︎︎︎BIPOC Who Design
{Digital Design}
︎︎︎BIPOC Who Design
an exuberant, expressive and inclusive space—highlighting and amplifying the voices of BIPOC designers
an exuberant, expressive and inclusive space—highlighting and amplifying the voices of BIPOC designers
︎︎︎Objective
Create an online design journal by, for, and about marginalized or under-represented designers.
︎︎︎Approach I chose to highlight and amplify the voices of BIPOC designers by creating a space that serves as both a blog and a directory which would provide a fresh perspective and a new design language in an existing conventional market. To best represent the artists and their work, the visuals and colors for BIPOC Who Design are derived from the shapes and palettes of the artists’ work themselves.
︎︎︎Font In Use
Trap by Aayush Mayank
Freight by Joshua Darden
︎︎︎Words by
Eliza Martin
︎︎︎Problem
Designers who are black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) have long been excluded from design.
As the designer Cheryl D. Miller explained in her now-celebrated 1987 article in Print magazine, “Black Designers: Missing in Action,” there have always been many systemic barriers preventing marginalized communities in the U.S. from entering into the inaccessible field of graphic design. “Graphic design can be considered a select, professional field which only a few may enter owing to its costly educational preparation and subsequent competition in the marketplace,” she wrote. “The graphic design industry, which includes clients as well as practitioners, is highly selective in choosing its participants.”
The proof is in the numbers: of the 9,429 designers who filled out AIGA’s 2019 Design Survey, 71% of respondents were white, an overrepresentation in a country that’s only 60.4% white. Why, if diversity has been a concern and priority for designers in the industry for so many decades, is design still so white?
The question is,
Where are the BIPOC designers?
In a 2015 presentation at SXSW Interactive, Maurice Cherry tried to answer a simple question—where are the Black designers? He explained that one reason that BIPOC designers are hard to find is that they aren’t equally represented by design media. “We don’t hear them in podcasts,” he said. “We definitely don’t see them on blogs. We don’t read about them in magazines. And unfortunately that’s just what the design industry looks like. It’s a big monoculture.”
Where are the BIPOC designers?
In a 2015 presentation at SXSW Interactive, Maurice Cherry tried to answer a simple question—where are the Black designers? He explained that one reason that BIPOC designers are hard to find is that they aren’t equally represented by design media. “We don’t hear them in podcasts,” he said. “We definitely don’t see them on blogs. We don’t read about them in magazines. And unfortunately that’s just what the design industry looks like. It’s a big monoculture.”︎︎︎Solution
To create a space where each BIPOC artist has their own identity and representation that distinctly highlights them and puts them and their work in the limelight.
︎︎︎Visual Language
To do this we decided to derive colors and shapes from the palletes of our artists’ work, and represent each with their own unique pallete and shape.
︎︎︎Sophia Yeshi
Sophia Yeshi is a queer Black and South Asian illustrator, designer, and creator of Yeshi Designs. She makes digital illustrations and portratis and as well as word art centering on Black women, women of color, and the LGBTQ community.︎︎︎Shape and color derivative of Sophia Yeshi's artwork.
︎︎︎Linnet Panashe Rubaya
Linnet Panashe Rubaya is a Leeds-based artist. She makes colorful paintings and black and white drawings about modern Black narratives and stories of Black African descendants.︎︎︎Shape and color derivative of Linnet Panashe Rubaya's artwork.
︎︎︎Art by: Yumi Sakugawa, Maria Rodriguez, Nikko Gary, Kaidan Pascua, Mia Saine, and KayCee Kal respectively.
Styleguide
Website that serves both as a blog and a directory
App Wireframe
