Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures by Madeleine Morley, Eye on Design, 2018, and Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro, Eye on Design, 2019, Design Gets More Diverse by Alice Rawsthorn, NYTimes, 2011.

What stood out to me the most in these readings, is the reading about typefaces that represented colored people. I found it interesting that typography was considered primarily white. I didn’t really understand how typography could be a white male-dominated field. The statistics especially shocked me. “Vocals own site clocks the profession at 84% white, and AIGA’s 2017 Design census puts it at 60%.” Maybe in the future, it can change.

We can change the commercial design field to include a diversity of voices and visions by maybe making programs, and working with social media to reach out to people. It can help to spread awareness and have people join the field that has different voices, visions, and skills they can bring to the table.

The commercial design field and the study of design history in 20 years will be definitely more diverse. Day by day everything is becoming more diverse, especially the design field. Designers are making artwork that represents their culture, political issues around them, societal issues, etc. A perfect example is in the reading, African American designers that put their work to be shown in an exhibit. They wanted to challenge and inspire the design community with the goal of sharing deep history, design theory, and the aesthetics of African Americans. From what I got from the reading, they want to share and influence more African American history in design. Showing its roots and that it can be unique and beautiful. And not only people of color but women as well.  “I’ll reach and say that the inclusion of more women and people of color would severely shift the understanding of the field, and how people see themselves as practitioners. Of course, the work produced would change as well.” Diversity will open up more pathways for designers and for them to thrive in their work.

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