![]() ![]() Miller wrote an article about it in Print Magazine. The usual argument was always, where are the Black designers? Back in 1987, Cheryl D. Here is an excerpt from my Open Letter to the White Graphic Design Community I wrote a year ago: I never did fully embrace the results of the 2019 Design Census created by Google and the AIGA. Although I admit that the number of Black graphic designers are small, when you take into account other disciplines of design, (UX, UI, product design, social media, etc.), education range (DIY, 2-year, 4-year, etc.) and add the term ‘creative’ in heavy use among the Millennial generation, I believe the numbers are much larger. Several articles have been written about the idea of ‘black designers missing in action’ in design publications since the 1960s. Most formally trained Black designers I know always understood this explanation as a straight up lie. Ask any Black graphic designer that has been in the field for 20+ years. ![]() As a result, large companies have jumped onboard initiating DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) trainings while major cities, all of a sudden, know how to find Black businesses for their contracts.īut make no mistake, before George Floyd’s death, the argument from majority White companies and design agencies was always we cannot find Black designers. Black businesses are receiving a great deal of support from the Black community. Floyd’s death woke White people up but it shocked Black people back to life in the form of protests and rallies. This has been an ongoing issue since Black people were enslaved in the United States and is evidenced by the high profile deaths of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Emmitt Till, Nat Turner and countless Black men and women who have been victims of personal and state stationed racial terrorism. ![]() I hate the fact that George Floyd had to die in order for mainstream America to learn simple lessons that Black people have been communicating for decades. I am using it to symbolize the Black graphic designer because many in the graphic design industry and its allies have often CHOSEN not to see us. Modern people associate unicorns with fantasy, obscurity and rarity. It is usually depicted as a wild white horse that symbolizes female virginity and purity. Interestingly, the King James version of the Bible translates the Hebrew word re’em as unicorn in Job 39:9 while the NIV Bible translates it as wild ox. They have been found in descriptions since antiquity in Europe and South Asia. The unicorn is a mythical creature with a single large pointed horn in the middle of its head. Just so you know, Ruffins is African American…and a unicorn. I understand that Google results only reflect searches not importance but in this digital age, it is becoming harder to separate the two. When I searched Google for Reynold Ruffins, 573,000 results came up. When I searched Google for Milton Glaser, 2,670,000 results came up. Ruffins was a graphic desginer, illustrator, painter and a partner along with Seymour Chawst, Edward Sorel and Milton Glaser at Pushpin Studios. Now, how many of you know who Reynolds Ruffins is? He passed away July 11, 2021. LinkedIn was showered with praises about Glaser after his death. The New York Times honored him in an article saying he changed the vocabulary of American visual culture in the 1960s and ’70s with his brightly colored, extroverted posters, magazines, book covers and record sleeves. He started Push Pin Studios with four former Cooper Union classmates in 1954. Milton Glaser, the legendary New York City graphic designer and creator of the iconic ‘I ♥ NY’ logo passed away on June 26, 2020. The artwork above is an illustration for Amtrak Express magazine, 1983, by Reynold Ruffins,Ĭhange your perception of things and you will change your reality. ![]()
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