use of vibrantly patterned ‘Dutch wax’ textiles which have been produced in European factories for West African markets for over a century. Shonibare incorporates the colorful, richly patterned cloth—which looks “African” but has more complicated origins—as a visual symbol in his work, in part to subvert assumptions about cultural identity and authenticity.” This work is interesting as an example for discussing how works of design (textiles, here) are incorporated in museum displays that attempt to address period rooms/historic house museum designs.
#AL
Corrin, Lisa Graziose. “Mining the Museum: Artists Look at Museums, Museums Look at Themselves.” In Mining the Museum: An Installation by Fred Wilson. Baltimore: Contemporary, 1994, pp. 1–22.
#museums #period rooms #interior #exhibition #ExhibitionDesign
“Working with objects in the collection of the MHS, Wilson unsettled the museum’s comfortably white, upper-class narrative by juxtaposing silver repoussé vessels and elegant 19th-century armchairs with slave shackles and a whipping post. Texts, spotlights, recorded texts, and objects traditionally consigned to storage drew attention to the local histories of blacks and Native Americans, effectively unmaking the familiar museological narrative as a narrow ideological project.” This provides a context for the history of museums trying to open up their displays to include more inclusive communities and their objects. Wilson is really seen as being at the forefront of the movement. Wilson is an American artist describing himself as of "African, Native American, European and Amerindian" descent. Despite his work being usually treated by the art historical community, I think he is equally important to design because of his role in intervening in museum displays. From Wiki: With the use of new wall labels, sounds, lighting, and non-traditional pairings of objects, he leads viewers to recognize that changes in context (or, one might read “interior space”) create changes in meaning.
#AL
Lee, Jiwon. "What’s "Crystal Goblet" in Korean?" Design Observer, 1 August 2011, https://designobserver.com/article.php?id=29138.
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor? #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #typ #graphic
This short read describes the problem that few canonical texts have been translated into Korean.
#BH
This essay is about the lack of translations from English into languages such as Korean, which makes it really hard for students who come to the US from other linguistic traditions to learn Western design theory.
#CRG
Tayob, Huda and Suzanne Hall, “Race, Space and Architecture: Towards an Open-Access Curriculum.” The London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Sociology, June 2019. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100993/
Asks questions about the relationship between capitalism and racial hierarchies and injustice; asks ‘how is race configured differently across space?’
#SDR
Hadjyami, Tasoulla, “Perspective: Decolonizing Interior Design Education.” IDEC Journal of Interior Design 45 (2): 3–9. (2020)
Written by an interior design educator at University of Minnesota and refugee from Cyprus (she uses this perspective to talk about colonizing and decolonizing of interior spaces and the curriculum.)
#SDR
Travis, Jack, “Perspective: An Interior of Inclusion or The Illusion of Inclusion,” IDEC Journal of Interior Design 43, no. 3 (2018): 3–7.
Jack Travis is a black interior designer who calls out the interior design community for its lack of focus on inclusion within industry and scholarship
#SDR
Chin, Elizabeth. My Life with Things: The Consumer Diaries. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
#USA #AsianAmericanAuthor #1850-1900 #1980-2020
Diary entries by a cultural anthropologist who admits to loving stuff (amazon gift cards, vintage linens) interwoven with historical reflections on Karl Marx’s writing and the consumer habits of his household. Informed by critical race theory, Chin discusses her own work on the consumption habits of Black kids as well as her own positionality as Asian American and the connections/disconnections with the British past of Marx and other Western historical consumers. Extremely readable and engaging - a standout among academic writing on “things.”
#BW
Farias, Priscila L. “On graphic memory as a strategy for design history.” Tradition, Transition, Trajectories: major or minor influences? [= ICDHS 2014 - 9th Conference of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies, Aveiro - Portugal], pp. 201-206. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014. <https://dx.doi.org/10.5151/despro-icdhs2014-0023>
#LatinAmerica #Brazil #Chile #Colombia #Ecuador #Mexico #LatinxAuthor #WomanAuthor #Graphic #Canon
The expression ‘memória gráfica’ (literally, ‘graphic memory’) has been used in Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, more and more frequently, in the last years, in order to refer to a line of studies that intends to review the significance and value of visual artifacts, and in particular of printed ephemera, in the establishment of a sense of local identity through design. This paper intends to review the contexts in which this expression has been used within the field of research on visual artifacts in Latin America, and to discuss the relationships between the concept of ‘graphic memory’ and those of ‘print culture,’ ‘visual culture,’ and ‘material culture,’ setting up a proposal of how it can be applied as an approach to the history of graphic design in non-hegemonic countries.
#PLF
Kikuchi, Yuko. “Design Histories and Design Studies in East Asia: Part 1,” Journal of Design History, Volume 24, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 273–282, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epr024
#Asia #Japan #AsianAuthor #WomanAuthor #Canon
Design Histories and Design Studies in East Asia have been developing steadily, but unfortunately this has not been widely recognized in the UK or in other Euroamerican centres of this field. In this series of short articles, we would like to give a brief overview of the notable local developments in Japan (Part 1, by Yuko Kikuchi), PRC/Hong Kong/Taiwan (Part 2, by Wendy S. Wong) and Korea (Part 3, by Yunah Lee).
#PLF
Lee, Y. and Megha Rajguru, eds. Design and Modernity in Asia: National Identity and Transnational Exchange, 1945–1990. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
#AL
Wong, Wendy S. “Design History and Study in East Asia: Part 2 Greater China: People's Republic of China/Hong Kong/Taiwan,” Journal of Design History, Volume 24, Issue 4, December 2011, Pages 375–395, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epr034
#Asia #China #HongKong #Taiwan #AsianAuthor #WomanAuthor #Canon
Writings on the design history and design studies of the Greater China region (the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan and Hong Kong) have not emerged at this stage. This article summarizes existing works on Chinese design history and study, giving a brief overview of the literature written and published in English and notable publications in Chinese. The brief review of each key publication serves as introductory text for the subject matter. This review takes a pragmatic approach, using the term ‘sheji’ as a currently agreed-upon translation for the English word ‘design’ in the region. Historically, in the Chinese context, ‘gongyi’ was used to refer to the skills (techniques and technology) and art (aesthetic and philosophy) of making crafts to satisfy the needs of everyday life, including the hereditary upper class and ordinary folks. Recently, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China further removed the component ‘yishu’ (art), with only the term ‘sheji’ (design) remaining, and made ‘yishu’ a new discipline in the Directory of Degree-granting and Personnel Training Disciplines (Xuewei Shouyu he Rencai Peiyang Xueke Mulu) announced in March 2011.
#PLF
Lee, Yunah. “Design Histories and Design Studies in East Asia: Part 3 Korea and Conclusion,” Journal of Design History, Volume 25, Issue 1, March 2012, Pages 93–106, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epr054
#Asia #Korea #AsianAuthor #WomanAuthor #Canon
With the development of design practice in Korea during the 20th century, especially intense design promotions since the last decade of 20th century, the study of design and design research gradually established its place in Korean design practice and education. Although Korean design history is yet to be established as an academic discipline in Korea, there has been a notable development of research and publications on various elements of Korean modern and contemporary design and visual culture in recent years, little of which is known to English speaking scholars. The part 3 of this series introduces major works on Korean design written in Korean language and discusses the key themes that have emerged from these studies. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the observation that was made in three parts and makes suggestions for a productive way to connect and engage with these studies.
#PLF
Farias, Priscila L. “On the Current State of Brazilian Graphic Design Historiography,” Journal of Design History, Volume 28, Issue 4, November 2015, Pages 434–439, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epv040
#LatinAmerica #Brazil #LatinxAuthor #WomanAuthor #Graphic #Canon
This review is a reflection on the current state of studies on the history of Brazilian graphic design. It has as its centre Linha do Tempo do Design Gráfico no Brasil (Timeline of Brazilian Graphic Design), edited by Chico Homem de Melo and Elaine Ramos and published in 2011 by Cosac Naify, and also takes into account earlier books: O Gráfico Amador (The Amateur Graphic), by Guilherme Cunha Lima (1997); O Design Brasileiro Antes do Design (Brazilian Design Before Design), edited by Rafael Cardoso (2005); and O Design Gráfico Brasileiro: anos 60 (Brazilian Graphic Design: The 1960s), edited by Chico Homem de Melo (2006).
#PLF
Lara-Betancourt, Patricia & Rezende, Livia. “Locating Design Exchanges in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Journal of Design History, Volume 32, Issue 1, February 2019, Pages 1–16, <https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epy048>
#LatinAmerica #Argentina #Brazil #Cuba #Chile #LatinxAuthor #WomanAuthor #Canon
What happens when researchers foreground Latin American and Caribbean agency in design? Guided by this challenge, we sought to create a new approach to the discourse on Latin American and Caribbean design history. Through the formation of a network of scholars working across the globe, the organization of dedicated themed panels at international conferences, and the culmination of these efforts in this edited volume, we propose to decolonize and globalize the study of design history in and from that region. To this end, this Introduction situates the fluctuation of interest in Latin American and Caribbean Studies in Europe and the United States, and discusses how the development of Latin American and Caribbean design history need not follow some of the colonialist premises instigated by area studies’ scholars. Rather, through a critical review of historiographical trends found in both area studies and in design studies and history journal articles, this Introduction offers an interpretation of how and why design historical understanding has been produced in and from that region, and points to fruitful developments in this scholarship. In order to highlight design agency, we propose to focus on ‘design exchanges’, understood as meetings and encounters of cultural practices, peoples and objects.
#PLF
Demographics of the design professions
Miller, Cheryl D. “Transcending the Problems of the Black Graphic Designer to Success in the Marketplace,” M.S. thesis in Communications Design, Pratt Institute (May 1985), https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tr623tv1100/CDMiller_1985.pdf
#CRG
Miller, Cheryl D. "Black Designers: Missing in Action." Print 41, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 58–65, 136, 138. Available at https://www.scribd.com/document/287765658/Black-Designers-Missing-in-Action-by-Cheryl-D-Miller
Describes some of the challenges that Black graphic designers faced in entering and working in the field of graphic design in the 1980s, and points to successful Black designers working at the time.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Embracing Cultural Diversity in Design,” Step-by-Step, (January–February 1990).
Note: I do not have complete bibliographic information for this one, nor have I been able to find a link to it online (yet).
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. "Black Designers: Still Missing in Action?" Print 70, no. 2 (summer 2016).
An update/follow-up to Miller’s 1987 essay, above. (Note change in byline from Cheryl D. Miller to Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller.)
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part I: ‘Where are the Black Designers?’ They Asked.” Print, 24 September 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-i
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part II: Being Part of the Club.” Print, 1 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-ii
Discusses Black (former) members’ frustration with racism at AIGA, the Type Directors Club, and similar organizations.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part III: Miseducation.” Print, 8 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-iii
Discusses student calls for racial justice at RISD.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part IV: The History of Black Graphic Design.” Print, 15 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-iv
Calls out the skewed racial and gender representation in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design and points out that enslaved Blacks worked in the field of graphic design.
#CRG
Letterform Archive, The Black Experience in Graphic Design, 1968 and 2020
https://letterformarchive.org/news/the-black-experience-in-graphic-design-1968-and-2020
This is a reprint of Dorothy Jackson's "The Black Experience in Graphic Design, Print, 1968 and interviews with 16 contemporary practitioners about their experiences. Nice bibliography at the end, too.
#BH
Freddye S. Henderson, “The New Flair Among Designers,” The Crisis (April 1951): 239–243.
Available on Google Books (linked)
#primary #BlackDesigner #Fashion #1940-1980 #USA #NorthAmerica #Racism
This article describes the experience of Black designers (particularly fashion designers) in the mid-20th century and their exclusion from white professional organizations. Includes a rich discussion about the structural issues in the field of design, issues of exclusion, and efforts to organize.
#JKB
Where Are the Black Designers? conference site and video recording, 2020. https://wherearetheblackdesigners.com/
The sessions of this stupendous conference in summer 2020 were recorded and posted online with resources. The slack channel could be particularly useful for BIPOC students.
#BH
Cherry, Maurice, "Where are the Black Designers?" presentation for SXSW Interactive, March 14, 201. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBuFCkmyYuA
#BH
Kirkham, Pat. Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
#Industrial #Graphic #Craft #Fashion #Interior #Architecture #BlackDesigner #LatinxDesigner #AsianAmericanDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #WhiteAuthor
nn 105–108: Note 105 provides figures about the percentage of IDSA members who were women in 1974 (1%) and 2000 (19%). Note 107 says about 63% of (US?) undergrad graphics students were women in 1998–99, and that 55% of the 15,000 AIGA members were women as of c.1999–2000. Note 108 says 82% of art and design undergraduates in 1998–99 were European-American, 9.5% Asian-American, 4.5% Hispanic, 3.25% African American, and 0.6% Native American. The note also provides demographic figures for the nation as a whole at the same date.
#CRG
Wallis, Stephen. “Opening the Doors of Design,” New York Times, 29 September 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/29/style/opening-the-doors-of-design.html.
#Industrial #Furniture #Craft #Interior #BlackDesigner #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
Wallis observes that “It doesn’t take a great deal of research to recognize that Black designers are poorly represented in the world of high-end furnishings, a business with estimated global sales of roughly $25 billion last year,” and surveys some of the “tiny proportion” of designers in the industry who are Black. The article concludes with this paragraph: ‘All of the designers interviewed agreed that while solutions are challenging, a reckoning over the design industry’s diversity problem was overdue. “I’m glad people are talking about it,” Mr. Tariku said. When he posted his research on diversity online, some commenters argued that design should be only about design and not skin color, to which Mr. Tariku said, “Look, I wish it was.”’
#CRG
Mitchell-Powell, Brenda. “Why is Graphic Design 93% White?”, AIGA, 10 November 1991. https://www.aiga.org/why-is-graphic-design-93-percent-white-diversity
#CRG
Miller, Meg. “Survey: Design is 73% White.” FastCompany, 01-31-2017. https://www.fastcompany.com/3067659/survey-design-is-73-white
Teixeira, Fabricio. “Is Diversity a Problem in the Design Industry?” UX Collective, 5 April 2017, https://uxdesign.cc/is-diversity-a-problem-in-the-design-industry-2d58bc019a91.
Short answer? Yes.
#CRG
Data USA: Designers. https://datausa.io/profile/soc/designers.
Lots of useful demographic information here, based on data from the US Census Bureau. Paired with the Design Census 2019 information below, a pretty complete picture emerges.
#CRG
Design Census 2019, at https://designcensus.org/.
LOTS of useful demographic data about design professionals initiated by Antionette Carroll for AIGA and Google. Paired with the Data USA information above, a pretty complete picture emerges.
#CRG
Lopez, Elaine, and AIGA Chicago, 2017. AIGA Chicago Diversity and Inclusion Survey Results. https://letterformarchive.org/uploads/AIGAChicago_DiversityAndInclusion_HiringSurvey_072717.pdf
This slide deck analyzes the Design Census survey results and shares many insights.
#BH
Antiracism and Decoloniality
Lindtner, Silvia. Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020.
#originality #authenticity #copying #China
Examines the rise of the global maker movement but also the vision of China as a “new frontier” of innovation. Draws on more research in makerspaces, tech incubators, corporate offices, and factories while examining how the ideals of the maker movement. Traces how China has evolved away from a “copy cat” design culture to serving the technopolitical project of prototyping (while asserting a “new” optimistic, assertive, and global China). Uses critical race theory to examine “happiness labor” to reposition China on (white) global tech/design stage (sees gaps in narratives of excluded bodies/sites in reigning technological narratives)
#EG
Calvo-Quirós, William A. "The Politics of Color (Re)Significations: Chromophobia, Chromo-Eugenics, and the Epistemologies of Taste." Chicana/Latina Studies 13, no. 1 (2013): 76–116.
#LatinxAuthor #colon #modern #canon #LatinAmerica
Explores the “aesthetics of coloniality, the processes by which the West utilizes aesthetic theory to validate ethnic and racial oppression and segregation through discourses around taste, art methodology, and the deployment of color.”
#BZ
Quijano, Aníbal. “Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality.” Cultural Studies 21, nos. 2–3 (March/May 2007), 168–178.
#LatinAmericanAuthor #colon #modern #canon #LatinAmerica
Argues that modernity is dependent on coloniality and vice versa and that coloniality continues to create relationships of domination in the world today/ Critiques the Enlightenment and by extension the Industrial Revolution and other key aspects of the canonical history of design. Quijano is a foundational thinker upon which decolonial thinkers rely.
#EM
Mignolo, Walter. The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
Usefully distinguishes between decolonizing (which is what a country/people goes through after being colonized) and decoloniality (relying on Quijano’s conception of coloniality) and a decolonial option. For Mignolo, the decolonial option is just one way of many that can exist in the world. Theoretical but accessible.
#LatinAmericanAuthor, #WhiteAuthor #EM
Tuck, Eve and K. Wayne Yang, "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor," Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012, pp. 1-–0, https://clas.osu.edu/sites/clas.osu.edu/files/Tuck%20and%20Yang%202012%20Decolonization%20is%20not%20a%20metaphor.pdf.
#decolon #SocialJustice
I appreciate excerpts of this article, which argues for a precise definition of decolonization.
#BH
Me, too! (Cue Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I don't think that word means what you think it means.”)
#CRG
Khandwala, Anoushka. “What Does it Mean to Decolonize Design? Dismantling Design History 101.” AIGA Eye on Design, 5 June 2019, https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-design/.
#decolon #SocialJustice #canon #AsianAuthor?
A short, easy-to-read, clear introduction to how diversity and decoloniality are different (though see also Tuck & Yang for a different take on these definitions). Poses the questions “How have colonial histories affected the way in which we design? And what can we do to adjust our mindset and practices?,” and suggests some answers. Useful references, too. Suitable for undergrads.
#CRG
Escobar, Arturo. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.
#LatinAmerica #colon #capital #SocialJustice
Original scholarly fame from critique of development/developmentalism. From Duke: “In Designs for the Pluriverse Arturo Escobar presents a new vision of design theory and practice aimed at channeling design's world-making capacity toward ways of being and doing that are deeply attuned to justice and the Earth. Noting that most design—from consumer goods and digital technologies to built environments—currently serves capitalist ends, Escobar argues for the development of an “autonomous design” that eschews commercial and modernizing aims in favor of more collaborative and placed-based approaches. Such design attends to questions of environment, experience, and politics while focusing on the production of human experience based on the radical interdependence of all beings. Mapping autonomous design’s principles to the history of decolonial efforts of indigenous and Afro-descended people in Latin America, Escobar shows how refiguring current design practices could lead to the creation of more just and sustainable social orders.”
#EM
Escobar, Arturo. “Stirring the Anthropological Imagination: Ontological Design in Spaces of Transition,” in Design Anthropology: Object Cultures in Transition, ed. Alison J. Clarke (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 201–216.
#LatinAmerica #colon #capital #SocialJustice
Great short essay that explains his concept of the pluriverse and applies it to a case study of “undeveloping” a town in Colombia. Worked well in a contemporary design course and intersects with participatory design
#EM
Vieira de Oliveira, Pedro J. S., and Luiza Prado de O. Martins, "Designer/Shapeshifter: A Decolonizing Redirection for Speculative and Critical Design," in Tricky Design: The Ethics of Things, eds. Tom Fisher and Lorraine Gamman (London: Bloomsbury: 2018), 103–114.
