Questions / Prompts
- What stood out to you the most in this week’s readings?
- How do we change the commercial design field to include a diversity of voices and visions?
- What will the commercial design field and the study of design history look like in 20 years?
Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures by Madeleine Morley, Eye on Design, 2018, Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro, Eye on Design, 2019, and Design Gets More Diverse by Alice Rawsthorn, NYTimes, 2011.
What stood out the most is the realization that all my previous design history courses have been focused heavily on teaching the impact that white men have had in the industry, lacking efforts in trying to cover a diverse representation. Both readings got me thinking and realized that if I did not go out of my way to take courses that focused on and emphasized diverse representation in design, I would be trapped in a bubble and my attention to details for my own design works in that sense would be very narrow.
Encouraging collectivism and welcoming different perspectives and experiences, imitating Vocal Type‘s approach is no doubt one of the most effective take on creating equity in the industry. Taking into account not only race but gender, social class, cultural and ethnical background, country of origin, language, etc., is the most effective way to really represent a diversity of voices and create equity.
Given the racial diversity that is somewhat being implemented by companies and organizations as social awareness has continued to increase in the last decade, hopefully we might be able to see a shift. But the gap between “Black Designers: Missing in Action” (1987) and “Black Designers: Still Missing in Action?” (2016) makes me feel unsure. However, “….they often reflect the people who made them and the story they want to tell. In the history of type, not every story gets told….” made me feel a sense of responsibility or a call to action to seek for ways that will help make the unheard stand out more and more in the coming future, And Vocal Type is a true example that when working in unison, change is possible.
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