Decolonizing Graphic Design from a Black Perspective
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 512
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 512
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Decolonizing Graphic Design from a Black Perspective is not a book solely about Black Graphic Design history. Instead, it is a manifesto advocating for expanding the traditional design history canon to include diverse narratives. While sharing the rich history of graphic design within our community, it also introduces an African American viewpoint as a complementary lens.
This work invites readers to consider multiple perspectives in understanding design history. It urges an honest and inclusive approach that moves beyond the standard narrative. By including African American design experiences, this book challenges readers to rethink how the field’s history is taught and understood. Embracing diverse graphic design histories will guide us toward a more inclusive future for the industry.
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
How to Approach this Textbook
Introduction The Problem
Chapter 1 Writing Systems: Early Alphabets, Symbols, and Scripts 1
Chapter 2 The History of Symbols 21
Chapter 3 Renaissance Design, European Printing Technologies, and The Transatlantic Slave Trade 55
Chapter 4 The Woodcut, The Runaway Slave, and The Missing Black Graphic Designers 101
Chapter 5 The History of 'Where Are The Black Designers?" and The Advocacy Movement, 1970-Present 143
Chapter 6 The Enlightenment Period Continued: Printing Technology and Slavery in America 167
Chapter 7 Industrialization, Women's Rights, and Anti-Slavery Movements, & Black Reconstruction Printers, Engravers, and Newspapers 193
Chapter 8 The Victorian Era & The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction 265
Chapter 9 Art Nouveau and Black Reconstruction 265
Chapter 10 Memoir Narrative: A Case Study of Historical Decolonization 295
Chapter 11 The Intersection of Art Deco, Early Modernism, and Bauhaus with The Great Migration, The Harlem Renaissance, and The New Negro Movement 327
Chapter 12 Commercial Modernism: International Typographic Design/Swiss Style, Concurrent Black Designers, and Graphic Design Academia 355
Chapter 13 Mid-to-late Modernism, Corporate Branding, and Visual Systems & North American Impact on Black Designers (AfriCOBRA) 375
Chapter 14 Psychedelic Eclectic Modernism, The Black Arts Movement, and Civil Rights Era-Black Power 397
Chapter 15 Postmodernism and the New Black Renaissance in the 21st Century, and The Post-Obama Era 439
Appendix A Suggested Prompts for Additional Learning and Reflection 469
Appendix B Course Overview and Learning Objectives & Recommended Course Schedule 475
Appendix C Suggested Further Reading 479
Index 481
Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller is recognized for her outsized influence within the graphic design profession to end the marginalization of BIPOC designers through her civil rights activism, industry exposé trade writing, research rigor, and archival vision. Holmes-Miller is a national leader in minority rights, gender, race diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion advocacy in graphic design.
She is the founder of the former Cheryl D. Miller Design, Inc. New York, New York, a social impact design firm; she is an activist, designer, author, educator, decolonizing design historian, writer for Print and Communication Arts magazines, and theologian. Dr. Holmes-Miller has an MS in communications design from Pratt Institute and a BFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art. She completed foundation studies at Rhode Island School of Design and has a doctorate of humane letters from Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2020.
She was awarded a doctorate of fine arts from Maryland Institute College of Art, 2022; Rhode Island School of Design, 2022; and Pratt Institute, 2023; as well as an MDiv from Union Theo[1]logical Seminary. In 2021, she was an AIGA medalist. She is a Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum National Design Awards Design Visionary, an honorary IBM Design Scholar, and a One Club Creative Hall of Fame inductee in 2022.
A recipient of countless awards, she is dedicated to visual arts advancement. The Cheryl D. Miller Collection at Stanford University is her legacy professional firm’s archive, including her memoir research and manuscripts. The collection features DE&I initiatives, corporate communications developed for Fortune 500 corporations, and corporate communications for national African American organizations, developed in the post–Civil Rights Era, 1974–1994. She is further archiving The History of Black Graphic Design in North America through collections at both Stanford University and the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, Cooper Union. She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of Vermont College of Fine Arts and the President’s Global Advisory Board of Maryland Institute College of Art. In 2023–24, she was a professor of graphic design specializing in decolonizing methodologies at ArtCenter College of Design.
She is a former distinguished senior lecturer in design at the University of Texas at Austin School of Design and Creative Technologies. She is a lecturer at Howard University and a former adjunct instructor at the University of Connecticut.
“I have created a textbook from my current scholarship that seeks to decolonize and expand our well-accepted Anglo-Eurocentric historical design canon. My research, scholarship, and course lectures have laid the groundwork for developing this course into new e-learning technological formats. Technology opens the way for new pedagogical theories and histories to reach countless others."
- Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller
Bailee Robinson has worked in higher education for over a decade within the Behavioral Sciences. During that time, she has been involved in direct student support, engagement, and instruction, programmatic development and enhancement, and administrative leadership.
Informed by degrees in psychology (BS) and clinical mental health counseling (MA), her work across disciplines and platforms approaches human development from a bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective, including multi-cultural considerations. Acknowledging diversity, accessibility, and empowerment through education is a powerful tool.
She is a firm believer that the intersection of form and function greatly informs and facilitates engagement. This belief influences her work with students and involvement with others’ publishing pursuits. It is her hope that the resulting product of any of her work promotes and fosters interaction, empowerment, education, and self-reflection in the reader, allowing each person to continue the lifelong journey of growth.
Working in publishing in conjunction with Kendall Hunt since 2019, she has provided support to an array of authors across multiple disciplines, aiding in the execution of their visions for academic textbooks and ancillary instructor materials.
“For this book, I have had the honor of organizing, supplementing, and supporting the substantial amount of research and scholarship gathered and created by Dr. Miller throughout her lifetime of work in the graphic design industry.
“The subject matter expertise and content provided by Dr. Miller in her course have now been transposed, transformed, and elevated to be written into a new genre of technology for e-learning. This distribution of content through modern technological advancements provides increased access to a new generation of design practitioners, and the text will move her associated course into new venues and areas of opportunity.
“The format of this text is designed to enhance the reader’s ability to pursue additional knowledge based on the provided information and resources within each chapter. This integrated format makes opportunities for further learning easily accessible to the reader. Our hope is to inspire further critical thinking and engagement with the presented content, in addition to continued exploration of other historical content for themselves. In doing so, each reader moves forward on their trajectory and journey of growth into their future.”
- Bailee Robinson