#speculative #critical #decolon #IndigenousDesigner #SocialJustice
Critiques Speculative/Critical Design by focusing on a few examples and then proposes decolonial alternatives through such techniques as the indigenous yarning practice. I don’t love that they use the verb form (decolonizing) but it’s a useful article that worked well in a grad class nonetheless.
#EM
Leuthold, Steven. Cross-Cultural Issues in Art : Frames for Understanding, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011.
#Colon #Primitiv #Race #Racis #Appropriat
Leuthold focuses on fine art rather than design, but his chapters on Primitivism and Otherness, Colonialism, Nationalism , Gender and Japonisme are written in clear textbook language. Leuthold explains the key concepts and power relations around each topic with citations to seminal writers and references to historical and contemporary works. Available online through ProQuest Ebook Central.
#PJC
Han, Byung-Chul. “The copy is the original” (an edited extract from Shanzai: Deconstruction in Chinese by Byung-Chul Han, translated by Philippa Hurd, and published by MIT Press, © 2017), available at aeon, 8 March 2018, https://aeon.co/essays/why-in-china-and-japan-a-copy-is-just-as-good-as-an-original.
#colon #decolon #originality #authenticity #copying #China #Japan #Asia
I’ve deliberated about where in the bibliography to place this essay, as it doesn’t fit neatly into any of the existing sections (perhaps we need a new section for aesthetic theory from around the world). I placed this essay in the decoloniality section because Han is challenging two Western articles of faith: that originals are inherently superior to/more valuable than/more “authentic” than copies, and that there even is a clear distinction between originals and copies. The blurb for this article reads “In China and Japan, temples may be rebuilt and ancient warriors cast again. There is nothing sacred about the ‘original’,” and I think that’s a pretty good précis of his argument. Han provides multiple examples of Chinese and Japanese practices that demonstrate a very different attitude toward originality/authenticity/copying, e.g., Ise Shrine, which has been rebuilt every 20 years over the course of many centuries.
#CRG
Mathur, Saloni. “Charles and Ray Eames in India,” Art Journal 70, no. 1 (2011): 34–53, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.2011.10791062.
Could be assigned with the Eameses’ The India Report of 1951.
#BW
Eames, Charles and Ray. The India Report, 1951: full text via the National Institute of Design. There is also an excerpt in An Eames Anthology: Articles, Film Scripts, Interviews, Letters, Notes, Speeches, edited by Daniel Ostroff. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. http://nid.edu/Userfiles/Eames___India_Report.pdf
#IndustrialDesign #USA #India #primary #WhiteAuthor
Primary source document of the report that the Eameses produced in consultation with the Indian government, which makes observations about the role of objects in Indian culture and recommended the founding of the National Institute of Design, which still celebrates the connection (hence publishing the Eames Report on their website).
#BW
Trufelman, Avery. “Chandigarh: The Modernist Utopia.” Produced by Curbed. Nice Try! June 6, 2019. Podcast, MP3 audio, 36:47. https://www.curbed.com/2019/6/6/18654337/nice-try-podcast-chandigarh
#Architecture # Furniture #India #PostColonial #1940-1980
This podcast discussed the building of the city of Chandigarh to serve as a symbol of India’s post-colonial aspirations under the leadership of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Le Corbusier was commissioned to design the city, The episode covers the ways that Corbu’s cousin Pierre Jeanneret worked with architects and designers in India to build the city and the afterlife of Chandigarh and the chairs made for building in the city, now sought after design icons.
#VRP
Clarke, Alison J. “Design for Development, ICSID and UNIDO: The Anthropological Turn in 1970s Design.” Journal of Design History 29, no. 1 (August 2015): 43–57.
#IndustrialDesign #India
While more broadly concerned with industrial design’s interest in anthropology and social sciences, this essay is a great resource on the “Design and Development” congress by ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), which culminated in the 1979 “Ahmedabad Declaration.” In terms of de-centering whiteness, it shows how a group of largely non-white designers articulated the need for local designers to solve local problems, a postcolonial reaction to previous approaches of bringing in foreign consultants, such as the case of the Eameses in India. Challenging even for grad students, but good material to help an instructor contextualize the “Ahmedabad Declaration.”
#EM
Balaram, S. “Design in India: The Importance of the Ahmedabad Declaration,” Design Issues 25, no. 4 (Autumn, 2009), 54–79.
#IndustrialDesign #India
Article that includes an introduction to the Ahmedabad Declaration and a reprint of the declaration.
#EM
National Institute of Design, “Ahmedabad Declaration on Industrial Design for Development and Major Recommendation for the Promotion of Industrial Design for Development,” NID 1979.
#Primary #India #IndustrialDesign
See previous two entries for context of this document. Accessible primary source for grad and undergrads to read part or all. There are ways to download the document in its original format, if you’re interested in preserving the design of the declaration.
#EM
Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan, “Imagining the Indian Nation: The Design of Gandhi’s Dandi March and Nehru’s Republic Day Parade,” Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization, Kjetil Fall and Grace Lees-Maffei (New York: Berghahn, 2018)
#India #1940-1980 #Fashion #PostColonial
This article analyzes Gandhi’s Dandi March and Nehru’s Republic Day Parade as designed events that helped to make the modern nation of India visible and concrete. It discusses the use of fashion as a unifying and expressive element of Gandhi’s parade. This article is available via open access.
#JKB
Musleh, A. H. (2018). Designing in Real-Time: An Introduction to Weapons Design in the Settler-Colonial Present of Palestine. Design and Culture, 10(1), 33–54.
#EG
Race and Technology
McCulloch, Gretchen. “Coding is for Everyone—as Long as You Speak English.” Wired, 8 April 2019, https://www.wired.com/story/coding-is-for-everyoneas-long-as-you-speak-english/?mbid=social_twitter_onsiteshare
#tech #interact #digital #code #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #world
This powerful essay puts the lie to the idea that coding is “for everyone” by pointing out that all coding languages are based on English (and, though she doesn’t say this quite as explicitly, the Latin alphabet). McCulloch reports that she has found only “four programming languages that are widely available in multilingual versions. Not 400. Four (4).” Two are for children—Scratch and Blockly—and the other two are Excel formulas and Wiki markup, which aren’t exactly what most people think of as coding languages. In addition, “there are several dozen, maybe a hundred or so, programming languages that are available in a language or two other than English.” As she points out, it’s NOT HARD to translate coding languages into multiple languages: it’s so easy that nerds fairly frequently create esoteric programming languages with humorous commands related to lolcats, Pikachu, etc.. She proposes that “we start by adjusting the way we talk about programming languages when they contain words from human languages. The first website wasn't written in HTML—it was written in English HTML….When we name the English default, it becomes more obvious that we can question it—we can start imagining a world that also contains Russian HTML or Swahili JavaScript, where you don't have an unearned advantage in learning to code if your native language happens to be English.”
#CRG
Barton, Gina. "Why your Netflix thumbnails don’t look like mine." Vox, 21 November 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/11/21/18106394/why-your-netflix-thumbnail-coverart-changes.
#tech #interact #digital #code #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #world
Discusses how Netflix tailors the "cover images" or thumbnails for each movie/series to each viewer using A/B testing. The video embedded in the article, narrated by Gina Barton, is also really good: it shows lots of examples of how radically these images differ, how Netflix creates them, and how you can opt out of their A/B testing if you wish. Most notably for this bibliography, it shows how the image for the same movie is altered cross-culturally. What I don’t remember the video saying is whether the race of the people shown in the images varies, too, depending on the viewer. (But I am guessing maybe yes.)
#CRG
Ensminger, Nathan. “The Environmental History of Computing,” Technology and Culture 59, no. 4 Supplement (October 2018), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/712112.
#tech #interact #digital #code #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #world
I like this one because it traces the sources of rare earth minerals, lithium, tin, etc., to places around the world, and also makes the argument that even though we labor under the delusion that doing everything online is somehow “free,” or doesn’t have a big environmental cost, there is in fact a huge cost being paid by people all around the world, including by poor, Black, and brown people in the USA. (That last part isn’t his focus, but he mentions it in passing.)
#CRG
Hossfeld, Karen J. “Their Logic against Them: Contradictions in Sex, Race, and Class in Silicon Valley,” in Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life, ed. Alondra Nelson and Thuy Linh Tu (New York: New York University Press, 2001)
Nakamura, Lisa: Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (University of Minnesota Press); Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet (Routledge, 2002); and co-editor of Race in Cyberspace (Routledge, 2000) and Race after the Internet (Routledge, 2011).
#CRG
Nakamura, Lisa: “Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture,” American Quarterly 66, no. 4 (December 2014), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/563663.
(This essay makes the point that Fairchild Electronics not only was among the first to outsource its chip manufacturing to Asia, but also to insource it to the Navajo nation, where it hired Navajo women at low wages with big tax subsidies and then left behind a lot of industrial pollution. Fairchild’s brochures talked a lot about how weaving rugs made Navajo women ideally suited for working on chips, because both involved complex right-angle patterns and required great dexterity, blah blah blah and all the usual kinds of things people say about women of color.)
#CRG
Benjamin, Ruha. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (Cambridge: Polity, 2019).
#AI #tech #interact #digital #code #data #bias #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
This is a fantastic book—in addition to its useful case studies about the intersection of technology and racial discrimination, it includes a conclusion that explores the politics and discriminatory practices embedded in design thinking. Intro is an excellent classroom read.
#JKB #BW
Feathers, Todd. “Flawed Algorithms Are Grading Millions of Students’ Essays.” Motherboard, 20 August 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pa7dj9/flawed-algorithms-are-grading-millions-of-students-essays.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
This essay describes how biased ed-tech algorithms currently being used in many states to grade high-stakes student essay tests are biased against Black students, but favor Chinese nationals, who, the article claims, sometimes memorize long passages of texts to ensure they can answer with the fluid grammar that the algorithms “like.” As one critic has demonstrated, it is possible to write totally meaningless sentences and get a high score, since the AI focuses on syntax, not semantics. In other words, it’s like having Grammarly or Microsoft Word’s grammar checker assign your students’ essays a grade. Yikes.
#CRG
Noble, Safiya. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press, 2018.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
This book explores the biases embedded in the logics of functionality of Google Search. Noble illustrates how racial identities and discrimination are reinforced through the supposedly neutral algorithms deployed by Google. Includes some great analyses of problematic Google Images searches that I think would be particularly useful for design students to look critically at stock images. Noble’s book is compelling and provides good relevant examples—great for students.
#JKB
Noble, Safiya Umoja. “Safiya Noble: Challenging the Algorithms of Oppression” (video, 12:18), 15 June 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVZozEEWlE.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
A twelve-minute précis of the points Noble makes in her book Algorithms of Oppression, e.g., about how search engines like Google are not neutral purveyors of information, but rather prioritize the search results that they can most easily monetize through ad sales (hence the lists of porn sites if you search[ed] for “Black girls” or “Asian women,” etc.).
#CRG
“Color Film was Built for White People” video from Vox, September 2015: https://youtu.be/d16LNHIEJzs
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 This short video describes the history of the “Shirley cards” used in photography to optimize film for white skin. It talks about the development of new types of film and new cameras in the 1980s and 1990s that were able to better capture the diversity of black skin. This is a great video to use in class.
#JKB
What Jen said! It has sparked great discussions in my classes, and it provides a great point of departure for talking about today’s racially biased (and gender-biased) facial recognition algorithms (see, e.g., Buolamwini, Hardesty).
#CRG
Browne, Simone. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Duke University Press, 2015.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
I read this book in 2018, so I no longer remember it well enough to point to specific chapters that would be useful to assign in a design history course. But what I appreciated about the book overall was how Browne historically contextualized contemporary forms of surveillance, making the point that the security and policing “solutions” that tech people often promote today as “new” and “scientific” and “ unbiased” are in fact none of the above. The description from the publisher’s site reads: “In Dark Matters Simone Browne locates the conditions of blackness as a key site through which surveillance is practiced, narrated, and resisted. She shows how contemporary surveillance technologies and practices are informed by the long history of racial formation and by the methods of policing black life under slavery, such as branding, runaway slave notices, and lantern laws. Placing surveillance studies into conversation with the archive of transatlantic slavery and its afterlife, Browne draws from black feminist theory, sociology, and cultural studies to analyze texts as diverse as the methods of surveilling blackness she discusses: from the design of the eighteenth-century slave ship Brooks, Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, and The Book of Negroes, to contemporary art, literature, biometrics, and post-9/11 airport security practices. Surveillance, Browne asserts, is both a discursive and material practice that reifies boundaries, borders, and bodies around racial lines, so much so that the surveillance of blackness has long been, and continues to be, a social and political norm.”
#CRG
Buolamwini, Joy. “How I’m Fighting Bias in Algorithms,” 8:36 TEDxBeaconStreet video, November 2016, https://www.ted.com/talks/joy_buolamwini_how_i_m_fighting_bias_in_algorithms .
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
Buolamwini describes/shows how the cameras she uses in her work as a computer scientist have often proven unable to recognize her face as a human face, explains the challenges this lack of recognition has presented in her work, and shows some of the (awkward!) workarounds she has devised to get cameras to “see” her. She explains that the databases of faces that computer scientists use to “train” facial recognition software often skew heavily white and male, and therefore are good at recognizing white, male faces (and very poor at recognizing Black female faces, specifically). She explains why inaccurate facial matching is a problem—most notably when police use it to (mis)identify and arrest people of color—and how biased data sets and AI more generally (i.e., not just facial recognition software, but also mortgage-lending and sentencing software) can perpetuate and even exacerbate existing biases and discriminatory practices. This is now (for the field of AI) a relatively “old” source, but it’s really clear and succinct, with good examples, so I recommend it for undergrads.
#CRG
Buolamwini, Joy. “Gender Shades,” YouTube.com (video, 4:59), 9 February 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWWsW1w-BVo&feature=youtu.be.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
Buolamwini summarizes the racial and gender biases she found in Microsoft, IBM, and Face++ facial recognition software. Though they claim to be about 94% accurate overall, they are much better at identifying white faces than Black faces and male faces than female faces. Moreover, they have only two categories for gender—male and female—which correlate to gender assigned at birth, rather than gender expression. These products are only about 50% accurate in identifying dark-skinned female faces: no better than a coin toss. Buolamwini points out that empirically testing this software with faces of different skin colors and genders—and disaggregating the accuracy results by gender and race—is the only way to reveal these built-in-biases, since the companies do not..
#CRG
Buolamwini, Joy, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, untitled one-minute C-SPAN video clip of AOC interviewing Buolamwini during House Oversight Committee hearings on facial recognition software, tweeted by Public Citizen, 22 May 2019. Available at https://twitter.com/Public_Citizen/status/1131306872722608129
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
A great one-minute summary of the biases built in to facial recognition software, and the discriminatory effects these biases are having on policing.
#CRG
Hardesty, Larry. “Study finds gender and skin-type bias in commercial artificial-intelligence systems,” MIT News, 11 February 2018,
https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
Summarizes findings of a research article by Joy Buolamwini et al. at MIT Media Lab’s Civic Media group, which concluded that “Three commercially released facial-analysis programs from major technology companies demonstrate both skin-type and gender biases….In the researchers’ experiments, the three programs’ error rates in determining the gender of light-skinned men were never worse than 0.8 percent. For darker-skinned women, however, the error rates ballooned — to more than 20 percent in one case and more than 34 percent in the other two.”
#CRG
Hill, Kashmir. “Wrongfully accused by an algorithm,” New York Times, 24 June 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/facial-recognition-arrest.html.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #WomanAuthor
Tells the story of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams, a Black man from the Detroit suburbs, who was arrested by Detroit police and held for 30 hours on the basis of an obviously inaccurate facial-recognition match provided by the DPD’s DataWorks software, which (mis)matched the photo of a shoplifter from a store’s security footage with Mr. Williams’s photo (which is one of the 49 million photos in the state of Michigan’s facial recognition database). The article notes that “In 2019, algorithms from both companies were included in a federal study of over 100 facial recognition systems that found they were biased, falsely identifying African-American and Asian faces 10 times to 100 times more than Caucasian faces.”
#CRG
Algorithmic Justice League (aka Joy Buolamwini), “What is Facial Recognition Technology?” https://www.ajl.org/facial-recognition-technology
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackWoman #WomanAuthor #BlackAuthor
Despite the unassuming title, what this AJL web page actually does is explain how FR is being used today in the arenas of law enforcement, employment, housing, and schools, and the harms that biased FR algorithms are causing (most often to people with dark skin tones, to non-cis-male people, and to the elderly and/or youths).
#CRG
Kantayya, Shalini (director). Coded Bias, 2020 (86-minute #video), https://vimeo.com/414917737 (official trailer at https://www.ajl.org/spotlight-documentary-coded-bias).
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #WomanAuthor
This video is about Joy Buolamwini’s work at MIT, and about the perils of facial recognition technology, generally. It is playing November 20–December 3, 2020 on Metrograph (https://metrograph.com/live-screenings/coded-bias/; $8/Members, $12/Non-Members). I have not watched it (yet), but would like to. I don’t know what the distribution plan will look like after December 3, but it is possible to request screenings at schools, etc. (they ask you to fill out a Google Form, presumably to figure out what the appropriate pricing should be for your group).
#CRG
Fox, Jeremy C. “Brown University student mistakenly identified as Sri Lanka bombing suspect,” Boston Globe, 28 April 2019, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/28/brown-student-mistaken-identified-sri-lanka-bombings-suspect/0hP2YwyYi4qrCEdxKZCpZM/story.html
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
How investigators using facial recognition software mistakenly identified the photo of a Brown University senior as the photo of a suspect in the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka that killed 250 people, and upturned her and her family’s lives by publicizing her photo internationally as a terrorism suspect. This story, along with Kashmir Hill’s story about Robert Julian-Borchak Williams, are apt object lessons in how racially biased FR software harms people of color.
#CRG
Garvie, Clare, Alvaro Bedoya, and Jonathan Frankle. “The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America,” Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, 18 October 2016, https://www.perpetuallineup.org/
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
A very thorough analysis (up to 2016) of deployments of, biases in, and laws regarding facial recognition technology in the USA. The upshot? There is very little regulation of FR, even though it’s clear that it is a biased technology that is exacerbating long-standing racial and gender biases in policing. This is a longer, more detailed, and more thoroughly footnoted resource than most of the others on this list, yet is still relatively easy to read: if you wanted to assign one longer essay on this subject rather than a series of shorter videos/essays, this might be a good choice.
#CRG
Mak, Aaron. “Facing Facts: A case in Florida demonstrates the problems with using facial recognition to identify suspects in low-stakes crimes.” Slate.com, 25 January 2019, https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/facial-recognition-arrest-transparency-willie-allen-lynch.html
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
“In 2015, undercover agents working with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office photographed a man selling $50 of cocaine. Detectives were unable to identify him, so they decided to turn to the Face Analysis Comparison Examination System, known as FACES, which draws from a database consisting of more than 33 million driver’s license and law enforcement photos. The software, which is designed to return multiple potential matches for a given image, named [Willie Allan] Lynch and four other suspects. Upon further investigation, detectives arrested Lynch for the crime. He was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison.” Lynch discovered while serving time in prison that police had used facial recognition software to “identify” him and the other four suspects, and he petitioned to see the other suspects’ photos. But a Florida state appellate court ruled that Lynch “had no right to view photos of other suspects identified by the facial recognition search that led to his arrest.”
#CRG
Grother, Patrick, Mei Ngan, and Kayee Hanaoka, “Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT), Part 3: Demographic Effects” National Institute of Standards and Technology Interagency or Internal Report 8280, December 2019, https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8280.
