Black Designers You Didn’t Learn About

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The design history we know, teach, and admire has a major flaw—diversity.

Black creatives weren’t highlighted. In many cases it is hard to track back because even if they were talented, they couldn’t sign their own work. But that’s no excuse for the rest of us.

These 4 designers were ground breaking in this industry because they were crazy talented and smart—but unlike their white peers, they had to fight harder to find their success.

And ya know what—there are a lot more like them! Don’t worry I’ll share them with you.

Read about them. Be inspired by their work. Let’s get these guys in the history books next to Rand and Saul!

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Charles Dawson

  • Art Institute of Chicago Founding member of the Arts and Letters Society, the first black artists collective in Chicago. Then fought during WWl
  • He helped with the first Negro in Art Week in 1927.
  • During the Great Depression he worked for Valmor Products Company, beauty products targeted to the cities growing black population. They wouldn’t allow him to sign any of his work.
  • Published his own children’s book called, ABCs of Great Negroes (1930s).
  • Worked for the National Youth Administration.

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Sylvia Harris

  • Growing up in Virgina in the 60’s gave Sylvia a unique perspective of people and social systems.
  • Attended Virginia Commonwealth University.
  • Moved to Boston, worked at WGBH (umbrella of PBS) where she worked with Christopher Pullman who became a mentor and guided her towards a MFA degree at Yale.
  • She found a passion for human-centered and public information design leading her to help Citi Bank to design the ATM, United States Census Bureau- Census 2000, Central Park Zoo, and US Post Office

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Thomas Miller

  • BS from Virginia State College then served in World War II.
  • Only black student in Ray Vogue School of Art (1950)
  • Went on to work at Morton Goldsholl for 35 years. (The Goldsholls studied under Moholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus!)
  • He designed the packaging and identity for 7-Up (1970s) saying, “What better way to represent graphically the effervescence of a carbonated beverage than by using circles as the basis of the design”
  • In 1995 he did a collection of mosaics for DuSable Museum of African American History

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Emmit McBain

  • Began at Vince Cullers Advertising, the first African American-owned advertising agency in the US (1956)
  • At age 23 his album art for the Playboy Jazz All Stars was named Billboard’s Album Cover of the Week. By 24 he had designed 75 album covers.
  • He created the concept for the original black Marlboro man who was much more relatable. They went with the white cowboy we know today.
  • Helped launch the ads for the Ford Mustang at the ‘64 Worlds Fair.
  • Later went on to launch a massive campaign for Newport cigarettes geared toward the black community. This allowed him to start Burrell-McBain Advertising, with clients like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, it became the country’s largest Black-owned agency.

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LEARN ABOUT MORE BLACK GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Design 101, Mrs. Wheeler

July 8, 2020