Noting Place and Space
The intersectional use of typography, physical environments and visual interruptions glare like unfiltered sunlight on the surface of an open body of water. Acknowledging the interaction and activation among these contextual frames provide many opportunities for immersion and discussion. Ad-libbed reactive qualities emerge from typographic approaches in combination with physical placement. Exercising optional moves, i.e., production methods or applied techniques, gives way to additional learning outcomes and final artifacts. I seek narrative in what I make and how I make, which is a direct result of formal and informal discoveries in my findings. I don't make, produce, or design for personal recognition. I strive to inform or confound. Design must have a reason for being. MAKE CONNECTIONS. My work is meant to linger in the mind of the audience. I enjoy producing good works but I am not particularly interested in making the so-called right moves for a specified result. Personal thoughts, in concert with reference images, recorded audio or locale, inform the start of what I create. Each iterative moment shares the expanded range of possible final works. Similar to verbal exchange, the final works cease to be final, moving towards more ideas, new recognitions or discoveries. CREATE INQUIRY. Honoring the throughline of my work means that I must honor the motivations of its beginnings. Many of my works are generated from the provocation of events around me, occurrences seen and heard, interests of historical relevance, cultural awareness and recognition of spaces. The natural reactive expressions that spill from forms of media, which I consider representative of my thoughts towards contemporary culture and events, can generate a particularly personal commentary. I can choose to participate in or abandon the dialogue inspired by my stance. I quite enjoy this perch from which to use design to sprinkle a perspective into the ether that could cause a stir, support a campaign, or simply advance my own opinion. I design because I desire to SHAMELESSLY PURSUE my curiosities of learning by doing, through verbal dialogue and non-choreographed opportunities of discovery prompted by pushing the boundary of my personal methods of production. The work is evidence of risk, discomfort and the effort to speak up for both observation and participation. My belief is that design is confrontational; even if it doesn't evoke guttural reaction, it should receive acknowledgement. The stance for my work is to SPEAK UP and SAY SOMETHING.
References:
Setha Low and Denise Lawrence-Zuniga. The Anthropology of space and place, locating culture. Blackwell, 2003
Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 1983
Agamben, Petti, Anastas, Gabri, Andrews. Convolution No. 1, Fall 2011. Convolution, 2011
Sylva Harris. Searching for a Black Aesthetic in Graphic Design
Rick Poynor. How to say what you mean. Design Observer, April 9, 2004
John Yau. John Giorno's Beautifully Disgruntled Poem Paintings. Hyperallergic, April 24, 2011
Katherine McCoy. Typography as Discourse. 1988
Michael Rock. WYSIWYG. 2x4. 2014
Karel Martens. Prints: Roma 281. Roma Publications, 2016
Cooper Hewitt. Making Design. Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, 2014
Sheila Hicks. Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor. Yale University, 2006
Mario Gooden. Dark Space. Columbia Books on Architecture, 2016
Jerome Harris. Black Graphics: Celebrating Designers of Color. Afo Punk, September 2018
Andrea Peed. Sounds from Another Realm. Yale News, May 4, 2022
David Walker. The Appeal to Colored Citizens of the World. David Walker, 1830
Victor Green, The Green Book: A Negro Motorist Guide. Victor Green Publishing. 1934-73
Loreck, Klier, Lindeborg. Mapping with Plants. HFBK
Drew, Wortham. Black Futures. One World 2020
Bell Hooks. Teaching to Transgress. Routledge. 1994
Geoff Kaplan. After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet. No Place Press, 2022
Susan Sontag. Regarding the Pain of Others. Picador, 2003
N.H. Pritchard. The Matrix: Poems, 1960-1970. Doubleday, 1970
James Baldwin. The Cross of Redemption, Uncollected Writings. Pantheon Books, 2010
Issac Julien. Once Again (Statues Never Die) Exhibition. Barnes Foundation, June-September 2022
Wolfgang Tillmans. To Look without Fear Exhibition. MOMA 2022-2023
Kwame Braithewaite. Black is Beautiful Exhibition. New York Historical Society 2022-2023
Priya Parker. The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters. Riverhead Books, 2018
Chris Lee. Immutable: Designing History. Onomatopee Projects, May 2023
Morcos and Key. Morcos Key 2017-2019.
Special Thanks
Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Sheila De Bretteville, Krista Dobbs, Taryn Wolf, Dean Kymberly Pinder, Emily Cappa, Julian Bittner, Manuel Miranda, Dena Yago, Mindy Seu, Dan Michaelson, Nina Stoessinger, Tobias Frere-Jones, Ben Hagari, Billy Franks, Wendell Harrington, Sarah Oppenheimer, Jace Clayton, Forest Young, Larissa Hall, David Blackmon, Neil Goldberg, Yeju Choi, Michael Rock, Jerome Haferd, Curry Hackett, Miko McGinty, Paul North, Dean Deborah Berke, The Yale School of Art Classes of 22, 23, 24, 25