#AI #tech #digital #Interaction #rac #bias #data #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
NIST tested 189 FR products, and concluded that “Using the higher quality Application photos, false positive rates are highest in West and East African and East Asian people, and lowest in Eastern European individuals. This effect is generally large, with a factor of 100 more false positives between countries. However, with a number of algorithms developed in China this effect is reversed, with low false positive rates on East Asian faces. With domestic law enforcement images, the highest false positives are in American Indians, with elevated rates in African American and Asian populations; the relative ordering depends on sex and varies with algorithm. We found false positives to be higher in women than men, and this is consistent across algorithms and datasets. This effect is smaller than that due to race. We found elevated false positives in the elderly and in children; the effects were larger in the oldest and youngest, and smallest in middle-aged adults.” (The conclusions about false negatives were similarly problematic: see the executive summary.)
#CRG
Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other designers of color, by industry (collectively)
(For individual designers, see below)
Media, advertising, & graphic design
Ebony. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1945–2016; Los Angeles: Ebony Media Operations/Clear View Group, 2016–present, full text for most volumes beginning with Nov. 1959 at Google Books.
#represent #image #graphic #typography #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #Archive #Primary
John H. Johnson, a Black man, founded Ebony in Chicago in 1945—modeling it on Life—to highlight positive and empowering images of Black people.
#CRG
JET. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1951–2016; Los Angeles: Ebony Media Operations/Clear View Group, 2016–present, full text for some issues at Google Books.
#represent #image #graphic #typography #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #Archive #Primary
John H. Johnson, a Black man, founded JET as a news, culture, and entertainment magazine in 1951.
The Crisis. Baltimore: The Crisis Publishing Company, 1910-present; full text on Google Books.
#BlackAuthor #Archive #Primary #USA #JKB #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is the official NAACP magazine founded by W.E.B. DuBois. It features data (including information graphics), stories, and analysis of events as well as features on notable figures in the Black community. It would be a good resource for Black perspectives on important historical issues as well as stories not covered in White-oriented publications. It is also useful for graphic design history—see the editions from the late 1960s for a significant shift in their layout/design.
Essence. New York: Essence Communications, 1970-present.
This is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is marketed for Black women. It is currently in the Women’s Magazine collection (a proquest subscription database). This is a rich source for stories about Black fashion as well as features on Black women.
#JKB #USA #BlackAuthor #Primary #Archive #Fashion #BlackConsumers #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Boardley, John. “Black Print,” ILoveTypography.com, 11 July 2020, https://ilovetypography.com/2020/07/11/black-print-first-african-america-printer-publishers/.
A really good illustrated history, with plentiful references, of the history of Black print culture and printers in the USA.
#CRG
Washburn, Patrick S. The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2006.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #USA #Printing #1800-1850 #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“The African American Newspaper traces the evolution of the black newspaper—and its ultimate decline—for more than 160 years until the end of the twentieth century. The book chronicles the growth of the black press into a powerful and effective national voice for African Americans during the period from 1910 to 1950—a period that proved critical to the formation and gathering strength of the civil rights movement that emerged so forcefully in the following decades. In particular, author Patrick S. Washburn explores how the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender led the way as the two most influential black newspapers in U.S. history, effectively setting the stage for the civil rights movement's successes. Washburn also examines the numerous reasons for the enormous decline of black newspapers in influence and circulation in the decades immediately following World War II. His book documents as never before how the press's singular accomplishments provide a unique record of all areas of black history and a significant and shaping affect [sic] on the black experience in America.” —Google Books blurb
#CRG
Roudané, Mark Charles. “The New Orleans Tribune: An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper,” Roudanez: History and Legacy, https://roudanez.com/the-new-orleans-tribune/.
#BlackDesigner #BlackAuthor #1850-1900 #USA #Printing
A discussion of the founding, milieu, and significance of L’Union and The New Orleans Tribune, two Black-published New Orleans newspapers, written by the (#white) great-grandson of the publisher of both.
#CRG
Munro, Silas. “A Wounded Fire: Queerness in Black Publications of the Harlem Renaissance” Vimeo video, public lecture organized by Vermont College of Fine Arts. July 22, 2020, check right around 33 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOanqpvnzbA&feature=youtu.be
#BH
Cohen, Lara Langer and Jordan Alexander Stein. Early African American Print Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012, https://www.worldcat.org/title/early-african-american-print-culture/oclc/933278328&referer=brief_results.
#Graphic #Printing #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica
#CRG
Greer, Brenna Wynn. Represented: The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined African American Citizenship (UPenn Press, 2019).
#image #graphic #represent #advert #BlackConsumer #Imagery #Position #Feminis
A cultural history, with emphasis on photography, but includes helpful information about Black advertising in mid-century and has a good analysis of how Ebony presented Black femininity.
#KW
Green, Adam. Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940–1955 (Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
Chapter on Ebony; a bit dense/business history for undergrads but can support lecture/future research
#BW
Chambers, Jason. Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry (Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
#USA #1950-2000 #Graphic #Adv
Business history of NY advertising as it moved from segregation to integration, including integrated as well as race-conscious/political ads. Paints a very discriminatory picture in terms of executive hierarchy.
#BW
Dingwall, Chris.“A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever: A Short History of African American Design in Chicago,” exhibition brochure, Chicago Cultural Center, 2018. Available at https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/dca/CCC%20Exhibits/designers/aadcguide.pdf.
#BlackDesigner #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
Brochure published in conjunction with the exhibition African American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce and the Politics of Race, which took place at the Chicago Cultural Center from October 27, 2018 to March 3, 2019.
#GVK
Dingwall, Chris. Race and the Design of American Life: African Americans in Twentieth-Century Commercial Art. Exhibition, University of Chicago Library, 2013–2014, https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/race-and-design-american-life/.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #canon #brand #advert #image #graphic #stereotyp #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #exhibition
This digital record of a physical exhibition surveys both the history of racist American imagery and texts, and provides examples of Black designers who worked to transform those tropes in their work within the advertising and graphic design industries. The exhibition text online provides a good overview.
#BW #CRG
Jackson, Dorothy. “The Black Experience in Graphic Design,” Print (1968): 48–51, 81, scans of original layout followed by commentary on what’s (not) changed from many Black designers in 2020, available at https://letterformarchive.org/news/the-black-experience-in-graphic-design-1968-and-2020. #BlackAuthor? #BlackDesigner #USA #racism #1940-1980 #graphic
“Five talented black designers candidly discuss the frustrations and opportunities in a field where ‘flesh-colored’ means pink,” and many Black designers in 2020 comment on what aspects of it still ring true today. Would be a great read for undergrads, I think, to make the point that there hasn’t been nearly as much progress in the field of design as you might expect.
#CRG
Harris, Sylvia. "Searching for a Black Aesthetic in American Graphic Design," The Education of a Graphic Designer, edited by Steven Heller. New York: Allworth, 1998: pp. 125–129. Available at https://readings.design/PDF/harris-blackaesthetic.pdf.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #USA #rac #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Harris explains that she's been looking for a Black aesthetic, but has been having a hard time finding one, even where/when she thinks there ought to have been one (e.g., the jazz age/Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement era, etc.). It suggests how very little was known and documented about Black designers even as of 20 years ago.
#CRG
CityOfChicagoTV, African Americans [sic] Designers in Chicago: Art Commerce and the Politics of Race, YouTube.com, 17 December 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fs_3O1gB5w&feature=youtu.be.
#Video #rac #bias #BlackDesigner #canon #brand #advert #stereotyp #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Video showcasing the exhibition African-American Designers in Chicago: Art, Commerce, and the Politics of Race, Chicago Cultural Center, 2018–2019. Both the exhibition and the video highlight the "commercial aspects of the careers of creative artists."
#CRG
Sutton, Tasheka Arceneaux. “Black Women in Graphic Design” Vimeo video, public lecture organized by Vermont College of Fine Arts. July 22, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOanqpvnzbA&feature=youtu.be
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
The entire session is GREAT but the part of Black Women begins right around the 52 minute mark and includes an overview of designers Louise E Jefferson, Dorothy Hayes, Cheryl D Miller, Sylvia Harris, Gail Anderson, and Loretta Staples..
#BH
Harris, Jerome (curator). As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) et al., 2018. Documentation in MICAGD’s Archives https://micagdarchives.com/As-Not-For-2018
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This exhibition, which explored the history of African American Graphic designers, originated at the Maryland Institute College of Art and traveled throughout the USA.
#BH
Harris, Jerome. As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes. Exhibition Catalogue 2018.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Harris, Jerome (curator). Video walk-through of As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington (March 5–26, 2020), https://vimeo.com/398722301.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a three-minute video walk-through—sans voiceover or transcript—showing what the exhibition looked like in its University of Washington incarnation.
#CRG
Morley, Madeleine. "Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures," [AIGA] Eye on Design (2018), https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/celebrating-the-african-american-practitioners-absent-from-way-too-many-classroom-lectures/.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This essay is about Jerome Harris's exhibition at MICA titled As, Not For: Dethroning Our Absolutes, which featured work by African-American graphic designers.
#VRP
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
Red Latinoamericana de Cultura Gráfica. Bibliografía Latinoamericana de Cultura Gráfica-2020. Olívia Almeida y Felipe Bárcenas García (Comp.). Belo Horizonte: Faculdade de Letras, UFMG, 2020. 252 pp. http://redculturagrafica.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bibliografia-Red-CG-2020.pdf
#LatinxAuthor #LatinxDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #Argentina, #Brasil/#Brazil, #Chile, #Colombia, #México/#Mexico, #Perú/#Peru, #Uruguay #SouthAmerica #CentralAmerica #NorthAmerica
This Spanish- and Portuguese-language bibliography about Latin American “graphic culture”—i.e., “ Historia del
libro, Historia de la lectura, Cultura escrita, Cultura impresa, Cultura gráfica, Patrimonio gráfico,Patrimonio bibliográfico, Bibliografía material y otros” (“history of the book, history of readership, written culture, print culture, graphic culture, graphic patrimony, bibliographic patrimony, material bibliography, and others”—focuses on seven countries: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, México, Perú, and Uruguay. Entries for each country are sorted into approximately thirty thematic categories, ranging from “E. Escritura manual, caligrafía, diseño de letra, diseño editorial, diseño gráfico, fundición” to “ M. Aspectos legales del libro” to “BB. Cómic y novela gráfica.” There are also 2018 and 2019 editions of the bibliography available on the redculturagrafica.org site.
#CRG
Activist art/printmaking
Berger, Maurice. For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.
#CRG
Mullen, Bill. Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural Politics, 1935-46 (University of Illinois Press, 1999).
One chapter covers the founding of the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago, where printmaking and graphic design were part of a Black cultural modernism.
#BW
Schulman, Daniel. “'White City' and 'Black Metropolis': African American Painters in Chicago, 1893–1945,” in Chicago Modern, 1893–1945: Pursuit of the New. Chicago: Terra Museum of American Art, 2004.
Includes discussions of several artists who worked in both fine arts and advertising/illustration, including Charles Dawson and Charles White.
“Activist[s], Artists, and Sisters: Posters on Women Fighting for Justice” (online exhibition/catalogue). Center for the Study of Political Graphics, https://www.politicalgraphics.org/activists-artists-sisters.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020 #BlackDesigner #LatinxDesigner
Showcases 76 posters designed by a wide array of different people for feminist causes.
#CRG
Invention, patenting, industrial design, speculative design
Anichtchenko, Evguenia. "Open Skin Boats of the Aleutians, Kodiak Island, and Prince William Sound." Études/Inuit/Studies 36, no. 1 (2012): 157-81.
#IndustrialDesign #IndigenousDesigner(s)#NorthAmerica #USA
“This article examines the relationship between the open skin boat (umiak) traditions of the Unangax/Aleut who inhabited the Aleutian Islands and the Sugpiat of Kodiak Island and Prince William Sound, the two southernmost Indigenous Alaskan peoples who used such watercraft.”
#BZ
Arima, Eugene. “Caribou and Iglulik Inuit Kayaks.” Arctic, vol. 47, no. 2, 1994, pp. 193-195.
#IndustrialDesign #IndigenousDesigner(s)#NorthAmerica #USA #Canada
A short article describing the construction and attributes of Caribou and Iglulik kayaks, and how the design of these kayaks are specific to the culture and geography of its region.
#BZ
Fouché, Rayvon. Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer and Shelby J. Davidson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
#CRG
James, Portia P. The Real McCoy: African-American Invention and Innovation, 1619-1930. Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 1989.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner [discussed in text] #IndustrialDesign #Law
The very positive review of this book at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/356130?mobileUi=0 does a good job of explaining its strengths. I haven’t read it (can’t get it from my library right now!), but it sounds like it does a great job of describing how enslaved people integrated African and European technologies in the antebellum period, and of situating biographies of specific Black inventors within the legal and social contexts in which they worked. Can’t wait to get my hands on it! I can tell from the Google Books snippet views that it does talk about both Whitney/Sam and Cyrus McCormick/Joe Anderson, but how much, I don’t know.
#CRG
Sluby, Patricia Carter. The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity. Praeger, 2004. https://www.amazon.com/Inventive-Spirit-African-Americans-Ingenuity/dp/0313351562. #BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner [discussed in text] #IndustrialDesign #Law
“Patricia Carter Sluby is a former patent examiner and past president of the National Intellectual Property Law Association, an organization founded in 1973 by African American patent attorneys. Sluby has spent years searching the U.S. Patent Office for information on inventions by African Americans, locating nearly 2,000 patents. She has published her research in The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity and The Entrepreneurial Spirit of African American Inventors.” (from her bio, here). Google Books’s snippet view shows that she spends three to four pages on Eli Whitney/Sam and mentions McCormick, too.
#CRG
Sluby, Patricia Carter. The Entrepreneurial Spirit of African-American Inventors. Praeger, 2011.
#BlackAuthor #BlackDesigner [discussed in text] #IndustrialDesign #Law
#CRG
Duffin, Karen and Childs, Mary. “Patent Racism.” Produced by NPR. Planet Money. June 20, 2020. Podcast, MP3 audio, 25:46, https://www.npr.org/transcripts/876097416.
#Law #Racis #White #Suprem #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #USA
This episode of Planet Money would be a great way to give students a powerful example of how structural racism, segregation, and white supremisist terrorism, in particular the Tulsa Race Massacre (1921) created an innovation gap between Black and white Americans. Economist Lisa Cook is interviewed and talks about her research which added vital nuance to innovation theory.
#VRP
Aoki, Keith. “Distributive and Syncretic Motives in Intellectual Property Law (with
Special Reference to Coercion, Agency, and Development).” UC Davis Law Review 40 (2007): 717–801. #IndustrialDesign #Law #Appropriation #Capitalism
This essay has a section about how Whitney’s “invention” of the cotton gin very likely helped prop up a failing economic system (slavery) for a few more decades (an argument that recent scholars have more or less discredited). It also addresses in other sections the question of appropriation (using the blues as its example, not design, but still...there are quite a few good references in the preliminary sections to works by legal scholars on the question of appropriation).
#CRG
Akpem, D. Denenge, “Constructing Future Forms: Afro-Futurism and Fashion in Chicago, Part I” and “Constructing Future Forms: Afro-Futurism and Fashion in Chicago, Part II,” Chicago Art Museum, 2012.
http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2012/02/constructing-future-forms-afro-futurism-and-fashion-in-chicago-part-i/
http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2012/02/constructing-future-forms-afro-futurism-and-fashion-in-chicago-part-ii/
#BlackDesigner #BlackAuthor #Fashion #Industrial #Speculative
Lots of great examples of speculative practices by Black artists/designers, readable by undergrads. Chicago focused but could point to other practices elsewhere.
#BW
Architecture, interiors, exhibition design
Wilson, Mabel O. Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2012.
#Racism #1850-1900 #1900-1940 #BlackArchitect #Position #Reapprop #WorldsFair
Has great archival information about self-representation of Black Americans in fairs after 1893 and is terrific
#KW (seconded!)
“DuBois Infographics Expose the American ‘Color Line’ at 1900 Paris Fair,” Hagley.org, 22 September 2019, https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/du-bois-infographics-expose-american-%E2%80%9Ccolor-line%E2%80%9D-1900-paris-fair.
#USA #BlackDesigner #1900-1940 #data #WorldsFair
This is a very short introduction to the data visualizations that W.E.B. Dubois and his students made for the Black Pavilion at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. The more authoritative source is Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert’s book, W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America (listed below under Du Bois as a designer), but if you want to give students a really short explanation of what the graphics were for, this might do the job.
#CRG
Gooden, Mario. Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
#architecture #BlackDesigner #interior #appropriat #represent #image #stereotyp #bias #ExhibitionDes #modern
I haven’t (yet) read this book, but I did read Amber Wiley’s review of it in JSAH (search for “Wiley” in this bibliography), and it sounds great: it apparently argues that African architectural traditions have been totally appropriated/assimilated into “mainstream”/white American architecture; that high modernism is basically racist; that the kente-cloth-and-rustic-typeface aesthetic that many African-Americans use to signal Black identity in America is kind of cringy and problematic; that African-American architecture today is overly concerned with “skins” vs. space, and more.
#CRG
Wiley, Amber. “Review: Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity, by Mario Gooden.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 76, no. 2 (2017): 252–254, https://online.ucpress.edu/jsah/article/76/2/252/60797/Review-Dark-Space-Architecture-Representation
#architecture #BlackDesigner #interior #appropriat #represent #image #stereotyp #bias #ExhibitionDes #modern
Wiley’s review is useful not only as an overview of Mario Gooden’s book, but also as an entrée into the historiography of African-American architecture: it has very good references that would surely be useful to someone interested in learning more about African-American architectural traditions.
#CRG
Wilkins, Craig L. The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
#architecture #BlackDesigner #BlackAuthor #pedagogy #race
Craig Wilkins is a hip-hop architectural theorist, architect, artist, academic, and activist. His creative practice specializes in engaging communities in collaborative and participatory design processes. He is the former director of the Detroit Community Design Center, he currently is creative director of the Wilkins Project, a social justice and strategic design alliance that provides architectural, urban design and planning services, public interest design solutions, and expertise in engaged public discourse. His practice includes both written and built work. In this book, Professor Wilkins argues that “the discipline of architecture has a resistance to African Americans at every level, from the startlingly small number of architecture students to the paltry number of registered architects in the United States today.” The book investigates these two issues through an understanding of “Architecture as a Noun” and “Architecture as a Verb”, understanding that hegemonic power structures of whiteness are embodied in the built environment and the practices of its creation.
#MCQ
Gooden, Mario, with Mabel O. Wilson and the Architectural League staff (comp.), “Resources on Race and Architecture from the Architectural League of New York,” Architectural Record, June 12, 2020.
https://www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/14686-resources-on-race-and-architecture-from-the-architectural-league-of-new-york
#architecture #InteriorDesign #racism #NorthAmerica #USA #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
A list of books, articles, films, and performances on race and architecture.
#SDR
BlackSpace Urbanist Collective, “BlackSpace Manifesto,” https://www.blackspace.org/manifesto.
#architecture #BlackDesigner #BlackAuthor #rac #NorthAmerica #USA #1980–
A collective of Black architects, urbanists, and preservationists working to make these fields more inclusive and equitable.
#CRG
Noir Design Parti https://www.noirdesignparti.com/
#architecture #BlackDesigner #rac #NorthAmerica #USA #1940-1980 #1980-2020
A website and blog collecting the stories of black architects in Michigan with a focus on Detroit.
