Typography

The challenge was to design a website based on three articles we reviewed in my Typography and Interactions class, using only typography as a utility. I examined 3 different articles on the topic of Black design. The first article reflects on a single experience as a Black designer. The second explores the history of the Black aesthetic in design. The third article discusses the Eurocentric influences in design, particularly as they relate to white supremacy.

To shape the visual identity, I immersed myself in typographic research through the People’s Design Archive, referencing historical documentation of transactions involving the purchase of enslaved individuals from the early 1800s. I drew inspiration from the letterforms found in these records and paired these motifs with the color profile of the Pan-African flag—a symbol of unity within the Black community.

By pulling from Baroque and classical typography found in this documentation and recontextualizing it through my use of color, I aimed to create a more contemporary and nuanced reflection of the Black experience in design, and its lens and role in major cultural movements.

The site represents the duality and complexity of what heritage means for Black people: simultaneously reflecting the erosion of heritage witnessed through the transatlantic slave trade and the ongoing efforts to mend it through cultural contributions. The result is an amalgamation of the Black experience: a representation of Black aesthetics and a self-aware critique of the design industry itself.