#PJC
Fashion
Rovine, Victoria L.. African Fashion, Global Style: Histories, Innovations, and Ideas You Can Wear. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015.
#BlackDesigner #Africa #Mali #Nigeria #SouthAfrica #Ghana #Niger #France #Senegal #Colonialism #PostColonial #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #Fashion
This book provides an overview of fashion by African designers (including designers working in the Diaspora).
#VRP
Hall, Judy, Judy Thompson, Leslie Tepper, and Dorothy K. Burnham. “Following The Traditions of Our Ancestors: Inuit Clothing Designs.” Fascinating Challenges: Studying Material Culture with Dorothy Burnham, 115-42. Hull, Quebec: University of Ottawa Press, 2001.
#IndigenousDesigner(s) #NorthAmerica #Canada #Fashion #Textile
Describes five garments constructed by Inuit designers in the early 20th century, and the cultural traditions embedded in the making and context of these garments.
#BZ
Kramer, Karen. Native Fashion Now: North American Indian Style. Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2015.
#1940-1980 #1980-2020
Highlights the work of contemporary Native American fashion designers.
#VRP
Miller, Rosemary E. Reed. Threads of time: the fabric of history: profiles of African American dressmakers and designers, 1850–2002, 3rd ed. Washington DC: T & S Press, 2006.
The blurb reads “38 Profiles of Afro-American designers and textile artist[s] from 1850 to the present.”
#CRG
Oakes, Jillian E. "Copper and Caribou Inuit Skin Clothing Production." Copper and Caribou Inuit Skin Clothing Production, 1-5. Hull, Quebec: University of Ottawa Press, 1991.
#IndigenousDesigner(s) #NorthAmerica #Canada #Fashion #Textile
Describes how traditional clothing is constructed by Copper and Caribou Inuit people. .
#BZ
Fisher, Michelle Millar. “Talking About the New Breed with Howard Davis,” Medium, February 15, 2018,
https://medium.com/items/talking-about-the-new-breed-with-howard-davis-a7082037399
Multiple subfields
https://www.instagram.com/blackfolksindesign/
features works by a wide variety of Black designers.
#CRG
RevisionPath, founded by Maurice Cherry, https://revisionpath.com/
As of 2020/06/24, 352 podcast interviews with Black designers! 352!
#CRG
Sheehan, Norman W. “Indigenous Knowledge and Respectful Design: An Evidence-Based Approach.” Design Issues, vol. 27, no. 4, 2011, pp. 68-80.
#IndigenousAuthor #Australasia
Sheehan describes the work that he developed at Swinburne, called “Respectful Design,” which is a participatory methodology and ethical framework for “design-based social and emotional well-being research projects” with Indigenous community groups.
#BZ
Macharia, Maureen. “Building a Design Ecosystem in Nairobi” Interaction 20 conference presentation. 2020
#Nairobi Africa #InteractionDesign
This talk offers insights into the vibrant landscape of designing digital products in Nairobi and building a diverse and vibrant community of multidisciplinary designers. Maureen highlights approaches to support the region's efforts to build digital products and services that are innovative, user-friendly, and that follow best practices to enable sustainability, growth and scale.
#EKM
Fabricant, Robert, Aika Matemu & Priti Rao. “Who Are We Missing” Interaction 20 conference presentation. 2020.
#InteractionDesign #IXDPractice
How might we build a more inclusive practice that goes beyond designing ‘for' and ‘with’ people to systematically cultivating talent from local communities that improve design outcomes for all. This talk will bring in perspectives from Aika Matemu, who leads Dalberg’s design studio in Kenya (and previously built the Africa based design team for Medic Mobile) and Priti Rao, who leads our design studio in Mumbai (and formerly served as head of research for IDEO India) along with founder, Robert Fabricant who formerly led frog’s impact efforts and expansion into Africa and Asia.
#EKM
Individual Designers, by date of birth
Peter Fleet (early 1700s–late 1700s)
#BlackDesigner #USA #Graphic #1700-1800
Fleet was an enslaved Black man who cut and sometimes initiated woodcuts for printer/publisher Thomas Fleet of Boston. These include a 1745 woodcut called New England Bravery (also used to illustrate a Revolutionary-era broadside thirty-some years later) and woodcut illustrations for many editions of the narrative poem The Prodigal Daughter. Peter Fleet had two sons, Pompey and Caesar; Pompey is often credited as the person who made the woodcuts, but was probably too young to have done so. Peter Fleet is also known for his 1743 will (though he did not die in 1743!).
#CRG
Bell, J. L. “The Art of Peter Fleet,” Boston 1775 blog, 11 April 2014, http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-art-of-peter-fleet.html.
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Scipio Moorhead (c.1750–?)
#BlackDesigner #USA #Graphic #1700-1800
Moorhead was a Black painter and portrait engraver who (possibly/probably) engraved the well-known author portrait of Phillis Wheatley.
#CRG
“Scipio Moorhead, an early artist in America.” AAREG.org, https://aaregistry.org/story/scipio-moorhead-an-early-artist-in-america/.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Civitas Books, 1999.
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Thomas Jennings (1791–1856)
#BlackDesigner #USA #Industrial #1800-1850 #patent
Jennings was the first known Black person to hold a US patent (for an early form of dry cleaning).
Matchar, Emily. “The First African-American to Hold a Patent Invented ‘Dry Scouring,’” Smithsonian Magazine, 27 February 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/first-african-american-hold-patent-invented-dry-scouring-180971394/
Describes Jennings’s invention of a form of dry cleaning, the loss of his and other “X patents” in the Patent Office fire, his contribution of profits from his invention to abolitionist causes, and his daughter Elizabeth Jennings’s integration of the trolley system in NYC (see “Elizabeth Jennings, 1827–1901,” New York Times (no date), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/elizabeth-jennings-overlooked.html.)
#CRG
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Henry Blair (1807–1860)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1800-1850 #1850-1900
“Henry Blair was the second African American inventor to receive a US patent. He was born in Glen Ross, Maryland, United States in 1807. His first invention was the Seed-Planter, patented October 14, 1834, which allowed farmers to plant more corn using less labor and in a shorter time. On August 31, 1836 he obtained a second patent for a cotton planter.” (Excerpted from Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-henry-blair-1807-1860/)
#CRG
“Profile: Henry Blair (1807–1860).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-henry-blair-1807-1860/.
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Patrick Henry Reason (1816–1898), fka Patrice Rison
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #abol #1800-1850 #1850-1900
Reason “was one of the earliest African-American engravers and lithographers in the United States. He was active as an abolitionist (along with his brother Charles Lewis Reason).”
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_H._Reason
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Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907)
Keckley designed dresses for Mary Todd Lincoln, among others..
#Fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #abol #1800-1850 #1850-1900
#VRP #CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Keckley
This is an especially extensive and detailed Wikipedia page. As it points out, very few of her works survive, because most were “made over” or the fabric repurposed.
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David Bustill Bowser (1820–1900)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900
“David Bustill Bowser was a 19th-century African-American ornamental artist and portraitist [...and] the designer of battle flags for eleven African-American regiments during the American Civil War and painter of portraits of prominent Americans, including U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist John Brown.” (Excerpted from Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/05/profile-david-bustill-bowser-1820-1900/)
“Profile: David Bustill Bowser (1820–1900).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/05/profile-david-bustill-bowser-1820-1900/)
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Judy W. Reed (c.1826?– )
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #BlackWoman #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900
Perhaps the earliest known Black female patentee. She was awarded a patent for a dough roller and kneader in 1884.
#CRG
Garner, Carla. “Judy W. Reed (ca. 1826-?).” BlackPast.org, 10 February 2011, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/reed-judy-w-c-1826/
A brief discussion of Reed’s US Patent No. 305,474 ( September 23, 1884) for a dough kneader and roller, which is apparently about all that is known of her.
#CRG
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Sarah (Marshall) Boone (1832–1904)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #BlackWoman #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900
Black dressmaker who was awarded US patent 473,563 on April 26, 1892 for an improvement to ironing boards: an attachment for ironing sleeves.
#CRG
Bellis, Mary. “Biography of Sarah Boone,” ThoughtCo, updated 18 July 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/sarah-boone-inventor-4077332.
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Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Harriet Stevens Gray Bowser (1834–1908)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #Fashion[?] #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #BlackWoman #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900 #1900-1920
“Lizzie Bowser lived in Philadelphia’s Twelfth Ward with her husband David Bustill Bowser, with whom she ran a successful business. The couple manufactured memorabilia, regalia, and decorative objects for the many voluntary associations in the area. Their clients included African-American fraternal organizations like the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, volunteer fire brigades, and American Civil War relief organizations. Lizzie used her skills as a seamstress to craft elaborate ceremonial collars, and David created decorative paintings on hats, banners, and other objects bearing insignia.” (From Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/05/profile-elizabeth-harriet-stevens-gray-bowser-1834-1908/)
#CRG
“Profile: Elizabeth Harriet Stevens Gray Bowser (1834 – 1908).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/05/profile-elizabeth-harriet-stevens-gray-bowser-1834-1908/.
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Grafton Tyler Brown (1841–1918)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1850-1900
Grafton Tyler Brown was a young light-skinned Black man who headed west, boarded a steamboat in Sacramento as a “negro,” and began a new life when he got off the boat in San Francisco by passing as a white man. He worked for and then ran a lithography firm that printed everything from billheads to labels for canned salmon to scenic views of prominent Californians’ properties.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafton_Tyler_Brown
Chandler, Robert J. San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
I haven’t read it yet, but it apparently discusses how Brown was probably one-eighth Black and passed for white in gold-rush-era San Francisco, where he became a successful businessperson and head of his own lithographic firm.
#CRG
LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta. Grafton Tyler Brown: Visualizing California and the Pacific Northwest, California African American Museum and Walters Art Museum, 2003, https://books.google.com/books/about/Grafton_Tyler_Brown.html?id=QPyKGwAACAAJ
Chandler, Robert J. To Catch Customers: Grafton Tyler Brown’s 1875 Lithographic Sample Sheets. San Francisco: Roxburghe-Zamarano Club Joint Meeting, 2014, https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30089647720
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Elijah McCoy (1844–1929)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #ManDesigner
“Elijah J. McCoy was a Canadian-born inventor and engineer of African American descent who was notable for his 57 US patents, most having to do with the lubrication of steam engines.” (Excerpted from Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/07/03/profile-elijah-mccoy-1844-1929/)
#CRG
“Profile: Elijah McCoy (1844–1929).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/07/03/profile-elijah-mccoy-1844-1929/
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Ellen Eglin (1849 – after 1890)
#Industrial #BlackWoman #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1850–1900
Black woman who invented a highly successful clothes wringer for washing machines.
#CRG
McNeill, Leila. “These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home,” Smithsonian Magazine (7 February 2017),
Features four Black women who were among the few Black female patentees between 1865 and 1900: Sarah Goode, Ellen Eglin, Sarah Marshall, and Miriam (not Mariam) E. Benjamin.
#CRG
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Sarah Goode (born Sarah Jacob) (1850–?)
#BlackWoman #BlackDesigner #industrial #furniture #patent #1850–1900 #USA #NorthAmerica
Inventor of the space-saving “cabinet-bed,” a bed designed to fold out into a writing desk, and one of very few Black women scholars have identified as having been awarded patents between 1865 and 1900.
#CRG
Goode, S. E., “Cabinet Bed,” US patent 322,177, 14 July 1885, https://patents.google.com/patent/US322177?oq=sarah+goode
McNeill, Leila. “These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home,” Smithsonian Magazine (7 February 2017),
Features four Black women who were among the few Black female patentees between 1865 and 1900: Sarah Goode, Ellen Eglin, Sarah Marshall, and Miriam (not Mariam) E. Benjamin.
#CRG
Boyd, Herb. “Inventor Sarah E. Goode, the first Black woman awarded a patent,” Amsterdam News, 14 July 2016, http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2016/jul/14/inventor-sarah-e-goode-first-black-woman-awarded-p/.
This article’s headline is incorrect and it illustrates the wrong Sarah E. Goode. But if the text can be trusted, it provides useful biographical information about Goode’s marriage and business.
#CRG
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Jan Ernst Matzeliger (1852–1889)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #SouthAmerica #Suriname
Inventor of shoe-lasting machine, US Patent 274,207.
#CRG
“Jan Ernst Matzeliger,” National Inventors Hall of Fame, https://www.invent.org/inductees/jan-ernst-matzeliger#:~:text=Jan%20Ernst%20Matzeliger&text=Jan%20Matzeliger%20invented%20the%20automatic,)%20and%20was%20self%2Deducated.
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Granville T. Woods (1856–1910)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #ManDesigner
Earned 45 patents, including one for electrified “third rail” that made NYC subway possible.
#CRG
Fouché, Rayvon. Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer and Shelby J. Davidson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Padnani, Amisha. “Granville T. Woods, 1856–1910.” New York Times (no date), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/granville-t-woods-overlooked.html
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Miriam E. Benjamin (1861–1947)
#BlackWoman #BlackDesigner #industrial #furniture #patent #1850–1900 #USA #NorthAmerica
According to the Smithsonian Magazine essay below, Mariam E. Benjamin, a schoolteacher, “was granted her patent by the District of Columbia in 1888 for something called the gong and signal chair. Benjamin’s chair allowed for its occupant to signal when service was needed through a crank that would simultaneously sound a gong and display a red signal (think of it as the precursor to the call button on your airplane seat, which signals for a flight attendant to assist you).”
#CRG
McNeill, Leila. “These Four Black Women Inventors Reimagined the Technology of the Home,” Smithsonian Magazine (7 February 2017),
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Madame C.J. Walker (1867–1919)
#Industrial #Graphic #Fashion #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #BlackWoman #USA #NorthAmerica
An entrepreneur who founded an empire of hair and beauty products, salons, and beauty schools that served Black women. She got her start working for Annie Turnbow Malone (see entry for Malone elsewhere in this bibliography)
#JKB
Bundles, A’Lelia Perry. On Her Own Ground : The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker New York: Scribner, 2001.
Peiss, Kathy Lee. “Shades of Difference.” In Hope in a Jar : the Making of America’s Beauty Culture 1st ed. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.
The whole book examines this history of the cosmetics industry in the US and weaves stories of Black cosmetics producers throughout, but this chapter is the most relevant.
#VRP
Dudley, Tara. “Seeking the Ideal African-American Interior: The Walker Residences and Salon in New York.” Studies in the Decorative Arts 14, no. 1 (2006): 80–112.
#InteriorDesign #BlackConsumer
Dudley details the interior design commissions of Walker and daughter A’Lelia Walker. A’Lelia was an astute buisness woman, philanthropist, and trendsetter who commissioned Paul Frankl to design a tearoom in her townhouse.
#VRP
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_C._J._Walker
Walker, Susannah. Style and Status : Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920–1975. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2007.
Includes some discussion of Walker and her influence on Black women’s hair care and beautify products in the earlier chapters.
#JKB
There are some relevant papers and other archival material online related to Walker’s life and business from the Indiana Historical museum
http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/m0399
The Smithsonian also has some objects/materials for Walker including historical packaging. https://transcription.si.edu/project/25492
The National Archive produced a short video about Walker that has some useful information about her life and significance.
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W.E.B. DuBois (1868–1963)
#BlackDesigner #USA #Graphic #1900-1940 #data
Known for graphics and photographs at 1900 Exposition (in addition to his writings, of course!). https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/anedub/search/?co=anedub&st=grid
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), and Julian Rothenstein. Black Lives 1900 : W.E.B. Du Bois at the Paris Exposition. London: Redstone Press, 2020.
#data #USA #graphic #BlackDesigner #BlackAuthor #PrimarySource #1900-1940
This book reproduces Dubios’s infographics and photographs that were a part of his exhibition in the 1900 Paris Exhibition accompanied by essays and reflections by art historians Jacqueline Francis and Stephen G. Hall, historian Henry Louis Gates, and architect David Adjaye.
#EC
Battle-Baptiste, Whitney and Britt Rusert (eds.). W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America. Princeton Architectural Press and The W.E.B. Du Bois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2018
#BlackAuthor #IndigenousAuthor #Cherokee #WorldsFair #Data #Graphic #WomanAuthor
Munro, Silas. “W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America with Silas Munro,” Letterform Lecture at San Francisco Public Library Main Library, 29 October 2019
(Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program, and are co-sponsored with SFPL). https://letterformarchive.org/events/w.e.b.-du-boiss-data-portraits-visualizing-black-america.
#data #USA #graphic #BlackDesigner #1900-1940
Munro, a #BlackDesigner and #BlackAuthor, is one of the contributors to Battle-Baptiste and Rusert’s book, above: he wrote the captions for, and introduction to, the plates. This lecture describes the genesis of the data visualizations, and explains the extraordinarily tight timeframe for making them and the collaborative process by which they were made. It features a voice recording of W.E.B. DuBois himself talking about the project, and about the social context in which they were made (e.g., gruesome lynchings, terrible discrimination, etc.). Also: about 45 or 50 minutes in—right at the end of his talk, before the Q&A—he talks about design history, and suggests three examples of how one might reframe design history to center works like Du Bois and de-center the Bauhaus and the white designers of infographics typically featured in books on the history of data visualization (e.g., Edward Tufte’s books, specifically).
#CRG
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Annie Turnbow Malone (1869–1957)
An entrepreneur and one of the first Black millionaires in the United States who made her name in developing beauty products for Black hair that were sold door-to-door. She also founded the Poro College of Cosmetology in St. Louis.
#JKB
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Turnbo_Malone
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Angel DeCora (1871–1919)
#IndigenousDesigner #WomanDesigner #Graphic #USA
Winnebago artist/designer known for her book illustrations and cover/binding designs.
#CRG
Earenfight, Phillip, et al. Visualizing a Mission: Artifacts and Imagery of the Carlisle Indian School, 1879-1918. Carlisle, Pa.: The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, 2004.
https://scholar.dickinson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=student_work
This is a student curated exhibition catalogue with artifacts, propaganda, and essays associated with the United States’ first boarding school for Native Americans, the Carlisle Indian School. De Cora was appointed as director of art instruction in 1906.
#JBM
Sarah McAnulty, “Angel DeCora: American Artist and Educator,” Nebraska History 57, no. 2 (Summer 1976): 143–199.
McAnulty provides an in-depth look at Angel De Cora’s life to include several first-hand accounts by De Cora (Hinook Mahiwi Kilinaka) of her early years.
#JBM
Southall, Neebinnaukzhik. "Angel DeCora," AIGA.org, https://www.aiga.org/diversity-inclusion-design-journeys-essay-angel-decora.
Unabridged version of the above is available at Neebinnaukzhik Southall's website, https://www.neebin.com/nativedesign/?page_id=27 (scroll about halfway down the page).
This short life-and-works biography shows examples of her book illustrations, cover designs, etc.
#CRG
Southall, Neebinnaukzhik, "This Just In: Angel DeCora's The Indians' Book and Wigwam Stores," Letterform Archive, Dec 7, 2020 https://letterformarchive.org/news/view/angel-decoras-lettering-in-the-indians-book
#WomanAuthor #IndigenousAuthor
#BH
Waggoner, Linda M., "Her Greatest Work Lay in Decorative Design": Angel DeCora, Ho-Chunk Artist (1869–1919)," Briar Levit, Baseline Shift, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2021.
#BH
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Isaac Scott Hathaway (1872–1967)
Sculptor, ceramist, teacher. Reputedly the first #BlackDesigner to design a US coin (however, see entry for Selma Burke!). In 1946, Harry S. Truman/the US Mint commissioned him to design a Booker T. Washington half-dollar coin, and, in 1951, a George Washington Carver commemorative half-dollar coin. He owned a business that distributed molded busts, plaques, and masks of famous Black Americans to schools, churches, and other institutions, and was the first Black person to be shown in a newsreel (a Pathe News National Museum newsreel). #CRG
“Isaac Hathaway, a pioneer in sculptor [sic].” AAREG, https://aaregistry.org/story/isaac-hathaway-a-pioneer-in-sculptor/.
Ayubu, Kani Saburi. “Motivated by What was Missing: Legendary Sculptor, Isaac Scott Hathaway.” The Black Art Depot, 7 March 2013, https://blackartblog.blackartdepot.com/african-american-history/sculptor-isaac-scott-hathaway.html.
Embedded on the page is a short video showing some of his work, and discussing his teaching at Auburn University.
Perry, Rhussus L. (interviewer). “Isaac Hathaway,Sculptor,” 1939. Federal Writers’ Project Papers, 1936–1940. Series 1. Life Histories, 1936-1940 and undated. / Subseries 1.1. Alabama. Folder 60: Perry, Rhussus L. (interviewer): Isaac Hathaway, Sculptor, in the Federal Writers' Project papers #3709, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/03709/id/896/rec/1
#primary #interview #biography
Wilson, Mark. “Isaac Scott Hathaway: Sculptor of Minds and Clay” (pamphlet), 20 November 2012, https://issuu.com/markwilson2012/docs/hathaway.
Isaac Scott Hathaway Papers. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Garrett A. Morgan (1877–1963)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #USA #1900-1940
Patented a traffic signal, a fire safety hood/breathing device, and a hair-straightening chemical
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_Morgan.
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George Herriman (1880–1944)
#Graphic #illustration #image #BlackDesigner #Creole #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980
“George Herriman was an American cartoonist who created Krazy Kat, a comic strip whose originality in terms of fantasy, drawing, and dialogue was of such high order that many consider it the finest strip ever produced.” (From https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-george-herriman-1880-1944/)
#CRG
“Profile: George Herriman (1880–1944).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-george-herriman-1880-1944/
The George Herriman Wikipedia entry is unusually extensive.
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Julian Abele (1881–1950)
#blackarchitect #1900-1940
Black architect, furniture maker, worked for Horace Trumbauer. Little is known of his earlier contributions as he wasn’t given credit. First black man to be admitted to Penn School of Architecture. Worked on several university buildings at Duke and Harvard.
#SDR
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Abele
“Profile: Julian Abele (1881-1950).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/15/profile-julian-abele-1881-1950/
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Alain LeRoy Locke (1885–1954)
Philosopher/theorist of the Harlem Renaissance.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_LeRoy_Locke.
Meraji, Shereen Marisol, Demby, Gene, and Qureshi, Bilal. “The Birth Of A ‘New Negro’.” Produced by NPR, Code Switch. December 25, 2019. Podcast, MP3 Audio, 37:19. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/790381948/the-birth-of-a-new-negro.
#Race
This podcast on Alain Locke, theorist and impresario of the Harlem Renaissance, contextualizes his work defining the “New Negro” with his time spent in Berlin. It argues for a connection between his utopian thinking and that of the Bauhaus.
#VRP
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James Van Der Zee (1886–1983)
#Fashion #BlackConsumers
Photographer best known for his works during the Harlem Renaissance.
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Charles Dawson (1889–1981)
#bio #autobio #rac #Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 “One of Chicago’s leading black artists and designers in the 1920s and ‘30s...best known for his illustrated advertisements for beauty schools and products...targeted to the city’s burgeoning black population.
#CRG
Schulman, Daniel. "Charles Dawson," AIGA (2008), https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-charles-dawson.
Schulman notes that "Dawson's life story is told in great detail and piquancy in an unpublished—and rarely cited—autobiography, which is now in the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago" (see below).
#CRG
Dawson, Charles C. 536-page manuscript/draft of Negro in Art and Culture (undated) [unpublished autobiography], Charles Dawson papers, Series II: Writings, undated, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/bmrc/view.php?eadid=BMRC.DUSABLE.DAWSON.
Reprinted on microfilm, Archives of American Art, 1988 (“Microfilm reels 4191–4192 available at all Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan”), https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/charles-c-dawson-papers-9618.
#VRP
Schulman, Daniel. “‘White City' and 'Black Metropolis’: African American Painters in Chicago, 1893–1945,” in Chicago Modern, 1893–1945: Pursuit of the New. Chicago: Terra Museum of American Art, 2004.
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Myrtle Sheldon (1893–?)
#Graphic #Illustration #Image #BlackDesigner #BlackWoman #WomanDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980[?]
“Myrtle Sheldon was an American illustrator….She illustrated many children’s books, some without attribution at the time of publication. Those publicly credited include A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Ellen Tarry’s Janie Belle [“one of the first children’s picture books with an African-American author published in the United States”], and the 1932 Newbery Honor-winning children’s book Boy of the South Seas by Eunice Tietjens.” (From https://blackartstory.org/2020/06/29/profile-myrtle-sheldon-1893-unknown/)
#CRG
“Profile: Myrtle Sheldon (1893-unknown).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/06/29/profile-myrtle-sheldon-1893-unknown/.
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Paul R. Williams (1894–1980)
#BlackArchitect #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #USA #NorthAmerica
The first paragraph of Wikipedia’s entry on Williams reads “Paul Revere Williams, FAIA (February 18, 1894 – January 23, 1980) was an American architect based in Los Angeles, California. He practiced mostly in Southern California and designed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney, Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Correll. He also designed many public and private buildings.” He also designed quite a few buildings in Nevada.
#CRG
Celia McGee, “Following Her Modern Muse to the West: Janna Ireland focuses her lens on the career of the architect Paul Revere Williams,” New York Times, Sunday, July 17, 2022, p. 14
Article about “Janna Ireland on the Architectural Legacy of Paul Revere Williams in Nevada,” an exhibition of Ireland’s photographs of Paul Williams’s works, commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, and on display there through Dec. 2, 2022 (and then traveling to NMA Las Vegas).
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Williams
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Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984)
#BlackArchitect #BlackDesigner #BlackWoman #LGBTQIADesigner #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #USA #NorthAmerica
Virginia architect, inventor, educator and graphic artist. Despite her lack of formal training in architecture, she designed homes for friends in three states. She is best known for her work Azurest North (Sag Harbor, NY) and Azurest South at Virginia Union University in Petersburg, an International Style building, now the alumni house.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaza_Lee_Meredith
Gooden, Mario. Dark Space: Architecture, Representation, Black Identity (New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City/Columbia University Press, 2016): 127-137.
Simms, Huter, Amaza Lee Meredith: Teacher, Artist, and Architect, http://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/8/24/amaza-lee-meredith-teacher-artist-and-architect
This is a blog post from a volunteer at the Lynchburg Museum about an architect active at Virginia Union. She and her sister also helped design a suburban vacation area for middle class blacks in Sag Harbor NY known as Azurest North (1950s).
#SDR
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Clara Porset (1895–1981)
#LatinxDesigner #Cuba #USA #NorthAmerica #CentralAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980
Cuban-born furniture and interior designer.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Porset.
Points to lots of further reading and references re: her and her work.
#CRG
Kaplan, Wendy, ed. Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2017, https://www.worldcat.org/title/found-in-translation-design-in-california-and-mexico-1915-1985/oclc/982089617&referer=brief_results.
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Anne Lowe (1898–1981)
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980
#VRP #CRG #JKB
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Lowe.
Square, Jonathan Michael, “The Life and Work of Ruby Bailey, Zelda Wynn Valdes, and Ann Lowe.” The Fashion Studies Journal, (no date), htp://www.fashionstudiesjournal.org/histories/2016/8/30/the-life-and-work-of-anne-lowe-zelda-wynn-valdes-and-ruby-bailey.
Gerri Major, “Dean of American Designers,” Ebony (December 1966). Available on Google Books
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Aaron Douglas (1899–1979)
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #graphic #illustration
Black artist, illustrator, and graphic designer associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Earle, Susan, ed. Aaron Douglas: African American Modernist. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
Kirsche, Amy Helene. Aaron Douglas: Art, Race, and the Harlem Renaissance. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
Barton, Melissa. “The Book Art of Harlem Renaissance Artist Aaron Douglas: A Bibliography.” 29 April 2019. https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/article/book-art-harlem-renaissance-artist-aaron-douglas-bibliography. Gallery of images at https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/article/book-art-harlem-renaissance-artist-aaron-douglas-bibliography#&gid=1&pid=1.
#CRG
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Hilyard Robinson (1899–1986)
#BlackArchitect #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #1940–1980 #1980–2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
The first paragraph of his Wikipedia entry reads “Hilyard Robinson (1899 – July 2, 1986) was a prominent African-American architect and engineer.” According to the District of Columbia’s Historic Preservation Office, he was trained at the Bauhaus, though Wikipedia says merely he was “influenced” by it in his travels to Europe.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilyard_Robinson
“DC Inventory of Historic Sites Alphabetical Edition, September 30, 2009,” pdf posted to District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office page, archived on the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/20110701155451/http://www.planning.dc.gov/DC/Planning/Historic%2BPreservation/Maps%2Band%2BInformation/Landmarks%2Band%2BDistricts/Inventory%2Bof%2BHistoric%2BSites/Alphabetical%2BEdition.
The entry for Langston Terrace Dwellings, 21st Street & Benning Road, NE on p. 85 reads “The first federally-sponsored public housing complex in the District, and a prime example of the first 51 Public Works Administration housing projects, built from 1933 to 1937 (3 in DC); first of eight housing projects by noted Bauhaus-trained architect and pioneer in government housing for the poor; International style garden apartment buildings around central commons; bas-reliefs and courtyard sculpture; built 1935-38, Hilyard Robinson, architect; DC designation September 16, 1987, NR listing November 12, 1987; see Bibliography (Goode: Best Addresses).”
#CRG
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C. E. J. (Clovis Edward Jacob) Fouche (c.1900?–????)
Black “commercial artist” who, according to Anne Meis Knupfer’s review elsewhere in this bibliography, established his own illustration and sign painting firm in the 1910s or 1920s in Chicago. Fouche was on the University of Chicago Student Army Training Corps Football Team in 1918 and 1919 (see http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?show=browse5.xml%7C661 and http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/ucpa/series5/apf5_2017_02_28.xml), and, according to the Richmond Planet of 5 July 1924, Fouche was a “pioneering youth” who was president of the Fouche Advertising Co.
#CRG
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Selma Burke (1900–1995)
Arguably the first Black person to design a US coin, or at least to have their sculpture featured on a coin: in 1944–1945 she sculpted the profile bas-relief of FDR that is still featured on the dime.
#CRG
“Selma Burke, a gifted artist with many accomplishments.” AAREG, https://aaregistry.org/story/selma-burke-a-gifted-artist-with-many-accomplishments/.
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Anna Russell Jones (1902–1995)
Graphic, carpet, and textile designer.
#CRG
“Profile: Anna Russell Jones,” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/11/25/profile-anna-russell-jones-1902-1995/
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Ruth Clement Bond (1904–2005)
Civic leader, educator, quilt designer. Mother of Max Bond, Jr, NY architect.
Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Angelik. “The Fabric of Change: The Quilt Art of Ruth Clement Bond.” Online Learning Lab, Museum of Arts and Design, February 22, 2017.
https://madmuseum.org/views/fabric-change-quilt-art-ruth-clement-bond“
Describes quilt work of Ruth Clement Bond, an artist and advocate, who made quilts with African-American women whose husbands were working for the TVA unde the New Deal.
“Ruth Clement Bond: Quilt Art, Activism, and an Extraordinary African-American Life.” MSU Museum, 2012. https://www.museum.msu.edu/?exhibition=ruth-clement-bond-quilt-art-activism-and-an-extraordinary-african-american-life.
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Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)
#JapaneseAmericanDesigner #FurnitureDesign #Industrial #1900-1940 #1940-1980
Mid-century Modern designer and sculptor most known for biomorphic forms and light sculptures.
The Noguchi Museum has created a beautiful online Catalogue Raisonne of his work.
https://archive.noguchi.org/Browse/CR
Amy Lyford, "Noguchi, Sculptural Abstraction, and the Politics of Japanese American Internment," The Art Bulletin 85, no. 1 (2003): 137-51.
While Lyford focuses on how Noguchi’s sculptural work was influenced by his time in an internment camp during World War II, the ideas could be extended to his design work. The article also shows how critics read Noguchi’s work in racialized ways.
#VRP
Boch, Akira, dir. Artbound. 10, 1, “Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience” Aired May 15, 2019 on KCET.
https://youtu.be/CpfhVmDNuho
#VRP
Friedman Benda, “Design in Dialogue #47: Dakin Hart,” August 5, 2020, https://vimeo.com/444965632
Dakin Hart, Senior Curator at the Noguchi Museum and Glen Adamson discuss Noguchi’s experiences as a Japanese American, his time in the WW2 internment camps, his work combining fine art, performance, and industrial design, and how it all informed his work and life.
#MB
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George Nakashima (1905–1990)
#FurnitureDesigner #JapaneseAmericanDesigner
#VRP
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Nakashima.
Boch, Akira, dir. Artbound. 10, 1, “Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience” Aired May 15, 2019 on KCET.
https://youtu.be/CpfhVmDNuho
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Zelda Wynn Valdes (1905–2001)
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #woman
#VRP #CRG
Wikipedia:, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelda_Wynn_Valdes
Square, Jonathan Michael, “The Life and Work of Ruby Bailey, Zelda Wynn Valdes, and Ann Lowe.” The Fashion Studies Journal, (no date), http://www.fashionstudiesjournal.org/histories/2016/8/30/the-life-and-work-of-anne-lowe-zelda-wynn-valdes-and-ruby-bailey.
Deihl, Nancy. “A profile of Zelda Wynn Valdes: costume and fashion designer.” Oxford University Press blog, 31 March 2015, https://blog.oup.com/2015/03/costume-designer-zelda-wynn-valdes/
teamEBONY, “Fashionable Game-Changer: Zelda Wynn Valdes,” Ebony.com, 26 March 2012, https://www.ebony.com/style/fashionable-innovator-zelda-wynn-valdes/#photo-NaN
Ford, Tanisha S. “Zelda Wynn Valdes, 1905–2001: A fashion designer who outfitted the glittery stars of screen and stage,” New York Times
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Ruby Bailey (1905–2003)
#fashion #Black Designer #USA #1940-1980
Square, Jonathan Michael. “The Life and Work of Ruby Bailey, Zelda Wynn Valdes, and Ann Lowe.” The Fashion Studies Journal (August 2016), http://www.fashionstudiesjournal.org/histories/2016/8/30/the-life-and-work-of-anne-lowe-zelda-wynn-valdes-and-ruby-bailey
“New York at its Core: Ruby Bailey,” Museum of the City of New York, https://blog.mcny.org/2016/01/05/reintroducing-ruby-bailey/
#video #A/V
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Add Bates (1907–1990)
Cabinetmaker, dancer, activist.
#KW
Profile: “Furniture Designer,” Ebony (Feb 1951): 70–73.
Wilson, Kristina. “Add Bates, 306, and interlocking modernisms in mid-century Harlem,” forthcoming in American Art 35, no. 1 (Feb. 2021)
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Ralph A. Vaughn (1907–2000)
#BlackArchitect #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #1900-1940 #1940–1980 #1980–2020 #USA #NorthAmerica
The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry on Vaughn reads “Ralph A. Vaughn (1907–2000) was an African-American academic, architect and film set designer. Born in Washington, D.C., he was an assistant professor at Howard University before moving to Los Angeles, California, where he designed many buildings, houses and a synagogue. He was also a film set designer. He was one of the first African-American architects in Los Angeles.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_A._Vaughn
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Louise E. Jefferson (1908–2002)
#BlackWoman #BlackDesigner #graphic #illustration #1940–1980 #1980–2020
Lee Facincani, the archivist who catalogued her papers, describes Louise E. Jefferson as “an artist, engraver, book illustrator, cartographer, calligrapher, photographer and writer,” noting that “She worked as the first female Art Director at Friendship Press in New York. She made several trips to Africa researching decorative arts, especially for her book Decorative Arts of Africa, and designed NAACP Christmas Seals for over thirty years.”
#CRG
Jefferson, Louise E. (1908-2002), Amistad Research Center, http://amistadresearchcenter.tulane.edu/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=845.
The Amistad Research Center at Tulane University holds the Louise Jefferson papers, 1925–2001, as well as two unprocessed archival collections, the Jefferson, Louise E. papers, 1930-2000 and the Jefferson, Louise E. papers 2010 addendum, 1946–1986.
#CRG
Arcenaux-Sutton, Tasheka, "A Renaissance Woman: Louise Jefferson," Briar Levit, Baseline Shift, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2021.
#BH
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Robert Savon Pious (1908-1983)
#Graphic #Advertising #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980
Student at the Art Institute of Chicago and then the National Academy of Design, he spent time hanging out with the animated crowd at 306 W 141st Street in the 1930s (led by Charles Alston, Mike Bannarn, and Add Bates). Prof. Charles Seifert was an influential mentor from whom he learned the complexity and depth of African and African American history. Pious created paintings to illustrate Seifert’s historical narrative, as well as portraits of famous Black Americans (his portrait of Harriet Tubman is in the National Portrait Gallery). He made a living as a commercial illustrator, including the award-winning poster for the American Negro Exposition; (Chicago 1940) and prolific work for pulp magazines and Golden Age Comic Books.
#KW
Wolff, Laetitia, and David Saunders. “Robert Savon Pious.” AIGA.org, https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-robert-savon-pious.
Features illustrations of his work and an accompanying four-minute video that shows/contextualizes many more: don’t miss the ones illustrated in it! They include a Lucky Strike ad (from [New York] Amsterdam News, 25 January 1958) with an image of and endorsement by Pious: http://www.pulpartists.com/Bio%20Materials/Pious/58-01-25,AmstNews.jpg
#KW #CRG
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Gyo Fujikawa (1908–1998)
#WomanDesigner #AsianAmerican #Illustration #Graphic
Illustrator known especially for her Eskimo Pie logo, Beech Nut baby cereal-package illustrations,, and illustrations for dozens of children’s books. She was one of the first American illustrators to routinely show children of multiple races in her work.
#CRG
“Gyo Fujikawa,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyo_Fujikawa
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Elton Fax (1909–1993)
#Graphic #Illustration #Image #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
“Fax was an illustrator for magazines such as Weird Tales, Astounding Science-Fiction, Complete Cowboy, Real Western, Story Parade, Child Life, and All Sports. In 1942 he began a newspaper comic named Susabelle, and later an illustrated history panel, They’ll Never Die, both carried in African-American newspapers. He also created greeting card illustrations for The Links.” (From Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/29/profile-elton-fax-1909-1993)
#CRG
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Jackie Ormes (1911–1985)
#Graphic #Illustration #Image #IndustrialDesigner #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
“Jackie Ormes was an American cartoonist. She is known as the first African-American woman cartoonist and creator of the Torchy Brown comic strip and the Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger panel.”She also created the Patty-Jo doll, the first Black doll with an “extensive upscale wardrobe.” (From https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/)
#CRG
“Profile: jackie Ormes (1911–1985).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/01/profile-jackie-ormes-1911-1985/
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Ollie Harrington (1912–1995)
#Graphic #Illustration #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Black political cartoonist for Amsterdam News; creator of Dark Laughter, Bootsie, and Jive Gray strips.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollie_Harrington
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Mary Kenner (1912–2006)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner? #WomanDesigner #invention #law #patent #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Patented the sanitary belt (for sanitary napkins), and at least four other inventions.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kenner
KIRBY. “Black Lives Matter Period.” TikTok, 30 June 2020, https://www.tiktok.com/@singkirbysing/video/6844215357134081286.
Introduces Mary Kenner and her work in succinct #video format.
#CRG
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William McBride (1912-2000)
#Graphic #Advertising #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
In-house designer for Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center and participant in various Black print/arts groups on the South Side. Created prints, programs, promotional materials for SSCAC, including their gallery and Artists’ & Models’ Ball.
Mullen, Bill. Popular Fronts: Chicago and African-American Cultural Politics, 1935-46. University of Illinois Press, 1999.
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Arque Dickerson (c.1913–2014)
#BlackDesigner #IndustrialDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica
Yet another Tuskegee Airman who went into design! Dickerson was the first black graduate of Pratt Institute's industrial design program. He went on to design aircraft instrument panels in the 1960s and custom aircraft interiors, including for the Queen of England and the Swedish royal family
#CRG
“Dickerson, Arque,” record for artist file, Smithsonian Libraries, https://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/art-design/artandartistfiles/vf_details.cfm?id=6251).
This record claims that there is an “artist file” for Dickerson at the Cooper-Hewitt; however, the day I searched for it, the site was not working well and I did not find the record. It would be worth trying again a different day.
#CRG
“Arque Dickerson,” obituary, Veterans Funeral Care, Clearwater, FL. https://veteransfuneralcare.com/obituary/Arque-Bradford-Dickerson
This obituary is quite informative, as it lists many of Dickerson’s clients.
#CRG
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LeRoy Winbush (1915–2007)
#Graphic #Advertising #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Black graphic designer who was art director for Goldblatt's stores and later ran his own firm on the South Side of Chicago, serving as art director for Ebony and JET and Consolidated Manufacturing Company.
#CRG
Weinberg, Lauren. “LeRoy Winbush” (AIGA medalist, 2008), https://www.aiga.org/medalist-leroywinbush.
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
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Margaret Bourroughs-Taylor (1915–2010)
Central figure of Black Arts world of postwar Chicago, historian, collector, printmaker, founder of Ebony Museum, now the DuSable Museum of African American History. Also key in establishing South Side Community Art Center, a key center of Black arts/design after its founding in 1941 (interiors were designed by Chicago bauhaus members).
Cain, Mary Ann. South Side Venus: The Legacy of Margaret Burroughs. Northwestern University Press, 2018.
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Lloyd “Kiva” New (1916–2002)
#Fashion #NativeAmericanDesinger #Cherokee
“a pioneer of modern Native American fashion design and one of the co-founders of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.”
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Kiva_New
Kramer, Karen. Native Fashion Now: North American Indian Style. Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2015.
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Rose Piper, aka Rose Ransier (1917–2005)
Painter, textile designer, designer of knit fabrics
#CRG
“Profile: Rose Piper (1917-2005),” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/08/05/profile-rose-piper-1917-2005/
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Art Smith (1917–1982)
#fashion #Jewelry #BlackDesigner #LGBTQIADesigner
One of the most well known mid-century modern jewelry designers.
#VRP
From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith, exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum (May 14, 2008–June 11, 2011).
Schon, Marbeth. “Art Smith (1917–1982).” In Modernist Jewelry 1930–1960: The Wearable Art Movement (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2004, 69–76.
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Louis Karoniaktejah Hall (1918–1993)
#graphic #IndigenousDesigner #Mohawk #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Designed the Unity Flag, 1974, and Mohawk Warrior Flag, c.1988, as well as a lithographic poster for A.I.M. (the American Indian Movement) in the 1970s and other activist images. Also wrote Warrior’s Handbook, c.1980(?), and Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy.
#CRG
Horn-Miller, Kahente. "From Paintings to Power: The meaning of the Warrior Flag Twenty Years after Oka," Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies 6, no. 1 (spring 2010): 96–124. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299545293_From_Paintings_to_Power_The_meaning_of_the_Warrior_Flag_Twenty_Years_after_Oka
Deer, Jessica. “Oka Crisis: The legacy of the warrior flag,” CBC News, 11 July 2020, https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/oka-crisis-the-legacy-of-the-warrior-flag
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John H. Johnson (1918–2005)
Founder of the Johnson Publishing Company of Chicago, publisher of Ebony and JET (see entries for both elsewhere in this bibliography), and owner of Fashion Fair Cosmetics and Supreme Beauty products.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Johnson
Johnson, John H. Succeeding Against the Odds. Chicago: Johnson Publishing, 1992. #autobio #BlackAuthor
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Eugene Winslow (1919–2001)
#BlackDesigner #graphic #brand #advert #image #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“A member of the famed Tuskegee airmen and a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology,”writes Chris Dingwall (see entry below), “Eugene Winslow (1919-2001) crafted his career as a commercial artist to promote the ideal of racial integration—in image and in business. Though embittered at his experience as the sole African American at the IMPAC design firm, Winslow remained committed to graphic design as a tool to realize African Americans' civic membership in the United States.” Winslow was also the founder of Afro-Am Publishing in Chicago.
#CRG
Dingwall, Chris. “Eugene Winslow.” Race and the Design of American Life: African Americans in Twentieth-Century Commercial Art. Exhibition, University of Chicago Library, 2013–2014, https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/race-and-design-american-life/kingdom-commerce/eugene-winslow/
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #brand #advert #image #graphic #stereotyp #USA #NorthAmerica #1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #exhibition
Provides a short biography of Winslow and illustrates a couple of examples of his work.
#CRG
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
Hamill, Sean D. “Eugene Winslow, 81” (obituary), Chicago Tribune, 11 July 2001, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-07-11-0107110264-story.html.
Winslow’s obituary reads in part, “Born in Dayton, Ohio, he moved with his family to Chicago as a teen. Both of his parents were college graduates who encouraged all seven of their children to pursue education and the arts. Mr. Winslow took up both with enthusiasm. He graduated cum laude, receiving a degree in fine arts and literature from Dillard University in New Orleans.”
#CRG
Eugene Winslow Papers, Chicago Public Library, https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2287064126.
The finding aid states that “The Eugene Winslow Papers (1851-1994) consist of materials related to Eugene Winslow’s professional life as an artist and in publishing as the Vice President of the Afro-Am Publishing Company. The collection includes newspaper and journal articles, photographs, Winslow’s sketches, and his drafts of biographical summaries for Great Negroes Past and Present. The collection also includes a small amount of material related to Winslow’s personal life, his other writings, and family photographs.” The finding aid also contains a biography of Winslow.
#CRG
Eugene Winslow papers, 1933-1971, DuSable Museum of African American History.
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/surveys/chicago/chicago-public-library-woodson-regional-library-center/eugene-winslow
The Archives of American Art site suggests that the DuSable Museum has archival collections with this title/these dates, but there is no search capability on the dusablemuseum.org site, and its archives seem to have been closed to the public since before 2017.
#CRG
Eugene Winslow papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago, https://explore.chicagocollections.org/ead/uic/25/qg6s/.
The UIC catalogue entry states that “The Eugene Winslow Papers include correspondence, notes, memoranda, clippings, certificates, programs, photographs, brochures, sketches, graphic designs, schematics, and published works. Notable materials include early sketches drawn in high school, memorabilia from his time at the TAAF School in Tuskegee, Alabama, brochures and design proofs from his advertising work, and original artwork for multiple editions of Great Negroes Past and Present. His association with African-American inventor Rufus Stokes and their attempt to develop an independent Air Purification Company are also represented herein. These papers are arranged in chronological order with the exception of oversize material.”
#CRG
Betty Gubert Collection of African Americans in Aviation, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of AfroAmerican History and Literature
Shelby Westbrook and Chester Commodore Papers, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of AfroAmerican History and Literature
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Herbert Temple (1919–2011)
Painter, art director. Art Director of Ebony, Jet, Negro World, and various offshoots from 1954-1994. Graduate of School of the Art Institute.
#CRG
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
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Georg Olden (1920–1975)
#Graphic #Advertising #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
Known for his television graphics for CBS, and for his work as a creative director at BBDO.
#CRG
Lasky, Julie. “The Search for Georg Olden,” in Graphic Design History, eds. Steven Heller and Georgette Ballance [Allworth Press, 2001], 114-129.)
#KW
Lasky, Julie. “Georg Olden,” AIGA.org, https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/aiga-medalist/2007-aiga-medalist-georg-olden/
#CRG
“The Man at the Window,” Ebony (November 1960). Available at Google Books.
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S. Neil Fujita (1921–2010)
#GraphicDesign #JapaneseAmericanDesigner
Graphic designer “best known for his covers for CBS Records, which introduced abstract art to jazz packaging, and his book jackets for In Cold Blood and The Godfather.”
#VRP
Heller, Steven. “S. Neil Fujita, 1921-2010” (October 26, 2010)
https://www.aiga.org/s-neil-fujita-1921-2010
A 2007 interview with Fujita reposted after the designer’s death.
Boch, Akira, dir. Artbound. 10, 1, “Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience” Aired May 15, 2019 on KCET.
https://youtu.be/CpfhVmDNuho
Grimes, William. “S. Neil Fujita, Innovative Graphic Designer, Dies at 89.” The New York Times (October 27, 2010) https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/arts/design/27fujita.html.
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Thomas (Tom) Miller (1921–2012)
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Worked for Goldsholl Studios, an advertising and media firm run by Millie and Mort Goldsholl, who were graduates of the Chicago Bauhaus. Miller is credited with the original design for Motorola’s logo and 7-Up packaging and advertisements. Also designed Black history-themed mosaics in the entry hall of the DuSable Museum of African American History
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Miller_(visual_artist) (extensive)
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
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Reginald A. Gammon (1921-2005)
#Graphic #Image #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Gammon “was a painter and art educator who worked in New York City, Michigan, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a member of Spiral, an African American artist's collective based in New York City, as well as a member of the New Mexico Afro-American Artist Guild. He taught in the New York public schools and at Western Michigan University.” (From biographical note for Reginald Gammon papers: see below.)
#CRG
Reginald Gammon papers, 1927-2007, bulk 1960-2005, Archives of American Art, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/reginald-gammon-papers-13635/biographical-note.
Shagham, Janet Yagoda. “Biography,” ReginaldGammon.com, http://www.reggiegammon.com/biography.html.
reginaldgammon.com includes Gammon’s CV, plus a very extensive bibliography about his works (http://www.reggiegammon.com/bibliography.html). There is also a gallery of his paintings and works on paper (http://www.reggiegammon.com/gallery.html).
#CRG
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Solomana (aka Souleymane, Sulemaana) Kantè (1922–1987).
#Graphic #Script #Type #BlackDesigner #Africa #Guinea #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Inventor of the N’ko (“I say”) script for writing Manding/Mandinka (West African languages) in 1949. Translated the Koran/Q’uran into N’ko, and wrote about 100 books in N’ko. (Search also for “N’ko” in this document.)
#CRG
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomana_Kante.
Donaldson, Coleman. "The Role of Islam, Ajami writings, and educational reform in Sulemaana Kantè's N'ko." African Studies Review 63, no. 3 (September 2020): 462–486, https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2019.59.
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Gene Bilbrew (1923–1974)
#Graphic #image #illustration #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #bio
“Eugene ‘Gene’ Bilbrew was an African-American vocal group singer, cartoonist, and ‘bizarre art’ pioneer. As noted in the biography, GENE BILBREW REVEALED: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer, he was ‘the first black career fetish artist in history.’ Starting in the mid-1950s, he was among the most prolific illustrators of fetish-oriented pulp book covers. In addition to signing his work under his own name, he produced art under a range of pseudonyms, including ENEG (‘Gene’ spelled backwards), Van Rod, and Bondy.” (Excerpted from Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/28/profile-gene-bilbrew-1923-1974/)
#CRG
“Profile: Gene Bilbrew (1923-1974).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/28/profile-gene-bilbrew-1923-1974/.
Seves, Richard. Gene Bilbrew Revealed: The Unsung Legacy of a Fetish Art Pioneer.
KDP Print US [independently published], 2019, https://www.amazon.com/GENE-BILBREW-REVEALED-Pioneer-American/dp/1072487543.
Note: Amazon reviewer “GoPeterson” has posted a few images from the book in their review, including a photo of Bilbrew (the only one I’ve come across thus far).
#CRG
Linderman, Jim. “A Long-Lost Artist of the 1950s Sexual Underground,” Hyperallergic, 5 January 2015, https://hyperallergic.com/172180/a-long-lost-artist-of-the-1950s-sexual-underground/.
Features images of book covers that Bilbrew illustrated.
Linderman, Jim. “Gene Bilbrew African-American Artist of Vintage Sleaze.” Dull Tool Dim Bulb (blog), March 2009, http://dulltooldimbulb.blogspot.com/2009/03/eugene-bilbrew-african-american-artist.html
Features color images of book covers that Bilbrew illustrated.
Linderman, Jim. “Cult of the Spankers: the X-rated artists who turned Times Square into smut central,” The Guardian, 4 March 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/mar/04/cult-of-the-spankers-pulp-fiction-times-square-smut
Linderman, Jim. Times Square Smut. Blurb, 2015. https://www.blurb.com/b/6035290-times-square-smut.
Tells the story of “smut” publisher and Times Square adult bookseller Edward Mishkin, who was arrested in 1959 for violating obscenity laws. Bilbrew designed the covers for many of the 72 books that were confiscated/banned as part of Mishkin’s conviction.
#CRG
Daley, B. Astrid and Adam Parfrey, eds., SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties
(expanded edition). Feral House, 2016. https://feralhouse.com/sin-a-rama/.
Contains images of Bilbrew’s works.
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Joel Robinson (c.1923–?)
#BlackDesigner #Fashion #Furniture #Industrial #Modern #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
Fabric and furniture designer; included in MoMA Good Design exhibitions of 1951, 1952, and 1955; he won an award for his “Ovals” fabric pattern in the 1951 show.
#KW
Profile: “Fabric Designer,” Ebony (May 1952): 113–117
Andrew Gardner, “ ‘Lily-White’: Joel Robinson and Black Identity in MoMA’s Good Design Program,” MoMA Post: Notes on Art in a Global Context (June 5, 2019), accessed Aug. 18, 2020:
https://post.moma.org/lily-white-joel-robinson-and-black-identity-in-momas-good-design-program/
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Morris “Morrie” Turner (1923–2014)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Californian comic artist. Drew comics for Ebony and was the first Black comic artist to have a syndicated strip: Wee Pals.
#CRG
Harvey, R.C. “To Say His Name is Both Eulogy and Tribute,” The Comics Journal, 10 February 2014, http://www.tcj.com/morrie-turner-to-say-the-name-is-both-eulogy-and-tribute/
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Frankie Welch (1924– )
#Fashion #NativeAmericanDesigner #Cherokee
#VRP
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Welch.
Kramer, Karen. Native Fashion Now: North American Indian Style. Salem: Peabody Essex Museum, 2015.
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Vincent T. Cullers (1924–2003)
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
"Vince Cullers was a pioneer of ethnic/targeted/multicultural advertising in the United States. He started Vince Cullers Advertising in 1956," and was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2007. See http://advertisinghall.org/members/member_bio.php?memid=2684&uflag=c&uyear=.BarbaraSherlock (There is also a video of the induction ceremony, which I haven’t watched yet.)
#CRG
Cullers is one of the seven Black designers from Chicago featured in Margolin, Victor (dir./prod.), African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
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Evangeline (Van) Cleage (b.1928?)
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerican #1940–1980
A graduate of Howard University, in 1956 Ebony describes her as the “first and only” Black designer for Frolic Time Sportswear creating popular designs for their juniors line.
A 2017 article in the Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) discusses her universal design house.
A profile of her in Ebony January 1956, pp. 41-45;
https://www.greenehistory.org/pdf/NewsletterVol22Issue1.pdf
#KW
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Frank Cavalier Braxton (1929–1969)
#Graphic #Illustration #animation #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
Black animator and director who began his career at Warner Bros.; was one of the first African-American animators employed at a Hollywood studio.
#CRG
“Profile: Frank Braxton (1929-1969).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/05/profile-frank-braxton-1929-1969/
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Reynold Ruffins (1930–2021)
#Graphic #illustration #BlackDesigner #USA #1940-1980
“American painter, illustrator [of more than twenty children’s books], and graphic designer. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Seymour Chwast, Ruffins founded Push Pin Studios in 1954….In 1963, after leaving Push Pin, Ruffins founded another design studio with Simms Taback, a partnership which lasted for more than thirty years. Commercial clients included IBM, AT&T, Coca-Cola, CBS, Pfizer, the New York Times, Time-Life, Fortune, Gourmet Magazine, and the U.S. Post Office.” (from https://blackartstory.org/2020/06/29/profile-reynold-ruffins-1930/)
#CRG
“Profile: Reynold Ruffins (1930-).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/06/29/profile-reynold-ruffins-1930/
Images of some of his early (1950s) design work can be found in the Milton Glaser Archives, https://archives.sva.edu/blog/post/reynold-ruffins-in-the-push-pin-graphic, and some of his works from the 1970s are viewable at Revision Needed, https://www.revisionneeded.com/reynold-ruffins/2019/10/7/reynold-ruffins.
Obituary from the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/obituaries/reynold-ruffins-dead.html
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Charles Harrison (1931–2018)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #Autobio #USA #NorthAmerica #Race #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Harrison, Charles. A Life’s Design: The Life and Work of Industrial Designer Charles Harrison. Chicago, Ill: Ibis Design, Inc, 2005.
#BlackDesigner #Race
Really compelling casual first-person narrative of being an African American designer (and GI bill education and lots of other things) and how getting hired by Sears and then staying there for decades played out and the racism built in to every part of that…
#VRP
First person account by the first Black Sears executive, designer of ViewMaster among hundreds (thousands?) of Sears/Kenmore products. “Starting My Career” chapter is short with lots of images and tells of professional ID work & discrimination in mid-20th c.
#BW #GVK
Hopkinson, Natalie. “Industrial Designer’s Work is a Fixture in American Homes,” The Crisis (Jan–Feb 2007).
#BlackDesigner #Race
This article in The Crisis provides an overview of Harrison’s work and his contribution to design. It includes some information from the book (above), and it is freely available in google books.
#JKB
Fisher, Michelle Millar. “African American Designers Hidden in Plain Sight,” Hyperallergic, December 31, 2018
#BlackDesigner #Race
This article gives an overview of Harrison and the fashion company New Breed as two new acquisitions at MoMA and the challenges experienced acquiring new work into designs collections.
#MMF
Margolin, Victor (dir./prod.), African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
Harrison is one of the seven designers/panelists featured in this symposium.
#CRG
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André Richardson King (1931–)
#Graphic #Architecture #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
According to prabook.com, King was an architectural graphic designer who attended Chicago Technology College, the University of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago, who worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago from 1956 to 1982, and who was a member of AIGA, SEGD, and the Art Directors Club of Chicago, of which he was president from 1978 to 1982. He also seems to have been a painter, because many of his works have records on auction sites.
#CRG
“André Richardson King,” https://prabook.com/web/andre.king/779242
Provides basic (but unfortunately unsourced and difficult to verify) facts about King’s life.
#CRG
“André Richardson King,” Chicago Design Archive, https://chicagodesignarchive.org/designer/andre-richardson-king.
Provides short bio of King, and—notably—a good selection of his works.
#CRG
“André Richardson King,” AskART, https://www.askart.com/artist/Andre_Richardson_King/11329694/Andre_Richardson_King.aspx.
A bio of King that mentions his connection to Margaret Burroughs. It is subscription-only content, so I can’t view it all, but...apparently the site is free on Fridays!
#CRG
Poyser, Tracy. “The 9 Lives of André and Sally King,” Malibu East Condominium Association, 1 June 2019, http://www.malibueast.org/6033/content/9-lives-andr%C3%A9-and-sally-king
The most informative biography I’ve found yet...which is apparently based on an interview someone did of André King at the condo where he now lives! It discusses his studies of painting in Münich, his time in the Air Force, his contributions to the field of environmental graphics and signage, etc.
#CRG
Margolin, Victor (director and producer). African-American Designers Chicago: Conversation with the Pioneers (video, 1:09:09), 5 February 2000. Chicago Design Archive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_LgYXmKz8.
#rac #bias #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #GraphicDesign #IndustrialDesign
#1900-1940 #1940-1980 #1980-2020
This is a recording of the symposium “African-American Designers: The Chicago Experience Then and Now,” which Victor Margolin organized, moderated, and recorded at Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History in 2000. It is a panel discussion featuring seven Black designers from Chicago: Vince Cullers, Charles Harrison, Andre King, Eugene Winslow, Tom Miller, Herbert Temple, and LeRoy Winbush.
#CRG
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Cleven “Goodie” Goudeau, aka Goodal, aka Goodall (1932–2015)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
SF Bay Area cartoonist and founder of Onyx Enterprises, Inc., which produced the first line of Black greeting cards, 1968– 1974.
#CRG
Sanders, Joshunda. “PROFILE / Goodie Humor / Cartoonist Cleven Goudeau on making art in a white world,” SFGate, 18 April 2004, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PROFILE-Goodie-Humor-Cartoonist-Cleven-2766610.php
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Calvin Ashford (1935–2008)
#blackdesigner #NorthAmerica #USA
Black interior designer in Chicago, founded the firm Gilmore-Ashford-Powers. Known for celebrity clients like Maya Angelou. He founded the Black Interior Designers Association and was active in the Organization of Black Designers.
#SDR
Archive at the University of Illinois at Chicago: https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/879681531
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J. Max Bond, Jr. (1935–2009)
#USA #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Architect
Harvard GSD trained architect, worked in Ghana 1964-1967, then Harlem ARCH group, 1967-68, many public commissions including museum of WTC Memorial.
Goldstein, Brian D. The Roots of Urban Renaissance: Gentrification and the Struggle Over Harlem. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017.
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Elaine “Jae” Jarrell (1935– )
#fashion #appropriat #SocialJustice #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980
Part of AfriCOBRA in Chicago, known for her two-piece Revolutionary Suit of 1968 and Urban Wall Suit of 1969.
#VRP #CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jae_Jarrell.
“Black Revolt Sparks White Fashion Craze,” JET (January 28, 1971) 42-45.
https://books.google.com/books?id=wjcDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA42&dq=%E2%80%9CBlack%20Revolt%20Sparks%20White%20Fashion%20Craze&pg=PA42#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CBlack%20Revolt%20Sparks%20White%20Fashion%20Craze&f=false
Criticized white fashion for cultural appropriation of bandolier and Jarrell’s Revolutionary Suit.
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Emmett McBain (1935–2012)
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Known for advertising, esp. Black Marlboro man, but also lots of other Black-directed advertising campaigns.
#CRG
Rajagopal, Avinash. "Emmett McBain" (AIGA medalist, 2017), https://www.aiga.org/2017-aiga-medalist-emmett-mcbain
Dingwall, Chris. Race and the Design of American Life: African Americans in Twentieth-Century Commercial Art, (includes short bio of McBain) at https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/media/documents/exrad-text.pdf, pp. 8–9.
Chambers, Jason. “The Golden Age.” In Madison Avenue and the Color Line, 206–258. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Dolson, Nikki. “A Party of Color: Remembering the Iconic Adman Emmett McBain.” Newcity, July 26, 2012. http://www.newcity.com/2012/07/26/a-party-of-color-remembering-the-iconic-adman-emmett-mcbain/
“Emmett McBain, Burrell Advertising co-founder and prominent artist, dies at 77.” Target Market News, June 11, 2012. http://targetmarketnews.com/storyid06111201.htm
Sherlock, Barbara. “Vincent T. Cullers, 79.” Chicago Tribune, October 10, 2003. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-10-10/news/0310100335_1_clio-awards-number-of-other-agencies-blacks
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Robert “Buck” Brown (1936–2007)
#Graphic #illustration #image #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“Robert ‘Buck’ Brown was an American painter and cartoonist best known for creating Playboy magazine’s toothless, saggy-breasted, highly-sexed, naughty ‘Granny’ character….Brown also had thousands of other drawings published by publications such as Esquire, Ebony and Jet. Many of his cartoons were filled with commentary on civil rights issues affecting African Americans. He created several album covers for the Chiaroscuro Jazz Record label….” (Excerpted from Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/08/profile-robert-brown-1936-2007/)
#CRG
“Profile: Robert Brown (1936-2007).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/08/profile-robert-brown-1936-2007/
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Robert E. Paige (1936–)
#Textile #Graphic
Member of AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Radical Artists), produced textiles for small production as well as for Sears. Graduate of School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Rebecca Zorach, Marissa H. Baker, and David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, The Time Is Now!: Art Worlds of Chicago’s South Side, 1960-1980 (Chicago, Illinois: Smart Museum of Art, 2018).
“Runaway Rises to Top Designer,” Ebony (January 1969
https://books.google.com/books?id=LuIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&dq=design&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q=design&f=false
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Noel Mayo (1937–)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #IndustrialDesigner #InteriorDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica
“The first black graduate to receive a B.S. degree in Industrial Design from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1960,” according to TheHistoryMakers.org, and the “owner and president of the first African-American industrial design firm in the United States [est. 1964], whose clients include NASA, IBM, the Department of Commerce and Agriculture, Black and Decker, the Museum of American Jewish History, and the Philadelphia International Airport.” And Lutron Electronics, the majority of whose products he has designed. Is named on over 1,000 patents for Lutron alone!
#CRG
“Noel Mayo” (interview). TheHistoryMakers.org, 5 September 2002, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/noel-mayo-39.
A good bio of Mayo, plus lengthy interview. A short clip is available on the site for free; access to most of the content requires a subscription.
#CRG
“About.” Noel Mayo Associates, http://noelmayo.com/nma-about.html.
Another good bio of Mayo, with more detail about his clients and professional and service activities.
#CRG
“RIT Design Conversations — A Life of Firsts: Noel Mayo” (#video, 1:08:25), DesignMilk, 20 October 2020, https://design-milk.com/watch-rit-design-conversations-a-life-of-firsts-noel-mayo-video/
#CRG
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Barbara Jones-Hogu (1938–2017)
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“Painter and printmaker Barbara Jones-Hogu was a founding member of the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), an artist collective formed in Chicago in 1968.” Many of her works were, or were made into, posters and graphics.
#CRG
https://americanart.si.edu/education/oh-freedom/barbara-jones-hogu
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Jones-Hogu.
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Carolina Herrera (1939–)
#Fashion #LatinxDesigner #WomanDesigner #Venezuela #SouthAmerica #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
The first paragraph of her Wikipedia entry reads: “Carolina Herrera (born 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan fashion designer known for "exceptional personal style," and for dressing various First Ladies, including Jacqueline Onassis, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump.”
#CRG
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Tom Burrell (1939– )
#Graphic #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Co-founder of Burrell & McBain (with Emmett McBain: see above); after McBain left, founded Burrell Communications Group, an agency with many large/famous brands as clients.
#CRG
“Thomas J. Burrell” (interview), The History Makers, 5 June 2001, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/thomas-j-burrell-40.
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Lisa Lyons (c. 1940???)
#BlackDesigner #BlackWoman #WomanDesigner #GraphicDesigner #branding #USA #NorthAmerica ##
Designed the well-known California Black Panther Party logo (adapting it from the original Alabama black panther party logo drawn by Dorothy Zellner, a white woman), and BPP posters.
#CRG
Cushing, Lincoln. “The Women Behind the Black Panther Party Logo,” Design Observer, 1 February 2018.
https://designobserver.com/feature/the-women-behind-the-black-panther-party-logo/39755
Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans,” Poster House, June 13, 2020/
https://posterhouse.org/blog/a-century-of-posters-protesting-violence-against-black-americans/
#EM #CRG
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Rupert García (1941– )
#LatinxDesigner #USA #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #image #graphic #print #SocialJustice
Printmaker/poster maker active in Chicano art movement and other activist groups in the San Francisco area; arguably best known today for his protest/activist posters from the 1960s–1980s.
#CRG
Zarobell, John. “Studio Sessions: Rupert Garcia.” Art Practical, 30 January 2018. https://www.artpractical.com/column/studio-sessions-rupert-garcia/
A good interview with more information about García’s life than most museum sites have.
#CRG
Oral history interview with Rupert Garcia, 1995 Sept. 7-1996 June 24. Archives of American Art, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-rupert-garcia-13572.
Provides a 166-page downloadable transcript of the 8.5 hours of audio recorded interviews (on 9 cassettes!) that Paul J. Karlstrom of the AAA conducted in 1995–1996 with García. There is also an audio clip of the first five minutes of the first cassette recording playable on the site. (I wonder what students would make of Karlstrom’s comments, questions, and tone? I found them more than a little cringy).
#CRG
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Archie Boston (1943– )
#Graphic #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackDesigner #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Worked in advertising and at Cal State Long Beach.
#CRG
“Archie Boston,” AIGA, https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-archie-boston/.
AIGA Medalist, 2021, https://www.aiga.org/membership-community/aiga-awards/2021-aiga-medalist-archie-boston-jr
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Stephen Burrows (1943– )
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
#VRP
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Burrows_(designer)
Morera, Daniela, ed. Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications, 2013.
“Stephen Burrows World,” https://stephenburrows.com/ (personal website).
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Emory Douglas (1943– )
#Graphic #Image #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackDesigner #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #SocialJustice
Worked as minister of culture for the Black Panther Party.
Gaiter, Colette. “What a Revolution Looks Like: The Work of Black Panther Artist Emory Douglas,” in Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas (New York: Rizzoli, 2014) 93–109.
Douglas, Emory, Danny Glover, Bobby Seale, Sam Durant, Sonia Sanchez, Kathleen Cleaver, Colette Gaiter, Greg Jung Morozumi, Amiri Baraka, and St Clair Bourne. Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 2014.
Stromberg, Tara Rose. “Emory Douglas: The Art of The Black Panthers.” Produced by Dress Code. 2015. Vimeo Video, 7:56. https://vimeo.com/128523144. #A/V #video
Built by Civilization, Emory Douglas lecture, Vimeo.com, September 16, 2016 https://designlectur.es/events/emory-douglas/
This is a well-produced (and witty!) lecture with Douglas, hosted by Civilization, a design practice in Seattle with design for social justice at the core of their practice.
#BH
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Mahendra Patel (1943–)
#Asia #India #1970-2000 #typography #map #signage #ype #print #identity
His work has concentrated on type design development projects of Indian scripts of Devanagari, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu Scripts. And he has plans to work on Oriya and Gurumukhi. He has also worked extensively on map design projects including Tourist and Bus-route Maps for Ahmedabad City; Guide Maps for Gujarat State and Goa District; Irrigation and Ecology Maps for Gujarat State; Industrial and Archeological Sites Maps for Government of India. In 2000, he designed Signage Design System for Tirupati, India’s most prestigious privilege place. And in 2002 He designed the Tourist Signage Design System for Hyderabad City.
#MDK
https://patelmc.wordpress.com/mahendrapatel/
Bio and extensive interview at designindia.net
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Ester Hernández (1944– )
#LatinxDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020 #graphic #image #brand #SocialJustice
California activist, muralist, and printmaker; perhaps best known for her Sun Mad poster.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_Hernandez.
“Sun Mad.” Center for the Study of Political Graphics. http://collection-politicalgraphics.org/detail.php?term=latino&module=objects&type=keyword&x=0&y=0&kv=2264&record=26&module=objects
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Willi Smith (1948–1987)
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
#VRP #CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi_Smith
The Willi Smith Digital Community Archive, part of the exhibition Willi Smith: Street Couture, https://willismitharchive.cargo.site/
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Edward T. Welburn (1950–)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
According to his Wikipedia page, “Edward T. Welburn (born December 14, 1950) is an automobile designer and former General Motors' Vice President of Global Design, a role in which he served from 2003 to 2016 and the same position that Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell once held. To date, Welburn still holds the distinction of having been the highest-ranking African-American in the global automotive industry.[1] He has overseen the development of recent GM products, such as the Chevrolet Corvette, Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Camaro.”
#CRG
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Cheryl D. Holmes Miller (1952– )
#Graphic #Image #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackDesigner #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Designer of the BET logo and author of the 1987 Print article "Black Designers Missing in Action," as well as follow-ups to that article in 1990, 201,6 and 2020.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_D._Miller
Cheryl D. Miller personal archive, Stanford University, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/12663738
Miller, Cheryl D. “Transcending the Problems of the Black Graphic Designer to Success in the Marketplace,” M.S. thesis in Communications Design, Pratt Institute (May 1985), https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:tr623tv1100/CDMiller_1985.pdf
Miller’s is arguably the first work of scholarship to point to structural or systemic racism as a primary reason why Black people had historically been underrepresented in the field of graphic design. “Whether racism or discrimination exists today is not the issue. The fact exists that it has been an integral part of America’s character” (5).
#CRG
Miller, Cheryl D. "Black Designers: Missing in Action." Print 41, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1987): 58–65, 136, 138. https://www.scribd.com/document/287765658/Black-Designers-Missing-in-Action-by-Cheryl-D-Miller
Describes some of the challenges that Black graphic designers faced in entering and working in the field of graphic design in the 1980s, and points to successful Black designers working at the time.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Embracing Cultural Diversity in Design,” Step-by-Step, (January-February 1990).
Note: I do not have complete bibliographic information for this one, nor have I found a link for it yet.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. "Black Designers: Still Missing in Action?" Print 70, no. 2 (summer 2016).
An update/follow-up to Miller’s 1987 essay, above. (Note change in byline from Cheryl D. Miller to Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller.)
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part I: ‘Where are the Black Designers?’ They Asked.” Print, 24 September 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-i
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part II: Being Part of the Club.” Print, 1 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-ii
Discusses Black (former) members’ frustration with racism at AIGA, the Type Directors Club, and similar organizations.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part III: Miseducation.” Print, 8 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-iii
Discusses student calls for racial justice at RISD.
#CRG
Holmes-Miller, Cheryl D. “Black Designers: Forward in Action. Part IV: The History of Black Graphic Design.” Print, 15 October 2020, https://www.printmag.com/post/black-designers-forward-in-action-part-iv
Calls out the skewed racial and gender representation in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design and points out that enslaved Blacks worked in the field of graphic design.
#CRG
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Ron Rogers (1954–2020)
#Graphic #Image #Illustration #USA #NorthAmerica #BlackDesigner #1940-1980 #1980-2020
“Ron Rogers was a political cartoonist and illustrator. An African-American, his work was published in Richmond Planet from 1980 to 1988, in books and greeting cards throughout his career, in the South Bend Tribune until 2010, and in the Winston-Salem Chronicle from 2014 to 2018.” (From Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/06/29/ron-rogers-cartoonist-1954-2020/)
#CRG
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Patrick Kelly (1954–1990)
#fashion #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
#VRP #CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Kelly_(fashion_designer)
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Loretta Staples (c.1954– )
#Graphic #Typography #Interaction #UI #BlackDesigner #AsianAmericanDesigner #WomanDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Staples was a user interface designer in the 1980s and 1990s, before that term was widely used. She worked at Apple from 1990–92, and then founded her own firm, U dot I. She wrote “Typography and the Screen: A Technical Chronology of Digital Typography, 1984-1997,” published in Design Issues, and contributed to many conferences and anthologies of writing about digital design. (See Worldcat.org for a good list.)
#CRG
Fisher, Nika Simovich. “A Pioneer of Digital Design Looks Back on a Defining Era,” New York Times, 18 March 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/style/loretta-staples-ui-design.html
A good overview of Staples’s career.
#CRG
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Art Sims (1954– )
#Graphic #Image #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Known especially for movie posters.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Sims
“Art Sims, CEO.” 11:24 Design, https://1124design.com/art-sims.
“Art Sims.” AIGA.org, 1 September 2008. https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-art-sims
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Khipra Nichols (c.1956?–)
#Industrial #BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Now on the faculty at RISD, Nichols was, for twenty years, “a lead product designer at Hasbro, the toy company headquartered in Pawtucket, RI. Among the familiar toys he helped develop and refine in that time are Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony and many products in the Playskool line; the 16 patents Nichols has earned reflect his specialty in infant care items for feeding, health and safety, as well as parent aids and licensed soft toys.” (From his RISD page, below.)
#CRG
“Khipra Nichols” RISD.edu faculty page, https://www.risd.edu/people/khipra-nichols/
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Buddy Esquire (1958–2014)
#Graphic #Typography #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Known for his design of hip-hop concert and party fliers.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Esquire
Kugelberg, Johan. Buddy Esquire: King of the Hip Hop Flyer. Sinecure Books, 2015. https://books.google.com/books/about/Buddy_Esquire.html?id=i4vjnQEACAAJ
Esquire, Buddy. Hop Hop Party and Event Flyers. Cornell University Library digital collections, https://digital.library.cornell.edu/?f%5Bcollection_tesim%5D%5B%5D=Hip+Hop+Party+and+Event+Flyers&f%5Bcreator_facet_tesim%5D%5B%5D=Buddy+Esquire+(%22The+Flyer+King%22)+(Hip+Hop+Flyer+Designer,+active+in+the+1970s+and+1980s).
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Sylvia Harris (1958–2011)
#Graphic #Typography #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Known for her work at WGBH and her firm’s design of the 2000 Census.
#CRG
Gibson, David. “Sylvia Harris.” AIGA.org, 8 September 2014, https://www.aiga.org/medalist-sylvia-harris
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Isabel Toledo (1960–2019)
#Fashion #LatinxDesigner #WomanDesigner #Cuba #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
First paragraph of her Wikipedia page reads “Isabel Toledo (born Maria Isabel Izquierdo; April 9, 1960 – August 26, 2019) was a Cuban-American fashion designer based in New York City. She was widely recognized in the fashion industry for her attention to craftsmanship and the "sophisticated simplicity" of her garments.”
#CRG
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Cey Adams (1962–)
#Graphic #Typography #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1940-1980 #1980-2020
Black graphic designer known especially for his album art for the Def Jam label.
#CRG
Website at http://ceyadams.com/
Video interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=nT5Ics9mgso&feature=emb_logo.
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Gail Anderson (1962– )
#Graphic #Typography #Image #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Worked in a variety of roles at Rolling Stone, 1987–2002. AIGA medalist, 2008.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Anderson_(graphic_designer)
Heller, Steven. “Gail Anderson” (2008 AIGA medalist biography), 1 September 2008, AIGA, https://www.aiga.org/medalist-gailanderson.
“About/Contact,” https://www.gailycurl.com/About-Contact (personal website).
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Sheila Bridges (1964– )
#BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #1980-2020 #USA #NorthAmerica #textiles
Black interior designer, started her own firm in 1994. Sheila Bridges Design; best known for her Harlem Toile designs.
#SDR
https://www.sheilabridges.com/
https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18061277/objects/
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Anna Sui (1964– )
fashion designer with an almost encyclopedic catalogue of references in her pick-and-mix style of design. Her work is particularly informed by historical bohemainisms in fashion and pop music. #Fashion #ChineseAmericanDesigner
#VRP
Bolton, Andrew. Anna Sui. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2010.
Blanks, Tim. The World of Anna Sui. New York: Abrams, 2018.
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Michael Burton (c.1966?–2016)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Automotive designer at Ford, Chrysler, and GM (in that order).
#CRG
Tate, Robert. “Remembering the Great Michael Burton,” MotorCities.org, 8 August 2016, https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2016/remembering-the-great-michael-burton
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Norman Teague (1968– )
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #Furniture #USA #1980-2020
Furniture and environments, part of BLKHaus studios. Norman Teague is a Chicago based designer and educator who focuses on projects and pedagogy that address the complexity of urbanism and the culture of communities. Specializing in custom furniture that delivers a personal touch to a specific user and unique aesthetic detail, Teague's past projects have included consumer products, public sculpture, performances, and specially designed retail spaces. Working with common, locally-sourced building materials and local fabricators to create objects and spaces that explore simplicity, honesty and cleverness and relates to the culture of the client and/or community.
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Pablo Medina (1970– )
#LatinxDesigner #ManDesigner #Graphic #Type #typography #USA #1980-2020
Graphic designer known especially for his type designs that echo the appearance of Latin American sign painting.
#CRG
Londoño, Johana. “The Latino-ness of type: making design identities socially significant.” Social Semiotics 25, no. 2 (2015),
Typographic Landscaping: Creativity, Ideology, Movement. Guest Editors: Johan Järlehed and Adam Jaworski. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2015.1010320.
Haven’t read this yet.
#CRG
Bostwick, William. “Pablo Medina,” AIGA Journeys, 1 September 2008, https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-pablo-medina
A biography of Medina pointing to his punk background and fascination with hand-lettered Cuban, Colombian, and New Jersey signs as sources for his typeface designs.
#CRG
Londoño, Johana. “Barrio Affinities: Transnational Inspiration and the Geopolitics of Latina/o Design.” American Quarterly 66, No. 3 (September 2014): pp. 529-548.
Discusses the typefaces that Medina designs, which are based on the lettering styles of hand-painted signs in the barrio.
#CRG
Personal websites: http://pabloamedina.com/about and https://designisculture.com/.
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Ralph Victor Gilles (1970–)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #USA #Canada #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
The first two paragraphs of his Wikipedia entry describe him as “a Haitian-Canadian-American automobile designer and executive. Gilles was the President and CEO of Chrysler's SRT brand and Senior Vice President of Design at Chrysler before being promoted to Head of Design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in April 2015. Gilles styled the North American Car of the Year-winning 2005 Chrysler 300 after joining Chrysler in 1992. Gilles also led the design team that created the 2014 SRT Viper.”
#CRG
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Hannah Beachler (1970– )
#BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #interior #set #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Set designer, worked on films such as Black Panther, Beyonce’s Lemonade, Moonlight.
#SDR
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Crystal Windham (c.1972–)
#BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #Industrial Designer #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Director of Cadillac Interior Design. Joined GM in 1994; became the first Black female director in the history of GM Design in 2008; became director of Cadillac interior design in 2016. Has also worked as an exterior design manager and as a lead designer for mid-sized cars.
#CRG
“Crystal Windham,” IDSA.org, https://www.idsa.org/members/crystal-windham.
Short bio of Windham (and source of much of the info above).
“Crystal Windham.” LinkedIn.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystal-windham/
A really useful LinkedIn page that provides information about Windham’s education, career history, etc.
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Amanda Williams (1974–)
#USA #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #Architect
Artist trained as an architect (IIT); “Williams’ creative practice employs color as a way to draw attention to the complexities of race, place and value in cities.”
https://awstudioart.com/home.html
“Why I Turned Chicago’s Abandoned Homes into Art” TED Talk, 2018. https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_williams_why_i_turned_chicago_s_abandoned_homes_into_art
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Earl Lucas (c.1974?–)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Chief Designer at Ford Motor Company since 1999, according to his LinkedIn, and prior to that, a designer for Lear, where he designed a plane interior for the Sultan of Brunei.
#CRG
“Earl Lucas,” Lincoln Motor Company Media Center. https://media.lincoln.com/content/lincolnmedia/lna/us/en/people/earl-lucas.html#:~:text=Earl%20Lucas%20is%20no%20stranger,as%20precise%20%E2%80%93%20albeit%20more%20subtle
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Burton Clarke (1974?–?)
#Graphic #illustration #Image #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
“Burton Clarke is a gay African-American alternative cartoonist. He is known for his contributions to the rise of LGBT comics and his focus on representing gay men of all races and classes in his art, using a mix of realism and fantasy to tackle complex issues such as internalized racism and homophobia.” From Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/10/13/profile-burton-clarke/.
#CRG
“Burton Clarke, A Gay Artist Who “Draws for My People.” Interview with Charles Michael Smith, New York Native, 10 August 1987; reprinted at http://urbanbookmaven.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-draw-for-my-people-asserted-burton.html
Burton Clarke (artwork) and PJ Anvil (story), Safer Sex Comix #8, New York’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), 1987, available at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/survivingandthriving/digitalgallery/documents/Safer-Sex-Comix-8-Scan.pdf
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Darrin Bell (1975– )
#Graphic #illustration #Image #BlackDesigner #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
“Darrin Bell is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator known for the syndicated comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park….Bell is the first African-American to have two comic strips syndicated nationally.” (From Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/23/profile-darrin-bell-1975/)
#CRG
“Profile: Darrin Bell (1975–).” Black Art Story, https://blackartstory.org/2020/09/23/profile-darrin-bell-1975/
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Andre Hudson (c.1976?–)
#BlackDesigner #ManDesigner #Industrial #USA #NorthAmerica #1980-2020
Automotive designer at GM, Hyundai, Icona, and IndiEV (in that order), according to his LInkedIn. Was design manager at Hyundai’s HATCI for nearly twelve years.
#CRG
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Vernon Lockhart (197?–)
#USA #BlackDesigner #ExhibitionDesign
Graduate of School of the Art Institute of Chicago, founder of Project Osmosis (Chicago) which teaches Black youth design skills through Black design history. A collector of Chicago’s Black design history, design work through On the Loose exhibition design.
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Stephen Burks (197?– )
Industrial designer, graduate of IIT and Columbia GSA. Man Made collection works with artisans to produce high-design elements. First designer with solo exhibition at Studio Museum of Harlem.
Burks, Stephen. Stephen Burks: Man Made. New York: Studio Museum Harlem, 2011.
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Denenge Duyst-Akpem (197?– )
#USA #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #Speculative #Fashion
Designer and Critic, Scholar of Afro-Futurism. “space sculptor whose visual art, writing, performance, and teaching bridge disciplines of site-specific and public art, ritual, interior design, ecology, and Afro-Futurism. She meticulously constructs fantastical interactive Afri-sci-fi environments and performances that interrogate, titillate, decolonize, and empower, rooted in Sun Ra’s transformational legacy, asking “Who controls the future?” She is Assistant Professor, Adjunct at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and founder of Denenge Design and In The Luscious Garden, focused on holistic and conceptual approaches to human-centered design.”
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Zebreda Dunham (1978– )
#USA #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner #1980-2020 #Disab
Dunham is a wheelchair user who designs adaptive devices for her own use, and posts videos to YouTube showing how they work and how she uses them to be self-sufficient. And, as her web page states, "’Zebreda Makes It Work!’ is a series of videos and experiences shared by Zebreda that highlight—even more than any particular tool—a frame of mind about assistive technology and how to imagine, create, adapt and troubleshoot your world and whatever obstacles you might encounter.”
http://www.zebredamakesitwork.com/
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Sadie Redwing (198?–)
#IndigenousDesigner #Graphic #USA
Graphic Designer, Lakota and Dakota. “Advocate for Tribal Visual Sovereignty,” Redwing explores the design heritage of Native Americans and the limitations of design history in terms of authorship, citation, and language.
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[THIS SECTION IN PROGRESS:]
Winifred Mason
#fashion
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Tracy Reese
#fashion
- - - - -
Carly Cushnie
#fashion
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Stella Jean
#fashion
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Azède Jean-Pierre
#fashion
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Pen & Pixel
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Laini (aka Sylvia Abernathy) (??–2010)
Known for Delmark record album designs.
#graphic #USA #BlackDesigner #WomanDesigner
https://letterformarchive.org/news/laini-sylvia-abernathy
Lupton, Ellen, “Laini Abernathy,” Cooper Hewitt, 2021. https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2021/02/10/laini-abernathy/
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Fundi (Billy Abernathy)
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Sun Ra
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Lonny Wood, aka Phase 2
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Mark Suckle
designer during Civil Rights movement.
See Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans” #EM/#CRG
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Ron Cobb
Designed Civil Rights posters.
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Daysi García López
Designed Civil Rights posters.
See Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans”
#EM/#CRG
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Rafael Morante
Designed Civil Rights posters.
See Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans”
#EM #CRG
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Madame Binh Graphics Collective
Designed Civil Rights posters.
See Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans”
#EM #CRG
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Scott Braley
Madame Binh Graphics Collective
Designed Civil Rights posters.
See Lippert, Angelina. “A Century of Posters Protesting Violence Against Black Americans”
#EM #CRG
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Darhil Crooks
Associate Creative Director at Apple, formerly Creative Director at The Atlantic and before that, Ebony, and before that, Art Director at Esquire. This is someone who should have a Wikipedia page, but doesn’t.
#CRG
See https://cargocollective.com/darhilcrooks and
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darhil-crooks-81837018/.
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Eddie Opara (1972–)
partner at Pentagram since 2010.
#CRG
Personal website: https://www.pentagram.com/about/eddie-opara
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Steve Johnson
Vice President, Product & Studio Design, Netflix.
Bio here: https://leadingdesign.com/conferences/sanfran-2020/speakers/steve-johnson.
Nice interview/presentation called "The Power of An Ally," with Asian' American colleague Rochelle King, here: https://vimeo.com/351141750
#CRG
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Alexandra Bell
Artist/designer who does publicly posted revisions of racist NYTimes stories/layouts.
Personal Website: http://www.alexandrabell.com/public-work
Maurice Cherry. "Where Are the Black Designers?" (video and transcript from SXSW Interactive presentation, 15 March 2015). http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/where-are-the-black-designers/ A personal narrative of how he got into design. This talk inspired theWhere Are The Black Designers conference in June 2020, the Design Education Panel Discussion can be watched here
#CRG
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Nikkolas Smith
Has made paintings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others killed by police, and of protestors confronting police, as well as what I might call “critical illustrations” of other aspects of the USA’s racist society.
See NPR.org, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/883490848/artivist-nikkolas-smith-combines-art-and-activism-into-a-singular-superpower
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Winifred Mason
Mid-century jeweler
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Martha Jones
Resident of Amelia County, Va., became the first black woman to receive a United States patent. Her application for an “Improvement to the Corn Husker, Sheller” was granted U.S. patent No. 77,494 in 1868. Five years later in 1873, Mary Jones De Leon of Baltimore was granted U.S. patent No. 140,253 for a novel cooking apparatus. Judy W. Reed and from Washington D.C. was granted a patent in 1884 for a dough kneader and roller (U.S. patent No. 305,474) and Goode was granted her patent in 1885 (U.S. patent No. 322,177). From the comments of this article: http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2016/jul/14/inventor-sarah-e-goode-first-black-woman-awarded-p/
#CRG
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David H. Rice
Co-founder of Organization of Black Designers and president of Design Communications, Inc.
For sure merits a Wikipedia page of his own. He has a short bio on the OBD page right now, at least.
#CRG
See short bio at https://www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/alumni/2402/david-rice. Shauna Stallworth: co-founder of Organization of Black Designers.
See oral history interview at https://revisionpath.com/oral-history-of-organization-of-black-designers/
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Jack Travis, FAIA, NOMAC
Has done residential interiors for Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, et al., and has an impressive list of commercial clients. Edited 1992 book called African American Architects: In Current Practice. He is another person who, as a fellow of one of the big design organizations, seems like he merits a Wikipedia page!
#CRG
Short professional bio is here.
Short description of a 2013 conference session he ran in 2013 called Design From a Black Perspective is here.
His LinkedIn is here.
Jack Travis, “African American Architecture: From Idea to Published Product” Journal of Architectural Education v. 47, no 1, 60–62 (1993).
#SDR
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Fo Wilson
BLKHaus https://blkhausstudios.com/
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Eric Anderson
Industrial designer; fellow and former president of IDSA; faculty at Carnegie Mellon.
#CRG
Short bio available on his FIDSA page.
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Ernesto Oroza
Cuban artist and designer.
#CRG
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Oroza
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Kia Weatherspoon
#blackdesigner
Interior designer, firm Determined by Design is focused on design equity and advocacy. Her firm has focused on public housing projects, based in Washington DC.
#SDR
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Taneshia West Albert
#blackdesigner #blackeducator
Assistant Professor, Interior Design, Auburn University; leads the diversity committee for IDEC (Interior Designer Educator Council)
#SDR
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Audrey Bennett
University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, MDes Director, UMichigan Stamps School of Design. Graphic Design Scholar.
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Antionette Carroll
Graphic designer, former AIGA board member
Creator of Creative Reaction Lab in St Louis: https://www.creativereactionlab.com/
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Ruth Carter
costume designer
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Deanna van Buren
Architect and founder of Designing Justice + Design Spaces - Oakland-based nonprofit architecture and real estate development firm with a mission to end mass incarceration and structural inequality.
#SDR
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Zena Howard
Cultural Practice Leader and Managing Director of the North Carolina office of Perkins + Will (formerly the Freelon Group), Zena is also a founding member of Perkins and Will’s global Diversity and Inclusion Council and served as Senior Project Manager for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture.
#SDR
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Nontsikelelo Mutiti
#blackdesigner #blackeducator
Graphic designer + educator, Zimbabwean, VCU department of graphic design
#SDR
Eye on Design "Nontiskelelo Mutiti on Interrogating the Euro-centric..."
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Compelling assignments/student projects
Courses / Seminars
BIPOC Design in America online course, facilitated by Polymode
https://bipocdesignhistory.com/
An online course, or series of lectures about African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design that launched in January 2021.
#BH
Wikipedia edit-athons
“Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Missing articles by dictionary/Women in Graphic Design,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Missing_articles_by_dictionary/Women_in_Graphic_Design,
provides a long list of women graphic designers that Wikipedia is looking for contributors to write articles about.
“WikiProject Women Wikipedia Design,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_Wikipedia_Design,
provides a list of female architects/planners that Wikipedia is looking for contributors to write articles about.
“Using Wikipedia's gaps as feminist teaching tools,” https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Learning_patterns/Using_Wikipedia%27s_gaps_as_feminist_teaching_tools.
Suggests some ways other than Wikipedia editing that instructors can use Wikipedia as a teaching tool. Same, perhaps, with the Writing About Women page: lots of good pointers there for undergraduate writers.
#CRG
FemTechNet’s instructions for how to get started editing Wikipedia entries. https://web.archive.org/web/20150828071634/http://femtechnet.newschool.edu/teaching-learning-resources/teaching-with-wikipedia/wikipedia-sample-assignments/
Sample syllabus for Wikipedia entry-writing assignments, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Sample_Syllabus_for_Wikipedia_assignment.pdf
Art and Feminism https://www.artandfeminism.org/
This group offers events. Contact: Sîan Evans sevans01@mica.edu
#BH
Google Folder with resources for incorporating Wikipedia writing and edition into pedagogy: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1rayHyrFfzyh9Rc52u30MZ8oAFzfW8BAD
“Art + Feminism Remote Learning Guide,” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lboXszyY2ttPM2M29TWlbBelGx0GnvSvv5AJFbWrCg4/edit
Describes a variety of different ways to incorporate Wikipedia editing projects into the classroom. Note that there is a long list of women graphic designers that they’re looking for entries on, here. I don’t know if there’s a comparable list for Black designers, or Latinx designers, etc., but will note it here if I find any.
#CRG
Are.na / Jamie Mahoney/ Diversifying Design
(decolonizing, queering, decoloring design history) the work of Jamie Mahoney, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, VCU https://www.are.na/jamie-mahoney/diversifying-design-ruoiuofrooc
#SDR
The graduate students in Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama program in 2009, under the supervision of Dr. Sandra Richards and Dr. Harvey Young created this useful guide.
#SDR
Moses, Deyane, Maryland Institute Black Archives. https://www.miba.online/blog
Thesis project from Deyane Moses sharing the stories of Black students using MICA’s archives.
#BH #VRP
Matthew Bird shares a presentation assignment to fill gaps in course readings or lectures and has shared the assignment sheet. https://historyofid.com/download/assignment.pechakucha%20(1).pdf
Ilyin, Natalia and Elisabeth Patterson, Parallel Narratives Student Project, http://parallelnarrativ.es/.
“This class unearths and examines stories of design that did not gain entrance into the current, commonly-taught “canon” of design history….Juniors research and compile annotated bibliographies of 80-100 citations about a topic they believe has gone missing from the history books.” I.e., it is sort of like the “missing spreads” project I have been thinking about assigning, but it focuses more on assembling an annotated bibliography than on writing a narrative.
#CRG
Natalia Ilyin at Cornish College of the Arts has assigned an annotated bibliography assignment to students to examine stories of design that did not gain entrance into the current, commonly-taught canon of design history and published the results in a GoFundMe book.
#BH
Lesson plan for studying two Samanid bowls with calligraphic inscriptions: https://artsoftheislamicworld.qc.cuny.edu/Lesson%20Plans/Samanid%20Bowls.pdf.
On a quick skim, I thought it looked good, and possibly could serve as a model for an assignment with different objects, too.
#CRG
National Museum of African American History & Culture, Talking About Race Resources, Summer 2020. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race
This is an excellent project put out by the NMAAHC this summer and includes various “lenses” to view the curriculum through, including educator.
#GVK #Race
Colophon
Graphic Design by Brockett Horne and Matthew Bird
Typefaces used in this document include:
Anouk, a reverse-stress font conceived by Sabina Chipară at Acute Studio
The free and open source Litterata, designed by women, including Vera Evstafieva, Veronika Burian, Irene Vlachou, and José Saglione
Libre Franklin, an interpretation and expansion of the 1912 Morris Fuller Benton classic created by Impallari Type in Argentina.
[1] We have elected not to capitalize whiteness in this document. Some sources suggest capitalizing both Black and White to suggest their historical construction as racial identifiers. However, given that whiteness has a less-consistent meaning around the world, and on the advice of colleagues of color, we defer to the convention of capitalizing Black, Indigenous, Latinx, etc, but not white.
[2] Identifying the race, ethnicity, and gender of designers and authors is a fraught enterprise. We are committed to honoring the terms that designers and authors use(d) to self-identify, when we are able to determine what those terms are/were. We are very wary of imposing racial, ethnic, or gender descriptors on individuals. We are still grappling with how best to balance our desire to honor designers’ and authors’ self-descriptors with our desire to make it as easy as possible for others to find, cite, and assign their work. We suggest adding a question mark to the end of a hashtag when an author or designer’s identity is unknown and not confirmed by their own writings.